More Liam pictures from the professional shoot!

Mom and Liam


Hospital ankle bracelet


Holding dad's finger

On being in the parent club

It turns out that after having it come six weeks early, and then being forced to wait 16 days to have it, everything everything about parenthood is amazing. Probably because we had to wait, because of nights when it was all I could do not to cry "I want my baby!" now everything is a treasure.

I love that he doesnt want to sleep in his little arm's reach co-sleeper. He only wants to sleep laying kangaroo style on our chests. It is inconvenient as all get out, but it is so adorable of him. And it feels amazing to feel so wanted and important in his little life.

I even love the poopy diapers. I love trying to learn all his little signals so I can game the exact right moment to change him. Because changing him before a feeding is great because then he's all sleep after the feed, and changing him gets him all riled up. But inevitably then he poops while he's being fed. So then I wind up changing him twice.

I haven't had another blowout or leak since my first one in the NICU (although I'm sure the time will come) but I did have a hysterical little event where the stinker pooped on me in three diapers in a row. I found a poopy one, and started changing. As soon as I finished wiping his tush and removed the poopy diaper to fasten the clean diaper (waiting underneath the poopy one, as the nurses in the NICU showed us) he squirted poo all over the new diaper. So I laugh and start the process again, and go for a new clean diaper, which I have just barely gotten in place when, you guessed it, the little man squirted again, and this time with such force and caught me by surprise in mid-move, so I wound up with a handful of poo and even still it wound up all over his onesie. And truthfully I totally loved it, because it was like one more initiation into the club of parenthood, and after feeling denied these rites of passage for the last sixteen days, each one still makes me feel pretty happy. That may not continue forever, but for now.

Today he also had his first pediatric appointment. We picked one of the practices that was recommended to us by Prentice NICU folks. The doctor was really nice and patient with all our questions. She weighed him and on their scale he was five lbs nine ounces! Well done little man. While there may be some slight differences from scale to scale, he left the NICU about five lbs five or six ounces, so it means he's made above average gains with us these last two days. As weight seems to be the primary way people evaluate his health and developmental progress, it is nice to be assured that all this time at home (and all this continued kangaroo care) is helping him grow.

He's a pretty amazing little dude. Even if he still mostly sleeps, eats and poops. :)

Who needs Monday? Why not today?

Liam is HOME! After Friday's prediction of a Monday departure, when I visited the hospital on Saturday morning, they decided that Sunday was a grand idea. So, we just arrived home, Erin is in the middle of feeding him his first "home-warmed" meal, and we're settling in to our new existence as parents.

We also had some professional photos taken of him while still in the hospital (a service Prentice offers). They are AMAZING. See for yourself!











Liam, the young Jedi knight...

Monday?

So word from the NICU docs is--assuming that he has no bradys and he continues to make good progress on his weight and his milk consumption--that they want to discharge Liam on Monday. We are excited now that he has a tentative release date, but also nervous that something will happen and that Liam won't be able to come home with us then (and nervous that we won't know what to do with ourselves once he gets here).

Not much other news...just lots of organizing/cleaning/rearranging the house this weekend. Woohoo!

Keep your fingers crossed...

News of the Liam

This morning they took the gavage out! Woohoo! So now he's completely on his own (eating, breathing, maintaining his own temperature) with no interventions except for the sensors monitoring his breathing and heartrate.

In other news, they did a scan of his heart to check on the progress of the two little holes. We'll get news of that tonight or tomorrow, so hopefully we'll learn that they are starting to close up.

Not much news beyond that. His last Brady was the 9th, so the earliest he could come home is saturday (although the doc's haven't talked with us about a timetable yet, so we'll see).

Liam Pictures Day 12

So Liam is starting to figure out this whole bottle thing.  Last night at 10pm I was able to get him to take an entire feeding by bottle for the first time, then through the night he ate every batch of milk entirely by bottle, and then this afternoon he took an entire bottle from Erin.  So this is all great news/progress.  When he can consistently eat by bottle, away goes the gavage.  

For many reasons, feeding time is the best time of day.  For one thing, he is alert and checking us out.  But mainly it is because of moments like this one:

The Burping Face.  So Liam is at his most hysterical when burping. Just as we lean him forward, he knows what time it is, so he starts making the cutest throat clearing sound...

eh, eh-eh, eh, eh, eh-eh-eh, eh-eh...BELCH!  

Erin says he sounds like a little machine gun, like when kids mold their fingers into a gun and provide eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh sound effects.  We'll have to record it and put it up on the blog.  Laugh riots will surely ensue.

This picture is of his burping face.  He scruntches his face up, does the Popeye look, and gets down to business.  When he's done, he gets back to his usual adorable self, sometimes after pulling back and looking around the room.  Burping time is the best part of the day. 

My post yesterday mentioned how cute he was sleeping gape-mouthed...

So here they both were crashed out on the NICU recliner, sleeping the afternoon away.  Adorable!

In other news, Liam is .5 ounces over his birth weight.  And I can't remember the last time he had a brady (though it was within the last 5 days).  All signs point to ass kicking!

Liam Update

The news: Liam has been off his IV fluids for a day with stable sugar levels, so this morning they removed his central IV line. All he has left are his stomach gavage and his sensors! Erin was particularly excited about the fact that we can start putting him in clothes from home now that the IV line is out. Woohoo!

I'm just here in the NICU, watching Erin and Liam sleep (with is mouth gaping wide open) on Erin's chest. It is the best! I'll try to post a picture of this scene tomorrow...