Happy Due Date Day!

Today is CJ's original date of when he was to be born. He decided to arrive early to his part...by 12 weeks! 

Today, he weighs 7.8 pounds. He is almost 21 inches long. Most importantly, he is healthy. 

This week, he will hopefully be discharged from the NICU and be able to go home. 

Home. 

Lacey's Letter to Santa

Wish granted baby girl, wish granted. 

The Discussion

Today I had "The Discussion" with CJ's NICU team. We discussed taking our little miracle home...

Home. He is 79 days old...4 days away from his due date...and he has never been home.  CJ has never met his brother or sister. Curt and I have never went to bed and woke up with our baby. 

 Bringing him home feels like a dream. He wasn't supposed to make it, to live. But he did, and he is. 

We will finally be bringing our miracle baby home. 

I am excited, relieved, and terrified. 

  He will be coming home on oxygen (after a trial run without O2, he began to desat and it was replaced) and with a feeding tube. He'll be hooked up to a monitor to alert us if his heart gets too high or too low or if he stops breathing. Curt and I must receive training on how to take care of all of his equipment and placing/replacing his feeding tube in the event he pulls it out...which he sometimes tends to do. 

My miracle is coming home. 

CJ is 2 Months

CJ turned 2 months old on the 9th. 

 

My 37 weeker was 2 months old.

      He is currently 6.14 pounds...yes, he has tripled his body weight! His oxygen has been switched to what they call "going home" oxygen. He is on a 1/4 of a liter flow and 100%oxygen.  (I realize this will probably make no sense to most of you, but I am recording this for our memories.) He was switched over to this on the 12th but as of today he is 9 days free of having any alarms. He will most likely go home on this oxygen which is just fine by me because he would be coming home! 

   What is still keeping him in the NICU? Feeding. He still requires his feeding tube for some of his feeding. He is slowly working up to not needing the feeding tube. Yesterday he took 63% of his feedings from either breast or bottle feeds. 

   

  We are so close to getting his little miracle home...but still are not sure when that will happen. As the time gets closer, I find myself more anxious and getting rather impatient. 

    My baby is 73 days old. He has never met his amazing big brother or sister. He has never been home.  

Hopefully, this won't be the case for too much longer. 

2 Days Old vs. 2 Months Old

At The Hospital Much?

So...you know you're at the hospital a lot when you....a non-employee... gets a parking violation for not parking in a non-employee area and not having an employee decal on your car! 

This is definitely one for CJ's baby book!!! 

Baby's First Bottle

CJ did so well over the weekend breast feeding that he has graduated once again to a new milestone! Every 3 hours, he gets to breast feed...if I'm there... or bottle feed if I'm not there. Today, I got to give him a bottle for the first time....EVER!!

He wasn't too sure about it  and was a little tired after breast feeding. 

For most almost 2 month old babies, this is old habit. Babies are usually born doing being able to eat from a bottle or breast feed. To be able to breast feed or bottle feed our 36.2 weeker...our almost 2 month old baby....is such an amazing blessing!! 

NICU Guardian Angels

   Every morning, when I first walk into the NICU and see CJ I am always in awe of him and struck again by what a miracle he is and what a big blessing that God has given us. I am so thankful that he has continued to be such a fighter. 

He is such a laid back, peaceful baby. He rarely gets upset. The nurses continue to fight over him, some even go to the extent of planning their work schedule around one another so they all get to have their "CJ" time.  We couldn't be more blessed than to have CJ's guardian angle NICU Nurses. Have you heard that quote on the TV commercial...."Care is not what we give, it's what we do?" Well, these nurses are the epitome of that. They do care, not only about CJ, but about our whole family. Every day they ask how Clayton and Lacey are doing as well...they love our Lacey stories and cheer on Clayton in all is his success in school and for his first basketball game. It truly is going to be bittersweet when CJ comes home and I won't spend at least 5-6 hours a day with them. BUT I do want my baby home...I guess we can always visit! 

   Our snuggle time continues to be my favorite part of the day. CJ's favorite has sinced switched to when I get to breast feed him. He has been doing so well with breast feeding! He will nurse about half of his feeding and then get the rest from his feeding tube. Today, since he has been doing so well, I get to breast feed him three times a day instead of one. The fact that I am breast feeding my 36 week old baby is amazing to me! 

He definitely is enjoying it and growing by leaps and bounds! He is already 5.7 pounds!! His premie clothes are starting to look like muscle shirts on him. 

Oh, and don't get me started in his double chins...