Maybe some photographs or something?

Not much news at the moment, but here are some photos because I took some, and you know ... it's the internet.

Blogging!

Hey! It's me! Sorry it's been a while since the last post, we've been preparing the house for the eventual homecoming of our little guy: rearranging furniture, getting rid of stuff we don't need, and figuring out what we need to buy. Right now, if he were to come home he could sleep in the laundry basket. That wouldn't be bad though, come to think of it. Fortunately though, we're calculating that he still won't be home for around a month. But really we have no idea, that's just a guess.

Also we've been taking advantage of our amazing babysitters at the NICU and going to holiday parties and stuff. We figure that after Cole comes home we'll be a bit more limited in our mobility, so let's get out there and goof around while we still can!

Anyway. I'm sure you're not very interested in all of that. What you want to know is that Cole is now over 6 pounds! He's got a whole collection of chins! His fingers are chubby and strong! He has now consumed multiple bottles of formula all by himself on different days! They have experimented with taking him off the cannula and he has lasted about 2 hours breathing on his own! That's all the good news!

They have scheduled his surgery at Children's Hospital for a date which I don't currently remember. This surgery is to fix the multiple hernias in his groin area. Preemie hernias are pretty common, and this surgery is also pretty common and hopefully won't cause him too much strife.

A little more serious is that they have found "Retinopathy of Prematurity" (ROP) in both of his eyes. This is a condition where the blood vessels forming around the surface of his eyeballs kinda get stuck and end up malformed and can potentially damage his poor little eyes if it gets worse. Fortunately he's only at Stage 1 which can magically rectify itself. If it doesn't they can treat him with lasers. More information can be found here. Seems like the odds are pretty good that he'll be fine. Of course it's scary when his physical parts don't develop perfectly, so we're scared. Hopefully he'll get through this just like he has gotten past his other trials. He is a fighter. Plus, his cute little blue eyes look great to me! That's gotta count for something.

Blah blah blah! Enough words! Here's some pictures.

His fingers are getting big enough to cover so much of Kate's finger!


I have a baby.


Look at those chins! Fatty.


Hello snoozeball!


I like this one 'cause his eye looks nice.


AAAAHHH!


Remember a hundred years ago when we took that picture of my wedding ring going around his entire hand? Well we did a little experiment to see if there would be a difference. I would say the juxtaposition indicates growth.


Last Saturday was my birthday, and when I went in to hang out with Cole, I found that Liz, a super sweet nurse whom we love, had made me a birthday card with a photo of Cole wearing a crazy awesome birthday hat that she had made. She and some other nurses had wrangled him into wearing the hat and "holding" a bottle so they could take a picture for the card. How cute is that?!


That's all I got for now!

Smilestone

I just love this picture. Hi mom!



Anyway, last night was kind of a big deal. Now that he's in his 34th week of gestation (minus 9 weeks of actual gestation but you know what I mean) he is allowed to begin the process of learning how to drink out of a bottle. Last night was his first lesson, and I think he's been cheating because he already knew everything.

He managed to sork down an entire 50ccs of dinner. Actually a couple ccs dribbled down his chin and some also went into his lungs; he choked twice, but recovered fantastically. I also choke when I drink so I'm going to a) blame myself for his genetics, and b) not give him any demerits for a little sputtering.

What was really amazing to me though was his patience and ability to control himself. Let me explaing why: when he snurbles on a pacifier he does so with gusto and at about 90 miles an hour. After about 3 seconds he falls asleep, exhausted. With the bottle, he sucked slowly and measuredly, and then when he was tired he would just sit there with the bottle in his mouth and hang out until he had regained his strength. He would breathe through his nose and look around, and start again when he was good and ready. Very cool!

Because we can't help it, here are some pictures documenting the event:

Ready?


Lurk lurk


Look at him go!!


Remember when that bottle was almost full? Damn.


Empty bottle. Nice work, kiddo!


One exhausted little baby head on a towel. Plus full oobelly.

Peanuts and hiccups

No real news at the moment, but here are some photos for fun. One of the things that really amuses me about Cole's little face is the range of emotions he'll go through within a 4 second span. Elation, abject misery, mild amusement, discomfort, then who knows what. It's pretty awesome.






And finally, I was actually able to get some video of Cole with the hiccups. Hic!

5 Spot

Cole has topped the 5 pound mark.  That's pretty much all we've got to report at the moment.  Though the reports aren't super juicy, we're glad for the quiet and uneventful after the dramatic start.

So to fill space until we post more pictures (we know that's what you like best, and who can blame you?  The kid's adorable), we thought we'd answer some of your queries:

1.  Is he officially a feeder and a grower?

Based on his lardy proportions, I'd say he's excelling in both categories.  The vigilant staff at the NICU hasn't downgraded Cole to the ignore him and toss in  the occasional drumstick room just yet, but feeding and growing are tops on his to do list.

2.  If all keeps going as is, when do you get to take him home?

Here's where the higher math comes in.  Cole was almost 4 months early, so even though he's been out and about for two, technically he's got two more months to go before he's even born (crazy, right?).  

So he's still got some important systems that are under construction, y'know like breathing.  If he was developing more traditionally, he'd still be floating around in primordial ooze, and his little lungs would be chillin' in their chaise lounges for several more weeks.  His early arrival required a crash course in the whole inhale/exhale thing.  Thanks to luck, determination, and a whole lot of new fangled medical technology he's making good progress in this department, but he still has a lot to learn.  Important stuff like after a big meal, when you're snoozing really deeply, you still gotta BREATHE.  Otherwise alarms start going off, and nurses start rushing in and you get some demerits that postpone graduation.  

He also has to learn to take food by mouth (he currently eats via a feeding tube). Next week he'll graduate, so he'll be working on the whole suck/swallow/breathe dance sequence which will probably blow his little mind.  These are very advanced classes for someone so small, even a junior genius like Cole.  He can't break outta the clink until he eats every morsel sans tube.  We'll see how it goes, and of course keep you posted.

They say to use your due date as a guide for departure, ours is January 25th (yeah, seriously).  He could go earlier, or later, but that's the best guess.  It all depends on his progress.  The nurses have promised to give us a heads up because, being a smidge preoccupied, we haven't done a single thing to prepare.  They even gave us a handy list of stuff to get so he doesn't end up sleeping in a dresser drawer, wrapped in a bandana with nothing but dog toys to play with. I don't think anyone is entirely convinced that Adam and I can be trusted with this epic responsibility without some serious supervision (us included!). Sadly, the awesome nursing staff will not be moving in with us, we have no idea what we'll do without them.

For the record, his first car ride home won't be in the Mini.  Even though it'd be the appropriate vehicle for the trip (we love a theme), we can't just strap him to the roll bar for craps sake.  He would look pretty adorable in a teeny green helmet though, Kid 47.

3.  Is Kate on leave from work?

Luckily, my wonderful employers (shout out to Catapult Thinking!) were very understanding about this surprising turn of events.  They've been incredibly accommodating, allowing me to return to work part time while everything shakes out.  We are very grateful for their personal and professional support.

4.  Is there anything you need?

We're just making our way through this crazy adventure.  In the early days we were just living minute to minute, desperately hoping for the best.  The terror level was at defcon 1, and we couldn't even form a sentence to provide anyone with a to do list.  Our sincere apologies for all the unreturned calls and unwritten thank you notes (yeah, we're a bit behind on our wedding ones too, on account of one little distraction.  Thanks for your patience, folks and your gifts of course). 

 We really do appreciate your care and concern and we felt it all around us.  The love, well wishes, prayers, good vibes, and virtual hugs really helped us, and Cole too.  The food on our doorstep, shipments of magazines and candy, housekeeping help, greeting cards, emails, voicemails and baby gifts have been wonderful and appreciated.  Just because you haven't fulfilled a specific assignment, doesn't mean you haven't done anything for us.  Knowing that we have troops standing by if needed has given us a tremendous boost.  We feel you all out there, following along online, buzzing around the grapevine, talking about us behind our backs and cheering each eensy preemie step forward.  We are truly thankful for your support.  As we emerge from this cocoon, we look forward to reconnecting with all of you, and boring you to tears with baby talk about our extraordinary son.

Our address for those who asked is Kate + Adam + Cole Hilliker, 2 Westacott Court, Cambridge, MA 02139

Cole has been sitting quietly on my lap as I typed this, so I'm going to sign off before he barfs on the keyboard.

Baby's Got Back

Cole has porked up to a whopping 4 pounds 13 ounces.  He's so beefy that he's been put on his very first diet.  Weight watching docs have lopped 2 whole calories off his mealtime milkshakes.  Apparently, they don't find his double chin as adorable as we do.  Potbellied piglet.

Dot dot dot ...

Here's two more outfits you may or may not have seen. This fashion show stuff is really fun.




That's right. He can be cute and silly with a sammich on his belly, or super bad ass in car47-colored camo. Okay, maybe not super bad ass, but he's definitely way cooler than I am. But that's not saying much.

Remember when I said something about the simplicity of holding him? I still can't get over it. Just pick him up and hold him.



Something about his increased accessibility makes him feel like a cuddly little person whom I could actually handle caring for. Before, when he was hermetically sealed in the incubator, he seemed like something to observe. But now he's interactive, and you can hold him in one arm, and then switch to another arm, and smooch him on the head. It totally changes everything, and totally kicks ass.



Yeah, I'm totally fixated on his chubby little fingers and the things they do.

Kate wants to know if anybody has any questions we can answer. If so, please leave 'em in the comments and we'll do our best to answer.

Side note: one of these days I'm going to try to get video of Preemie Hiccups and make you all giggle like we do.

Our little 4 pound slice of pumpkin pie.

I hadn't really noticed, but apparently Cole was pretty dirty. I guess that happens when you've never taken a bath in your entire life! Last night that was rectified and we all went to the pool and splashed around for a little while. It was so fun! Cole seemed annoyed at first, but then he relaxed and kinda got into it. Especially the hair washing / head massaging part; which we have now proven is totally awesome no matter what age you are. Cole is around negative 7 weeks.

Don't worry, we didn't throw him in the deep end to see if he could swim.





Here he is lounging on the patio beforehand:



Who is more chilled out than Cole? I don't know. Here he is clean and dry and snoozing like a sweet little gingerbread man.




Cole has a bunch of outfits. Now that he's allowed to wear clothes, we have caught him trying them on from time to time.





And finally, our last bit of news is pretty awesome and very important in the scope of Cole's social and physical development. Stacey, one of our awesome Nurses, helped him make his very first hand-turkey-drawing!! See it there on the sign Cole made us on thanksgiving? That is so advanced! Plus cute. Amazingly, Cole's handwriting is just like my brother Dan's! I didn't know that was genetic.



I shall now end this post with a shot of Cole making a ridiculous face.

Double double

Tonight we asked how much Cole weighed, and they said 1770 grams. You know what that is?

Cole has totally doubled his own body weight! Yay! Seems like a big step.

Steins everywhere!

Turkey is delicious. Even more delicious is time with the Stein family, and that is something for which we are truly thankful. We had a great visit with Kate's family, overcoming the 2 visitor limit revolving folks in and out of the NICU till they had their fill. I'm not convinced everybody actually had their fill, but you can't just spend all day staring at a baby. Seriously. It's tempting though, right?

Cole thought it was awesome to see his extended family. He told us using smile-O-grams.



After all the action though, he was pretty pooped.

Nice face!

This is pretty cool! The trend of fattening up and getting stronger continues, and they have taken him off the CPAP and put him on a canula. What's a canula? I don't know -- basically like a smaller CPAP I guess, but here's a close up:



We can't help but feel proud and excited at his progress. We know, this is a crazy ass roller-coaster ride and we shouldn't get our hopes up. I guess we're not getting our hopes up, we're more just thrilled and excited at his current state. *KNOCK WOOD*. It's possible (and very common) for babies to go back to the CPAP. It wouldn't be a step back -- they're just checking to see if he can hang with the canula. After two days, so far so good.

I've been feeling pretty sick for the past couple days (thank you 7 hours on an airplane) so I haven't been able to hold Cole yet, so I can't describe it from my own personal experience. Kate says that it is amazing to feel him in her arms without the bubbling mass of CPAP tubes buffering his head from her body. Also, now that he is in the crib, the process has changed from "kinda stressful crazy nurse assisted transport" to something much more simple, and much more real. She just picked him right up and held him. How cool is that?! I can't wait to do that.

Remember his crazy nasty hippopotamus leg extravaganza? Things are going well on that front too; now his ankle just has a big ol' scab on it, under which there should be some happy new skin forming. His leg is still wrapped in a big protective gauze sock.

Kate's mom sent some preemie clothes our way, and we were totally amused by the sizing labels:



Micro is funny, but TINY?! Come on! That is awesome!