Month: March 2010

Last Saturday, Aunt Rebecca and her boyfriend Kerry came to visit during their Spring Break.  We had a great time and they actually got to experience some of David’s “firsts”.  On Saturday, we mainly just hung out at the house and let David meet Aunt Rebecca and Kerry.

On Sunday, we headed to church in the morning.  Then, we drove to Indy where David got to experience his first trip to the Indianapolis Zoo.  He slept through most of the trip and we spent most of our time inside since it was a little chilly, but we know he loved it :-)!!  We also got some pictures of him “with” the animals we saw.  Of course, we couldn’t resist the gift shop, where we bought him a sting ray stuffed animal (since that was one of the animals we saw) and a penguin bib that said “Waddle I eat today?”

After the zoo, David got to experience his first trip to the mall.  We got a lot of comments about how little he was whenever we took him out of the stroller to change his diaper or feed him.  After the mall, David also got to experience his first trip to a restaurant.  We went to On the Border and he was actually awake most of the time we were there.   All-in-all, he did pretty well and we had a fun time in Indy.

On Monday, we again spent most of the day indoors because the weather still wasn’t cooperating, but we had a good day anyway.  We did go to Hobby Lobby and buy paint for Aunt Rebecca and Kerry to pain the top half of the wall in the nursery.  We decided to go with cloud animals since the top half of the wall is a sky blue.  Aunt Rebecca painted different cloud animals while Kerry painted some regular clouds around the animals.  It looks adorable and we are so glad they could do that for us while they were here.

On Tuesday, Aunt Rebecca and Kerry spent a few hours watching David for me so I could go observe my two student teachers.  It was a great help and I really appreciate it.

Finally, on Wednesday, we took another ride to Indy to drop Aunt Rebecca and Kerry off at the airport.  We also stopped by the adoption agency so Katie (the birthmother counselor we’ve worked with) could meet David.  She was very excited we stopped by and that she got to hold him for a little while.  Then, we all headed to our first Baptism Prep class.  I do think the big day to Indy got David a little off “schedule” so he was up until 2:15am last night, but hopefully with a more normal day today, he will sleep a little better tonight.

Here are A LOT of pictures of our visit with Aunt Rebecca and Kerry & a few others just for fun!!

I took David to the pediatrician this morning and he is now a whopping 6 lbs 4 oz.  Yep, he has gained 1 lb in less than a week.  That’s more than 1 oz a day.  The pediatrician said everything else looked good too!!  So, it looks like our little boy is becoming a big boy, no wonder his preemie clothes don’t fit anymore!!

Here are a few more recent pictures.  Enjoy!

Well folks, David has reached the ripe old age of 25 days.  That’s right, three days shy of four weeks (which, in this case of February, is also a WHOLE MONTH)!

Saturday David had a photoshoot with one of our friends, Sunny, who is the director of our 11am choir, and does photography on the side (her main occupation is graduate student).  Tonight we get to look at those photos, so “soon” we will work on getting some formal birth announcements printed and sent out.

We’ve also discovered that our printer is actually quite good at printing photos, so I imagine we’ll be using up a bit of ink in the near-term.

Mimi and Papa (Kristina’s parents) were here this past week.  They flew in a week ago, and took a cab to the hospital we had been at.  No, they didn’t think we were still there, but we had left one of our two cars there, so one of us could sit in the back with David on the way home from the hospital.  We were very thankful they were able to do that, so we didn’t have to take extraordinary measures to get the car home.  Kristina’s Dad left Sunday, while her Mom was able to stay and help out through yesterday morning.  Now we’re back on our own (for a few days until Aunt Rebecca arrives).

By the way, thanks to the friends who have been bringing over meals while we’re on our own.  It has been a great help to not have to worry about getting dinner done every night in amongst our primary focus, taking care of David.

Let’s see, so what’s new for David….  Well, he has now been alive during two months.  He’s been at home almost two weeks.  He’s pretty good at eating from the bottle, and so we’ve actually started preparing him 2.5 ounces for each feeding, which he often drinks in total.  He’s also showing signs of being awake more often – he’s actually looking around sometimes now, and will study your face while you feed him.  He still doesn’t let us sleep between night feedings sometimes, he can get fussy, for various reasons.  But we’re getting better at sleeping during his loud-sleeping, and we’ve made a decision to feed him outside of the bedroom so the other of us can sleep.

During the day, we try a variety of things with him from tummy time on blankets to laying on his back on the blankets.  We try occasionally to show him toys, but so far they hold no interest for him.  We’ve given him two tub baths at home, which was complicated because the bathroom sinks aren’t quite big enough, and we don’t have the tub for the bathtub yet.  Mimi also gave him a sponge bath Saturday morning to prep him for his photo shoot.  Tonight he’ll get another to prepare for a shower some of our friends are having for us tomorrow.

Lucy has so far been very tolerant of David.  She has not been brave enough to go up to him yet, and has not tried to get into the bassinets with David.  She is mostly content to sleep on the foot of our bed.  To accommodate her, we’ve been leaving a piece of clothing on the bed for her to sleep on.  I think in part, she’s defending her foot-of-the-bed space.

Tomorrow David will go back to the pediatrician, to see how much he’s grown since coming home from the hospital.  So we should have new stats tomorrow.

Okay, so here are some newer photos (March 2-5).  You’ll see a lot of them are still of him sleeping, because, well, that’s what he does most of the time (except from 3-6am, when we aren’t busy snapping photos…)

Okay, so this post isn’t about David exactly, and I’m sorry to say it won’t provide any new photos.

However, it does report other good news.  Kristina and I have been trying to watch what we eat and to work out more, in an effort to bring our weights down more to our preferred weights.  Well, interestingly enough, I can tell you today about a new diet — the “baby in a NICU” diet.  We found that while David was there, we weren’t snacking between meals (we weren’t allowed to eat in his room), and were generally eating in the hospital cafe, which tended to serve healthier versions of the food they prepared, and available in smaller quantities than found in restaurants.

As of this morning, since we first met David, I have now lost 7 pounds, and Kristina has lost 5 pounds.  We’re going to celebrate by having milkshakes!

Oh, and in other news, David slept a little more peacefully last night, allowing both of us to be a bit more rested today.  Who knows what tonight will bring, but one day at a time, right?

Needless to say, the last 2 days have been a whirlwind for me and Chip.  We have noticed how mixed up David is with day and night and how much help we got while we were in the NICU.  But, it’s also been amazing being full-time parents.  David has had a lot of firsts this weekend.  He of course, had his first night at home, sleeping in his bassinet, and getting used to being somewhere other than the NICU.  In addition, he had his first visitors at home Friday evening and attended his first mass.  Today he had his first pediatrician appointment — everything looks good by the way.  He has gained a little bit of weight over the weekend.  He now weighs 5 lbs 4 oz.  In addition to all of that, we had our first post-placement visit with our adoption specialist, Kelly, this morning. Tonight, we’re lucky to have some friends who have offered to bring us dinner, so I don’t have to worry about cooking while Chip is teaching class tonight.  If anyone else wants to bring us dinner, I’m sure we wouldn’t turn them down :-)!!

Later in the week, we are looking forward to my parents (“Mimi” and “Papa”) coming to town on Thursday.  Also, David has his first photo shoot with our friend Sunny on Saturday…we’ll send out official announcements after that.

But, to tide you over, here are “just a few” pictures of David at home.