Pediatrician visit and first bath

Yesterday Jacob had his first visit to the pediatrician. It isn't surprising that he is less than 5-percentile for weight, height and head circumference. It will probably take him a few months to make it onto the charts. Jacob's now up to 5 pounds, 1 ounce. He gained about 6 ounces since his release from the hospital only 3 days before!

While Jacob was being weighed - his umbilical cord fell off. Which means that Jacob was able to have his first bath today. The fact that he pretty much slept throughout the entire bath told us that he didn't think it was all that terrible. It did seem that he really hated being taken out of the bath and getting cold though.


Check out that pot belly on Jacob - someone has been eating well!


This isn't Jacob crying, he is just yawning - it is so tiring to be given a bath.



Jacob was not so happy to leave the nice warm bath.

Mom & Dad's best present ever!!!

Jacob came home on Christmas Eve! After being told on Tuesday night that he would not go home Wednesday and maybe not even on Thursday, it was quite the pleasant surprise when we got to the NICU on Wednesday and they asked if we would be ready to take him home in just a couple hours. Here he is when we took him home - he is really tiny in his car seat.



So far we have been adjusting to taking care of Jacob full-time instead of just visiting him for a few hours a day. Wednesday night was extremely difficult since Jacob kept waking up after only sleeping for about 20-30 minutes at a time. We think it was a combination of factors - he was in an unfamiliar place, his diapers kept leaking and soaking him, he was hungry, etc. Thursday night and Friday night have gone much more as expected - Jacob sleeps for about 2 - 2 1/2 hours at a time and then will wake up very hungry.

Overall, Jacob is a really good baby. He seems to only cry when you change his clothes or diaper, or when he is really hungry. He is even getting better about crying when you change his diaper.

Since it was Jacob's first Christmas, we decided to start leaving cookies for Santa using a special plate and milk mug that I got a couple years ago. Here is what we left for Santa:


And this is what it looked like the next morning:

Looks like Santa visited!

We couldn't resist and took a super cheesy picture.


My friend, Amy, sent a super thoughtful package to us that included the cutest little onesie for Jacob to make it look like he was a present with a tag that read "Mom & Dad's best present ever!!!". Sadly we didn't get a picture of Jacob wearing it before it fell victim to a diaper leak - but the sentiment is so true. Jacob really is the best present ever and we are so grateful that (after a long wait) he has finally joined our family.

Jacob meets Santa

Since most of the babies in the NICU came early, Santa comes to visit them early.

Jacob dressed up for the occasion, wearing his "My First Christmas" onesie, from Mindy.

Tonight he should be in an open crib, instead of the incubator.  And, we hope to have him home on Christmas Eve.

Jacob coming home soon?

We just got an interesting call from a doctor at the NICU.  She said that they are moving Jacob to an open crib and out of the incubator.  She also said they are going to let him eat as much as he wants.  If he gains weight and keeps his temperature stable, then he could be coming home in 2-4 days!

That would be quite the Christmas present.

Jacob Update

Well, our little one is doing fine in the NICU.  

He is eating well, breathing on his own, and had his IVs removed.  Now all he needs to work on is keeping his temperature stable in an open crib and putting on a little weight.  Then he should be able to come home.

Labor

Sunday starting at about 5pm things became quite the blur for us. About 3 times a day they were putting the monitor on me to check Jacob's heart rate and to see if I was having contractions. Around 4:30, after being on the monitor for 45 minutes, my nurse came in telling me that I had to roll over to my side and put on an oxygen mask because the baby's heart rate was elevated and they needed to try to bring it down.

Things got really frantic really fast. The nurse was now saying that my blood work from that morning had been lost (which they needed to know if I was starting to get an infection) and that they would come draw some more blood and that she was calling the doctor for a decision on whether or not to go ahead and induce that night.

At 6pm, I was being wheeled into a Labor & Delivery room and about 15 minutes later they started my drugs to induce labor. 30 minutes later I hadn't had any contractions (at least, no more than I had been having for the last few days before) so they increased the drip a little and told me it would most likely be hours before I was dilated to 4cm.

About 5 minutes later, I had a super intense contraction that caught me completely off guard. I really thought the contractions would gradually get stronger. 2 minutes later when I had another contraction, I thought it was in my head that they were so strong and so close together but I also knew I wasn't going to be able to handle much more without an epidural (that pitocin is terrible, by the way). 5 minutes later when the nurse came in and checked, I was dilated to 4cm.

The nurse called for the anesthesiologist who came in and said he didn't want to give me an epidural because of the infection. With contractions coming strong every 1.5 minutes, this didn't make me very happy. He finally agreed to give me the epidural as long as I understood I was at an increased risk for complications and within 20 minutes of me calling the nurse, I had the epidural and the pain from the contractions was subsiding.

The nurse checked me again, and said that she would get everyone in the room and ready. Turns out I was already dilated to 9cm. At this point it was about 45 minutes since my first contraction. They said that with the epidural I would still feel the pressure of the contractions, just not the pain. I felt nothing - it was fabulous!

It took about a half hour to get things set up, but about 10 minutes after 8pm they had me start pushing. After only 5 pushes, Jacob was here.

I have had a few people tell me I don't know how lucky I am to have had such a short labor because their labor lasted hours and hours. I really feel like there were 2 reasons for my super short labor. The first is that I was on bed rest in the hospital for about 10 days before the labor - so I had almost 240 hours of misery before labor.

The second reason that my labor was so short is because Justin couldn't have handled a long labor. That may sound strange, but remember that Justin had major surgery 5 days before Jacob was born and had just been released from the hospital the day before. As it was, by the time that Jacob arrived, Justin had been on his feet for way too long and was having difficulty having the energy to still be up and moving around.

We really feel like we have been blessed in a lot of ways over the past couple weeks while we have been dealing with all kinds of trials. My short labor was just another blessing that we have received.

Lots of pictures!

Here are just a few of the pictures that we have so far of Jacob. Since he is in the NICU (and will be for an unknown amount of time) we only got to see him for a few minutes after delivery and now we get to see him a couple times a day. We are hoping that he learns everything that he needs to so he can come home as soon as possible!

Pictures right after delivery:



He didn't get a bath until today once his breathing starting stabilizing - but they haven't had to put him on oxygen at all yet (hopefully they won't have to).

Pictures from this afternoon:




He looks so tiny with Justin's hand on his back!

Pictures from tonight when I got to hold him for the first time since right after delivery. I got to give him about a teaspoon or so of formula and then I got to "kangaroo" him (skin to skin contact for an hour).






The video is a bit grainy - but we love how alert he seems in it!

Jacob Mathew

At 8:12pm today, our boy, Jacob Mathew, was born.  He weighed in at 4lbs 10.8 oz and is 17.25 inches long.  He arrived a few weeks early, being due January 26th.  

From 1st contraction to delivery was 82 minutes.

His elevated heart rate and mom's high white blood cell count triggered the events of the evening.  They induced her fairly soon after getting her to the room.  After that, it all happened pretty quickly.

Now, time for a little rest for all involved.

And here we go!

Let the games begin!  We have just moved from Ante-partum to Labor and Delivery.  The baby's heartbeat has been elevated for a while now.  They will be coming by soon to give Julie her petosin shot to help induce labor.

So different!!!!

Things have happened so different for Justin's surgery than the one he had in August.

Last time he had a lot of trouble getting his bowels to wake up and he didn't get discharged from the hospital until the 10th day after surgery.

He was discharged today! The 5th day after surgery and he is well enough to go home.

He is sore from surgery, but really doing great.

We don't know what we would do without the help of my mom and his dad this past week.

We know that the Lord is watching out for us and listening to everyone's prayers for us. We are feeling really blessed.

One week down

Today makes one week since my water broke and I came to the hospital. When the neonatologist came in to visit with me yesterday, she informed me that I am definitely an outlier since I hadn't gone into labor, had any contractions, etc. But last night I did start having some minor contractions - really not too painful, very spaced out and very short-lived.

I have told our baby boy that he needs to be patient until Justin is released from the hospital and haven't felt any more contractions this morning. We will see how obedient he can be, right?

Justin is doing extremely well since his surgery. He came over to see me for about a half hour on Wednesday (day after surgery) and then about an hour and half yesterday. He is already doing lots of walking around, was moved to clear liquids last night and will be getting full liquids this afternoon. I really think that it makes a huge difference that he was feeling healthy for this surgery whereas the last one he was very sick. Plus I think he is very determined to recover to be here for our baby.

Here's hoping that the next few days are very uneventful - that Justin's is able to be released from the hospital on Monday and that nothing causes me to go into labor before Tuesday. And praying that although our guy will be very small, he will be very strong.

One obstacle down

I am still in the hospital and still on bed rest. Luckily there have been no contractions and no sign of infection yet. As long as our little guy can hang on for another week my doctor wants to deliver him next Tuesday on December 16th.

One good thing is that Justin just got out of surgery. The surgery started a bit late and also took a bit longer than we thought that it would, but the surgeon said there was lots of scar tissue to work around from the last surgery. But everything looks good so far.

In case you are wondering - we do not get to share a room. I am in the women's center at the hospital where I am being taken care of the way I need to be, while Justin will be in another building, receiving the care that he needs. We are hopeful that as he starts to be able to move around over the next few days, he will be able to visit me but I am not allowed out of my room to try to see him. Too much moving around for me could bring on contractions which we are trying to avoid.

We hope that Justin's recovery is quick and not quite as complicated as the last surgery. We also want to thank everyone for their continued prayers on our behalf. This has certainly been one crazy year for our family!

Private

As we get closer and closer to the birth of our baby, we wanted to make a point of something. Our blog is not private, nor do we have any intention of making it private. However, you may notice that we have never listed our last name anywhere on our blog since its creation.

Please help us to stay as anonymous as possible on the internet by not leaving any comments which have our last name in them, nor linking to our blog from yours by use of our last name. It may seem silly, but it will help us feel better about all the things we post here.

Our world of craziness

Check the baby countdown at the top and you will realize why I really had no idea that it was my water that broke this morning. Baby "J" isn't due for over 7 weeks and yet, I am in the hospital where I will stay until he makes his appearance. So far everything looks good and I haven't had any contractions - but once the water breaks, you never know what you are in for.

The hope is that baby boy will hold out until I reach 35 weeks to make his appearance. So - hopefully it is a boring couple of weeks for me as I lay here on bed rest being monitored.

Anyone keeping track might also realize that Justin will become a patient (at this same hospital) on Tuesday, when he goes in for surgery #2. We are really hoping for the best, meaning that we are hoping that he is released from the hospital before our little boy arrives.

Needless to say, Christmas cards will be going out very late this year - if at all now.

Please keep our little family in your prayers!