More Luca Pics - Week three

Lots of sleeping Luca. He does that quite a bit. Tomorrow, Saturday is his "developmental birthday" as Daniel calls it - aka, the day he was due. In real days though, he is just three or four days shy of one month old. One month. Wow does time fly.



He really liked Lane.




I think this might be his favorite sleeping place. (Daniel's too.)





How we spent Daniel's birthday. Scrabble. Donuts. Pete. Papa. Baby. Daniel won the game.

Some Lovlies

Alright, Pop-pop, I know he looks a little grumpy here, but its mostly because he's still a little small for the car seat (hence all the blankets rolled up around his head to wedge him in). In the nursery he had to do a car seat "challenge" because he was a premie, where he had to sit in the car seat for an hour while they monitored his breathing and heartrate. I'm happy to say that he passed with flying colors. Usually, he falls asleep within a few minutes of being buckled in. I can't say for sure, but I think this bodes well for car trips in the future.

And check out these lovlies! The koala is from our friend Jen Proctor (who also brought us fresh baked raspberry pie a couple days ago! *luv*), and the awesome little hedgehog was made by our very talented Carly Quinn. Target has a line of hedgehog clothes and blankets and I think I might need to indulge just because this little guy is so damn cute!


(I'm not sure why, but the images are getting cut off a bit. If you click on them, you get the full image.)

Two Weeks Old

Luca is two weeks old today. He's doing great. He weighs 6 lbs now, which is fabulous! We're going to turn him into a chubby baby yet! Here are a bunch of pictures to celebrate his two weeks old!

Oh the CUTE! This happened when we were trying on clothes that *might* fit him. We thought this little red jumpsuit from Donna & Philip might be a contender, but it was waaaay to big. We have a TON of clothes, but almost nothing fits his littleness. But at the rate he's going, we'll just hold out for a bit and he'll fit all those cute clothes in no time.



LucaSolOne - even the name is hip-hop ready.



LucaSolOne getting down...



The first of power. Luca's favorite pooping position. Not to be confused with his favorite yawning position involving TWO fists of power. Rocking the argyle socks from his Great Great Aunt Bea.



What gang is my baby in?



Grandpa holding his grandson for the first time.



This quilt was given to us at the nursery. it was made by a girl scout for the babies who have to stay there. I'd like to get a photo of Luca wrapped up in it for the maker.



Patty, one of the most amazing nurses at Providence. We had a LOT of fantastic nurses, but Patty was both my nurse and Luca's many times and she was particularly wonderful.



Luca getting weighed. Why does his hair look radioactive?



Tummy Time! Luca is surprisingly strong. Yesterday he lifted his head and turned it the other way. He also does a lot of kicking that inches him up the quilt. We may have an early crawler on our hands. Time will tell. He does seem quite strong though.



Rockin' the argyles on the quilt Katherine made him.


Hi baby!



Prezzies from Groove11! THIRTY!!!!!! cupcakes from Saint Cupcake!



A fantastic welcome home surprise from Sabrina! Our door covered in flowers and stars!


And now for a couple videos...

Luca's first bath! He wasn't so sure about it at first, but he warmed up to it. And the monkey towel from my cousin Christine & Eric was hit!







Luca's first time in his playard from Uncle Mark and Aunt Sue!




That's all for now. Time to feed the hiccuping baby

Boob Talk

I've finally been hit by a stroke of brilliance. Or, perhaps more likely, it's common sense that's been eluding me (which I blame hormones for)...

How Not to Get Any Sleep No Matter How Tired You Are or How Much Time You Have:

Every three hours:
1. Pump breast milk which makes you so sleepy (also the fault of hormones) that you're not sure you have the energy to actually go feed the baby. (20-30 minutes)
2. Feed the baby because you're not going to not feed the baby no matter how sleepy you are. (30 minutes)
3. While feeding, yawn a couple times. (time begins to lose meaning)
4. Cuddle the baby to sleep which has the opposite effect on you. You are now wide awake and can't tear yourself from staring at the sleeping baby. (time, what's time?)
5. Go back to room with an hour and half in which to get to sleep. Stare at wall and wonder why you can't sleep.

The stroke of brilliance? Pump AFTER feeding the baby.

Speaking of all this breast milk business, Luca started breastfeeding today. It was so awesome, I cried. A lot.

The feeding prior, the nurse tried a new nipple on the bottle of breast milk and Luca sucked it all down vigorously in no time. Then, when I fed him three hours later, I decided to do it skin-to-skin (him naked on my bare chest), and I used the same nipple and he did it again, and in record time. That alone was fantastic! But then, as I was holding him afterward, he kept showing signs of wanting to breastfeed: sucking on his fist, his fingers, rooting with his mouth wide open, smacking his lips, and putting his hand on my breast. But we'd been struggling to get him to eat his "prescribed" amount of milk as it was, so it seemed unlikely he would be hungry right after sucking down a whole bottle. Nevertheless, the signs were there. So I asked the nurse and she also thought it unlikely. I put my finger in his mouth, though, and he went to town, sucking on it like he was starving. So, I thought, well, why not give it a shot? He latched like he'd done it a million times and really started eating. This is when I started crying. The nurse peeked around the drape and I was so broken up I couldn't even tell her. Not that she needed telling. It was pretty obvious.

Luca has really turned a corner on the eating front. He's not yet ready to exclusively breastfeed, but he's well on his way. For now, we still need to be sure he's getting a certain amount of milk, and that is "fortified" so it's higher calorie. The fortifier is a powder that I mix into the pumped breast milk. I do feel good that I can feed him breast milk, though this whole experience has made me much more flexible in so many ways.

Not yet

*sigh* We have to stay longer, until Luca gets better at eating and gains a little more weight. Very disappointed even though I know its for the best. Hopefully, we'll be home by Thursday.

Daniel and Luca

It worked!

Thank you all so much for all the thoughts, wishes and prayers. Luca is most likely coming home tomorrow. As you can imagine, Daniel and I are very excited. I think we're going to cocoon for at least a day, maybe tomorrow and the next, before we have people over to meet him. I'm trying to fight my tendency to overdo it, but I may not hold out until Wednesday before coming out of the cocoon. We'll see.

So, here is what they think happened:

As you probably know, I had Gestational Diabetes during pregnancy that required me to take a blood sugar lowering medication. We were told that he would probably need an IV to bring up his blood sugar levels when he was born. In the womb, Luca's pancreas produced a lot of insulin to deal with my high blood sugar. Then, when he came out and was no longer getting my high blood sugar, all that extra insulin made his own blood sugar plummet. And plummet it did. At the super low level of blood sugar he had just after birth, he could have easily been having seizures and worse. Thank God he didn't.

The IV not working was unexpected. The doctors are thinking that he still had a lot of the medication I took running through his system. There was a lot of discussion about the half-life of the medicine. The treatment would be two-fold: be patient as the medication worked its way out of his system and get him eating protein (milk) so that his body had something longer lasting than glucose to digest. The big problems arose when he needed so much glucose to keep his bs normal AND he couldn't keep milk down. Needing more glucose than they were giving him meant the IV would have to go through a larger vein which would require the NICU.

The night we got that news was a long one. The nursery nurse that saw Luca (and a very emotional Ilona) through the night looked completely haggard the next morning. It was not looking good. But we asked everyone to send good thoughts, and by that next afternoon, he had held down food repeatedly. By that evening, he was clearly on the mend.

I am so grateful to everyone who has cared for him, physically, virtually, by taking care of us, or in any way at all. THANK YOU!

All he has left to do now is learn to suck. But that will come in time, and until then, we know how to feed him. I am so extremely excited to take him home and introduce him to everyone!

Watch out, world...Here I come...