More Pictures and a Visit with Great Nana

Nathan:

Justin: Evan:

No one ever gets tired of seeing baby pictures, right?

Today Nathan and I went to my parent's house where my Nana was visiting. Nathan got some great snuggle time with his 96 year old Great Nana, such a special treat! I posted a picture of course.

I got a picture of Nathan in the infamous "Cactus Kid" shirt. For those of you who dont know the story behind this shirt, this was my shirt when I was a baby, made for me by my Aunt Pat. The shirt says "Cactus Kid. My mom gave me the shirt when I had Justin, and I have a picture of each of the boys, Justin, Evan and now Nathan in the same shirt. Its held up pretty well over the years!

I got a picture of Nathan in his 1 month t-shirt with his dog. I plan to take a picture of Nathan with his doggy each month of his first year.

For Comparisons Sake - Justin and Nathan

Can I just remark at how YOUNG Garren and I look in this picture?! Ah, the years and children, how they have aged us:)

I dug up some old pictures of Justin from when he was 1 month old or so, just to compare with what Nathan looks like, because everyone says that they see a resemblance between the two boys...of course Justin has about 2lbs on what Nathan weighs at one month old, but, I think you can still see a resemblance.

First Bath!!!

Pictures from Nathan's first real bath. Up until this point we have only been giving him sponge baths to keep him from getting too chilled, but, with such great weight gains as of late, we figured he was ready for a real bath! He LOVED it. So cute.

1 Month Old

I took this pictures of Nathan in his 1 month t-shirt I made for him. Nathan is now 6 lbs!!!! He is getting down right HUGE :)

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas 2009, the best picture of the 100 we took in front of my parents' tree on Christmas Eve. At least Nathan looks good:)


Laura playing Santa, the boys waiting for their gifts.

Baby's first Christmas.

Christmas dinner.

Nathan.

Italian cookies dessert. Yum.

Silly Justin.

Justin won the most $$ from the scratch tickets this year!!!

Dad reading the boys the Night Before Christmas book - a Christmas Eve tradition from my childhood.

Christmas morning.

Hoping everyone had a wonderful Christmas this year. Our family wishes we could have spent it with more of our friends and family but understood the need to keep Nathan away from lots of germs and people this year. Hopefully we can spend time with family for Easter when Nathan is bigger and flu/cold season is on its way out.

We had a wonderful Christmas, despite not being able to spend it with all our loved ones. Christmas Eve we went to my parents' house and opened presents with my mom and dad and sister. The boys had lots of fun opening up all their new toys and we had a wonderful evening. Thank you mom, dad and Laura for all the generous gifts. Christmas Eve Santa came and Christmas morning the boys excitedly opened more presents from Santa and us and Rick, Lori and the boys, by way of Minnesotta. [Lori- Justin LOVES the building disks you bought! We have had hours of fun with them already! They are one of his favorite gifts!] We spent the whole day (most of it in our pjs) playing with all our new toys. It was a perfectly quiet family day at home.

Enjoy some of our pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

More Pictures

Happy Birthday and More Gains!

This weekend we went to my parent's house to celebrate my mom's birthday - Happy Birthday Mom! The older boys had a blast playing games on their Auntie Laura's iTouch - technology junkies. And of course there was lots of good food and cake and ice cream to enjoy.

This weekend we got a snowstorm. We didnt get hit as hard as other parts of New England. We only got about 2-3 inches of fluffy snow. The boys had fun playing in the fresh snow on Sunday afternoon.

Last night we weighed Nathan again! He weighed 5lbs 6oz! We cant believe how wonderfully he is gaining and growing. What a relief. We go to the doctor on Wednesday for an official weigh-in and checkup, Ill post more then!

3 weeks!

Nathan turned 3 weeks old on Wednesday! Last night (Thursday night) we weighed him and he is now 5lbs 2oz! We cannot begin to tell you how pleased we are by his weight gain, and what a relief it is to finally have him hit the 5lbs mark. Hopefully he will continue to pack on the pounds (or ounces in this case) and by the end of the winter we will have a chubby little boy! Already his little cheeks are starting to get some "chub" to them again and his fingers are looking less skinny and long and more baby-like.

Now that he has hit the 5lbs mark we can finally put him in his baby swing, bouncer seat, etc. Im working on getting everything washed and setup today for him. So exciting. Nathan has a new favorite place to nap currently. Its his contoured changing pad that we put on the floor to change him on. I dont know what it is about it but he seems to immediately doze to sleep in a very restful and deep sleep when I put him on it. So, its been traveling with him around the house while I work and play with the boys. Its quite silly, but, it works!

Someone asked me what was up with all the hats in the pictures, so I figured I would explain. In the hospital the nurses got us in the habit of keeping Nathan with a hat on to keep his body temperature up. Preemies work even harder than the average baby to maintain their temperature and even small fluctuations can waste calories. Since body heat is lost through babies heads, we keep the hat on him to maintain his body heat. Its actually really nice to be able to use all the cute hats that come with outfits and that my Nana crocheted for the other boys. Justin and Evan never fit in any newborn/baby hats because their heads were and still are impossibly huge. (If you think Im exaggerating - Justin shops in the MENS section for his winter hats and I fit in his baseball hats! And Evans head might be a just as big as Justin's now.) The blue hat in the picture above was crocheted by my Nana for Justin 6+ years ago. Its one of our favorites for Nathan.

Enjoy some new pictures of Nathan taken today - hot off the camera for you! Notice his eyes are still very blue!

Weigh In

We weighed Nathan on Sunday, 3 days after his last weigh in at the doctor's office. We have this antique baby scale that my mom let us borrow that is spot on with the doctor's scale that lets us do weigh ins at home. Im proud to announce Nathan was 4lbs 14 oz! Over his birth weight and getting closer to the 5lb mark. Even better, it would seem he is gaining at a rate of 1 oz per day instead of the previous 1/2 oz per day. Relief.

We decided to stop swaddling Nathan when he sleeps. He was fussing and working so hard to get his hands free, and once he would get them free he would stop fussing and relax. Hopefully it helps him have more restful peaceful sleeps between his 2-3 hour feedings!

I took these pictures of him sleeping yesterday. You can see from his side view how much hair this little boy has. I think if you click on the pictures it takes you to a new screen that enlarges them. His hair is actually down his neck in the back and without pushing it behind his ears, would cover the tops of them! The pictures dont do the color justice. Its a beautiful golden blond color, although in the pictures it looks red.

The Weekend

This weekend has been a busy but fun one. Nathan is eating really well, hopefully he is going through a growth spurt. We are supplementing one to two feedings with expressed breast milk per day to try to get some "easy" extra calories into him. Nathan is spending more time awake each day which is fun! The boys are getting used to a new routine with their brother.

Nathan went on his first outing this weekend, with the exception of his trips to the doctor for checkups. We went over to my parent's house for a delicious turkey dinner. Having had missed Thanksgiving the first time around, it was really nice to share a traditional family turkey dinner with my parents, sister, the kids and our new baby!

I brought Justin to a birthday party at a local indoor bounce place on Saturday, Garren stayed home with Evan and the baby. It was nice to get out a bit without the baby. I managed to time the feedings so that we were back and Nathan was fed in exactly two hours. Today both boys are invited to a birthday party at another bounce place, this one is a bit farther away, so Garren is taking the kids.

Enjoy some new pictures of our little munchkin!

Two Weeks

Nathan had his two week check up today. He is 4lbs, 11oz as of today. And while I was pretty happy that he is steadily gaining back weight, the doctor was not as pleased because the benchmark for babies is to be back at their birth weight by 2 weeks old. He is 2oz shy of this weight. He is what they characterize a "slow gainer" which is another way of saying "not thriving as well as other babies his size/gestational age". Its disappointing because we have been working so hard to get his weight up. I feed him constantly throughout the day and at night I set my alarm so he eats regardless of whether he would wake for food. The issue is still that Nathan gets too tired and expends so much energy nursing that he just falls asleep before he is completely full.

So, the doctor has me now pumping milk, chilling it in the fridge, and syringing off the fat layer from the top of the milk to feed him in a medicine dropper 2-3 times a day. The idea is that the fat is the best part of the milk, which he needs, and the medicine dropper allows him to eat without having to suck, which expends calories and makes him too tired. Its alot of work, but, will be worth it if I see a payoff in the coming week and a half at his next weigh-in.

Other than the weight he is doing well, per the doctor checkup. He hasn't grown any in length, but, he did grow 0.6" in head circumference. He cant be a part of this family without a big head:)

He is such a cute little boy. We love him to pieces. He has a wonderful little personality on him. He already knows and loves his big brother's voices and will sit wide eyes listening to their noise as they play. Its hard to picture him running around with them, but, we know its just a matter of time to getting him on the right weight gaining track and growing.

Here are a couple new pictures. Check out Garren's hand size compared to Nathan's body size. It never stops amazing me how small he is.

Christmas Card Outtakes

Wild boys:
Gross boys:

"Stand in front of the tree" apparently isnt descriptive enough of a request:

Strangle your brother while smiling:

Frightening smile:

Trying too hard:

So, last week we sat the boys down to get some decent pictures for the Christmas card. In retrospect, the whole adventure was amusing, here are some hilarious outtakes I wanted to share. You have to wait for the final product in your mailbox coming soon!