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!