Milk Maid

The freezer's ready for Ciaran to come home tomorrow.

Car seat challenge

The car seat challenge is a test Ciaran has to pass before he can come home. Basically he has to sit in his car seat for an hour and not suffocate or have heart problems. He passed with flying colors. Probably because he had studied his crib sheet. {cymbal crash} The nurse kept joking that she'd pass him the answers to the test so I made the crib sheet joke. She was thrilled. How is it that no one has made that joke before? Probably they have and this just demonstrates once again the greatness of the staff at the White Plains NICU.

If you can enlarge this picture enough you may be able to see his vital signs all going perfectly while he completes his "challenge" of sitting there.

And why are they doing this test?

Because he's coming home TUESDAY!!!

This little tidbit was buried in one of Chris' twitters, but indeed the doctors told us Tuesday is the day barring a very unforeseen happening. He's been doing great. We are thrilled.

Fireman's Parade

The Fireman's Parade is a big deal here in Mamaroneck. It took place on July 1 so we're a little late posting. Beckett and his friend Anna loved it.

One reason Beckett loved it was the fact that Daddy bought him a Thomas balloon.

His friend Anna wanted to share, but Beckett was not doing well with sharing.

This made Anna sad.

This fireman was a dancin' fool. His firehouse followed a dance troop and I guess the view inspired him to rethink his career.

We'll let this firetruck stand in for the what felt like hundreds of firetrucks we saw in the parade.




There was also a large showing of bands.




However, only one set of becaped and feathered Knights of Columbus.

Just pluggin' along

Right now Ciaran is going along gaining weight. He is now allowed to have a bottle or breastfeed every other feeding. He's getting better, but we still have a way to go before they'll let him go home. He's up to 4lb 9.6oz which is great.

How cute is this football blanket? My best friend Sheryl made it for Ciaran as well as an adorable puppy blanket. I love it! Thank you!

Big Boy Room

Not only is Ciaran in a big boy bed he got moved to the big boy room. He's in the not so intensive care NICU now. One more step in the right direction!




And look how cute he is in his clothes. Thanks Alesa!
And for those of you who don't bother to follow Chris on twitter (like me) Ciaran is over
4 POUNDS!!

Big Boy Bed

I arrived at the hospital this morning to find that as of shift change at 8:00am Ciaran graduated to a big boy bed.

He's out in the open air to see if he can maintain his temperature. As of the 11:00am and 2:00pm temperature checks he was doing great.

This is one part of the trifecta he needs to master before he can go home. I think we can safely cross respiration off the list. Then we tackle temperature maintenance and finally feeding. He is doing well coordinating the suck, swallow, breathe mechanics, but he gets tired. However he is moving up to "nippling" once a shift, meaning either I breastfeed him or he gets a bottle once a shift. This will be our biggest hurdle. He needs to continue to gain strength and endurance until he is nippling at every feeding. He still gets the majority of his feedings with the tube.

The amount he gets at every feeding has also been moved up to 40cc's. He kept waking up before his scheduled feeding and crying because he was hungry so they decided this kid wants more and upped his food. He's definitely happier now that his stomach gets even fuller than what is technically required. He's getting a nice belly even though his little bum is nonexistent. (I should know, I got to change 2 diapers today so I had a good view. Who knew the day would come when I'd be excited to change diapers.)

He also gets to wear clothes now!

In case you didn't believe Chris' twitter post that Ciaran is almost 4 pounds here he is attempting to wear the 4th of July hat I made him several weeks ago. Turns, out I made a yamaka. He just keeps growing. Hooray!

And just because I think Chris looks cute, here he is a couple of days ago with Ciaran.

And just because Beckett looks cute here he is when we went to the hospital Sunday.

You got to feel it, it's electric!

Let's just say that I'm not the only one who is shocked that the Lakers decided to sign Ron Artest.

Tweet! Tweet!

If you have never heard of Twitter then ignore this post.

I have decided to begin tweeting, twittering, whatever you want to call it. This is motivated by two main factors:

1) There are a lot of sports writers that are providing great content in 140 character form on twitter. I wanted a place to "follow" them instead of always trying to remember their usernames and bouncing from twitterer to twitterer. Problem solved.

2) It gives Dawnell and I great joy to hear every night that Ciaran's weight has gone up an ounce, but it isn't necessarily enough for an entire blog post. I'm sure there are some of you who would also enjoy this news. Sounds like perfect tweet content. Problem solved.

The plan is to also include some non-baby tweets. You can follow my tweeting at twitter.com/wjmooner. I've also embedded the twitter feed over on this blog's sidebar.

Chunky Monkey

Ciaran is now THREE AND A HALF POUNDS!
That's right, as of last night he was 3lb 8.2 oz.


We did a little decorating in Ciaran's isolette. We brought in a picture of Beckett. The nurses decided to tape it right over him so he could look up at his brother. Now a giant Beckett looms over his brother. I think Beckett's head in the picture is larger than Ciaran's right now.

My Baby Sucks.

And yes, that's a good thing. Dude2 sucked down almost his entire feeding last night while I was visiting him. Dawnell blogged too soon!

*******************************Update****************************************


There's a sucker born every minute

I did blog too soon. I guess Ciaran wanted to save his new trick for Daddy. Once Chris saw it last night it was okay to show me too. He ate almost his whole bottle for me today.