Wednesday, May 30th: Mommy's Bday and Memorial Day Weekend

Some pictures from the Nurses' disposable camera...not the best quality, but sure cute!:

            

Finn and two of his and our favorite nurses!
They had a bit of a photo shoot with our little man! :)

Christine:

He's just so handsome! .... :p

Since last week, Finnegan has gained a lot of weight and is overall doing really well. This weekend he hit the 30 week gestation mark, which means one more week until we can start nippling and beginning the process of breastfeeding/bottle feeding. This is what I am SUPER excited about. I'm still in disbelief that he is already 5 weeks old and is just being a little trooper. He changes a little bit every day and it just blows my mind how much he's growing.

Just chillin'...

Friday (my birthday) was pretty lowkey, but very wonderful. I woke up with my puppies, spent time with my Finnegan, got to nap, and also spend time with my in-laws and husband! I'm not sure if I enjoy being told I'm not a quarter of a century old, but it was my golden birthday! :) We had a good dinner and came home for some DQ Ice Cream Bday Cake! :) Not too shabby if you as me! Not only was there good food and DQ, but amazing company. Ian and I even had the chance to unwind and sleep in the same bed together. I don't think that's happened in a while! Ian and I try to take turns staying the night at the hospital. We're both getting used to sleeping there, but it isn't the most relaxing night's sleep you can get, so we like to switch it up. Now that Ian is working his reduced schedule AT work, he usually visits Finnegan in the evenings. I try to be at the hospital during the day so I can be there for rounds which happen anywhere from 10:30am-2:00pm.

Aunt Meghan tickling Finnegan! I love this picture! ;)

On Saturday, Ian stayed home to do some deep cleaning, and I went to the hospital to be with my little dude. This was an exciting day, because I got to dress Finnegan for the first time! :) They wait to dress preemies because of their inability to regulate their own body temperatures. It took us a couple tries to figure out what combo of clothing and blankets and bed temp worked for him, but I think he's doing really well, and we might even be lowering his bed temp even more because he's doing so well with keeping his temperature regulated. Let me explain a bit...When Finnegan had those little gold heart sensors on his belly, those would tell the bed what temperature Finn was. Then, the bed would modify the temperature in the bed. Now that he doesn't have those sensors on, his bed stays at a pretty constant temp. We're trying to get him ready for when he'll be in an open bed! :) Dressing him was SO much fun, but it was also a bit surreal considering he doesn't even fit into preemie clothes that well.

To start, they usually dress the babies in a onesie, sleeper, and then swaddle them. When we did that the first time, Finnegan's temp went up way too high, so we took off the onesie and he did a lot better. Apparently the nurses said boys tend to get hotter and not like the onesies. The onesie wasn't too big... diapered butts make them fit better! :) He didn't seem to mind while I was dressing him. He was wide awake and trying to help by wiggling his feet and arms everywhich way. I have to admit, I was a bit concerned that he wouldn't like to be clothed and swaddled because he is so active, but he surprised me once again! This also means that we can take him out of his bed and hold him and cradle him. Holding him like that for the first time was amazing. His daddy enjoyed it the next day as well! :)

The end result... TADA! -- Baby Burrito!!! :)

I spent the night on Saturday and went to a local church in Peoria the next morning. Ian came to see Finn while I went home to get ready. Sunday was a family party to celebrate my and my mother's birthdays. I was so nervous because this would be my first trip back home since before Finnegan was born. I was anxious about being that far from him, but he was doing so well, that he made it a bit easier for mommy to be away! Plus, Ian got to hold him before I left, which was absolutely beautiful! He is such a proud and happy daddy!

I'm not sure how he does this, but when we swaddle him, he still manages to get his hands up around his face. He's sneaky!

Finnegan liked daddy holding him, too! :)

The party back at my parent's house was refreshing. I wasn't as much of a wreck as I thought I would be. I think being with family who understands and has all been to see Finnegan really helps. They are all so supportive. It's truly a blessing. We had a lot of fun and ate good food! :) By the time everyone left, Ian and I decided to stay at my parent's house for the night. We were too exhausted to drive all the way back to Bloomington. When I called to check in on Finnegan, his nurse informed me that he had his first diaper blow out. He's such a boy...

We came back home Monday afternoon. We cleaned up a bit and made dinner before I headed down to spend the night at the hospital. This is the precious boy I woke up to on Tuesday morning:

On Tuesday, they decided that since Finnegan's bradys were going down in count and he was correcting most of them right away, they would lower his oxygen level from 3 liters to 2 liters. I was pretty excited about this because he needs to be on at least 2 liters of oxygen or lower for him to start nippling. He's still likes his pacifier, but I think he enjoys chewing on his feeding tube a bit more. As you can tell, the pacifier doesn't end up exactly where it needs to be... and his fingers end up in the weirdest places!

Tuesday was also bathing day! Finnegan got a little "sponge bath" and we soaked him up with some lotion to help get rid of some of his scaley dry skin. His hair got so fuzzy after he got cleaned! I'm trying to figure out if his hair will get curly like his dad's or not. Only time will tell!

I'm daddy's little champ with fuzzy hair! :)

Since he also has no more IVs, that means he can wear hats again, too! :) He wasn't too sure of this blue and white hat. He kept staring at it like it was going to attack him. Once he got used to it, though... he really got cozy. He really loves being snuggled. He's full of smiles and has recently started trying to focus his eyes, so baby goes cross-eyed quite frequently. It's so cute!!! Next week he will have his eye exam. It seems kind of intense, but it will let us know if he has any issues with his retina... something common in preemies. We know he can see ... we're just not sure what it is that he sees!

With Finnegan being in clothes and swaddled now, that means that he can be held outside of his bed. As you can imagine, both grandmas were excited. Today, Grandma Bruckner came to get her Finn time in. She held him for over an hour. We knew Finnegan loved it too! :)

Otherwise, Finnegan keeps growing and mommy keeps trying to find a job! As of today he is 1200grams or 2 pounds and 10.3 ounces! He's getting 20ml of fortified 27 calorie breastmilk every 3 hours. He's also getting supplements of potassium and sodium just to keep his levels on the right track. He's making good diapers and overall being a champ! He's almost a pound more than when he was born! And as of today I have applied to 22 jobs and been rejected from about 10 of them without even so much as an interview. I just keep praying for something to come along, but maybe that right just hasn't become available yet. God has a plan, I just have to keep trying until that plan comes into fruition!

Just a little Finn smile to make you smile! :)