Updates: February 17th

It's been nearly 2 weeks since we brought Mario home and we're all settling in nicely. Dom and I are both really loving being parents and spending time with the little guy. There are days and evenings when he barely touches a flat surface because we enjoy cuddling him. There's nothing like a warm, sleeping baby on your chest to put a smile on your face. . .and put you to sleep too!

Mario has seen several winter storms since he's been home. The first week he was home we had a big snowstorm and this past week we had a big winter storm which brought snow and a lot of ice. Today, we got more snow on top of it all. Of course, he won't remember any of this, but we're very glad we weren't trying to go back and forth to the hospital with the icky winter weather. It's also kind of comical to Dom and myself, because I had predicted from the beginning that the day I went into labor we'd have a winter storm to contend with. So, we find it amusing that as my original due date (March 4th) approaches, the winter weather has come on strong.

Uncle Judd came to visit last weekend and couldn't get over how small our little man is. Of course, to us he's getting bigger and bigger, but to someone who hasn't seen him before he's still a wee little guy.

Mario has also enjoyed spending time in his bouncy seat and his swing, which Dom went out and got for him this week. It's nice because it gives us other options aside from holding him or putting him in bed and it also gives us an option to help keep him upright after eating. He's still getting some reflux, so we like to keep him upright for at least a little while after eating.

Yesterday, Mario had his first eye exam. We went to Cincinnati Children's Hospital for his appointment with a pediatric opthamologist to be examined for retinopathy of prematurity (click the link for more info on this). The longest part of the exam was waiting for the drops they administered to dilate his pupils. When the opthamologist finally came in, the exam itself took less than a minute on each eye. Of course, Mario wasn't too happy with it because they use a tiny speculum to hold open the eye, shine a bright light in the eye, and use a tiny little surgical probe to move the eye around. But, it was all very fast and Mario fell asleep immediately after. The doctor was very pleased with how the blood vessels in his eye are maturing and even indicated that they are better than he expected. The blood vessels are simply a little immature still and have some growing. On the nasal side, they are fully grown, but they have a little bit to go on the temperal side, which makes sense because that side has a larger area to go. If you read the link, he is in zone 3. So, we have to go back in 3 weeks for a follow up, just to make sure things are progressing the way they should. The doctor also mentioned, when he was talking with us, that he had been over at the NICU that morning and had seen Mario's business cards on the desk there. He thought they were a neat idea.

Mario's pediatrician appointment this week got postponed to next week (Monday) because her office had no power due to the storm. So, we'll have to update after that to let you know how much he's grown. He's definitely growing, that's for sure. I'm going to have to put away a lot of his preemie clothes when I do baby laundry next because they are getting to be too small for him. He's still wearing a few of the bigger ones, and his newborn clothes. He's eating like a piggy boy, both from the bottle and the breast. He and I are working hard at the breastfeeding, determined to make progress with it :)

That's pretty much it for the updates right now. I'm sure what everyone is really interested in is the pictures :)