And just like that, Christmas has gone by! I want to continue to put up a daily blog post, although I am sure the posts will not be as interesting as we just work on growing at home and getting ready for surgery.

Brendan had a visit from the home care nurse and got a thumbs up from her. Everything looks good, we are doing a good job caring for him. He also weighed 7lbs 9.5oz which is a good gain! We sneaked Trevor on to the scale when the nurse wasn’t looking and he weighed in at 10lbs 5oz fully dressed and with a wet diaper. Still, he is over 10lbs for sure!

My daily life does not venture far away from the couch in the living room now. We have just let a marathon of Star Trek:The Next Generation play in the background most days while we feed, change, comfort, snuggle, medicate, repeat. Trevor continues to be a pretty happy and mellow baby and loves to be held as much as possible. Brendan is very irritable and uncomfortable most of the time, it takes very little to set him off in to a total meltdown. He likes to be held but often times it hurts too much and he gets upset. We try very hard to keep him cool and relaxed and loved but not manhandled. He likes to swing and he loves the bath, so we will have lots of bubbles in our future.
He had his final dose of Methadone yesterday, but we may have to add something less potent to help him with general comfort.

Trevor looks like a quiet little angel, but he is a pretty loud sleeper, either humming, grunting, or growling.

Poor baby Brendon makes very sad little faces.

He does have some comfortable alert time, like sitting on the pillow on the couch with me.

There is a Brendan in there in the swing, chewing on his pacifier sideways. However he is comfortable, we won’t touch!

Hopefully as he gets stronger, he can get off of the oxygen and 90% of what is bothering him will be gone. The mucous build up caused by the dry airflow really is bothersome. He is often hungry too, hopefully we can increase his feedings soon!

Two months already? Wow! We are very lucky to have our family together for Christmas, and my heart goes out to all of the other kids still in the CVICU today. We wish that we could be with the rest of our extended family today, it just doesn’t seem like Christmas without them.

Both boys got nice long bubble baths and then got dressed in their Santa pants for pictures.

They really enjoy lounging on big pillows.

Our Christmas tree this year. We didn’t have the space or energy to put up a real tree.

The boys each have their own name ornament thanks to some trick customization.

Gramma bought them each a “Baby’s First Christmas” spoon too.

I hope everyone has a very wonderful and safe Christmas!

Today was just another day – the one important thing that set it apart from any other is that we had absolutely no medical appointments! Brendan just got a nice full day of rest with nothing but daily maintenance and diaper changes. We spent several hours video chatting with the family back in Illinois.
Brendan had a few hours of crankiness but overall he has had a good day and had a nice restful night.

Our only plan for tomorrow is to give both boys nice warm baths and have another restful day at home. Our amazing friend and neighbor, Bailey has offered to bring us Christmas dinner, which is awesome because we would have just made mac & cheese with hot dogs (not that there is anything wrong with that).

Just a few pictures:

Brendan is practicing his “it wasn’t me, I am innocent” look. (Trevor’s is already pretty good, so he has to work on it)
Surely someone else in the bed must have gotten the mitt off and pulled the cannula most of the way out of the nose, not Brendan.

The rumors about Trevor’s giant pinchy cheeks and double chins are grossly exaggerated… 😉

Some friends from down the street dropped by with a gift for the boys tonight – a pair of adorable handmade jammies for each of the boys. Maggie made them in sewing class and she did nice work! They were concerned that they would be too small, so Trevor had to model his!

This one looks like he is kicking up his heels, it cracks me up!

The photos that I take really make the babies look older and larger than they are. Even though he is growing like a monster, Trevor is only hitting 9lbs, so he is the size of a healthy brand new baby now. I love to see people’s double takes when they say “oh my, they are so tiny!!”. I have to appreciate it every chance I get, they are going to grow up too quickly!