closer...

so we are down to the final days in the nicu (for what it looks like right now) because riley is eating really well and that is the main thing he needs to do to be able to go home. He has a minimum to eat but is on his own eating schedule, which has been about every 4 hours or so.
he is on simalac neosure, which is for babies born prematurely, but when he goes to the doctor his pediatrician will let us know if he will stay on that or switch to something else. i picked some up just in case and the hospital will give us some as well when he leaves (nice, 'cause it is expensive!). I looked for the dr. brown bottle which is what he eats the best with (he has tried various bottles during his stay) and I bought the standard flow but he needs the preemie flow still so i will look for those tomorrow...although he will also have the one he uses at the hospital. anyways, this is just me rambling because i am all nervous and excited and cant believe this is really going to be happening in the next few days. We are rooming in at the hospital tomorrow night, which is basically staying the whole night in one of the rooms reserved for parents and it is just us and riley, like a dry run before going home so if we have any issues or questions there is someone right there to ask. plus, the nurses and his doctor can see how he does.
anyways, i am here to close the restaurant and rocky is at home painting our apartment, it is looking so good! we are doing the kitchen a bright light green and the living room is going to be a "virgin olive oil" yellow green but more yellow. i will take pictures, it looks a lot better than it sounds even reading back how i described it! we like light bright modern fun colors and rocky says it looks amazing. we did part of the kitchen yesterday (painting over a melon orangy color) and i loved how it looked even partly painted! the only thing is that rocky said he could do it with a quart and i thought a gallon would be better because even if we ended up with extra it would be better to have extra than too little and the prices of two quarts and a gallon were almost the same. well, we went back for another quart for both the kitchen and living room plus a quart of white for the living room (because we are doing two walls white) but in the end it will look amazing and i love rocky for taking the time to paint it before riley comes home! we need to do riley's room too but we tackled the living/kitchen areas first.
besides that, work is work and i am hoping to start working more hours from home once riley is home. going up to the hospital and being up there takes big chunks out of my day. i would not trade the time i am spending with him for anything but it will be so nice to not have daily trips up the mountain and be able to have mister riley home with us!

gettting close!

time has been flying by! my updates haven't been as frequent as my visits to the hospital but now we are in the last stages of his time in the nicu, which means MORE hospital visits, mainly focusing on the times when he is eating because he does better with consistency vs having different people feeding him all the time (that's what they tell me) but I think he really just likes it when his mama or his daddy feed him! He has done really well with us, drinking all his milk with only a few times drinking just a partial (the rest being given to him through his NG tube). He has to drink 3 full bottles during a 12-hour shift before he can go on his own schedule and they just go off his cues with when he eats and how much. He has been up and down as far as taking bottles. His doctor says that as he grows and gets stronger he will be able to last longer drinking. He seems pretty strong to me, he can lift his head and upper body up off my shoulder when i am burping him, but i know he needs to keep building up his endurance.

Riley is now weighing 6lbs 3oz! He is long and skinny and fits into newborn clothes but hasn't quite filled them out yet. He is so cuteee and we cant wait until he is finally home. Not to say that him being home won't have its challenges but at the same time it will be nice to not have to go up to the hospital various times throughout the day! I think Riley will probably appreciate a change of scene too ;)

We have gotten his pack n play (which he will sleep in to start with), carseat, we were gifted a great baby swing and playmat from my cousins, and he has also gotten some clothes and diapers plus homemade gifts from family and some friends. I am trying to make sure I have all the essentials...yesterday I realized I didn't have any baby shampoo or lotion so i picked some of that up. I love DI (a secondhand store) for picking out fun children and baby books for cheap! Riley loves it when we read together, he is so attent.

I really want to paint his room this weekend just in case he is home next week. He wont be sleeping in his room for a while but we will have some of his things set up in there.

anyways, i am a little sleep deprived right now (yeah, that doesn't start start when he gets home, it started when he was born! although i admit that i am probably getting more than a new mom with her baby at home with her from the start). I went to give Riley his 5am feeing, so I got up about 4:15 am.

also, happy birthday Rocky!!! You are the best daddy Riley could have and he reminds me so much of you, you two make life so much fun and so much of an adventure! Love you!!!

Riley has had a good week overall! He is doing better with his feedings but still is taking some of his feedings through is feeding tube. He gets tired sometimes and can't finish his bottle so they give him the rest through his tube. He has gotten his rhythm down more as far as sucking, swallowing, and breathing goes.

Riley is now 5lbs 4oz! He gets cuter every day and is so attentive to what is going on around him. He has the funniest expressions and is awake more now as well vs sleeping a lot of the day, which the nurses say is normal for his development.

He had an ear test today and passed with flying colors :)

I have been helping with his baths sometimes, he usually loves them but yesterday we were giving him a bath and he was not happy about it! We washed his arms and legs and the rest of his body and it wasn't until I got to washing his hair and massaging his scalp that he got all happy and started cooing...it made us all laugh (there were 2 nurses that ended up helping me give him a bath).

Today when I went to see Riley he looked different to me and I realized his feeding tube was gone! It was only because he had pulled it out :/ so I fed him, hoping he would take his whole bottle so they wouldn't have to put a new one in, but he got sleepy again about halfway through. Soon we will graduate from the feeding tube! It is pretty much the only thing keeping him from coming home.

Which leads to making sure we have everything we need for him before he comes home! The main things are his bassinet, car seat, stroller, carrier. I have looked at a lot of different ones and it now just comes down to buying (which we will be doing this weekend!) We have to bring his carseat in to do a carseat test, which is basically putting him in the carseat for a certain amount of time and making sure he can breathe ok while there. So many little details! P.S. I should probably have those things already but I am one of those people who like to make sure I am buying the right thing and I like to research and read reviews on different products...so thats why it has taken so long. Plus, going into those baby stores is overwhelming because there are so many choices! Oh, and we aren't going to get him a crib yet because he will be in our room for a while before he graduates to his own room :)

Happy 2 months!

I can't believe Riley is 2 months old today! We celebrated with lots of birthday kisses. :)

Riley graduated to an open crib and is maintaining his body temperature well (one of the things he needs to do to go home). He likes being swaddled as long as he has one arm free.

He is doing okay on bottle feeding, it is a learning process and sometimes he decides he doesn't want the bottle, sometimes he takes part of one (like this morning) and sometimes he falls asleep (eating takes a lot of energy!). He has to be taking all his feedings by bottle before being able to go home.

Riley weighs 4lbs 6 ounces! It is amazing to look back at his pictures and see his progress...our little guy is growing up ;)

I love all his expressions and how he wakes up to see me at least for a moment when I go visit him. Sometimes he is wide awake and we have fun talking and counting his fingers and reading together. They have a lot of children's books donated to the nicu and maybe Riley is a little young to look at the pictures but I know he likes hearing our voices.

more pics!

It's been a crazy week around here. Here are some of the pics from the last few days! Riley is growing but has had kind of a rough week as well. Thanks for all of you who are keeping him in your prayers! It is incredible to see how he is changing and we can't get over how cute he is. :) I love how he is so smiley and I was able to catch some of his smiles on camera, even some smiles in his sleep!

pics

Riley wore clothes for the first time yesterday! He looked so different...so "grown up" baby style. The pics with him in clothes are from yesterday and the pics of him just in his diaper are from Tuesday. Enjoy! I have a detailed post about how he is doing coming up...but real quick, he is 3lbs 9oz and they are working on being able to transition him to a crib!

A quick update...Riley is the cutest ever!! He is changing and growing and we love him more and more every day. He is now 3lbs 8oz and it was another little growth spurt for him and the nurse weighed him 3 times to make sure the scale wasn't off because she couldn't believe it! I love to see how he is plumping up a little more as he gains weight.

It has been great to be able to hold him, especially when he is awake (or asleep but it is more fun when he is awake!) and we love talking to him and touching his soft skin and giving him baby kisses.

I love that Rocky was able to go up to the hospital to see him yesterday and the tender moments they had together. Rocky can see more how he has changed since he isn't able to get up to the hospital every day. As he changes our discussion continues about who he looks like!

They did have to put his oxygen canula back in yesterday because he started having some A's and B's and they wanted to make sure he was getting enough flow. This is normal and they will try taking it out again later on but they are also going to try bottle feeding him this week and since that takes a lot of effort they sometimes do better to be on oxygen so they don't have to worry about breathing and eating at the same time. We are confidant he will do just great!

Overnight

Riley seems to have grown overnight! No joke...I am there everyday and on Tuesday when I went to see him he just looked so much bigger. It kind of blew me away. I just kept looking at him in amazement, like, who is this baby?? Of course it was Riley but oman, even the next day I was still in shock. His head is bigger...his body is bigger...he looks longer...he is filling out more! He is now 3lbs 2oz so he has gained a whole pound since being born (he had a lot of ups and downs with his weight gain). So, I know it is not a lot and it has been gradual but this little guy is not so little anymore! Although of course he is still pretty little compared to newborns born full term but that's a given.

I didn't take any pictures yesterday. He had a rough day because he had an eye exam and if you have ever had an eye exam, imagine trying to give a baby an eye exam when they don't open their eyes a lot, let alone hold their eyes still when they are open. Poor little guy...I don't like to think about it. Thankfully his eyes are fine! However, he did not want to be messed with after the whole ordeal (they told me about it- I wasn't there) and was sleeping a ton. They kept the lights turned way down so it wasn't as ideal for taking pictures either. He did open his eyes to let me know he knew I was there when I was talking to him and gave me a few sleepy smiles.

They also took out his oxygen tube Tuesday in the early morning and he has been doing great breathing on his own so far! If he has problems they may need to put it in again but for now he hasn't had any. So he just has his little feeding tube going into his nose now. That will be in for a while because they won't start trying to bottle feed him for a few more weeks.

Here are a couple pics from the weekend. I will take more today and you will see how he now doesn't have the oxygen canula and possibly see the difference that he is bigger!

Is it really Friday already? can't believe it. So to catch up a little...i was feeling better monday so of course first thing i went and saw riley! love that little guy. a few things...

~He had an eye test and they found out he has no problems with his vision! yay!! He does have some vessels that are still developing but that is normal and they ruled out an eye disease that is common in preemies.

~He moved...to another wing of the nicu. He was in the~ low weight wing but they decided he was stable and good to move to a different area. He has awesome nurses and they have been really helpful and nice in answering all my questions. They also gave me a textbook size "Parent's guide to Preemies" so maybe there are guidebooks! ;)

~He may have an infection because his red blood count has been kind of low so they had to take some blood yesterday and they are going to run some tests. He did so well and i held him and talked to him and he only cried a little!

~Funny story...the nurse had him on his stomach in his incubator (this helps with digestion) and had got him all settled in and went to check on another baby. When she came back over to see how Riley was doing he had scooted all the way up to the edge of his incubator! She said he just looked at her with this little look in his eyes like, "see what i did!" It still makes me laugh.

~He loves being held and it is so nice and peaceful to be there holding him if he is sleeping and talking to him. His weight goes up and down so it's not too much different than before. They are supplementing him to make sure he is getting enough calories.

Just a couple pics from the weekend...well these were taken Friday. I had food poisoning over the weekend and felt awful so I didn't make it up to the hospital to see him yesterday :( That means lots of calls to the hospital to see how he is doing and Rocky trying to make me feel better by saying that I will be able to better see how he has changed after a day of not seeing him. He says that because he wasn't able to go up to the hospital for a day or two and when he saw Riley next he said he looked so different. Either way, I miss my Riley!

He is 2lbs 11oz. They took the feeding tube out of his mouth and put it in his nose, which means a smaller tube and more comfortable for him.

He is sound asleep in the pictures but don't be fooled...he moves a lot in his sleep and he is pretty active when he is awake as well! Either way he is so cute and we are so happy with the progress he is making!

To not get behind on blogging, let me just say that I can't believe Riley is almost 1 month old! It's true what Rocky says when I sometimes get down, that Riley will be home before we know it! He is as cute as ever and is changing as he grows. Rocky thinks he will have my nose now vs his and Riley now weighs 2 lbs 7 oz! He is on his way up! The extra ounces are plumping him up little by little!

In a couple days Riley will be getting less oxygen because he is doing so well breathing on his own. I know he is still a while away from coming home but it is a step in the right direction! I was talking to his nurse last night and there are some things that need to happen before he is cleared to go home. A lot of people (including myself to start) think that it is only about how much he weighs and after he gets up to a certain weight he will be able to come home but there is a little more to it than that.

He needs to be eating on his own (either through breastfeeding or bottle feeding), maintain his temperature in an open crib (he will go to an open crib later on), not have any dips in his heart rate (which they call 0's, A's and B's depending on how much it drops- this is normal in preemies and goes away as they get older), have steady weight gain, and they also usually send the babies home off oxygen so when he can breathe on his own.

Riley right now is breathing really well on his own. He is still getting fed through a feeding tube mostly because he is still so young. His temperature is steady but he is still too young to be in an open crib and he has had less O's, A's and B's but obviously we don't want any of those when he is ready to go home! So some things just come with time. We are being patient- although sometimes I just want to unhook him from the monitors and take him home with me because he is so cute and funny and I don't like missing moments with him! But at the same time, I know he needs to be taken care of in a way that is done best in the nicu, as hard as it is for me to say that because I wanted to take care of him through the whole pregnancy and have a normal delivery. But things happen for a reason and I am thankful that he is doing so well and we keep praying for his health and progress and really I just try to focus on that and stay positive because some things we'll never know the "why" for and I could think of all the what if's...from what if when my water broke I had known it was actually my water breaking...to so many others. But I try not to. Positive thoughts! And every day when I go see Riley and when he goes and grabs my finger or makes a funny expression while I'm talking to him or is all nice and calm when we are holding him, I think about all the wonderful times we will have together in the future and I know we have so much to be grateful for and we pray for all those babies and their families who are going through so much more than we are and also those we know who are going through some very hard trials in their lives.