Sorry it's been so long since I've written anything! We're still in the lack of sleep-exhausted part of bringing home a baby. He hasn't done anything too exciting, so we're taking that as good news.



He's still having some issues with this sort of reflux-y spit uppy stuff. It's awful. He'll be laying down and all of a sudden he'll just go stiff and get bright red, until he finally takes a breath and just starts SCREAMING. He doesn't always spit anything up, though. It's really weird. I haven't gone up any on his feedings for a while because I'm afraid he'll really start choking.



Patrick only fits into one preemie outfit anymore - everything is newborn now! He had another RSV shot on Monday, and he weighed 9 pounds! He gained 3 pounds in a month. I'm wondering if he really needs to be on the special preemie formula, or if that's normal. We're looking at getting a pediatrician for Patrick - I didn't think about it when the hospital was asking me if he had a pediatrician... I just said my family practice doctor. Hopefully we can find someone who deals with preemies.



Jon just got over being really, horribly sick. He actually went to the doctor early on, and he already had two ear infections, strep throat and the start of something respiratory. It was just bad, but after a couple days of antibiotics and a bunch of other cold medicine, he was fine. And fortunately, Patrick didn't get any of it! Jon had to be really good about handwashing, and tried to be away from Patrick as much as possible, which was really hard for him.

I pulled out a new toy for Patrick to see how he would like it. It's just a floor mat with some dangly things over it - he LOVED it. He was hitting the animals and looking in the mirror, and he'd scream, but it wasn't an "oh-my-gosh-i'm-so-angry scream", it was a "holy-crap-this-is-awesome" scream! I have pictures, but they're on our camera with the missing cord.

Patrick went to see Santa last weekend, and he might go again tonight. Chile and Jack also went to see Santa. They've been pretty good dogs this year - not nearly as many holes in the backyard! We put up our first Christmas tree this year, and it's even a real tree! The cat thinks the tree skirt is her new bed. At least she's not climbing it. We even have a fireplace this year too!

Last night we had dinner with Jon's Connealy cousins, and it was a lot of fun. His cousin Josie is going to have a baby in a month, and we're really excited for Josie and Matt! Maybe someday I'll know what it's like to have a baby that big inside! I hope. Last year we did a big sit down turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, stuffing, the works. Since we had Patrick around this year, and Ryan wasn't here to help Jon cook all day, we just did chicken chowder, and Shelly brought chili. Cinnamon rolls and ice cream cake too... I think Patrick was jealous.


Even though it's mid December, I am so not ready for winter. The weather today... not my favorite. Can't wait until it's spring and warm enough to take the baby out in the stroller.

Patrick had a good Thanksgiving! I think I got to hold him for about 20 minutes the entire day. Lots of Aunties wanting their time with the baby, and cousins too! We almost had a problem in Missouri Valley when I realized I forgot a nipple for the bottle, but Jon's cousin Brooke's husband was able to track one down with a family member who had just had a baby and lived nearby. Aaron saved the day!

Patrick came in at 7 lbs 12 oz this morning! Kid is getting huge! He's starting to fit into newborn clothes, and today he hated tummy time so much that he rolled over! Exciting day around here.

I've got something like 3 weeks worth of pictures, so here they are!

Loves Dad!!

I fit in dad's shoe!

I LOVE ELECTIONS!!

Aunt Sara

Grandpa Max

We are on the verge of a crisis. The rainforest sounds and lights crib toy is running low on power! I think Patrick already notices the slower music and the sluggish movement of the monkey and the frog. All I know is, we had better to go the store tonight and get some batteries!

Patrick had his follow up eye appointment on Monday, and the doctor was happy with how his eyes looked. We dodged the bullet on the ROP, so now we'll just have to see (ha!) if he needs glasses eventually (which I'm sure he will, given his parents history of vision) or if he has a lazy eye or gets cross eyed. His next appointment isn't until February!

We also went to see his regular doc on Monday, and he's progressing well. Not doing everything that they check on 3 month old babies for, but then he's still a few weeks shy of 3 months. He was 7lbs!! I weighed him just a few minutes ago, and our scale says 7lbs 4 oz. We've stopped fortifying his milk, but we are mixing breastmilk with formula because the stock is running low. Also working on that.

I don't know if nights have gotten worse, or if we're just getting used to it. He seems pretty content with being crammed in my arms between my body and the couch. Jon was up with him for 3 hours last night, and Patrick just would not go to sleep. For some reason I can put him to sleep in minutes. Is that a mom thing?

Depending on which doctor you talked to, my due date for Patrick was either Monday or Tuesday! I can't even imagine what it would have been like to have had him just a few days ago. His weight is right on track with what the ultrasound tech predicted for him, though. It would be so amazing to be on maternity leave right now, instead of starting back at work full time again on Monday. It's been nice to have the half days, but that had to come to an end...

Other than that, not too much going on in Patrick's life. He's been out travelling some, met some new people, makes some new faces. Had the most disgusting diaper I have ever seen just a few minutes ago. Pretty typical baby stuff. Katie is headed home to Hastings for Thanksgiving, so it's going to be just us here for a little bit. Jon's going turkey hunting tomorrow morning before Thanksgiving at the farm... so there may be a fresh turkey? Ew. I'm sorry, but just ew.

Happy Turkey Day!

Patrick does not like to be alone at night. It seems like he's pretty set as that being his awake time. I'm losing track of the time, but I know that Jon spent a couple hours up with him this morning, then handed him off to me because he couldn't stay awake anymore. I was sleeping with him on the couch for a couple hours until Jon got up for work at about 5:30. I know I'm not supposed to do that, but it was the only way he would calm down. I try to wedge myself in the couch so neither of us will move. So far it's been okay.

He just had an explosive poop. Wow. Kid is loud sometimes!

But really, he's been sort of a crabby kid the last couple days. His temp is normal, even though he feels warm to me, and he's eating and pooping, so I'm not worried about him being sick. He has been spitting up like crazy again, though.

Last night he was 6lbs 11 1/2 oz! We went to Jon's dad's house for dinner, and we've pretty much decided we really don't need to bring the Pack 'n Play in the houses anymore, because whenever we're at the grandparents' houses, he's being held all the time anyway!

We're still adjusting around here... couple of exhausted people in this house.

Patrick has learned how to scream. Am I a terrible mom for thinking it's hilarious? I feel bad for the kid, but I can't help but laugh when he's screaming his little head off. Every once in a while, he spits up, but it goes out his nose. When I use the sucker bulb to clean out his nose, he just explodes. And it's funny, because he can't make any sound for a second while the bulb is pulling everything out. Poor little guy. I still laugh though...

Other than that, he's just growing out of his clothes! Still pretty cuddly and doesn't like to be left alone. He makes the funniest noises when he's got his binkie in his mouth, I'll see if I can record it sometime!

I started back at work again this week, and it's been rough. There have been a couple of nights where Patrick thought it would be fun to be awake at 3am. Katie and Patrick have a good time while I'm at work, though. I think he mostly sleeps the entire time. It's nice to finally get to the weekend.

I finally went and printed pictures yesterday! That was probably the most exciting thing that's happened this week!

Hi!
We have a 6 lb baby! Weighed him last night!

On Friday we went and got the first Synergis (I think that's how it's spelled) shot for Patrick. He haaaaaaated it. Poor kid. They love him over at the doctor's office. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to get him back from them! I was a little worried though, because they have to base the amount of the shot on his weight, and when we weighed him, he had his diaper on. I haven't seen any strange behavior from him, so I think it's okay.

We're still working on this sleeping stuff. Some nights he does really well, most nights he's up at the worst times. Last night I put batteries in a swing that someone brought us, and he seemed to like that. Didn't fall asleep, but calmed down quite a bit.

It's getting less scary to take him out in public. We went out to dinner for Grandpa and Uncle Trevor's birthdays, and he slept the whole time. We also took Patrick on his first trip to Scheel's, and I think Jon has plans to take him to Cabela's today. Start him early, I suppose!

I go back to work part time tomorrow, so that will be interesting. I think Katie's been around him enough to have a handle on what to do with him. I'll only be working 4 hour shifts, so I don't think it'll be as hard on any of us.

I need to figure out places to put all his baby stuff... we have things that he'll use when he gets bigger that need to be put away. I probably should have left some of it in the boxes that it came in, but it's all so cute! I just want him to play with it!

I can't find our camera right now. It's probably buried under baby stuff. When I do find it, we'll get more pictures. It really does look like he has red hair, though! I thought it was so strange (and had more than one person mention a milk man), but then I remembered that his Aunt Katie had reddish hair when she was born. So I think he belongs to both of us.

Okay, kid is making noise, so I'm going to go see what all of that is about! Pictures soon. I promise.

We thought that getting him home would make things easier. Okay, we were a little bit wrong about that. Patrick did so well one night with the waking up and eating, but every other night has just been awful.

For Patrick, night time is play time. He doesn't want to be alone at all. You can count on being awake from about 3am to 8am with him. I started looking into things we can do to get him set into a routine, and maybe that will help.

Our friends Ben and Shari had a baby scale from Shari's sister, and they're letting us borrow it. Last night he weighed in at 5lbs 13oz! For as bad as his eating habits have been, at least he's getting bigger!

Patrick went on his first Home Depot trip to pick out some shades with Gramma Vickie. The first of many trips, I'm sure!
Here's some pictures of Patrick not being a huge stinker -

Cousin Colin helping out with the bottle. He kept asking "Where's my baby?" when he came over.

Not a fan of tummy time.

Happy Halloween!

Some pictures from the last few days -- here's Patrick just before we went home!

In the car seat for real this time!

We're going home!

Chile and Jack heard Patrick making noises and decided to check it out.
In the bassinet!

Cake from the shower.. blue champagne. Sooo goood.Patrick hung out in his papasan today... he was really interested in the hanging toy.

Tried to grab it...

And just plain cute...

He finally had a huge poop tonight, so I'm feeling a lot better (I'm sure he's feeling a lot better too). Hopefully he'll do more sleeping through tonight with how awake he was all day. Had the first appointment with the pediatrician, and he weighed in at 5lbs 8oz, so he has been eating just fine. Everything else, he's small. That's the only thing. He doesn't even fall on the charts yet with average sizes of month old babies. The doctor is pretty sure he'll catch up soon enough.

Sorry for not posting anything for awhile! It's been crazy, trying to get the house into shape for the baby shower we had today! The house looked great, by the way. It was the first time we were really able to go "Look at how different this house is!" Jon has worked so hard on everything in here, and it's so nice.

I'm having trouble typing because I'm holding Patrick at the moment. I'm trying not to use my left hand as much as possible. We tried to put him to sleep when Jon went, but Patrick wasn't having any of that. So I'm hanging out with him in his room for a little bit to see if that does the trick. I seriously hope this doesn't turn into the kid who only sleeps when he's being held thing.

I am starting to worry about a couple things now... like eating and poop. I decided that I need to keep a record of how much he eats and when, but today was so crazy it wasn't even worth it to try and track it. I don't think he's eating as much as he needs to. Which leads to my second concern - that I haven't changed a poopy diaper in a while. Neither has Jon. I'm going to chalk most of this up to the crazy transition to home from the hospital, and all the commotion that was going on here today.

The shower was pretty fun. We were able to see a lot of people we hadn't been able to for a long time, and they all got to meet Patrick. I'll definitely have to do laundry tomorrow to wash all the clothes he's gotten! Our hostesses were amazing - if you've never had the blue champagne cake from The Cake Gallery, you should try it sometime. Or I'll get it again sometime, and invite you over. Maybe for Patrick's first birthday.

I'm not sure how to go about setting a schedule for Patrick, since I'm awful at planning, so we'll see how these next two weeks at home go.

I promise there will be pictures soon.

If you can tell by the time, I haven't gotten a whole heck of a lot of sleep tonight. That is because Patrick did in fact come home! We picked him up around 6 last night, and he's been here ever since. Obviously. So far, so good. I was pretty sure that every little noise he made was going to keep me up, and I was right about that.

The only thing that didn't work out is that I woke up with a migraine yesterday morning, and at about 2am again this morning. So the lack of sleep is even worse than it would have been.

We'll have to work on this whole feeding schedule thing, getting bottles ready for him to eat on time. Also, he's peed all over the crib twice while I was changing him. You would think I'd have learned on that one too.

Chile and Jack are already being protector dogs. While we were having dinner, the dogs were both watching the bassinet and every time he made a sound they would stand up and go see what was going on. Chile is too short, but Jack could look over the side and make sure he was okay. I have a picture of this, but it's 6am and I'll upload pictures after I get a little more sleep.

Other than that, uneventful. The stupid cat thinks that she gets to sleep in the crib though. She will learn about that one.

Okay... time to see how much sleep I can get this time around...

Tonight might be your last chance to come see Patrick at the hospital! The nurses seem pretty certain that he'll be going home tomorrow. I'll talk to the doctor sometime this morning and I'm sure he'll have something to say about it.

He was 5lbs 3oz last night, and he's taking bottles just fine! We're taking the infant CPR class, and getting flu shots ASAP.

If you're planning on being around Patrick at ALL we ask that you get a flu shot too. And if you feel even a little bit sick, please please please stay away. We love you, but stay away :) It's getting to be RSV season and that's the last thing that we want Patrick to pick up at this point.


He's coming home soon!

Sooooo big.

He's finished all his bottles today!

Still at 5 lbs 2oz.

Exhaused parents, going to bed. Okedoke, good night!

5lbs!

18 3/4 inches long!

Kid is getting big! They upped his feeds again today, so he was at 42ccs, now I don't even know for sure what he's getting. Patrick did take an entire bottle for dad tonight!

Aunt Katie held Patrick for just a second before Shannon, the charge nurse, came in and tested out the car seat again. There's been some confusion about the car seat. It DOES have a 5 point harness like they want us to have, and the straps weren't done tight enough to hold Patrick in properly when they tried the first time. Shannon made some adjustments, and he fit! Sort of.

He didn't seem to mind too terribly much. He's so tiny though!

After all the excitement of the bottle and the car seat, I was changing Patrick's diaper and he thought it was a perfect time to pee. So he soaked the bed sheet, his blanket and the floor. Me, instead of covering him with his diaper, I jumped out of the way. Little stinker.

I put all the bedding in Patrick's bed today, and we have a new chair from Grandpa Max. We also have cousin Colin's old basinette ready to be cleaned up for when Patrick comes home! Just a few more days, we hope!

No big changes... Patrick still isn't finishing his bottles, so we're back in that holding pattern. He finished one today, left about 12ccs in another, and the other ones were put down his feeding tube today. He's been sort of a sleepy kid. We gave him a bath tonight, and he was awake after that! If we'd had a bottle ready right away, he probably would have finished it, but we didn't, and by the time we did, he was comfy and sleepy. I was holding him while the bottle was getting ready, and he was lifting his head and arching his back and Jon figured out he would calm down with his pacifier. We need to get this timing for bottles worked out better.

Other than that, he's at 4lbs 15oz. Still too little for the carseat we have, but we just need one with straps that get smaller now. We're back in the range of 7-10 days for him to come home with his current eating patterns. At least we'll have the house ready!