Blissful babyhood..

It wouldn't be odd to hear many new parents complain about sleepless nights, poopy diapers, and all the adjustments that go along with bringing a new baby home. You won't hear it from me.

I feel so blessed just to have a healthy, hungry and alert baby at home..yes home. So, if it means getting up 3 times a night to feed, change and lull back to sleep our proud NICU graduate, I will do it, with a smile on my face. I am so at peace, even if it is at 2am, 5am, or whatever time he gets up in the middle of the night, just happy to have our complete family at home together.

Gunner is doing awesome. I was so worried when we brought him home that we would have to worry about his big issue that kept him in the NICU....eating. Nope, the kid is eating about 100cc's (3oz) more than he did each day at the hospital. He is signalling (quietly, possibly blessed with another baby that doesn't cry) and wanting to eat at least a half hour before when I would expect him to.

Last night was a little challenging, but again, oh well, he is home and thriving. So if it means a little less sleep for mommy and daddy, so be it.

Gunner is HOME!!

UPDATE!!!
As you guys know, Gunner July Sparkler, due to the fact that my "Junebug" came early...too early, but everything is fantastic now.

Gunner was born on June 5th at 4lb .6oz and 17.25in. On July 13th he was discharged from the NICU. He is doing AMAZING!! He biggest issue was learning to eat, be able to not be too tired to make it thru a feeding, and wake up long enough to do it. I was so worried about him at the hospital because the nurses have several babies to care for. I have one and I knew I would be on it and waking him up if he didn't wake himself.

At home, this is not an issue. He wakes up every 2 1/2 hours and eats like a champ. We had his first pedi appt yesterday to get him all logged in as a new patient and do an assessment. They said he is great. At a 1 1/2 weeks till his due date he is very close to breaking into the newborn 5 weeks percentiles. He weighed in at 6lb 6oz and 19in long yesterday.

I know a lot of you followed my blog and thought happy thoughts and said prayers...THANK YOU...it obviously worked!

Look Mom, no tube

We did have a minor set back, where the tube came back, but now it is gone again...look at little man with nothing to mess with his cuteness! hopefully, it is gone for good now!

Gunner is getting to be an eating champ...


Cutie without a tube!

5 weeks, 38 weeks gestational age

Our little guy is now 5 weeks old and flirting with the 6 lb mark! He is all of 5 lb 14 oz and 19 inches in length...getting really big. His cheeks of course are the biggest part of him.

He is getting the eating under his belt, taking over 90% of his feedings orally for the last two days and working on a third.

If he keeps this up, he may be home soon....Mommy is finally ready. I feel comfortable with him coming home. I will be cooping us up in the house for the next almost year, but I will be ready..once I lysol the entire house!

how lucky we are...

If you are at all familiar with preemies, you know exactly how lucky we are. Gunner has really had none of the standard "preemie issues"...no respiratory issues, no apnea spells, no surgeries, no brain bleeds, the list goes on. These are issues a lot of preemie parents have to deal with.

Our one and only issue is that he needs to be able to eat on his own...and he is working very hard at it. However, we all have to remember, he isn't even supposed to be here yet. Mommy is supposed to be fat and miserable right now...and instead I am feeling good and almost completely healed from the c-section. I also have my postpartum check up before my due date...that is weird.

I reflect on this luck and good fortune because I saw one of our NICU neighbors heading to the North Campus, wheeling their sweet baby boy to surgery. I nearly lost it. I was immediately moved to near tears and thought...how luch we are.

let's compare...

My preemie baby (born 33 weeks GA) now officially weighs more than my peanut full termer when he came home.

Greyson (FT) was born at 40 weeks on his due date and weighed 5 lb 12 oz and was 19 1/2in...he went down to 5lb 6oz before we left the hospital.

Gunner was born at 33 weeks and weighed 4lb 0.6oz and he is now 5lb 12oz...he has the biggest cheeks I have seen on a baby that small and also a double chin!

Here's the cheeks in case you missed em...

And this was his "big brother" at birth...(3 days old)

Almost 4 weeks...

Little Gunner isn't so little any more. He is now 5 lbs 6oz. This means he has put on 1 lb 6oz in less than four weeks.

He is doing fantastic. He is perfect in every way and there are no medical issues that we have to worry about. However, the eating, is what we are working on. He has been taking about 50%of his feeds orally. When he hits 75% for two consequtive days, they will remove the feeding tube and then see what happens over the next three days. If he meets their expectations, he will go home. If not, then we wait.

We are patiently and anxiously awaiting him coming home at the same time. He is in excellent hands and in order to take care of him the way he needs, they will be doing that better than us. So, we are happy to have him home when he is ready to be home safely.