11wks 6days old!

Kaitlyn feeding Tommy for the first time! 3-13-07 11 weeks, 1 day old

Robby feeding Tommy fo rthe first time. 3-17-07 11 weeks, 5 days old
Robby in The Toughest Cowboy play at school. 3-13-07

Robby after the play not wanting to be photographed...he just wanted to drink Dad's soda. He was tired!

Okay, I wanted to give some updates and add a couple priceless pictures.

First, we can no longer say Tommy isn't born yet?!? See when he was first born he was 11 weeks 2 days EARLY and we had to treat him and remind each other that he wasn't supposed to be born yet. So the joke was "don't forget, he's not born yet!" I took him to Walmart for pictures on Wednesday since it was his due date! Wednesday was also a special day as it was Tommy's 4 weeks home mark! I'm afraid the pictures will turn out half cheesey, but for $5 and not having to drive far they'll do. We splurged and spent a few pretty pennies on some specialty professional pictures a few weeks ago, I just wanted a quick shot of him on his due date. At any rate, when you wonder what he's like here at home, try to recall how your 4 day old baby was at home! He sleeps all the time! He has some fussiness in the evening, some nights worse than others. Last night he was great!

One of the stinky things (now that the NICU scene is over) for me as a mom since I keep good records of the kids (babies) is when they do their firsts and stuff...I have no clue when Tommy will do his first smile, roll over, sit up and such. The other three did everything very close together age wise. Tommy probably will too if we use his adjusted age. BUT DARN IT, I want to see him SMILE NOW! I guess I have another month or so for a true authentic (non-gassy or dreamy) SMILE! I will say the boy has an adorable dreamy smile now.

Tommy is doing fabulous. He's up to 80cc bottles. About three or four nights ago we decided since he was 5 1/2 pounds he should be able to go for longer stretches at night. He had no problem with this. He has taken his 9:30pm bottle and then he will normally fuss a bit (if it's a fussy night) and go to bed. He wakes consistently on his own around 2:15am! So, he goes about 5 hours in between bottles at night. He makes up for it too, he drinks about 10-15 more cc's at that feeding! Compared to 3 hours, this is a fabulous break for us. He then goes another 4 hours to 6:30am a normal feeding time to start our day on schedule. For those who know me, nothing has changed...we have a hard-core schedule to follow here!

Tommy went to Oklahoma City to the eye doctor on Friday...GOD IS GOOD...he does not need to be seen again until he is 3 years old!!! He shows NO SIGNS of ROP (Retinopathy of Prematurity)... Dr. Scott said congratulations, what a great feeling. It is such great news to know all is well. That was the only thing left from him being a preemie to be followed up on. Now we only need to make sure he's gaining...we had to do this with Robby too, no big deal!

Tommy goes for his weekly weight check tomorrow morning. I suspect he's right at or just over 6lbs! Since he's been eating more at each feeding, we've done the HMF every other bottle. He feels so heavy now...I don't know how we handled Kaitlyn at 9lbs 7ozs and Kimberlyn at 8lbs 7 ozs at birth. I will say, they look absolutely HUGE when I look at their baby pictures.

Tomorrow after his weight check we are headed to Lawton for the kids' dentist appointment. Great way to start Spring Break, right? Then we'll head to Oklahoma City to visit Glenda. Kaitlyn has been missing her so much, it'll be great to see her. We'll stay the night, Tommy's first overnight trip!! We'll then pick my mom up at the airport on Tuesday. Sometime in the middle, maybe we'll get some shopping done. The big kids are needing some new pants. They have about two nice pair now and will need some when we move to Germany in May, as Germany's May weather is a bit colder than what we are used to. Shoot, the hottest month is July, I believe I read the average high in July is 84 degrees! I'm afraid we're in for some serious weather shock?!?!

I'll update Tommy's weight on Tuesday night or Wednesday!