Family Updates

Luca is still in the NICU at Beth Israel, and is doing pretty well. He's started putting on weight, and he is doing well with his feedings. For a couple of days however, he still would have some formula in his tummy hours after a feeding, so they were concerned about his digestive tract being compromised. They did a series of x-rays which have shown no motility issues and no inflammation, and the nurse tonight said he had no formula left in his belly so that's great news! Apparently this is common with preemie babies, and it just takes their little stomachs a bit longer to tolerate food/calorie increases. We're still waiting for him to be transferred down to South Shore Hospital, which is only 5 minutes away from us. It will be so great to have him around the corner from us, so we can go and see him anytime we like. He's supposed to have been transferred there "any day now" for 3 days running, so we're always hopeful it will be tomorrow. Lisa started trying to breast feed Luca yesterday, and he was a total champion according to the nurse! I guess babies really aren't geared to try breast feeding until at least 34 weeks gestation, so when he turned 34 weeks on Monday... they said why not give it a try. The nurse saw him gnawing on his hand and looking like he was rooting so that was a good sign. Sure enough, he was able to latch on and start suckling a few times, which is more than we could hope for.

By the way, we still have two other kids! Zoë has been enjoying her music class on Mondays, and has really taken to the music. Whenever we put on the CD at home, she starts dancing along! She is also trying to sing along to some of the songs. She's getting good at saying please and thank you when she wants something, although some of her words still do need interpretation from mom and dad. She's getting so big so fast, we can't believe she isn't the baby in the family now.....

Vince has been doing really well with potty training. This past weekend, he wore underwear almost the entire long weekend, and he only had a couple of accidents. He even asked me when he would be able to wear underwear to bed! We're encouraged that he's going to be in underwear once Luca comes home, so we can avoid paying for diapers for three kids.