I love Mops & Pops

Today I want to share some photos of Mops (Grammie) & Pops.  They have been amazing for so many months now, including when I was still in Mama's tummy.  When Mama was on bedrest for 9 weeks, Mops & Pops took turns coming to take care of her (and me) whenever Daddy had to travel, and even when he was just at work since Mama couldn't be left by herself. They also bought me a present every Friday to celebrate my new gestational week.  Since I was born, they continue to help Mama at our house in Napa every week and they visit me a lot, even though they live 2 hours away.  They were sad that they couldn't hold me for several weeks while I was still getting stronger and on all sorts of monitors.  But, now they finally can!  I love seeing Mops & Pops and can't wait to have many fun experiences with them!

Oh...and I'm now 6lbs7oz.  I'm still off oxygen and breathing great.  I'm still having some trouble with bottle & breastfeeding, but everyone is being patient with me while I try to learn this really hard task!!! 

Daddy time

                                            Me with my milk face coma!

I'm still doing amazingly great without my oxygen.  In fact, I'm doing better without it than I was doing with it.  Mama & Daddy are a bit confused by this, but I'm just growing up & growing more lung tissue - quite the arduous task.  The only tube remaining is the one in my nose that the nurses use to put Mama's breastmilk into my tummy.  I'm a bit reluctant to give that one up since it's so nice to be able to sleep while I'm being fed.  It takes way too much energy to take a bottle or learn to breastfeed!

In other news, I'm over 6 pounds now!  6lbs2oz to be exact.  Mama can't believe that I already don't fit into some of the preemie clothes, and a little frustrated because she spent a lot of money on them to make me look so cute.  However, I think she's pretty silly for buying the clothes in the first place. I could have told her that I would only be able to wear them once or twice before I grew out of them. But, she just likes to shop & dress me up...something I think I'll just have to get used to!

Today I spent a lot of time with Daddy.  He gave me my bath, which I really enjoyed. And then he gave me my bottle.  Though this isn't my forte quite yet, I sure did enjoy the skin-skin care that we did once I passed out in a milk coma. He teaches me a lot of things everytime he holds me.  I'm trying to absorb it all, but he may need to repeat a few things when I'm a bit older!

No More O2.

I made an important decision today. Candidly, it was rather silly that the doctors and nurses insisted on sticking a nasal cannula in my nose with a constant flow of oxygen and nitrogen. So, I decided to kick the O2 habit and go for clean room air!

I have been breathing on my own for nearly 24 hours now, and I must say that I am pleasantly surprised by life without O2!
If you look closely, you may also noticed that I have grown a bit of wonderful baby fat around my face and neck!  Mama & Daddy tell me the next step is to eat all by myself, but I'm working on one day at a time!

Too fat for the chimney

I've gained a ton of weight in the past few days.  I'm 5lbs 8 oz today!  Technically, I was this weight a few days ago, but my doctors thought it was partially due to some extra fluid in my lungs and not completely due to my amazing muscle mass.  So, after some diuretics, I lost some weight and was breathing more comfortably.  But now I'm back to 5lbs 8oz of pure muscle! 

I'm feeling great the past two days, but Saturday was rough.  Despite my protests, the doctors & Mama & Daddy agreed that it was time for my vaccines last week.  This sounded like a terrible idea to me, but they tell me that the vaccines will prevent me from getting really sick later on.  At least I know that they won't cause autism because Mama rants constantly about how evil Jenny McArthy and the other proponents of the vaccine-leads-to-autism supporters are!   So, anyway, I felt crummy on Saturday - like I had the flu.  I didn't wake up all day and I kept forgetting to breathe too.  Mama & the nurses were nice and let me sleep all day long, and they gave me some extra oxygen to make me more comfortable.  Mama was so happy on Sunday when I was all better!  Back to my silly self as if nothing had ever happened. 

I'm still working on getting rid of my last bit of oxygen and learning to breastfeed.  It is so much easier to just get fed through my tube;  I don't really understand why I would want to work so hard at breastfeeding when I can relax and sleep with my tubefeeds! 

More cute photos coming soon...Mama & Daddy just can't keep the camera away from me!

Too cool for school

Mama has learned that she needs to undress me in order to keep me awake while I learn to breastfeed.  Otherwise, I just get too cozy and fall asleep within 5 minutes.  So, today, while she was getting ready, I was laying on my boppy pillow.  And when Mama looked down, this is what she saw!  I was just chillin' with my hands behind my head.  Mama says it is a good thing that I am so adorable, because otherwise she would be more frustrated then I refused to open my mouth to nurse 2 minutes later!

This is how big I am compared to Mama's water bottle - I've grown a lot!   I'm 5 pounds now!   I used to just be slightly longer than the bottle. I also am finally fitting into some preemie clothes for the first time.  I really have no idea why Mama and the nurses try to put clothes on me anyway...I'm happy in my diaper and a blanket.  But they insist on playing dress up.  I go along with it most of the time because I can tell it makes them happy....but seriously, it is a bit crazy to be dressed up and then have my outfits covered up by all the blankets!

Bath Day photos

 Just a bit surprised when my bum hit the water!  My startle reflexes sure work well - both arms flew way up! 

                  This isn't too bad!

       Sound asleep on Daddy!  
     Bathtime can be exhausting!

August 15 - 34 1/2 weeks

Hi everybody!

I'm 5 pounds today! Hooray for me. I just love Mama's milk - it helps me grow big and strong.

Today I had a Chest xray & a cardiac echo (ultrasound) to check up on my heart & lungs. Everything looked pretty good. A bit of extra fluid in my lungs which is part of being a preemie - so they're giving me a diuretic to get rid of it. My ductus arteriosus (a little blood vessel that connects my pulmonary artery to my aorta that is supposed to close when I'm born) is still open, but we kind of knew that already since they can still hear my little heart murmur. It's really common for we preemies to have this issue and we're hoping that it closes all by itself over the next few months.