NICU Valentine

 Jack has been snuggling with his arms up like this lately. Love getting to look at his little hands while we cuddle.

Long skinny boy. Wearing one of his preemie outfits. 

Great Grandma visiting her 12th Great Grandchild and Grandma visiting her 3rd Grandchild. 

Getting to hold him for the first time too!

A blurry picture taken by the nurse.

Trying to decide if he should stay awake to try to eat more or just fall asleep and get the rest of dinner from his feeding tube. 

He chose sleep. 

 Jack got a Valentine's Day bear from the hospital!

 His arms busted out of his burrito baby blanket. He loves having his hands near his face.

This time his feet wiggled loose!

Sweet baby boy.

Aaaannnnddd.... I'd say he's done putting forth effort to eat.

How I found my guy this morning.

Steve and I dined in again this year for Valentine's Day. I did get us a delicious flank steak from New Seasons and cooked it PERFECT! Yum.

And for dessert, Crumb cake from Carlo's Bakery in NJ. 

Yes, NJ. 

Steve and I would watch marathons of Cake Boss off of Netflix while I was on bed rest. After watching so much of it, I decided we should actually TRY something they bake. 

And it's delicious :)

Things are about the same as far as Jack goes. No talk of going home at all yet. 

Today he was able to take 4mls breastfeeding followed by 6mls from the bottle. His feeding is at 43mls every 3 hours. He has to get to eating 80% of that amount from breast and/or bottle before going home. We've got a ways to go. 

He had gone 4 days without a documented apnea episode, but last night the nurse recorded 3 and put him back on the monitor for his blood oxygen levels because she thought his color looked off. 

That was discouraging to hear, but it's also hard to tell if it was a true apnic episode, or just a difference in subjective observations. Anyhow, hoping he grows out of those soon. 

Otherwise, Jack looks really healthy to the neonatologists taking care of him. 

They keep dangling the hope of getting a private room in front of us. They've been saying "soon" for a week. I wish they'd either give us the room or stop talking about it because I get my hopes up for some space and privacy, and then it doesn't happen. 

Can't wait for us to get to go home! Can't come soon enough! 

Pray for good breathing and eating from Jack and a private room for his parent's sanity!

Oh and instead of pens and papers and remotes and the like, this has now over taken my bedside table. We are close friends ten times a day.