Our baby is so advanced

"The Old Man"

We've been remiss in updating the blog recently. We've just been busy with that thing..what's it called? Oh yeah, raising a baby. Just kidding. :)

Jack has been doing really well. We went to see a Lactation Consultant today to work on Jill's breastfeeding, where they weighed Jack and he's already gained a full pound since our visit to the pediatrician last week. Baby's are supposed to gain about an ounce a day and Jack is gaining almost 1.8 ounces per day. What can I say? Our baby is so advanced.

I've been bugged by numerous friends and relatives to update the blog with more pictures and some videos so here we have some.

Here's a slew of new pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/Jackson123

Here are some videos. It's tough to get quality videos because Jackson invariably stops doing what ever cute thing he's doing by the time you've found that camera and turned it on.

Tummy Time
It's important for babies to get at least a half an hour of tummy time every day. Since doctors no longer recommend babies sleep on their tummies because of SIDs concerns they need time to strengthen their neck, back and arms. Here you can see Jackson enjoying his tummy time.



Hiccups
Babies get the hiccups a lot. Here you can watch him make weired faces while having a diaphragmatic spasm. I believe you can here a Scrubs rerun in the background.

A small update

Jack's been home with us for a few days now and things are going great. It's so much easier taking care of him here at home as opposed to in the hospital. Jill and I have a good system down for the feedings at night. We have to feed him every three hours, so we have feedings at 12:30AM, 3:30AM and 6:30AM. I'm taking the 3:30AM feeding, where I'm using a bottle with breast milk to feed him. This allows each of us to get some decent sleep while making sure that he's fed.

We went out on our first trip with Jackson today. We went to Home Depot and Target real quick to pick up a few things. Jack actually slept the whole time, so I don't know if he got anything out of it, but Jill really enjoyed pushing around the stroller.

I am working on some video of the little guy, but he stubbornly refuses to do anything except lay there when the camera is on.

New pics have been uploaded also:
http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/Jackson11308

Heartfelt Thanks

I wanted to express our sincere thanks and heartfelt gratitude to all the staff of the North Austin Medical Center, especially those members of the Labor & Delivery, Postpartum, and the NICU groups we met. It was their professionalism, caring, and concern that helped Jill and I make sure that Jackson was delivered and came home safely. I'd like to specifically thank the nurses Caitlin, Marla, Sherry, and Chris as well as Doctor Smith for delivering him safely, and then Doctors Wong and Breed for looking after him in the NICU.

Again, thank you for all of your help.

So excited

New pics of Jackson at the bottom of the post

Jill and I are just so excited that we were able to bring Jackson home today. We spent a total of 6 day's in the hospital and it really was beginning to feel like we'd never leave. It was almost like being in a prison. We stayed in a room that we kept dark and we walked the same few hallways for that whole time, and there are almost no windows. It was becoming a little surreal.

I don't think I mentioned this, but Jill was discharged from the hospital yesterday and they were letting us stay in one of the rooms free of charge because Jackson was in the NICU.That was pretty awesome of them, and I don't think I've ever seen an institution give anything away like that. However, they did evict us today because a woman who had just gone in to labor was going to need the room. They had warned us that was possible, so we weren't surprised. That kind of forced us to go home, shower and change which was a good thing. We swung back to the NICU a couple of times for feedings, and the doctor came by around 4PM and told us that he felt pretty confident in letting Jackson come home today. We were ecstatic, and as soon as the nurse got the discharge papers we were out of there.

We had Jill's mom, Jodi, meet us outside with Einstein when we got home so they could be introduced to each other in a non-territorial way for a dog. (Which was something someone told us was a good idea) It was the funniest thing to watch Einstein react to Jackson. We thought that he might sniff at him and then go do his thing like he does so often. But, when Einstein saw him as we pulled Jackson out of the car in his car seat he flipped out. He started jumping up and down trying to sniff him and running around at my feet trying to see him. I assume it's the smell of a newborn baby that must trigger some sort of pack mentality in him. Now, Einstein sits at the feet of whoever is holding Jackson and tries to sniff him, and when Jackson cries out Einstein will pop up his head and moan a little. It's wild. And it's even weirder when he starts pacing around Jill when she breast feeds.

Ok, I'm going to sign off now. With 45 minutes of sleep last night, and something like 8 hours in the last 5 days.

New pics of Jackson:
http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/NewJacksonPhotos

We're bring Jackson home! Doctor signed off on a good bill of health. Huzzah!

Jackson update

It turns out that all the blood tests for infections came back negative including the blood culture that took 48 hours to complete. So, they've stopped the antibiotics and are no longer looking for an infection.

The next step the doctor took yesterday was to do two more tests. One that would test his blood for acid levels to make sure that he was getting rid of the CO2 in his system properly. That came back with a good result. The next test was to check his blood pressure in his arms and legs. The first time they took his blood pressure there was a difference and according to the doctor this has scary implications that I won't get in to. None the less, they took his blood pressures again later that night and they were fine and the doctor canceled any future tests going down that line.

Then they decided to let Jackson out of the NICU last night and he was able to sleep in the room with us which made us really happy. Of course Jackson decided he was going to show us what really having a baby is about and stayed awake for hours on end crying and wanting to be held. Nothing we did he would get him to go back to sleep. I got about and hour of sleep last night so I'm a bit of a zombie today.

We also talked to the doctor this morning and he said that one of the respiration checks they did last night clocked in pretty high, while all of the others including the tests this morning were fine. Because of that one high resp rate he wants to keep him for the rest of the day and do some further observations just to make sure he's OK. The doctor said this is just as much a medical/legal concern as it is a health concern for the baby.

However, the doctor said he feels totally confident that Jackson is going to be fine and he'll probably be coming home this afternoon or early evening.

We're really hoping that happens!

A little delay

Well, we hit a little snag in trying to get out of the hospital. Yesterday, one of the nurses noticed that Jackson was having an elevated breathing rate which is one of the vital signs that they check for throughout the day. Apparently, the maximum normal breathing rate for newborns is about 60 breaths per minute, and Jackson was breathing at about 70 BPM. The nurse was a little concerned and had Jackson go be observed for a while in the nursery, and they called his pediatrician to come take a look. After the doctor came to take a look she said that all of his other vital signs appeared normal, his heart and lungs sounded fine, and he was not breathing under distress and that those were all good signs. However, the breathing rate was still a concern so she went to speak with the Neonatologist. After consulting with the other doctor they decided that it would be best to move Jackson to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for observation just to make sure that he was OK. That sounds a little scarier than it is, but it's the best place he can be observed. There is almost a one to one ratio of nurses to babies in the NICU so he gets a lot of attention (Especially because he's so cute, they say).

After talking to the NICU doctor it seems that elevated breathing rates can be a sign of infection so it would be best to watch over him as infants can get very sick very fast. To check for infection they ordered a battery of tests includ blood counts, electrolytes, a chest X-ray, a blood culture, as well as I'm sure others that I'm not aware of. Most of those tests are quick and were back within a couple of hours with all negative results, and that was good to hear. However, the blood culture test takes 48 hours to perform, so they are going to hold on to Jackson at least until Wednesday afternoon to see the result of the test.

The other possibility is that he's just a fast breather for now and it will go away and they'll never find the cause of it. I spoke with the doctor again this morning and tried to get an impression of how she thought he was doing. She said that she felt very positive since all his vitals are good and the tests so far have been all good results. She also said that her "gut feeling" is that he's just fine and that we'll be able to go home tomorrow. We're all hoping that is the case.

Right now his breathing is still a little elevated, but it goes up and down all day. Jill and I are with him as much as we can be, and we're feeding him every three hours. Which is pretty tough when you can't get more than 3 hours of sleep at a time. But, we're there with him all day long.

Jackson is an incredibly strong little boy and we're sure that he's going to OK.

Jackson, Day 2

Today was a much better day than yesterday. Over the night, Jill and I had the nurse take Jackson to the nursery between feedings. We didn't really want to do that, but after essentially 40 hours without sleep we needed to get some rest. We got about 2.5 hours of sleep each time, and a total of about 6 hours of sleep last night. We felt much better day, and it was such a great day with our new baby. We spent most of the day still resting, but did a lot of holding him, and took him on a couple of walks around the postpartum ward.

Jackson is doing great. He's still spending most of his time sleeping, but there were a couple of times today when he was awake and he just lays there and looks all around him. It already feels like he has such a personality. Of course, we think he is the cutest baby in the whole world, but I'm sure every parent feels that way. Jill and I both feel really lucky that he's come in to our world.

We are slowly getting better at the breastfeeding. It was still really frustrating and he doesn't seem to want to stay latched on for very long so he's not getting much colostrom. But, we're sticking to it and he and Jill both get better at it at each feeding. The doctor was a little concerned today about his drop in weight, which was 7.1%, and they start really getting worried at 10% loss of weight. Each ounce means a lot when you only weigh 7lbs 1ooz. So, to combat the weight drop the doctor had us supplement the breastfeeding with some formula, which he loves because it's so easy.

Jill's doing well. She's pretty sore from the c-section, but she's up and able to move around. She was able to take a shower last night and is eating solid food after the anesthesia wore off.
She's really excited and loves just staring at Jackson when he sleeps.


It's tough to take pics when he sleeps so much, because most of them would fall under the them "Baby wrapped in blanket. But, here are some more pics from today:

http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/NewJacksonPhotos

Jackson, T plus 20 hours

Jackson has been alive about 20 hours now, and it's been a long 20 hours already. Neither Jill nor I got really any sleep last night. We were too excited, and with trying to Jackson to breast feed we had our hands full. Breast feeding it turns out is a much more complicated and nuanced process than we previously appreciated. We couldn't quite get him to latch on, and all he ended up doing was biting Jill.

Then in the morning, when the nurse shift change occurred, the new nurse noticed that Jackson was sighing a lot and shaking a little bit. She was concerned so she took him back to the nursery to have him checked out. They did a variety of blood tests, and had the on call Doctor come give him a quick check up. The Doctor said that he appeared to be healthy with no obvious problems, but one of the tests came back that his blood glucose level was low. Apparently a score of 50 is considered low, and Jackson's score was 42. They gave him some formula which he gulped down with a passion. They left him in the heat ray for a while and within an hour he was looking and feeling good.

He's already developed quite the personality, and when he's awake he's always looking around the room and trying to focus. He makes the most cutest little cooing and gurgling sounds that we're sure everyone will fall in love with.


Jill is pretty wiped out and I'm giving her a little alone time right now so that she can try to catch a few winks before Jackson needs to feed again.

More pics after the link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/JacksonOneDayOld

Welcome to the world!

We had a successful launch this evening and Jackson Walker Horne was born on January 4th at 10:10PM. He weighed 7lbs 10.3 oz, and was 19.25" long.

Mommy and baby are both doing well, and will be staying in the hospital for the next couple of days.

More pics of Jackson and the event at the link below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/JacksonSBirth02

Change of plans

There has been a change of plans. The doctor has decided to move the launch up to today. I will post more information as we move forward.

T minus 3 days to baby launch

All systems appear normal. We are now at T minus 3 day's to baby launch