Donny The Entertainer

A week from tomorrow, Donny will be turning 3 years old. It's hard to believe how much he has grown in the past three years. He is full of energy and continues to find ways to entertain himself as well as others around him.

Here are some videos and photos of Donny having fun and being silly during his last couple of weeks as a two-year old.

Videos

Donny surprised us by being able to play a couple of notes on his dad's trombone.

Donny found a funny way to play with his Slinky.

Donny loves to sing and dance, especially to Yo Gabba Gabba!

Photos

It's a Donny-in-the-Box!

Nice and comfy.

Nap time in my box.

Oh No!!!

Watching TV with Mom-Mom.

NOTE: There was no snow in the front yard across the street.

That Was Easy!

Peace Out!

Roar!!!

Donny the Dinosaur

Not sure how he fit in this basket.

I need to practice blowing out candles for my birthday!

Where else would you put Smiley Face stickers?

Granddaddy showed me how to use power tools!

Let's Build!

2 weeks old

as with most things, time flies! Alex is 2 weeks old today. he is still working on figuring out how to eat but is eating more and more. he is getting approximately 2 ounces per feed (every 3 hrs) and is eating about 1/2 of this per feed on his own currently but he needs to needs to be able of course to eat it all on his own before he can come home. speaking of home, there is still no word on when he will get to come home other than when he eats all of his food. they say all babies figure this out in their own time, we are just anxious for this to happen sooner rather than later as you might imagine!

Alex is back to his birthweight, and just in time (it is standard for babies to get back to their birthweight by 2 weeks of age!). he has already gotten his first hepatitis B vaccine, and a special vaccine called Synagis to help protect him from respiratory synsitial virus (RSV). he will need this again in february and in march of this year. his umbilical cord stump fell off the other day too. everything happens so fast at this age! we have been enjoying his little coos and involuntary smiles . we will try to post pictures if we can catch a good one for you!

overall he continues to do well. please continue to keep him in your prayers. every day in the nicu we are reminded of just how lucky we actually are - he has no breathing issues, no trouble keeping his temperature where it needs to be, no trouble with his heart beat dropping or periods of holding his breath. there are babies right across from him born just 1 day of gestation before him (they were born at 33wks 2 days and alex at 33wks 3 days) who have to be in the isolette to help keep their temperature up, on oxygen and getting special bili lights to help them process their bilirubin - we never needed any of these things! those babies will stop breathing sometimes and drop their heartrate. i can't imagine how scary that is for their parents. thank goodness God told Alex to get ready early so we didnt have to do all of that. feeding is such a minor issue when everything is put into perspective.

waiting one day at a time...
steph

Photos

Alex update and thoughts for the day

Alex overall is doing very well - he was up to 5lb 9 oz today which is great considering they are giving him just straight breastmilk without fortification. He is also eating better and better though he's still not where he needs to be to go home unfortunately. He is getting 51ccs (mls) every 3 hours and he has started waking up for feeding times to let them know he is hungry. He has pretty much been taking at least 20ccs of that by bottle before getting the rest through his feeding tube. Today he was even allowed to be breastfed which he did pretty well. Overall it is hard to complain much because this is really seeming to be his only issue. It is particularly hard to complain after 2 new babies came into his "pod" at the NICU that were the same gestation as him (33wks). Both of those babies are in isolettes, on oxygen or CPAP, needing IVs and other meds and getting all of their feeds through their tube. Alex must have known he was coming early andgot ready. We are so lucky and blessed we didn't have to do really any of that (only the IV for a few days and the eating issues).

All of the above being said though, I still miss my boy. I want him home. I want his brother to get to meet him. While it has been nice to be able to work on getting the house really clean (though we still have a way to go - we really let the house slide during November and December with teaching service/call and Christmas) and spend time with mom it just isn't the same. (BTW, thanks for all your help mom and putting up with my tired, cranky, sad self!) It is hard only pumping all of the time, trying to plan your day to spend time at the hospital (particularly when you are sick like I currently am which means a mask at every visit) and feeling guilty every time you leave and still plan time to hang out with Donny (he isn't allowed in the NICU - RSV season) ... etc, etc. It is also hard thinking about all of the things I missed because of going into early labor - I never packed a hospital bag for either of us, I never really got to get the nursery together/planned completely. I never got to have a baby shower (even just a get together with friends to celebrate) - although one was planned preliminarily (thanks Laura and Susan!) I never got to put my baby straight to the breast and do breastfeeding from the beginning (I so wanted a baby who would really breastfeed... Donny never really got it last time). On top of that I've had to reschedule tons of things - job interviews that were in progress, rotations, etc. And I will be extending my residency even further (unpaid...). And there is even more. I never got to do an in store baby registry like I had planned on doing the very day I delivered. And to top it off, some skumbag hacked the little "registry" I had made on whattogive.com. So the few things I was excited about possibly getting was just a joke. I know it is silly to be so materialistic however when facing a likely large hospital/NICU bill, it would have been nice. In some ways an early delivery is like a loss because of so many things you miss out on. Probably even some things I haven't thought of as of yet.

The whole time the above is going through your head you are wondering what maybe you could have done differently to prevent the early delivery and the NICU stay... was it not eating/drinking enough, was it a medicine change, was it being too stressed at work? I'll never know but I'll always wonder. And it certainly makes you think even harder about the possibility of more kids in the future. We hadn't completely decided if we wanted 2 or 3 but knowing a preterm delivery and NICU stay are possible if there is a 3rd baby at some point since we don't know why this happened makes for some pretty good birth control...

Again, we are blessed and I'm sorry to vent my frustrations and sadness at the situation. Overall Alex is great and I'm so glad he is here and that he is getting such excellent care.

Thanks to all who are sending out prayers - they are working.
Love, Steph

Alex - 1 Week Old

Alex turned 1 week old on Thursday, January 13th. Alex is still in the hospital, but he is doing very well considering that he was born at 33 weeks. Alex is weighing in around 5 pounds, 5 ounces now, which is 6 ounces less than his birth weight. He has been gradually eating more milk at each feeding, and he is working on getting the eating thing down where he no longer needs a feeding tube. Once he gets this eating thing down, he should be ready to go home soon.

Here are some pictures and videos that were taken during the past few days where Alex is 1 week old. Enjoy!

Videos

Pictures

a few Alex pics. (more will follow in the days to come)

Introducing Alexander "Alex" James Alm
Born 1/6/2011 at 3:08pm at 33wks and 3 days gestation
5lb 11oz, 19 inches long

Videos

Pictures

Alexander "Alex" James Alm is here!

Much to our surprise Alex decided he wanted to be born a little BEFORE Donny's 3rd birthday and we were graced with his presence just 33wks 3 days into the pregnancy with a new little fella - Alex!

So far things are going as well as can be expected - a little overwhelmed with everything happening so fast and Alex (as expected for being early) is in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) but for the most part is doing well. He has so far not needed any oxygen and his biggest issue is figuring out this feeding thing... (most babies aren't coordinated to suck, swallow and breathe until 34 wks of gestation - yet Alex is already doing some of this!)

Keep us all in your prayers as it will be hard having to go home and leave our little man here at the hospital - it's hard being a NICU parent - and keep saying prayers that Alex will get this feeding thing together and get to go home a little earlier than predicted (currently they think he'll be here a few weeks). He thankfully must have known something was up because he was a little bigger and longer than any of us could have predicted for his gestational age - he was 5lb 11oz and 19 inches long. There is already talk that we have a little basketball player on our hands!

We will work on getting pictures posted to the blog but in the mean time check out Don's facebook page and he has posted some including a very short video just after Alex was born and a picture of Donny's only glance so far at his little brother (Donny isn't allowed in the NICU due to his age).

Love,
Steph