Life with Will

Life will Will is awesome! We are having a great time. He is still sleeping really good at night which makes for a happy mom during the day. He is still taking a morning nap and an afternoon nap. After his 4pm feeding, he likes to stay up and swing, talk to us and just simply be cuddled. He loves his swing. We put him in there yesterday morning and he swang for about an hour and was alseep. He loves bath time. He gets a bath about every 3 days. He is fussy when we put him in there but when he gets the water drizzled over his body, he is in heaven! He is baby talking to us every now and then. He is beginning to reach and grab for things. He hates his feet tickled and hates to have socks on them. When I put socks on his feet, he does everything to take them off. He hates to be covered up with a blanket while napping too. Overall he is a happy baby! We have been to my mom's house several times this week just for a new change of scenery. We have also ventured out to Sam's Club. We went to visit our friends at the NICU. We went to Memphis last weekend to celebrate Ross and Kalyn's birthdays. He met lots of family members. We haven't been strolling much this week because the temperatures have been so HOT in the mornings. Overall, life with Will is great. Oh and by the way, he weighs around 8lbs 7.5oz according to the pediatrician scale on Thursday. He is growing and is almost out of newborn sleepers. He is now wearing 0-3 months clothes. His legs are getting so chubby and I LOVE it!

Sweet face I get to look at every day

Precious feet

This is how we chill in the mornings in our Nap Nanny

Will at home

Will has been home for almost 3 weeks. We have finally gotten into a good routine. I had some problems at the beginning when he got home. I didn't think I was being the best mom to him. Nothing I did was working and I never could figure out what he wanted. It got to the point that in the afternoon he was so tired that he wouldn't sleep at all and I had 5 hours to entertain him before Doug got home from work. I tried everything I knew to do and it wasn't working. I heard something on the Today show this week about white noise machines. I have a white noise machine on my alarm clock so I tried it and Will slept that afternoon for 2 HOURS and I was one thrilled mother. Since then he has so far taken an afternoon nap for about 2-3 hours and this makes for one HAPPY momma!!

Will's day usually goes likes this: wake up at 7am for a bottle by daddy before he goes to work; then goes walking with momma; sleeps from about 9-11:30; eats again at 11:30; sleeps from about 12:30 to about 2:30-3; occasionally will run errands with momma sometimes; eats again between 4-4:30; daddy comes home from work around 5; we cook dinner while Will enjoys some awake time in his swing or bouncer; bath time around 8:30 every other day; he eats again at 9pm and then goes to bed around 9:30-10; sleeps till 2:30am and eats again; sleeps till 7am and our day starts all over again.

We believe we have Will on a great schedule. It took us about a week to finally get this down pat since the pediatrician told us to stretch his feedings to 4-5 hours. I was so used to the schedule of 8,12,4 that he was on in the Nicu that I just had a hard time readjusting to a new schedule.

He recently developed a horrible hacking cough so we went immediately to the pediatrician and come to find out he has silent reflux. We got some medicine for that and so far it is working.

Will sleeps in the room across from his room and on the other side of the house from our bedroom because he moans and groans all the time during his sleep and it drove me crazy at the beginning and I wasn't sleeping. We are constantly monitoring him on the video monitor and we have the angel care monitor set up as well. We are sleeping much better at night. I have to admit I watched the video monitor like it was a tv at the beginning but moving him across the house was the best thing we did. I was scared to death but we are all sleeping better at night.

Will enjoys tummy time on his play mat, swinging in his swing, napping in his nap nanny and morning walks with his momma. He is starting to make baby noises like ah and ooh. It is so cute.

Happy Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day to the most wonderful father Will could ever have. Doug you are an amazing dad and Will loves you more than you will ever know. I can't wait to see you and him continue to bond and have the most wonderful father and son relationship y'all can ever have. Thank you for taking care of him and not complaining about it when I need you to help me with him. You are absolutely amazing with him and that makes me love you more and more each day. Happy FIRST Fathers day!!

Also Happy Fathers Day to Poppa Bill and Papaw Steve. We love y'all very much!!

Pictures and Visitors

Will had more family visitors this past weekend. Uncle Nic, Aunt Kim, Ross and Kalyn came by for a visit on their way back from Atlanta. Will loved being held by Uncle Nic and Aunt Kim. Ross and Kalyn loved meeting their cousin "Baby Will" who they have so preciously prayed for. We love visitors and look forward to many more!

Uncle Nic and Will

No clue what they might be discussing

Aunt Kim and Kalyn checking out Will

Hi ya'll

Our precious Will

1st Pediatrician Appointment

Will had his first pediatrician appointment today. He saw Dr Ivancic instead of Dr. Stone today. Will weighs 8lbs but I think the scale was wrong so we are going to recheck his weight in 2 weeks. He has cradle cap and is having problems with his head prone to one side. So we are having to do head exercises to loosen the stiff muscles. He increased his formula intake to 90mls if he wants it. He also told us to stretch him to every 5 hours to see what he does. Hopefully we can do this and it will work and we can get a little more sleep at night. Will has still been having bowel issues. The karo syrup didn't work so we have been given suppositories in case we need them. Hopefully he can become regular again.

Will was not very happy on the table today naked. Poor thing!!

1st Road Trip

Will had his 1st road trip to Memphis to follow-up with the retinologist. He has no more ROP in his eyes anymore. Praise the Lord!!!!! He will just have to follow-up every 2 weeks with Dr Calzada. By the way, he loves riding in the car. We left early just in case we had to stop a little but we didn't and he did great.

Welcome Home Will

Discharge Day was amazing. We had a great time visiting with all the nurses who stopped by to tell us goodbye. We are enjoying and adjusting to life at home. Just wanted to share a few pictures of our Discharge Day and also some pictures at home. Enjoy! 

With Nurse Jessica. She was Drew's nurse when he passed away and we have always had a special connection to her since then. We love you Nurse Jessica and Will misses you!

With our social worker, Christy. Thanks Christy for everything! Will misses his "Aunt" Christy!

In his carseat and ready to go

Will and "Aunt" Christy

Our discharge nurse, Brittany, who is one of our favorites also!

Last picture in front of the elevator we rode for 132 days to see our sweet Will

Picture in front of the hospital. We had to make it official when we left with our baby

Releasing balloons to Drew who couldn't go home with us but is already home with our Heavenly Father

We are HOME

Asleep in his bassinet

Aunt Mary finally got her holding in! She was in HEAVEN!

Will

Sorry I haven't posted much about being home with Will. I've kind been busy with a wee little one whom I'm still trying to figure out what all he likes. We've had a few rough days lately. He's been gassy and not having good bowel movements so we are trying karo syrup tonight because it's been 48 hrs since he has pooped. He's sleeping good at night but the day he's off and on. Overall we are glad he is home and are loving every moment with our sweet Will.

First night at home

Our first night at home was a success. Will slept great and ate great. As for his parents that is a different story. I think I got about 3 hours of sleep and Doug got about 5 hours of sleep after he moved to the guest bedroom to sleep. We had the angelcare monitor hooked up and it gave us a little piece of mind but we always looked at him and asked ourselves "is he breathing."

So all in all Will had a good night his parents on the other hand are really tired.