1st birthday countdown - devin's 2nd month...

devin's second month was much better by far than his first. things were looking up and devin began putting on weight steadily. i visited him twice a day for 3 hours or more each time. it was so difficult to just sit there and watch him through plastic. he slept for 90% of the day or more. he was still supposed to be inside of me and it was just insane to watch a plastic box and wires and tubes finish the gestational process for me. i settled into feeling ok about that fact. i wasn't overly angry about our new situation, although i did have my days. after the first month i just realized this was how it is, lets just go with it and try to make it bearable. i started bringing sweet comfort things in for devin. a stuffed lamb that was mine as a baby, soft blankets and part of his crib bedding to cover his isolette. it made me feel better and i like to think it comforted him as well. i would carry small pieces of cloth or washcloths in my shirt and bring them in to let him sleep on. babies, even tiny preemies can smell their mother very well.

i finally felt comfortable enough for friends to visit :)

by the end of the second month i got a call while i was away from the hospital. i panicked when i saw the number because its usually not good to get a call from the NICU. they told me that devin was being moved upstairs to the nursery. he didn't need to be in intensive care anymore! they needed the space for babies who did. i rushed to the hospital to check out devin's new pad and i felt like singing the alladin song "a whole new world"! it was wonderful! the babies had their own little cubicle type rooms with a nice rocker and a dresser type thing. they were spread out from each other and it was such a laid back atmosphere! downstairs was basically an open room full of alarms and critically ill babies with nurses rushing around all over. i took a deep breath that day. it felt great! after a week or so the big day came... devin was moved to a big boy crib! he needed to be able to maintain his own body temperature and he did great at it! so he got to keep his new open crib and we were able to take care of him easily and gaze upon our boy without squinting through plastic!

we were able to start offering him the bottle and i was able to let him practice breastfeeding as well. we would weigh him on a very precise digital scale before he breast fed and after to see how many ounces he took. this is his first bottle experience ever- i cant remember how many mls. he took exactly, i think something like 10! that is such a tiny amount but it was actually very good!

meanwhile, at home we were setting up his nursery. something i definitely didn't have done before being admitted at 22weeks! the only thing we had gotten actually was the wooden letters you can see on the dresser. fabian and i had painted them right before everything happened. it felt nice to know his room was ready and waiting for him!

so by the end of his second month of life devin was doing quite well. just learning to eat and putting on weight. he was still on oxygen but that was about it. he started getting just a tiny bit "chubby" (at least to us). i could'nt wait to get my boy home but knew he had a bit more of a journey to get there. more to come tomorrow ;)