Paternity Leave

A week of transition this has turned out to be: mom finished up her maternity leave and went back to work Monday. In her place, Dad is taking 2 weeks of "paternity" leave - okay, 2 weeks of vacation. Whatever. I get to spend it with my son, that's all I know!
It's been tough for Mommy, as would be expected. A little separation anxiety, but hanging in there. Meanwhile, Daddy has been eating up his time with Colin. It's still exhausting having to wake him (and myself) every 3 hours for feeding, but it's just part of our roles as parents of a preemie. Parents with full-termers that sleep through the night I want to hear no complaints from you! ;-) We have to make it to 12 pounds or so before we can put Mr. Man down for the night so he can get extended sleep. That should translate into another month or so given his average weight gain.
Speaking of eating - Holy Moses! It takes an "act of God" for this little man to eat! We try everything, but Colin just doesn't eat much. The doctors are amazed that he's even growing since he takes in less than he should every day. Colin should be eating between 4-6 ounces per feeding. Instead, we get anywhere between 1-2 ounces routinely, 3 if it's a very special day! I'm telling you, it is such a struggle. The newest "trick" to get him to eat is when I stand on my head, hold Colin upside-down between my feet, and sing kumbaya off-key while chewing on a Snickers bar and wrinkling my nose. This at least holds his attention for a little while while he sucks on his bottle ;-)
The answer to this issue hopefully will come in the form of a speach therapist who he should start seeing in the coming couple of weeks or so. Turns out that Colin "sucks" using only his tongue to get the milk out of the bottle. When you look at him, his lips only "lay" on the nipple while eating, and he doesn't actively use them to eat. This makes his suck inefficient, and he tires more easily this way. It probably didn't help that he was fed through a tube for the first 2-3 months of his life. So maybe by "showing him the way" and teaching him the proper way to suck, our little guy will start sprouting and really packing on the lbs.
Colin's reflux issue is still that - an issue. But it seems to be getting better as he gradually gets bigger. Instead of vomiting several times per day, we're down to once - maybe twice per day. I'm still waiting for the day when we can go 24 hours without cookie-tossing.
Mr. Man may also be starting to teeth! He's got a little drool - not much - but he seems to have all the other symptoms: hands or blankets or something constantly in the mouth, becoming more fussy than normal, and he's was running a low-grade fever there for several days. No pearly whites poking through quite yet, but we may see some soon?
Other than that, Colin is doing well. He doesn't really have any more episodes of bradycardia or apnea (scattered here or there). So we're thinking he won't be on the monitors for much longer. We love watching him improve, grow and develop. This really is a great time. However, I'd be lying if I said I didn't care much about him being able to sleep through the night and be off his monitors. THAT will be such huge steps forward for him and us, and on many levels it'll get easier for us. Of course, there will be new challenges ahead as any parent goes through, but to get to a point where we can experience "normal" parenting issues will be amazing.
For those of you kind enough to keep reading this blog, make sure to check back in during the week next week for some updated photos. I should have some really special ones to share. Until then, it's my little secret :-)