the eric update - day 164: rolling over! and visiting the nicu with gifts!

whooohooo! little odin mastered the art of rolling over! sure, before today we could give him a helping hand just to get him used to the sensation but today was the very first day that he could roll over all by himself after we placed him on his stomach.

it seems like every milestone reference you look at is different and , of course, every baby is different - but it seems like the average advice is that rolling over is an "advanced" skill for a 2 month old and most babies get the hang of it around 3 or 4 months. so he's doing great when you consider that he'll be 2 months old tommorrow, in age adjusted terms.

here he's demonstrating a textbook example of a "pushup" as he eyes where he's going to roll over.

look at that determination!

it's been awhile since we went for a visit to the nicu and today we decided fulfil a promise we made to ourselves while we were still in the nicu. in some small very, very tiny way we wanted to show how very grateful we were for all their great care and after a great deal of consideration we came up with the most perfectly appropriate christmas gift/donation ever.

when we first arrived, of course, everyone was very happy to see little odin and from the looks of he was too. when nurse peggy picked him up and started talking to him, he immediately started giggling and smiling and making all sorts of cutesy baby faces! i swear it's the most animated i've seen him with anyone!

perhaps he somehow remembers that nurse peggy was there when we were able to hold him for the first time when he was eight days old?

we were very happy to see that nurse jan was also working today during our visit! we try not to play favorites because all the nurses in the nicu at saint mary's are special, but nurse jan is extra special. she's the kind of nurse who will surprise you by taking videos of your child when you're not able to be in the nicu; it's her hands and voice you see and hear in the fourth. part two..

it almost never happens, but i must admit that i'm a loss for words to describe just how thankful we are that we had the opportunity to have nurse jan care for odin. she's a very special nurse amongst a group of very special nurses and we won't soon forget her. hopefully someday little odin will get a chance to meet her and thank her for himself.

neonatal nurse practitioner dawn gets a chance to hold odin and she's suprised at how heavy and substantial he feels.

i'll always remember nnp dawn as always being more than willing to sit down and answer my endless littany of questions about every small detail regarding odin's care. rather than being dismissive or condescending as can sometimes happen with knowledgeable professionals, she was always more than happy to answer ever last question.

she quickly learned and seemed to enjoy that when i say "o.k. just one last question", it really means that i have one question with a hundred subquestions :-)

and what luck to see he, himself who hadn't seen odin since we left his nicu to make the trip across town to the "new" nicu.

after visiting the nurses we got to the gift giving part of our visit. after giving it a lot of thought, we decided that we couldn't think of a more appropriate gift than a digital camera and printer. diane and gina who are part of the snowdeal show ® donated their digital camera and we bought a epson picturemate personal photo printer so that the nurses and families can more easily capture all those special moments that can happen in the nicu.

it seems like such an unbalanced trade - we get a happy, healthy baby and they get a digital camera and a printer - hopefully they know it also comes bundled with a lot of love and gratitude.