1st birthday countdown - devin's 3rd month...

i think devin's 3rd month of life was the best month of my life! he finally came home from the NICU after 79 days on 9/9/09! he was 2.5 months old when he came home but was only 37 weeks 6 days old at the same time! the fact that he came home before his original due date and of course the fact that he was perfectly healthy and didn't require any oxygen or monitors was just so satisfying for me. he weighed 7 lbs.at discharge, which was also pretty impressive. he really proved so many drs. and nurses wrong and amazed his dad and i. the day he came home was a busy one. we had "roomed in" the night before. this is when preemie parents spend a night in a hospital room with their child alone. we had to prove we were capable of taking care of our own kid. in many instances i think this is a great thing, but in some, its just degrading. devin didn't have any special equipment or anything we needed to learn and get used to, so it was just an uncomfortable situation. needless to say, the next night when he was home with us was totally different so i don't really see a point to the whole rooming in thing even though we loved spending alone time with devin, it just wasn't fun. nurses were bothering us for silly things all night and it was a really crappy room. so the morning he was being discharged was a loooong one. we had to sign a bunch of stuff and bring in proof that we had made appointments for his first drs. appointments after discharge. we had to wait for a pharmacist to come and explain how to administer medications, we had to watch a demonstration of how to mix formula in pumped breast milk for added calories and so much more that i cant remember!

this is one of his last NICU pictures. since we never got to get one of those newborn hospital pictures, this is the one i consider ours ;)

i finally got to dress my little one in his going home outfit and the nurse stripped him of all his last monitor wires! we finally had a cordless baby! i picked him up and stepped out of his little cubicle into the hall i think i almost died! it felt so weird/scary/wonderful. hospital policy was to wheel the moms out of the NICU in a wheelchair and i honestly couldn't have been happier about that rule. i felt like all the moms i had been watching for the last 11 weeks. i would see them sitting in the lobby waiting for their husbands to pull the car around. they would be holding their healthy baby and most likely had never seen the NICU- while i was going up to watch my son grow in a plastic box. man, i hated those women for the longest time, but today, i WAS one! the only difference was that i was sitting next to about 6 HUGE bags of pumped breast milk stored in little bottles that had been kept in the NICU freezer. oh well, to me, it felt normal.

driving home was crazy, fabian was driving and i was in the backseat with devin. every little thing made us jump and i was so nervous about devin not being hooked up to any kind of machine. for all his life we had relied on a screen to let us know he was safe and we didn't have that anymore! i dont know how i got over that! but i did... and quick ;)

finally home!

first feeding at home!

fraggle meeting devin for the first time. (devin is yawning not screaming in agony despite what it looks like). i think fraggle was like "hey! that was my bed you made for me pulled up next to your bed! why is there something in it now?"

this is the picture i stared at constantly while i was in the hospital. this is what i was waiting for the whole time!

here's what out freezer looked like... yeah, we literally had to duct tape it shut.

the day after he came home we ventured out for the first time to his first pediatrician appointment. the office was way too far away and the dr. was really weird. we didn't go back again but here are some pictures of how cute devin looked all ready to go!

we finally felt like a normal family. we had our healthy baby, home and happy. he liked his swing and liked to cuddle in his boppy and nap for a good part of each day. he was just a normal newborn and it was great! thats how i remember it at least. i know it was stressful and we didn't get much sleep but in my mom brain, i remember it as being a wonderful time. i think we're programmed that way so we force ourselves to make more babies!

devin really was easy going in those days. i would put on soft music and he would just relax and do brand new baby stuff. i was pumping every 3 hours and we kept him on a 3 hour schedule which included a diaper change, breastfeeding, then a bottle as well so that was pretty rough. pumping was just horrible but i did it for 7 months and im pretty proud of that! like i said, devin was laid back and just slept alot. we gave him tummy time a few times a day and he seemed to like looking at little toys placed close to him. he liked bath time also. even with all the new activities going on in my life it seems like i had alot of free time those days! devin was just a joy and getting to know him at home was just wonderful. it felt even more special because we had all worked so hard to get to  this point!

happy 10 months devin!

i cant believe devin turned 10 months old today! DOUBLE DIGITS???!!! only 2 more months until his first birthday :( here are his 10 months shots i took today at a park today.

 i have'nt posted in so long and he's doing so many new things. we've been very busy and devin is just getting over his first cold :( it finally happened, he got sick. the crazy thing is that after all this time we've been so careful and paranoid about him catching a cold and fabian is the one who gave it to him. he was sick all of the week before this last one and devin was holding up ok until last friday night when i heard him become a little stuffy overnight. all of a sudden he would sniffle a little and wake himself up. he was very restless and i sat awake all night hoping he wasnt actually coming down with something but when he woke up that morning his temp. was 100.5. i called the dr. and they told me not to worry about the fever, just to pay attention to his symptoms and bring him to the e.r. if he had trouble breathing or started wheezing. he was very stuffy and his fever went up to 101.5 that day at its highest but he never had any breathing issues :) he really scared me at one point while fabian was out (of course it happens while im alone). he had eaten great all day but all of a sudden he would get a little snot attack and start gagging on it :( he would gag and throw up, gag and throw up, about 4-5 times in about 15 minutes. i was panicking! i was trying to call fabian in and call the pediatrician at the same time. when fabian got back in (he was outside) and didnt really "get" the severity of what was going on... (yeah, annoying!) we put him in the car and started rushing to the e.r. about 5 minutes later devin was happy as can be and breathing clear so we turned around. i wasnt ready to take him to the e.r. and have 8 different people try to draw blood and run a bunch of tests if it wasnt 100% necessary and im glad we did'nt go because he has gotten better and better very fast since then. his fever was gone by the next day and his feedings started picking back up by the 3rd day. the tail end of day one he started not wanting to eat at all because he was stuffy and not able to breathe from his nose while on the bottle. now hes eating normal and just has a tiny bit of  congestion lingering and he coughs 3 times a day or so but thats it. it was hard but he did so well! for so long we just did'nt know how his little body would handle even the smallest cold and he certainly put my mind at ease. he was a trooper. we got him california baby cold and flu aromatherapy bubble bath and gave him a bath 1-2 times a day for the first few days because he loved it and i really think it helped him feel better. it smells great, like a light version of vicks (i love vicks and just inhale it over and over even when im not sick! :) he has his 2 bottom teeth now, they're almost completley in. he got his second one right after the first. the next day in fact! his first showed up march 30th and his second came out on april 1st. in these pictures you'll notice devin's handsome little necklace, its a baltic amber teething necklace and he wears it everyday now. the amber stones contain succinic acid  and when they sit against skin, the heat lets trace amounts into the bloodstream and it acts as a natural pain reliever. its supposed to be great for teething and growing pains. its safe for babies to wear because there is a double knot in between each bead and its designed to break if its pulled to hard instead of choking the child. it fits snug so he doesnt evne notice it. its not for him to chew on which is what i thought at first, its all about the natural pain relief. im not sure if it works, but i'll try anything safe that will help keep teething pains to a minimum. i'll try to judge if his next teeth that come are accompanied by less fussiness. i ordered myself one too, so we have matching necklaces, which some people think is weird, but i think its awesome and devin loves pulling on mine :) plus, i think it makes him look like the coolest baby on the block.

in other news... he's becoming much more independent and capable of doing things for himself. his new favorite activity is to sit and play with one toy at a time out of his toy basket. he reaches in, takes something out , plays until hes bored with it and goes in for another when he's ready. so cute!

we also had to bring the pack and play out and take the newborn thing out of it that raised up the base so he was up higher. we took it out and use it as a little playpen now for when i have to make a bottle or get some chores done. he sits in there and plays and LOVES it!

and please, please tell me why my "little baby" loves to STAND up holding onto the edge??? when did this happen? he can stand there for any length of time and is just so proud of himself!

we still try new finger foods every once in a while. he really likes baby mum mums. hes getting the pincer grip down and will eat a few puffs, yogurt melts or baby cheetos but hes still not very fond of pureed foods.

once again, i have to mention that im in no way "ok" with the fact that my sweet babe is 10 months now when he would only be 7 months but what can i do? i just have to suck it up and deal! he makes it pretty easy because he's perfect no matter what his age is!

devin and his baby leg warmers!

 much to fabian's disapproval, i made devin several pairs of baby leg warmers last weekend and they look so cute on him! i had been wanting to get some for him but just didnt feel like buying them online and paying about $10 for a pair. i found pairs of women's socks at target that were just the right length and cut the feet off and stictched the ends and they work great! and no, they're not just an embarassing 80s blast from the past, they actually serve a purpose! im able to put them on devin while hes just in a onesie instead of having him in pants. this makes for much easier access at diaper change time! he also has very stinky feet and wearing socks all the time really does'nt help that so these are great because they cover some of his feet keeping them warm but allow his toes to get some air, kind of like those weird fingerless gloves. i'll also put them on him this summer while he's hopefully learning to crawl, but i'll be honest, functionality is the least of my concerns, they are just too cute!

fraggle hitched a ride with his bff and stayed there for an unbelieveable amount of time letting devin "pluck him" and squeal with delight right in his ear! there is something truley wrong with this feline and it does'nt ALL have to do with his excessive amount of body fat.

i found this fisher price satge/mirror toy at a thrift shop the other day and he LOVES it! he gets so happy when he sees himself and makes the lights and music go on. he'll play and then look over at me with a huge smile and go right back to playing. so cute! oh, i scored this for $2.50!

ooooh ipod...

we let him play with the mesh feeder again (our second try) and he loved it. he sucked it dry! i had offered it to him with a mango chunk the first time and he was'nt interested. this time i mashed it a little and he ate two big chunks out of there. he could'nt get enough!

and he can never get enough of daddy :)