Nicholas's favorite pastime

While Nicholas likes to sleep, he is having more awake time. He tends to have about 2 hours of good awake time in the morning and evening. Yesterday, he set a record of 4 hours in the evening, probably a little too long but he did sleep well in between feeds last night. Tomorrow Denise R. goes back to work part time. While she enjoys the people she works with and looks forward to seeing them, she is not looking forward to being away from Nicholas. I'm sure it's hard for any mom to go back to work after maternity leave. She's been off since before Christmas, so, will be a new routine to get into. At least Denise M. will be home until July, that helps. If only we had won the lottery while off (would help if we played more than twice, or maybe not). Denise was right about Nicholas's weight. We saw one of his physicians on Monday and Nicholas tipped the scales at 8lbs 11 ounces. Have a good Friday.

#1 Badger Fan....unless they're playing the Hawkeyes

Nicholas continues to do well. He has almost outgrown his WI hat, so, we had to get a little picture of it this morning. Nicholas is a Badger fan but of course he roots for the Hawkeyes too (a man after Uncle Dave's own heart). We all went out to Flemings last night for Denise's birthday and Nicholas did great. Of course we went out after he ate and was at the restaurant at 5pm to avoid the crowd; but, we all had a great time. The last picture is of Nicholas all dressed up and ready to go out on the town. He has his pre-operative visit on Monday for his surgery on May 10th. We'll have a weight update after that. Denise M. thinks he's up to 8lbs 11 ounces, we'll see. Have a great weekend.

Big boy clothes

Nicholas continues to grow and is now in 0-3 month clothes. Some are a little big yet, but he'll grow into them fast enough. We have a lot of cute day time clothes and have now started dressing Nicholas for night and day versus keeping him in pajama's around the clock. We saw his pediatrician yesterday and he is officially 8lbs and 19.25 inches long. He still eats every 3 hours and is now taking 65-90 cc's. The pulmonologist said he likely won't sleep through the night until closer to 1 year of age; hopefully, that's not his corrected age (1.5 weeks versus 3.5 months). Sometimes it's hard to get up but as soon as you see his little face, it's all worth it. We celebrate Mommy Mancuso's birthday tomorrow and Nicholas and I can't wait.

Getting bigger

We saw the pulmonologist today with hopes of getting off the oxygen sooner than later. Unfortunately, we went up on it to 1/8 of a liter versus 1/16. Nicholas was satting in the mid 80's to low 90's (mid to high 90's is best). To error on the side of caution, they decided to bump him up until we are seen again in 6 weeks. At least we're all used to dealing with the O2. He topped the scale at 7lbs 11 ounces today. We also had his labs drawn this week and things are improving with his counts (Hgt went from 25 to 30). Nothing else to report at this time. Have a wonderful weekend.

Finally reached the day I was due

Today, April 11th, was the date Nicholas was due. While we have gone through a lot in the last 3 plus months, we wouldn't change it. We've been able to spend a lot of quality time together as a family and have gotten to know Nicholas well. It's not too often that your baby comes home on a schedule and can get themselves to sleep with any amount of noise. We sure are thankful for our little miracle.

We had a couple of doctor appointments last week. We saw the general surgeon. Nicholas's hernia surgery is scheduled for May 10th. He'll have to stay over night in the hospital to assure he won't have any apnic spells (stops breathing), which will happen in the first 24 hours if at all after anesthesia. Next was the opthamologist. His eyes still look good and we don't have to follow up for another 6 months. We all appreciate that as the way they do the exam is they dilate his eyes and then use a clamp like device to keep his eyes open and then use a device to move his eye around to get a good picture. He has some lab work this week to check some of his lab values that were still low when we left the hospital and we'll see his pediatrician and the pulmonologist. Last Tuesday, he was up to 6lbs 11 ounces and we're pretty sure he's over 7lbs now. He eats about 70-75 cc every 3 hours.

We'll continue to post at least once a week and more often if possible. Have a wonderful week!

Happy Easter

We hope you are all having a wonderful Easter! Enjoy the season of renewal and promise. As you can see, we had time on our hands this morning for a little photo shoot. The picture of the swim trunks is Nicholas channeling his Mancuso cousins as they are all in Florida at the pool. Happy Easter!

Getting into a routine

It has been over a week since we got home and things are going well. We have established a routine where we both get a decent chunk of sleep in the night, which helps make the days bearable. The weather has been nice here and we were able to get out for a little walk yesterday. Nicholas loves bath time and we took some pictures of his bath today. He continues to eat well and has outgrown all of his preemie clothes and is now into newborn’s. I’m sure we’ll be out of newborns in the next few weeks as well. We are staying in for Easter; can’t risk Nicholas getting exposed to any type of respiratory infection. We hope you all have a wonderful Easter with family and friends.