The LT 1000

The pulmonologist said Tucker can move to the home vent today! He might not actually switch today, because they don't think they have his in stock (which I could have sworn they told me they had last week!), but the fact that he is able to move at any time is very exciting. The Doctor's notes: "Tucker can move to the LT 1000 once it's ready. I think we'll have some adventures." Well, I agree-every little change is adventurous with Tucker, so why should a big change be any different? Other than doing so well on his breathing (well for him-he is still on the vent), Tucker has a lot of other things going on. He had a Happy Thanksgiving. Chris and I went to visit him and played with him for a long time. When we got there, Tucker heard our voices and woke up out of a dead sleep. Chris held him for about ten minutes, but I was anxious to get him on the floor mat to play with his Boppy gym. Tucker spends most of the day in his bed-being lazy-so I decided he needed some exercise to keep him on the developmental track. Well, he disagreed. Chris said we shouldn't be surprised-he's our kid-why would he like a gym? We put the mat and the blanket down, and when we put Tucker down, he screamed like we were beating him. Seriously. I was worried that someone would think we were hurting him. We changed his diaper, suctioned him, and still, he screamed. Chris finally picked him up, and that was it-the crying stopped. I said, "of course-we let him have his daddy for ten minutes, then he put him down-what mean parents!" He probably thought we were going to put him down and leave him-or he is just spoiled. Lately, he is getting very smart. He knows that when we put him in the bed, we are leaving him. We used to let him fall asleep before we left, that way he wouldn't actually watch us leaving him. However, he'd fall asleep with visitors, and wake up to an empty room-this did NOT make for a happy Tucker. So we've started putting him in his bed with toys, or to look at his mobile, and then leaving. So now he's on to that, too. While we're there, he REFUSES to go to sleep! Yesterday, my mom and I were there, and his eyes were wide open the whole time. After his second feeding, I had to rock him back and forth until he fell asleep. He needed to fall asleep-he was so cranky! Yesterday, Nana bought Tucker an exersaucer for Christmas, and she brought it straight to him-she said, "he doesn't know when Christmas is-and he needs to exercise!" He really does-we think we have a lazy baby on our hands. Tucker is behind in his physical development-most three month old babies do more than him, and he is technically considered a three month old b/c that's how old he "should" be. So we tried to put the exersaucer together, but I didn't have a screwdriver. I'll have to bring one-but it's okay that he didn't play in it-I think he'll like it as much as his Boppy gym until he's a little older. Then he'll love it. It looks like so much fun. However, he is so smart for a three month old baby, which I guess is because he's been around for so long. He's considered geriatric in the NICU. All of the nurses visit him to see what cute things he'll do-they're not used to having older babies that do stuff. Tucker is starting to have separation anxiety, and they technically aren't supposed to have that until around nine months-what a confusing child! Also, Tucker know Christmas is coming. For several weeks now, he's been a much better baby. We always joke that he's being good b/c Santa is coming, and he knows he has to be good to get some presents. We think the real cause for this is that we quit nipple feeding him. It was really too hard on him-it kept him stressed out and tired. Ever since he quit, he's been much happier. We bought him multiple Christmas outfits-one says "mommy's little present" and one says "bah humbug." The third one, his real Christmas outfit, says "baby's first christmas" and has matching hat. He took Christmas pics on Saturday-they are so cute! He also listens to the Christmas radio station all day-he loves it, but he cries when the commercials come on. Then when the music comes back on, he quits crying. B-A-D! I took Monsters Inc to the hospital on Saturday, and Tucker and I watched it. He watched the whole thing-or at least, he sat still and pretended to watch it-he has a very good attention span. We watched the new Grinch yesterday, and Baby Einstein-except I mainly watched the movies and Tucker mainly watched me-I never knew I was so fascinating-having a child gives you a big ego. We are going to start taking him more movies-maybe we'll watch Shrek this weekend. Since he is getting on the home vent, we will be one step closer to home-we still don't know exactly what that means-weeks, more than likely months, and then he can come home and crack us all up.