Abe is coming home!

The day has finally come! We get to bring our sweet baby home this morning. Here are some pictures from yesterday:

Abe was so hungry, but we weren't allowed to feed him yet (the nurses schedule him to eat every three hours):
Sweet sleeping baby - I could never get too many of these pictures.

Baby Abe at 8 Days

Grandma Jan and Grandpa Jeff came to visit us in the NICU today and meet Abe for the first time. Luckily it was his awake time! It was also the first time I have ever heard him really scream about something (he is really a pretty content baby so far) and it turned out he had an air bubble in his tummy that he later released while he was sleeping =)
This was also the first time I saw him dream nursing - so sweet.

Abe at One Week Old

Whew - it has been one loooong week. Today marks his one week birthday almost to the hour right now! His oxygen was room air when we left tonight, he just has a bit of pressure in his nasal cannula. I hear that might even be removed tomorrow. The last thing he needs to work on is his feeding - they want him on a pretty big volume of breast milk each 12 hours and sometimes he is too sleepy to eat it all. Nursing was great today, so I'm not worried that we will have too much trouble in that area.

He also got a bath today (his second) upon our pleading (his hair was pretty greasy). We got to see him without anything on his face during the bath:
He tried to nurse Colin's hand because he was so hungry.
Sleepy boy.
I love this picture - so sweet!

Baby Abe - 5 Days Old

Yesterday Abe had his PIC line removed and was moved to the less critical NICU. In order for him to come home, he has to get the nasal cannula out and be completely on bottle feedings. Yesterday he was too sleepy most of the time to do too many bottle feedings or nursings, so I am hoping for a better day today.

Here is Colin giving him his bottle:I spent lots of time just holding him - we both loved it =).

Baby Abe - 4 Days Old

Today was day four for Abe in the NICU. We arrived around 10:30 and found him without his CPAP on since his breathing has improved so much. He actually looked like a real baby! The only thing he has to work on now are his feedings - he needs to be completely breastfeeding/bottle feeding before he can be discharged. So, he actually nursed twice today for the first time ever! I was excited that he is catching on so quick. His little nasal cannula gets in the way of a great latch, but sooner than later he will get that removed as well.I can't decide who he looks like? I do love that finally one of our kids has Colin's hair color =)
Tomorrow I plan on spending the whole day with him so we can keep trying to breast feed.