What I Love Most Today is William.

What I Love Most Today is Will.  William is seventeen and a half pounds!  He is literally eight months old.  But his adjusted age is eight minus the three months that he came early so...five months.  To me he looks bigger than five months but not quite eight, but really close.  He is closing in on the preemie gap really fast. 
 

He's been laughing and smiling for months.  He rolled over on my bed three weeks after I brought him home from the NICU, he was three and a half months old.  But, this is typical to roll so early because they are so strong, physically, from being out of the womb so early. 
 

To me, he looks pretty normal now.  His eyes aren't as puffy and swollen, also typical for preemies.  You can see HERE that he still looks swollen a tad, around his eyes. 
 

The red spot on his chest is not a birthmark but something called a Hemangioma, that preemies develop sometimes.  The doctor said it could get really big, but it's only gotten smaller.  You can see his belly button a little bit in the above picture.  It's still somewhat big, but when he came home it was about three times as big.  It's a herniated belly button, they are gone by one year of age. 
 

 

I sure miss nursing him.  We've accepted the bottle but it wasn't easy after nursing six other babies for a year or more.  But, what can you do?  It's life sometimes to have to make these adjustments.  I tried my hardest.  But, one day when he was nursing after weeks of dealing with cracked nipples, he pulled off the breast and my nipple was dripping blood.  I just couldn't do it anymore.  So bottles are very much a part of our lives now.  :)
 

After I took pictures of him awake I put him to sleep and laid him back on the bed.  I'm sure this is the last time I will be able to do this because he wakes pretty easily now if he's not in his bed in the dark. 
 

There is nothing more angelic than a sleeping baby.
 

 

He's a doll.  He's not fussy, he lives with us and watches us and gets held all day long by one of us.  But he also plays a lot too. 
 

He loves his mobile.
 

And his favorite thing to do is jump...he told me.  :)  I made this jumper with my mother in law patterned after one that my friend uses.  I've had it for the last four kids.  I wish I had it for all of them.  The other kids will go next to him and color or read or play games so he can watch too.  I told you, it's his favorite thing to do.  

Having him in the NICU for three months is becoming a faint memory.  I hardly think about it anymore, yet it was my life, solid, for those three months.  I feel like I got off really lucky to see him in these pictures doing so well and thriving.  He is a blessing and he has been blessed too, to be doing so well, born so early.  We love him so much.  What I Love Most Today is William.