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!