33 weeks and growing fast

Yesterday, Miles met the first of the Blatts - my dad and step-mother. Like Miles' parents, both Dad and Elaine thought Miles was just beautiful. Unfortunately, it was just a site visit and Miles just snoozed while they oohed and aahed over his little hands and very Blatt nose! They will be back for his bris (circumcision) sometime closer to his official due date in February. Dad was very emphatic in making sure that that the procedure not be rushed..."he is so small! you dont want any mistakes down there!" Thanks, Dad!

As of today, Miles is now 33 weeks gestation. If I were still pregnant, I would have another 7 weeks before he was born. He'd be well over 4 pounds and 17 inches long. Outside the womb in the NICU, 33 weeks (and his stable condition) is the point where things seem to speed up very quickly. Up until this point, Miles has still been in an incubator and feed exclusively (save for recreational breast feeding) by a tube. He will need to move past both to be able to go home.

So now the fun begins....and all in one day. When I came in today, the nurse said he would probably be moved to an open crib by the end of the day. She had also removed his feeding tube so we could try breast feeding a bit more seriously. After he slept through it, she gave me his first bottle. Doesn't hurt to try. Poor guy didnt even open his little eyes for the occasion, opting for the ease of being fed and sleeping at the same time.

Later, the nurse said we might want to just focus on the open air crib today and save the bottle for another day. Miles had other ideas and somehow pulled his feeding tube out mid-feed letting my hard-pumped breast milk spill on the floor while he snoozed in my arms. To add to the disaster, he filled up his diaper - which the nurse so very kindly asked me to change while she fixed the tube and prepared more food for him. We can't afford to have our growing boy miss a single calorie!

So we end this day, pretty much back where we started. He is still in the incubator and the tube is back in his mouth. Tomorrow, we will try the bottle again and maybe in a day or so, the open crib. From what I hear from other NICU moms, when babies get going on feeding, it feels like a matter of days before the doctors want to send them home...and often before its really expected. Dave is betting the second week of January and my guess is by January 7th but nothing is assured....as some nurses like to say, expect him home around his due date. That would mean first week of February. Only time will tell.