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!!!

Chunky Monkey

I now have a chunky baby!! Gabe is now 3 lbs 1 oz and he is 15 1/4 inches long. I know that 3 lbs isn't big to some people. BUT when you start out at less than 2 lbs, you are chunky at 3 lbs. He can wear clothes at 1500 grams (which is roughly 3lbs 8 oz). I can't wait until he can wear clothes!! I do plan on put at least a shirt on him for Easter. I am not a person who allows my children to have holiday pictures made in NOTHING but a diaper.
Gabe is now eating 25cc at a time-5 more cc's and we will be at an ounce.
Gabe would have been 33 wks today IF he would have decided to stay around in my womb a little longer. Next week he will be 34 wks. I am hoping that they try to bottle feed him. He loves a pacifier, so hopefully he will get the whole suck, swallow, breathe thing down.
Gabe is still on the nasal cannula at about 30% oxygen (sometimes less). He is a morning baby. He is awake in the mornings but not so much at noon (when I am usually there). He is quite vocal about his likes and dislikes. He likes when Greg holds him. He dislikes when he has to wait for his food. Thirty minutes before his feeding time, he gets quite unhappy. That is VERY confusing to us. If you know us well, you know that Jacob is NEVER hungry. The kid could skip a whole day of eating, and I don't think it would bother him at all. I guess that is why he is almost 9 and doesn't weight 50 lbs yet. Gabe just may love food.
I go back to work in 2 weeks. Jacob will be happy, and I will not have to deal with the tears, constant complaining, and the fake sickness. I keep reminding him that I will only be back for a few weeks, then off again to be with Gabe when he comes home. I have a feeling Jacob will be quite jealous of Gabe, once he is home.

New Update

Gabe has had a GREAT week. He is up to 2 lbs 10 oz. He is also 14 1/2 inches long. I am hoping he is able to wear clothes by Easter.
Gabe did have a spot come up on the side of his face in his hairline. It was tested for MRSA and any other type of infection. It came back negative-Thank God. As of Sunday, it looks WONDERFUL!! Even the scabs are gone! He spent about 3 days in a oxygen hood in order to give his head time to heal. Here is a picture of him in his "hood".

On Sunday, he was put back on the nasal cannula. It has been nice to be able to hold him the last 2 days. He likes to be held so that he can see. I think he might be nosey like his big brother.
Gabe had his eye exam, and his eyes look good. The nurse said he DID NOT like the eye exam at ALL. That his cry was so loud that you would have thought he was a big baby, not a 2 lb baby. I wish I would have been there. The same eye doctor visits Centennial from Jacob's time. He even done an eye surgery on Jacob in the NICU on July 4th, 2001. I know he has to remember a holiday "surprise" surgery.
Being a preemie and being on oxygen is not always the best thing for your eyes. Hopefully Gabe will have better eye sight than Jacob does. And I want have to keep up with 2 pair of glasses.
We are still waiting until the time when Jacob can go in and see Gabe. Jacob wrote him a note. It is the cutest thing!

Greg starts a new job on Monday-my dining room will no long be his messy office. I go back to work in 3 weeks. And Jacob's baseball season has started. Hopefully, all things will work out so that we are still able to go see Gabe daily. It makes me sad to think I may have to go a day or even two without seeing him. Jacob may have to learn what a babysitter is.

Happy 1 Month Birthday!!

Yesterday Gabe is 1 month old. WOW-how this month has flown by. Gabe is now up to 2lbs 7 oz. He is on 20 cc's of breast milk. That is 2/3 of an ounce. He is tolerating his feeding quite well. I still HATE pumping. I really do think a man (or the devil) came up with the idea of a breast pump. I guess I will keep it up a little longer. At his last length check--which is done once a week, he was 13 3/4 inches long.
Earlier this week he was put back on the cpap machine since the nasal cannula was messing up his nose. We can't have an ugly nose!! The cpap mask is giving his nose a little break. He also has a little spot on the side of his face where something has given him a blister looking area. It doesn't look bad, but I am sure it will leave a little scar, also known as a battle scar. Jacob has MANY of those.
Gabe is doing quite well. He does keep having little "spells" where his heart rate drops down. He really needs to stop doing that. And they tell me he will stop doing it...remember the NICU is a waiting game.
In another pound (@ 3 lbs), Gabe will be able to wear clothes. This is quite exciting!! I have already gotten Jacob's old preemie clothes out. BOY did I forget how little they were. And to think-right now they are too big for him! I did buy him 2 new preemie outfits. HE can't have all hand me downs from his big brother.
Since yesterday Gabe was a month old, we did coke can pictures. The top one is when he was 1 week old. The bottom is from yesterday.


We were able to get a little movie of Gabe crying. He has a loud cry for such a little baby. Hopefully this week he will be back on the nasal cannula.

2 Pounds and Counting!!

Gabe is doing quite well. He has been on the nasal cannula for over a week. And still tolerating it. Gabe now weighs 2 lbs (even). Now if he has a good poop, he may be back under 2 lbs. You know how boys are!
Nothing really new has happened the last few days. He is up to 9 cc's on breast milk. And they are now adding extra calories to the milk. That should help him to grow and gain strength.
Having a preemie in the NICU is a waiting game. You wait for something big to happen. You wait for them to grow. You wait for them to quite having spells. You wait for them the learn to breath on their own. You wait for them to be able to keep their temperature up. You wait for them to be big enough to wear clothes. You wait for them to learn to eat with a bottle. And while you wait for all of this to happen, you pray hard that nothing bad happens. Because if something bad happens, then you have to wait for it to be resolved. Then you are waiting AGAIN to catch back up to where you were- because you usually have to start all over again.
Gabe is now 3 weeks old. I got to hold him again today. Gabe was awake the whole time I was holding him. Greg got alot of good pictures of him with his eyes open. The best one we got was of him smiling. Yes, even 2 lb babies smile. It may have been gas, but I am calling it a smile :-)

Gabe had big eyes for his daddy. He watched Greg the whole time.

We did try to get a movie of his little "noises", but he only done them when the movie stopped.
Thanks for all the continued prayers. God has really touch Gabe and us. We know that God's hand has been on Gabe (and us) since the beginning.

Daddy Love

On Sunday, I decided to let Greg hold Gabe. We easily forget how "light" our 1 lb children are until we hold them. And to be honest, Gabe is a "fatty" compared to Jacob. You are always scared when holding these mini babies. You have to deal with all types of tubes. And you have to deal with alarms that go off, sometimes for no reason and other times because their heart rate OR oxygen level has dropped. And you always worry if you are disconnecting something.
Gabe is still on the nasal cannula (which still surprises us & I am knocking on wood right now). He is on little to no oxygen. We did have to stop feeding him for awhile. He decided on Sunday to have green stuff in his belly. They did a xray and said his belly looked normal. But they stopped his feeding. Jacob had SEVERE reflux. I hope Gabe does not have reflux. If you have ever had a child with it, you can still smell it YEARS later. The memory of the smell NEVER leaves you!!! Then on Tuesday, he was given blood. He is back on milk today- 2cc's every 3 hours. He is still hanging out at 1 lb 11 oz. He did make it up to 1 lb 13oz, but the green stuff happened. And I still HATE pumping.

I can already see that Gabe has a personality. If he doesn't like something, he lets you know by dropping his heart rate. He opens his eyes looks around and decides IF he wants to stay awake or not. The bed he is in reminds me of a fish tank. I sometimes peck on the outside of it. Then I think of the little girl in the dentist office on Finding Nemo. Instead of saying Fishy wake up, I say wake up Gabe. He probably wishes he had a sign that says, "Do Not Tap on My Home".
I am hoping that Gabe is 2 lbs by his 1 month b'day. It took Jacob 7 weeks to make it to 2 lbs, and I don't think I have to patience for that again. Normally, preemies come home around their due date (Gabe's was 5/17). Jacob shot that theory out of the water. He loved the NICU so much, he decided to stay for 7 months. I will be honest, if this adventures last well into the summer, you might find me in a home for Crazy Mommas.
Please remember all of us in your prayers. Greg's job will be ending soon, please pray that there is a job out there for him and that we find it SOON! Please pray that Jacob can learn to handle that I am not at school with him. And please remember me--I need to keep my strength and my sanity during all of this. And please pray that Gabe grows stronger (and bigger) everyday.

To Good To Be True???

Things have been going quite well for us--ALMOST to well. When asked how Gabe is, Greg and I are almost to scared to say GREAT!!
On Wednesday, I got to kangaroo hold Gabe again. Sometimes in pictures Gabe looks bigger than he really is. SO, here is a picture of him in my hands. Its hard to see Gabe's face with c-pap machine on him. I have started calling it the Rhino mask.

They think that since Gabe is stable enough, that we will start holding him every other day (when possible). Since I have held him a few times now, I think I will let Greg have a turn every now and then. Here is a picture of Greg and I with Gabe.

It seems werid how fast and well things are going. Things were always SO SLOW with Jacob. Jacob took MANY detours off the path to going home. Gabe seems to be staying on the path. Maybe he knows that home is a fun place. Maybe he knows that Jacob has tons of Hot Wheels, and he wants to play too!!
Gabe is hanging out at 1 lb 12 oz. He is now up to 4 cc's on breast milk and he will be up to 5 cc's by the end of today. And may I add, I ABSOLUTELY hate pumping!!! Gabe is quite active. He lets you know when he DOES NOT like something. He loves to sleep on his tummy. And sometimes he cracks his eyes, looks to see who's around, and then closes them back. His second brain scan came back, and again it showed NO signs of a brain bleed. THANK GOD!!!
When I went to visit Gabe today (friday), I had a nice little surprise. Gabe is now on a nasal cannula. He is doing quite well on it. It is nice to actually be able to see his face. We know that this may not last long term, but its nice to know that he is doing it right now with no problems.

Jacob is having a hard time dealing with the fact I am not at school with him. From the time he gets home from school, until he leaves for school the next morning, I have to hear how much he wants to stay home with me. And yes, there have been tears.
Funny Jacob story..... He was talking to my mom on the phone last night. He asked her where she was. She told him that her and my dad were eating at Red Lobster. Jacob told her how much he missed eating out and that we never get to go eat out anymore. My mom asked him why, if it was because I was not feeling well. Jacob replied, "I don't know she's just always in her PJ's when I get home from school." And I am in my PJ's by usually 2pm.

Jacob has only since Gabe the day he was born. It looks like it will be April before he can go into the NICU to visit. Since we don't have grandparents close, there has been lots of trying to figure out what to do with him. When Jacob was in the NICU, I went during the day. Then Greg and I both went back at night. With Jacob at home, we are unable to do this. Since Greg works from home, he takes a long lunch and we go at lunch.
Thank You for all the prayers that have been sent up in our name. Please continue to remember us. Saturday will be 2 weeks since our journey began.