Its been a while since I have updated my blog. Work is REALLY cutting into my leisure and internet time.
Gabe is doing wonderful!! He is taking the bottle beautifully. On Tuesday his bottle was increased to 2 times a day. That way he can get fed by the speech therapist during the day, and I can feed him at night. Last night he took his bottle for me in 19 minutes. It had 35 cc's in it-a little over an ounce. He was quite mad when he was unable to suck the VERY last little bit out. Yes, I think I have an eater on my hands. When I take the bottle away from him to burp him, he takes his itty bitty hands and pulls my hand back with the bottle.

Gabe is now up to 4 lbs 1 oz. In a few more ounces, we will leave the incubator behind and move to an open crib. This past weekend, Gabe was moved to the 8th floor. This is his last stop until he gets to go home.

Several people have asked how much he has to weigh in order to go home. There is really not a set limit. The main things now are getting him to eat ALL of his bottles (8 a day) and for him to have his oxygen turned down and then off. He is on very little oxygen and the flow is also low. I have already brought a baby home with oxygen before. I would LOVE to not have to do that again.

My due date was May 17th. We are hoping that we will be able to bring him home, oxygen free, sometime around then. Thanks for all you prayers. They are working!! Miracles still do happen. And I never thought I would be the mother to two of them!

Happy Easter!

Gabe has had quite an eventful Friday and Saturday. The NICU is divided up into 3 levels...High, Intermediate, and Low. We have been on the High side since Gabe was born. WELL...On Friday afternoon we were downgraded to the Intermediate side aka "The Pond." It was nice to be able to move and know that he is doing well enough that he can be downgraded. This was a new feeling for us. Jacob was NEVER downgraded. We left from the high side.
Also on Friday, Gabe got to try his 1st bottle. He LOVES his pacifier. So, we were able to attempt it. He only took about 5 cc's from the bottle. At first, he had NO IDEA what to do with the milk that he got out of the bottle. But he eventually figured it out. On Monday he will be officially 34 weeks, so we will be giving the bottle more and more attempts. I hope he is not lazy like Jacob was. Jacob was smart enough to figure out that if you don't try to hard then they will tube feed it to you.

Gabe is 3lbs 4ozs. He has to be 1500 grams in order to wear clothes. Gabe is 1470 grams. BUT since it was Easter and I wanted cute Easter Pictures, we dressed him up. Here he is in his Easter outfit.

He cried the WHOLE time I was putting the clothes on him. Once he was dressed, he was too tired to open his eyes. He is not that impressed with clothes. Or maybe it was that he preferred a different outfit. He was still wearing his clothes when we left. If he can keep his temperature up himself, he will be wearing clothes from now on.

Gabe has changed so much in the last 7 weeks. He no longer looks like an alien with transparent skin. He now looks like a baby doll that you would give a little girl to play with. A baby doll that can whine, cry, poop and pee. One that you can feed, give a bath and dress up. Gabe has blond hair and dark blue eyes (i think they will stay that color). He looks alot like Jacob did at this size. One major difference-Gabe has hair and it doesn't look like its going away. Jacob didn't have hair until he was 2. And when it came in, it was RED!! Luck for us, it has gotten lighter and he is now a strawberry blond. Gabe looks like he will be a blond. Here is a picture of him taking a bath. He kept trying to slide down further into the water.

I hope everyone has a Wonderful Easter. The Easter bunny will be making his stop here tonight I am sure. This year he will be leaving gifts for my two little miracle boys. And I am so thankful that I have been given the pleasure of being their Mommy. Happy Easter!!!