Happy 3 weeks! Patrick is now at the 32 week gestational age and the doctor decided that we can start trying oral feedings. Tonight Patrick managed to get down about 7ccs on his own! And then I panicked about him being able to breathe and swallow and in that time he decided he was too sleepy to try any more. But it was a good start! Unfortunately our camera's batteries were drained, so we don't have any pictures with us tonight, but his nurse did grab the hospital camera so we can get some prints.

He came in at 3lbs 5oz, or 1500 grams! Also exciting. The nurses are dressing him up a lot these days, and I can't wait until he can fill out some of the bigger things! He's gotten a substantial collection of blankets over the last 3 weeks, so he will never have a boring isolette or crib.

Patrick is still sitting at 3lbs 4oz tonight, but he did gain a few grams over the day. He spent most of the time while we were there this afternoon asleep, but tonight he was wide awake. Patrick growls. When ever he's not happy about something, he just makes this "Rrrrrrrrrr" sound. It's like he's too tired to actually wake all the way up and complain about it, but he's not just going to sit there and let it happen.

Nothing big going on right now. Patrick's 4 year old cousin Colin told us tonight that he can't say Patrick ("I can't say Patrick!"), his name should be Zach. He's also told us we should have named him Dash or Colin Cheeto.

Jon gave Patrick a bath today:

Patrick was not happy with getting cold.

So Jon bundled him up and the blanket he put around Patrick's head over the hat looked like one of those winter hats with the ear flaps.

When I came back after the game tonight, Patrick was passed out. Again.

Gramalissa actually got that outfit for Will, but Will never got to wear it so I brought it up for Patrick.

Almost the entire time I was up there, Patrick was making these little growling noises. He wasn't happy about me bugging him in his sleep, but he wasn't going to wake up all the way and let me know. It was the same sort of sound the dogs make when they're asleep and dream about chasing something.
Tonight he weighed in at 3lbs 4oz. I guess since he missed a day on gains, this makes up for it. They did increase his feeds to 27ccs. They've told me before that when they start getting around 3 1/2 pounds, the babies start to maintain their temperatures better. Don't know how it'll work with Patrick, but once he does, we might move to a crib. Also, 32 weeks is when they get babies rooms with windows, so if one opens up any time soon, we might be switching rooms.

I would usually head to bed about now, but there's a spontanious camp out in our backyard that I need to check on.

No changes tonight. He gained 15 grams, but it's not enough to get him up another ounce. One of the nurses informed us that he was eventful tonight, pulling out his feeding tube! That thing was taped to his face, so he had to have been REALLY pulling. You would think he'd stop when it hurt!

We've been practicing the mouth feedings, and he's sort of getting it. He tries for a few minutes, then he falls asleep. In this picture, you can kind of see him "rooting" around. Getting his fingers in his mouth seems to be a good thing.

I do have a card reader to play with, but I'm not sure if it actually deleted all the pictures off of the camera we have with the cord, or if I managed to forget that I put them all on the computer already, so I'll play with that soon.

3 lbs 2 oz! He keeps going! Really, nothing else to say!

We decided that carpet would be a good idea before Patrick gets home, so we added that project to the list of things that need to get done in less than 4 weeks!

He is sort of a stinky kid, so this weekend Jon gets to help give him a bath.

I feel like there are things that I'm forgetting, but I think I've gotten all the notable things on here! Gramalissa brought up a card reader today, so as soon as I get that all set up on my computer I'll have those pictures that have been hiding on our camera.

The easiest kid in the unit...

More than one nurse called Patrick that today. He's had a few alarms go off, but they were all misreads by the sensors. He's taking his feedings, he's pooping, he's sleeping. Everything he's supposed to be doing. Tonight he was up to 3 lbs 1 oz! If we do an ounce a day, the doctor will be happy. In fact, on the daily charts, there's a section for the day's goals -- Patrick's only goal today was to gain weight!

We did try to see if he would figure out the breast feeding motions, but he was way too sleepy to even try today. Another time! He's still on the early side for all of that.

I don't know, there's not a whole lot else to say! Jon's working hard on getting the house ready for Patrick to come home. Tonight we were able to go over and meet Ava and Lydia. Lots of familiar things over there, from both Will and Patrick. But it sounds like everything is going about the same track as Patrick's.

When Will was in the hospital, his neighbor was Reece. We sort of got to know Reece's mom, and today they were all up at the hospital. Kristen stopped by while I was at lunch and left some really cute outfits for when Patrick is bigger, and I actually ran into her as I was coming back from lunch! Going through the NICU is such a strange experience, and it's good to have people around who know what's going on. I'm glad that things are going well for Reece, and we'll hear plenty about Lydia and Ava.

I think it gets later every time I'm able to post something! Thanks for checking in!

3 pounds!

He made it! Patrick is back at 3 pounds tonight! They upped his feedings to 25ccs every 3 hours, and tomorrow we'll probably some non-nuitritive breast feeding, just to see if he has it figured out. He's definitely showing some instincts toward it.

The doctor got rid of his oxygen sat probe, so that's one more line gone! I'm so used to having the yellow line on the monitor screen to watch, I sort of feel lost without it. He's only had one episode where his heartrate dropped to 80, and that was only for a second.

We did get some big news today -- Jon's old coworker Greg and his wife Brenda had their twin girls today! Brenda had been up on the 9th floor for just over a week, and they had gotten to 29 weeks and one day. I think their names are Ava and Lydia, and they weighed 3 lbs and 2lbs 15 oz! It sounds like they're on the same track as Patrick, and they are also on the 5th floor but across the hall from Patrick. Their aunt told me that now Patrick has two possible girlfriends!

Anyway, I wanted to just put out a congratulations to Greg, Brenda and big sister. We hope that everything will go just as well with them!