Sleepyhead

The quintessential Daddy picture...

Its never too early to learn to surf...

Don't you just want to pinch those chubby little cheeks?!?

OK, I have to admit, we haven't exactly spent the last 2 weeks catching up on our sleep. But I guess that is when we have time to snap a few pictures! Silas is generally pretty active all day - maybe one good nap a day. But he sleeps in pretty good chunks during the night (2-4 hours usually) - for which we are very grateful.

Thanks for checking in - we'll try to get more action shots next time!

Silas is sprung!

Yippee - we've sprung Silas from the NICU and were able to bring him home yesterday on his 2 week birthday. It was such a happy day and I'd say our first 24 hours have been successful!

We've slept...

We've eaten and played...

And we've slept some more!The out-pouring of love and support we've received from everyone has been really wonderful - thank you so much. We feel so blessed to bring home a (now healthy) little boy and to finally have our family together.

Love,
Matt, Julie & Silas

more photos...

Silas' uncle Preston and aunt Karen came to visit yesterday. Preston took these photos during their visit (and after Silas ate - which is why he is totally zonked out!)...

(Karen always laughs at the funny faces and sounds Silas makes when he is sleeping...)

This is the main monitor that Silas is hooked up to. It charts his heart rate (green), oxygen absorption (blue) and respiration rate (yellow). At any given moment, you will hear one of these dinging when one of the readings isn't in the preferred range.

This picture shows the pulse-ox on Silas' foot - which senses the oxygen absorption rate and constantly causes the monitor to beep because it is designed for smaller newborns and does not stay put his not-so-little foot very well sometimes.

Besides the fact that we have our first family photo - our biggest news as of yesterday is that Silas got upgraded to the intermediate level of the NICU (he is no longer considered high risk)! You could almost say we have a private room - if you count the privacy curtain. But it is certainly a much nicer environment - with significantly less dinging and beeping and bustling around.

Silas is no longer hooked up to the IV and recovered well from his fever. He has also successfully learned to breastfeed (though I've decided not to document that momentus event with a photo for you - sorry). His lungs are healing well and his breathing is becoming more regular.

Our biggest hurdle now is to get him to take all his food by mouth. We've been doing a succession of breastfeeding with momma, bottle feeding with daddy and then pumping the remaining food in through the tube in his nose. He is doing well, but doesn't seem to understand how much life will improve if he'll just learn to chow down and fill himself up every four hours. We're working on that...