One Month

look at that smile!

stretch!

not a fan of the naked photo shoot idea....

but he's so cute naked, i couldnt help it

Santa baby

This is newborn size and huge on him. It was the first baby thing I bought after we found out we were pregnant with a December baby. It was on clearance. It was suppose to be the outfit he came home from the hospital in. I never thought he'd be born so early or be so small though.

Libby needed in on the photo shoot. One of the only pictures of her smiling for the camera on purpose.

I really don't believe it was a whole month ago that Elliot was born. I guess its because those 2 1/2 weeks at the NICU made it seem like he wawsn't really ours. He is so cute! Lots of pictures today. Some interesting things I have learned about him (and preemie babies in general): He is a very noisy sleeper. I am starting to sleep through it a little bit, but it really is ridiculous (and a little obnoxious at times-like when I am trying to sleep) how much noise he makes. When he is crying, the usual walking around, patting, bouncing thing you do with most babies, does not work. The best thing to do when he crying is just sit down and snuggle and try not to disturb him. He loves to be held. I guess he decided that he was tired of being in a bed with only a little holding for 2 1/2 weeks. It's fun but sometimes makes it hard to get things done. I still can't believe how little he is. The preemie clothes still fit, mostly. Some are getting a bit tight on him, but everytime I try to put newborn clothes on him, he drowns in them. It's weird to think I would still be pregnant if he came when he was supposed to. I'm glad I'm not pregnant, it's not very fun and having Elliot is lots of fun. Okay, picture time!

"Here mom, I'll mess up the bed you just made for the photo shoot." Little stinker. She's so cute though.

Sweet Libby moments

I sure love my Libby, especially after moments like these:

A few days ago we got an awesome wooden nativity set from Annaliese. It's perfect for Libby to play with, so we set it up in her room. While we were playing with it, I decided I should talk to Libby about the story of Jesus's birth. I told her that Jesus had to sleep on the hay b/c he didn't have a crib. She picked up baby Jesus and put him through the slots of the crib. I asked her if Jesus could have her crib and she excitedly said "yeah!" It was adorable.

Elliot started crying while on the floor a couple days ago and Libby went over to him and started singing twinkle twinkle little star. He really likes it when she comes and talks to him and started to calm down. Such a good sister.

Libby really wants to play with Elliot already. I think they are going to be good pals (or Libby might boss him around a bunch). She already tries to play with him. Her favorite game to play with him (and only him so far) involves her getting a measuring spoon and then pretending to scoop soup off the floor or a bowl and feed it to Elliot. Luckily he doesn't seem to care that she is shoving a spoon in his face over and over yelling "soup! eat soup!" Most the time he's actually asleep when she does it. I'm so glad that she likes Elliot, we were a bit worried about that.


p.s. sorry about the lack of pictures. Our camera button is refusing to work. We bought a new one as an early Christmas present to each other. unfortunately, now I'm not sure where the old one is so I can transfer the SD card into the new one...working on cleaning the house, one continuous mess at a time.

first family photos

Libby meeting Elliot for the first time

Isn't he just precious

His hat says "little buckaroo" and has cute cowboy things on it, including boots :)

Richard and Elliot

Libby giving Elliot a big kiss, the first of many

Our whole Family together at last!

Me and Elliot

Elliot came home Tuesday Nov 22 weighing 4 lbs 10 oz and measuring 18.75 inches long! He is quite the eater too. He'll down a bottle in a few minutes. He is mostly breastfed, but we are supposed to give him 2 bottles of this special preemie formula that has extra calories and nutrients. Having him home is wonderful. I could just watch him all day. Liberty loves him and wants to watch him and check on him too, which is cute, but frustrating b/c she is a bit on the loud side. She is a good helper and will fetch diapers for me and throw the dirty ones away. She has even tried to help wipe his bum and put diaper rash cream on him.... Adjusting to having 2 kids will definitely take time though. The first night I didn't get to sleep till about 5 am and Richard was only asleep half hour earlier than me. Liberty wouldn't go to bed till about 10 pm and the last part I think was screaming, then she was awake from 3 till about 4:30 and screamed herself to sleep in the crib (I'm sure our neighbors just love us). Elliot was pretty fussy and wanting to be held and then needed to eat and get changed and all the wonderful stuff newborns do. Luckily last night went much better. We are making Libby sleep in the crib now till we get a reasonable bedtime routine re-established (She kind of went haywire after my hospitalization and we have to rock her till she is completely asleep, which can take hours and is exhausting for us). wow, this ended up being very long. Hope everyone had a fun Thanksgiving. I have so many things I am thankful for this year, but that will take a long time to write and Elliot needs to eat.

Happy Birthday Richard

Happy Birthday to Richard! We got good news today. Elliot should be able to come home this week. The Dr said he should be home by Thanksgiving! He is in an open crib now instead of his little incubator and he's been maintaining his temperature just fine. He also weighs 4 lbs 7 oz now! He sure is growing just fine. Yesterday he ate 80% of his food from a bottle or breastfeeding (the rest through the feeding tube). The Dr said today to try not letting him get anything out of the tube and to just let him eat regular and see how he does today and if he does well, the feeding tube will be taken out tomorrow! He's been awake a little bit more for us and that is really fun to see. He is super cute. I feel bad that I don't have any new pictures to show you. I'm so excited for him to come home.

Liberty is getting smarter and smarter. My mom got her some little work books for preschoolers and lets her make all these sticker pictures. She will also repeat almost anything and remembers the words later. Her vocabulary is gigantic. Probably one of the funniest words she will say is "weird". She is starting to use words like "and" and "is". Today she said "Ernie, Oscar and Elmo" while she was pointing to them on her diaper. The most common sentence she says and we aren't sure why is "baby cry". Any time we talk about a baby or she sees a baby, she insists it's crying, even if it's not.

Pictures

Libby showing her crazy face to Grandma. She has had so much fun with Grandma this week and is getting so spoiled! She's going to miss Grandma a lot.

Libby made that hat at story time and wore it all day. We took her on a big sister date. She got to play at the play place, eat french fries and ice cream and got a special Elmo present (backpack, book, movie). We wanted her to feel special since life has been so crazy for her. It's finally getting back to normal. She slept through the night the last 2 nights! Wahoo!

Here's a big yawn from Elliot! He's gaining an average of an ounce a day. He's getting close to 4 lbs! Hooray.

Opening his eyes for a second to see what's going on

All snuggled up in his robot blanket from Grandma Hill. Don't you just want to kiss those little cheeks? I do.

All comfy in his bed

Liberty coloring her instruments Grandma made her. She will sit and color (with markers especially) for up to half an hour sometimes. That is a long attention span for her age.

One of Elliot's nurses made him the hat. He had another one, but it was too big so she made him one that fit. His nurses take such good care of him!

We have some cute videos of both kids, but they take about a decade to upload to the blog....maybe I will try to put them on youtube first and link them. Liberty can sing twinkle twinkle little star and we caught it on video and Elliot is sucking on a binky. Both are very adorable. Be excited

Initiation

Funny Elliot story. I guess he decided I needed to be initiated as his mom. While I was feeding him through his tube, he spit up a massive amount all over the blankets and my pants. After the feeding I was changing a really nasty diaper and he started to pee on me. I caught most of with a wipe, but some got on my hands. While I was wiping that up, he projectile pooped all over everything, including my hands and all the blankets, etc. It was pretty funny even though it was really gross. Then while I was lifting him up so the nurse could remove the poopy blankets, he sneezed a few times and a booger came out. I felt like a real mom.

Also, some more great news. He has finally started gaining weight. The last 2 days he's gained about an ounce a day, which is what they want him to do! The measure him at midnight so we don't know if he's kept it up today, but I think he has. He's so smart. Richard took some pictures on his phone, so you should all bug him to post them to facebook and here. He's so cute.

Snuggles

Right now I am snuggling with the little guy. It's wonderful. He doesn't have the Iv as of yesterday morning and he thinks he doesn't need a feeding tube and has pulled it out multiple times. He has actually drunk from a bottle a few times but it wears him out so they also have the feeding tube. Today he even tried to breast feed which was very impressive. He is kind of an overachiever according to the nurses. I guess he really wants to come home ASAP and that's fine with me. I can't wait for Libby to meet him