32 Gestational Weeks (5 weeks old!)

Happy Birthday little man!!!!!

Today is Owen's 5 week birthday, which makes him 32 Gestational Weeks old. He had a pretty rough day, actually. He had his ROP (retinopathy of prematurity - if you are curious you can read more here) test for his eyes. The test checks to see how their eyes are developing. Since he was born premature, there is a risk that they will not develop properly. It's a rough test because babies can't hold their eyes open for the doctor to look in the back of their retinas. So, they have to put these little springs under their eyelids to hold them open. Yeah, sounds like a fun way to spend a birthday, doesn't it?

So, needless to say Rory and I went for a little walk during the 10 minute test. The nurses told us it was NOT something we should see. The doctor let us know after the test that Owen's eyes are still premature so she will need to repeat the test in a few weeks to make sure they develop correctly, but everything looked fine so far. Yea!

A lactation consultant with the hospital also stopped by today to visit. She said right now was the perfect timing to start really practicing nursing with Owen. He's going to start being given bottles for meals at 34 weeks (2 weeks from today) so that gives us two full weeks to get him good at nursing. So, a hospital lactation consultant will start stopping by each day to work with us to give us tips and help us move along. He's been doing pretty good so far, but he's still not getting much food (we weigh him before and after) and honestly, he's pretty lazy right now! He will do good for 2-3 minutes, and then just want to snuggle with me. So, it's adorable...but he's not exactly an over achiever! By the way, he's currently eating about an ounce and a half every three hours and yeah, they're still fortifying the breast milk with the extra calories. We can sure tell by looking at his daily weight gains!!

So here are our daily photos. First, here is Owen's 32 Week photo with Sophie the Giraffe! His onesie is one of our favorites. For those of you that attended our baby shower in MO, you know we had all guests decorate a onesie! This is one Daddy did - and he knows his son well! Aren't his knees cute???

Here is a shot of Owen in his newborn clothes. It makes me laugh every time I look at him! I went into his nursery a few days ago and looked at the 0-3 month clothes. Hard to believe he'll ever be big enough to fit into them!!!!

Owen is 32 Gestational Weeks (5 weeks old) today!