2 Months Old!

Today, December 5, 2011, Mr. Finn Weaver is officially 2 months old!  WOW!  So hard to believe!  He is weighing in at 4 pounds 6 ounces, and had begun to bottle feed.  Never in a million years did I think I would  have 4 children, let alone a micro-preemie with a very long NICU stay, but, here we are!  And, as you can tell from the picture, it was time to COWBOY UP this weekend and yell ORANGE POWER as loud as we could, and Finn was in on the action as well.  So, not only do I have 4 children, my Oklahoma State University Cowboys are Big 12 Football CHAMPIONS!  What an amazing weekend!  Along with all of that, Britt and I are celebrating the 6^th anniversary of our engagement!  Best 6 years of my life.  SO GLAD God led him to me, and that I said “YES!”

Since Finn is off CPAP, he is MUCH easier to “get to,” and we can hold him much easier now.  That means, other family members can get in on the action, too!  Unfortunately, my mom is struggling through a cold, and the Big Girls were off on adventures with their Other Dad, so that left Big Brother.  And boy, was he excited!  And so good at it! And just completely precious.  Jake sang songs to Finn, talked to him, and just LOVED on him.  It was adorable!  He got to hold Finn twice on Saturday and once on Sunday, and he was (almost) as excited as Christmas morning!  I think he is going to be an EXCELLENT big brother – even though he refuses to change diapers!  ;)

When the doctor had called on Friday, she had told us that the next time we were there, we would probably be able to attempt a bottle feeding.  Unfortunately on Saturday, Finn was still tachypneic (breathing too fast), so they decided to let him have another day of getting used to breathing on his own before we tried.  While we were there for the first night shift hands on, we told our nurse that if he was showing signed of readiness, they were more than welcome to try him with a bottle!  We had been told earlier in the week they would not do the first bottle without me there, and I wanted them to know I didn’t want to be the reason he was not home by Christmas!  With me so far away, and the weather getting iffy, to go ahead!  So, Finn had his first bottle at 2 am on Sunday morning!  She said he drank some of it, but then got sleepy so she finished it through his tube.  We got there Sunday afternoon in time to try again at the 2pm feeding.  He was a bit slow, but he finished the required feeding amount in just over 30 minutes.  They only want them to try for 30 minutes, but he had just a bit left, so we got to finish.  Then, I got to try again at the 5:00 feeding.  HOLY COW!  He sucked the entire bottle dry in 20 minutes!  The nurse came back in to check on us, and she was SHOCKED!  So was I!  She said there were 5 extra cc’s in the bottle, too!  WOW!  GREAT job, Finn!

We learned that overnight they attempted one more bottle, but he was pretty tired, so they were going to finish out the night with gavage feeds to let him rest.  He HAD to be tired!  He worked so hard for Mommy yesterday!  He got his hearing checked on Saturday, and one ear failed, but that is pretty typical at this point and he will get checked again before we go home.  The eye doctor was also in on Sunday, and he is showing signs of mild ROP, but they will also keep monitoring that.  And, since he is 2 months old today, they will start with his immunizations!  He gets 3 shots over the next 3 days – with Tylenol and lots of love.  Poor little guy!  But, he’s shown himself to be quite a trooper, and I know he will do fine.  So, we need him to continue to do well with bottle feeding and get more consistent, and we are also starting to wean the percentage of oxygen that he gets through the nasal cannula.  Those are the things we need to have happened to get him home for Christmas!  Keep up the good work, Finn!