Home

Last Sunday we were discharged from the hospital and headed HOME!  They sent Jackson home on oxygen and he will probably continue to be on oxygen for a couple of weeks.  We are so glad to finally be home with our baby.  Jack did great in the car on the way home but look how tiny he is in the car seat!  We brought him home weighing 5.6oz which is a little less than his birth weight.  Here are a few pictures from our short time at home.  I like to call this one...

                                                                    BLUE STEEL

Ladies Man

Jack and I were talking this morning while we ate breakfast together.  OK, so I was talking and he was eating, but still, it was some good father son time.  He and I came to the conclusion that the ladies love him.    I think the nurses meeting before each shift is probably close to a cat fight as everyone tries to get Jack as one of their three babies to take care of.  His nurse, Cathy, even went so far as to say she would like to stick him in her pocket and take him home.  She then reassured me she was only joking and that if I come one day and he's not in his normal place it means he was moved, not stolen.  I've got my eye on her.  

Actually, Jack's nurses, especially Cathy, have been amazing.  It's not just with Jack either.  They treat all the babies with such love and tenderness and they treat the parents with respect, honesty, and compassion.  Every day when I leave I just want to hug them.  They're amazing people and they go the extra mile to take care of the kids and make a tough situation a little better.

So, I've discovered a new thing I love about our little Jackson.  The kid is a fighter.  Sure, Tuesday was crap but it barely phased Jack.  I think he's like, look guys, this whole NICU thing is a marathon not a sprint.  We'll get there but there's some hills to climb.  I think he's right.  We will get there and Jess and I decided to just try to make the best of it and enjoy the journey.  I mean, how blessed are we that we get to spend an extra five weeks with Jack.  Plus, we're learning tons about his little body and when we get to bring him home I think we'll be better parents for the experience.  Maybe I'm rationalizing, maybe not.  Either way, I know Jessie and I love our little man like we never knew we could love and we're going to enjoy every moment of life with him.  

Update on Jack

I was discharged from the hospital yesterday and it was probably one of the saddest days that I have ever had.  Throughout my entire pregnancy I knew that I was at high risk for preterm labor, I knew there was a good chance he would come early.  I also knew there was a good chance that he would end up in the NICU.  Knowing all of this I never, ever, ever considered that there was a good chance we would be discharged from the hospital without our baby.  Yesterday that is exactly what happened.  I have no idea what I was thinking but I was devastated yesterday having to leave him at the hospital.  

Yesterday Jackson decided that he didn't want to finish his bottles anymore so they had to put a feeding tube in.  I started sobbing listening to him scream as they put the tube up his nose and down into his tummy.  Also, he did end up having to be put on oxygen so now our precious little baby has tape and tubes all over his sweet face.  I just kept thinking how he is only five days old and he has already been poked so much.  

On a good note, Jack really is doing great.  His eating is somewhat sporadic depending on how sleepy he is.  Sometimes he'll nurse for about ten minutes and then eat an entire bottle then other times he won't latch and will only eat a tiny bit.  He just gets so sleepy sometimes and eating is hard work for such a little dude.  He is breathing completely on his own but he had a couple apnea episodes (I think only 2) and a few episodes where his breathing slows quite a bit.  The oxygen has helped tremendously with all of these episodes.  We don't know yet when he will get to come home but we are praying that it will be before thanksgiving.  Before he comes home he needs to have no more breathing episodes-he has to go five days without any-and be finishing all of his feedings.  We should know more by tomorrow morning after rounds.  

Like I said, yesterday was an extremely difficult day but today was much, much better.  I'll try to keep posting updates on here but hopefully we'll have out little guy home soon. 

Bath Time

Last night at  midnight was Jack's first bath.  Jess needed to stay upstairs and rest so I went down with the expectation of taking tons of pictures.  Instead, with the help of one of Jack's amazing nurses, Danielle, I bathed him.

Besides just getting to hold my sweet little son for awhile and clean up some of the goop on him, the warm water made him wake up so I got to see his little eyes.  They're beautiful and perfect.  That little guy can also make some of the cutest faces ever.  He's very demonstrative.

Doing Big Things...

Since Jess is still recovering I'm going to try to keep you updated on what's happening with our little family.  I'll cut straight to the chase.  Today has been a good day.  Great.  Amazing.  Life changing even.  

I've always heard people talk about how amazing it is when they have their first child but until today I never knew the kind of euphoria they were speaking of.  I mean, yesterday was amazing too, but for some reason today was just so much better.  

Jess has been so tough dealing with the pain of recovery but she hasn't complained a bit.  The best part is, she's been so great at asking for my help.  It really makes me feel loved that she trusts me to help her right now.  Again, what a great day.

As for our little man, Jackson is killing it in the NICU.  I think he might have been MVP (most valuable premie) today.  It all started this morning with "Rounds".  "Rounds" pretty much consists of a Dr., six nurses, and me sitting around a table talking about how awesome my son is.  I was actually pretty intimidated. I had no clue what they were talking about but I was so thankful to get to be there.  The bottom line was that Jackson's job today was to eat a little, snuggle with Jess and I, and pretty much just keep being awesome (I added the last one but the first two were legit.  They're even written on his whiteboard, so there.)

The eating thing was a bit of a challenge because it required Jessie to start pumping so he can have a little milk to mix with his formula.  It was pretty much cocktail hour for Jack in the NICU.  He loves him a good mixed drink!

Well Jess did great pumping and she and Jack worked pretty hard on learning to breast feed.  I sat right there in the thick of it offering up my expertise.  Actually, I just held Jack's hand away from his face but I did it with great aplomb.  Jess and Jack haven't quite gotten the breastfeeding thing down to a science but they are a great team and are getting closer and closer to total success.  

Our game plan for meal time goes like this, Jess and Jack snuggle and work on breast feeding.  Jack loves snuggling his mama so he falls asleep.  Not just a little asleep...we're talking deep, deep, REM cycle, dreaming about golf and photography type sleep.  As a side note, I think I saw him make a golf swing motion today.  After awhile Jack wakes up a bit works on what seem to be some pretty amazing breast feeding instincts, and then Jess turns him over to me.  

I sit him up, hold his precious little head in my hands, and give him a bottle.  Since he's sitting up and not able to snuggle his mama he eventually starts to attack the bottle.  Six milliliters of milky goodness are nothing to this little man.  He downs them in a matter of seconds and then keeps sucking the bottle until I take it away and awkwardly try to burp him.  He and I haven't really gotten ahold of that one quite yet.  He's a natural but I'm a little slow.  We'll nail it tomorrow.  From there, Jess and I take turns holding him and telling him how much we love him and then we eventually put him back in his bed (which by the way is now a big boy bed due to his overcomer attitude and ability to regulate his body temperature) for a good sleep.  

I've never had a feeling as good as watching my little man snuggle his mom and then come over to me for some food.  Jess is such a good mom and the way she looks at him is the most heartwarming thing I've ever seen.  It's the best.  What an amazing little boy Jessie and I have been blessed with.

Pee. Yeah, that's right.

Today marks my 34 1/2(ish) week of pregnancy.  We had a couple of Dr.'s appointments today and my feeling is that baby Baca will be here sometime in the next week.  I could be completely wrong but there it is.  So it seems like every time I we go to the doctor there is some kind of near disaster that happens.  Well, maybe not a disaster but Adam and I always seem to find a way to embarrass ourselves.  For example, at our last visit when we were walking back into the office I stopped walking with Adam right behind me and he almost plowed me over.  The nurse saw and completely made fun of us for the rest of the visit.  Today, by far, was the most embarrassing moment we have had yet!  For all of you ladies who have frequently visited the OB you know that every time they request a little sample of your pee.  Awesome, right?  OK, so in the bathroom at my Dr's office they have a little window/box with a door where you place your sample.  So i'm in the bathroom, I do my thing, and I go to leave my treasure in the window.  Instead of placing it down oh so gracefully, like I normally do, I spilled it ALL OVER the window.  My initial response is "oh crap!" and then..."what the heck do I do?"  As I stand pondering this I see that there is another sample still left in the window along side of mine and it is now swimming in a little pool of pee.  GROSS!!  I stand there for another couple of seconds and decide that it's time to face the music.  When I step out of the bathroom I cautiously peek my head around the corner and see that the nurse standing there is holding back a little bit of a smile.  She looks up at me and all I can say is, "i'm so sorry, that was my fault".  She kind of laughs and tells me that it's fine but I'm sure she was really thinking, "seriously?  cleaning a pee window is not in my job description."  No really, she was very sweet about it.  I guess that this incident was mostly embarrassing to me but hey, at least I can laugh at myself, right?  After all that we found out that I am 1/2 cm dilated and Adam tried his hardest to get the doctor to tell us when this baby will come which, of course, he couldn't.  I guess we'll just have to hang in there and see what happens next!

Bread and Butter?

I have about a dozen near-rotten bananas sitting on my kitchen island and I hate to waste bananas when they can be made into yummy banana bread.  So this morning I set out some butter (from the freezer) in order to prepare for my baking this afternoon.  To make a not so long story even shorter-I was about to pop the bread in the oven when I looked back and saw that the butter I set out was still sitting on the counter.  Whoops!  But...it actually turned out ok.  Well, I haven't actually tried it yet but if it tastes half as good as it looks/smells I think it will be just fine.

P.S.  I found the never fail cure for heart burn.  Blue Bell cookies and cream ice cream.  Works every

time.  

Starbucks and Triage

All week long I have been thinking about busting out of here and getting a coffee from Starbucks.  It has been over a week (a long time for me-sadly) since I have had my starbucks so I broke out this morning and grabbed some coffee.  Much to my delight, they have brought back their peppermint mochas for the season so it was very much a win-win situation for me.  So I have my coffee, I have my day planned out-a little bit of resting, sorting through old pictures, making some phone calls, dr's appointment at 3:30-I'm a happy camper.  I told Adam not to worry about coming to my appointment because it was just for fetal monitoring and a bpp.  They hooked me up to the monitor and baby looked awesome, he got all of his points for the day, and I was still having contractions about every 2-4 minutes (about the norm for me).  The nurse called my doctor and he wanted me to go up to TRIAGE for fluids-again.  I about cried.  The last time I was in triage (yeah, i'd been before) they pumped me with fluids, gave me a shot, and neither one stopped my contractions.  (Just for the record, I have been drinking a TON of water.)  So I called Adam and he met me at the hospital.  Four hours later we are finally home and eating!  We were both so hungry. With all of that said, everything is fine.  Lefty is doing great, my contractions are still coming but again, that's nothing new.  So..is the moral of the story "don't go get Starbucks when you should be on bed rest?"  Hmm...I wonder.

The Good, The Bad, and the Heart Burn

So today is my first official work day on bed rest which actually wasn't too bad.  I decided to give my Dr. a call this morning to touch base with him on exactly what type of bed rest he wanted me on-before they told me modified bed rest which is pretty much just hanging around the house.  I left a message for my Doc and a couple of hours later some nurse who I had never met or heard of called me back.  I'm pretty sure that when I left the message I did not say "I need to leave a message for random nurse".  Not that i'm doubting this woman's abilities or professional opinion but the fact is she is not my physician and she does not know my history.  Second of all, it really peeves me when a medical professional who (should) have your chart in front of them asks you what is going on.  Honestly, does anyone else have this problem?  I love my doctor but his office has been so frustrating to work with!  Also, if you know me at all you know that I do not like to ask for help, and I don't like to make a big deal out of nothing-especially when it comes to being sick, etc.  I want to hear from my own physician that I need to be on strict bed rest or else I'm going to have a really hard time believing it.  With that said, I am trying to take it easy and I am not ready for lefty to make his debut but I do feel a tad frustrated.

So onto the good!  My Mom-in-law came over yesterday and helped me a TON around the house.  She was my little worker bee helping me get baby clothes washed, sorted, put away, etc.  We got the nursery pretty much organized but it is not finished yet.  Here is a picture of the dresser that Adam painted for the nursery.  I got the drawer pulls at Hobby Lobby and I think it turned out fantastic!  I'll post more pictures as we get things put together.

And Finally...the heart burn!  Oh the heart burn!  Please tell me that it ends as soon as the baby comes.  I have never had heart burn before and it is miserable.  I'm eating ginger all the time and I don't really love ginger unless it is accompanied by sushi and maybe a little sake.

My apologies for all the complaining!  I'll do my best to make the next post a happy one.