Jacob has been home for 6 days now and we've had several "firsts" but true to form Jacob slept through most of them.
It was such a lovely day on Monday that we decided to take Jacob out on a walk around the neighborhood. After assembling the stroller, figuring out how the car seat attaches to the stroller getting him dressed, grabbing his portable oxygen tank and apnea monitor we were ready to go, and surprise surprise, Jacob slept through the entire thing. We walked up and down our street (I was taking pictures the entire time) and my little guy was fast asleep. I will say our stroller and car seat system is awesome, Chicco brand for anyone interested, it's lightweight, durable, great pushing and turning capacity and easy to close down.
Then on Tuesday we gave him his first bath at home. It's much easier to bath a baby at home than in the hospital. We were able to put his tub on the floor of his room and set everything out next to it. He bathed like a champ and then slept the rest of the day.
Wednesday we took a trip to Jacob's great grandpa's house for their first meeting. Once again Jacob was asleep the entire time we were over there. The minute we got home he woke up and then stayed up until 1am.
This morning we took our fist visit to the eye doctor. If you have never seen an eye exam performed on a newborn count yourself lucky. It is horrendous. The eye doctor has to have an assistant hold the baby down and then takes two clamps to hold open his eye lids all the while the baby is bawling his eyes out. That is exactly what happened this morning. Eye exams take a lot of of Jacob and on our way out of the doctor's office he set off his apnea monitor, it beeped once indicating he had had apnea but he corrected himself within one beep. Then walking to the car he set it off again this time it beeped twice indicating a slow heart rate, again he corrected it himself. You can imagine the car ride home, I was watching him like a hawk. Now he's sleeping, and will probably sleep the rest of the day. I'm not letting this kid out of my site.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Home Sweet Home
April 18, 2010. After 109 long days Jacob finally got to come home. We got to take him home one week after his original due date. And guess what, my little boy slept through the entire event.
Mike and I did an 'overnight" at the hospital on Saturday before taking Jacob home. Children's encourages parents to spend at least one night at the hospital with their baby before taking them home so we can get use to operating the apnea monitor, giving our baby his medications, etc. So we got there at 9pm and the nurses basically shut the door and told us to be parents. They did come in once during the night because I wanted an official weight and length before leaving the hospital. Jacob left the hospital weighing 8 pounds 1 ounce and 49 centimeters inches long! That may sound "normal" to everyone else but Jacob started life weighing 1 lb 12 ounces and 33 centimeters long. It's incredible how quickly he was able to catch up to other newborns. I couldn't sleep the entire night. We've been so close to taking him home a few times and I just didn't want anything to happen to make us stay longer. At 11pm his monitor did go off. The way the monitor works is that it monitors his heart rate and respiratory rate. If his heart rate dips under 90 or over 225 for longer than 20 seconds the monitor goes off, if he's respiratory rate dips under 80 for longer than 20 seconds the monitor goes off. We are supposed to then of course run to him and watch him for 10 more seconds (or ten beeps) and if he doesn't correct it himself (getting his heart rate back up or breathing) then we intervene. So at 11pm the monitor went off and I almost died, the monitor hadn't gone off all week and the night before I am suppose to take him home the monitor goes off? But luckily it only beeped once and he self corrected it. At 11:45 pm the monitor went off, this time for 3 beeps and he corrected himself. I spent the rest of the night staring at him and the monitor praying that it wouldn't go off again. Morning came and no more alarms. My parents came to the hospital to help bring Jacob home. You accumulate a lot of stuff over 3 and 1/2 months. Even though I had been taking stuff home all week, we still had to take two trips to the car. Again I was probably the crazy lady in the ICC, I was recording and snapping pictures of everything. Meanwhile Jacob was fast asleep. He somehow managed to stay asleep all the way home even though we hit about a hundred potholes.
That day we had an endless stream of visitors. We limited our visitors to just family, I didn't want to overwhelm Jacob, or myself. Jacob was a perfect little angel, and slept most of the day even while uncles and aunts were passing him back and forth.
Our last visitor didn't leave until 11pm. We then put Jacob into his crib, I think he has to get used to sleeping in it because he was pretty fussy and didn't want to stay in bed, which is unlike him, he's usually such a mellow kid and will hang out in his crib (in the hospital) without much fuss. I spent most of the night staring at his chest to make sure he was breathing and watching the lights on his apnea monitor.
I'm so happy he's home and I am ready for the next chapter in our adventure. Stay tuned.
Mike and I did an 'overnight" at the hospital on Saturday before taking Jacob home. Children's encourages parents to spend at least one night at the hospital with their baby before taking them home so we can get use to operating the apnea monitor, giving our baby his medications, etc. So we got there at 9pm and the nurses basically shut the door and told us to be parents. They did come in once during the night because I wanted an official weight and length before leaving the hospital. Jacob left the hospital weighing 8 pounds 1 ounce and 49 centimeters inches long! That may sound "normal" to everyone else but Jacob started life weighing 1 lb 12 ounces and 33 centimeters long. It's incredible how quickly he was able to catch up to other newborns. I couldn't sleep the entire night. We've been so close to taking him home a few times and I just didn't want anything to happen to make us stay longer. At 11pm his monitor did go off. The way the monitor works is that it monitors his heart rate and respiratory rate. If his heart rate dips under 90 or over 225 for longer than 20 seconds the monitor goes off, if he's respiratory rate dips under 80 for longer than 20 seconds the monitor goes off. We are supposed to then of course run to him and watch him for 10 more seconds (or ten beeps) and if he doesn't correct it himself (getting his heart rate back up or breathing) then we intervene. So at 11pm the monitor went off and I almost died, the monitor hadn't gone off all week and the night before I am suppose to take him home the monitor goes off? But luckily it only beeped once and he self corrected it. At 11:45 pm the monitor went off, this time for 3 beeps and he corrected himself. I spent the rest of the night staring at him and the monitor praying that it wouldn't go off again. Morning came and no more alarms. My parents came to the hospital to help bring Jacob home. You accumulate a lot of stuff over 3 and 1/2 months. Even though I had been taking stuff home all week, we still had to take two trips to the car. Again I was probably the crazy lady in the ICC, I was recording and snapping pictures of everything. Meanwhile Jacob was fast asleep. He somehow managed to stay asleep all the way home even though we hit about a hundred potholes.
That day we had an endless stream of visitors. We limited our visitors to just family, I didn't want to overwhelm Jacob, or myself. Jacob was a perfect little angel, and slept most of the day even while uncles and aunts were passing him back and forth.
Our last visitor didn't leave until 11pm. We then put Jacob into his crib, I think he has to get used to sleeping in it because he was pretty fussy and didn't want to stay in bed, which is unlike him, he's usually such a mellow kid and will hang out in his crib (in the hospital) without much fuss. I spent most of the night staring at his chest to make sure he was breathing and watching the lights on his apnea monitor.
I'm so happy he's home and I am ready for the next chapter in our adventure. Stay tuned.
Monday, April 12, 2010
April 10 Came and Went
Jacob's original due date was April 10. I knew it was going to be an emotional day because I knew that we weren't going to be able to take him home on his due date because he was having spells again, but April 10 was an especially hard day. After being off oxygen for a week, Jacob had two spells on Saturday where he turned blue and the nurses had to give him air. The doctor decided that he needed to go back on oxygen. So I got to see my beautiful boy's face for a week before the cannula was put back on. The doctor ordered a pneumogram study for Sunday night, this records his saturation, heart rate and respiratory rate over a 12 hour time frame to see what happens when Jacob has spells. They want to know if his spells are central apnea, meaning his brain is still immature, eating relating or something else. He had one done about a month ago and it didn't provide the doctors with any insight so I really don't think it will do anything this time.
Jacob seemed to be making so much progress, they took him off oxygen, removed the feeding tube and took away some medication. Now he has the oxygen again and it sounds like he will likely go back on his meds. Mike and I are going to have to be trained to use an oxygen tank and will have to carry it around with us anywhere we take Jacob. Sounds like I won't be able to really take Jacob anywhere because I don't know how I am going to be able to carry Jacob, his apnea monitor, an oxygen tank and a diaper bag. Our walks around the neighborhood might not even happen, at least not without dad.
Jacob seemed to be making so much progress, they took him off oxygen, removed the feeding tube and took away some medication. Now he has the oxygen again and it sounds like he will likely go back on his meds. Mike and I are going to have to be trained to use an oxygen tank and will have to carry it around with us anywhere we take Jacob. Sounds like I won't be able to really take Jacob anywhere because I don't know how I am going to be able to carry Jacob, his apnea monitor, an oxygen tank and a diaper bag. Our walks around the neighborhood might not even happen, at least not without dad.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Big Boy Progress
Lots to report this last week. Jacob is now 39 weeks old, 7 and 1/2 pounds and 48 centimeters long. Jacob has really been trying to prove to us that he's ready to go home. He did have one spell where they had to bag him on Wednesday and a spell on Thursday that they had to record due to some color changes but since then I am happy to report that my baby has gone 3 days without a spell!! That's the longest length of time ever for him. He does have a tendency to lull you into thinking everything is okay and then have another bad spell but so far so good.
Jacob is no longer on oxygen! The doctors removed the oxygen canola on Friday night, Mike and I didn't even recognize our little boy. We have never seen him without some type of assisted breathing device. It was just amazing we just kept staring at him in disbelief. To be honest he probably could have been taken off the oxygen sooner but they kept it on as a precaution. Even without the oxygen Jacob as sating in the high 90s. Then on Sunday Jacob's feeding tube was taken off!! Now we could see his entire face. He is beautiful and really does look like Mike. Jacob has been able to take all of his feedings by bottle the last couple of days and the doctors wanted to put him on an at liberty schedule like any other full term baby. Let him eat when he wants to and see how much he can eat. Well my little guy wants to eat every two hours (he was on a three hour schedule) and at least 60 mls at a time (he was taking 55 mls). This makes me wonder if he was starving for an hour and we just didn't know it. The last two things keeping us in the hospital were his spells and getting him to bottle so we really could be taking him very soon.
We also took CPR training on Friday. Good lord I wasn't scared until I took the class. Knowing that I might actually have to give my son CPR scares the crap out of me. They also showed us what to do in case babies choke, wow that is really intensive I had no idea. My mom and Mike's mom took the class with us, along with Tourah. I was keeping an eye on the moms during the entire class. My mom wasn't pushing down hard enough because she was afraid pushing down hard would hurt the baby. I told her I'd rather my baby breath then her worrying about hurting him. Mike's mom kept putting her fingers in the wrong position. I'm thinking I'm going to wait a while before having the grandmas take care of Jacob.
Jacob is no longer on oxygen! The doctors removed the oxygen canola on Friday night, Mike and I didn't even recognize our little boy. We have never seen him without some type of assisted breathing device. It was just amazing we just kept staring at him in disbelief. To be honest he probably could have been taken off the oxygen sooner but they kept it on as a precaution. Even without the oxygen Jacob as sating in the high 90s. Then on Sunday Jacob's feeding tube was taken off!! Now we could see his entire face. He is beautiful and really does look like Mike. Jacob has been able to take all of his feedings by bottle the last couple of days and the doctors wanted to put him on an at liberty schedule like any other full term baby. Let him eat when he wants to and see how much he can eat. Well my little guy wants to eat every two hours (he was on a three hour schedule) and at least 60 mls at a time (he was taking 55 mls). This makes me wonder if he was starving for an hour and we just didn't know it. The last two things keeping us in the hospital were his spells and getting him to bottle so we really could be taking him very soon.
We also took CPR training on Friday. Good lord I wasn't scared until I took the class. Knowing that I might actually have to give my son CPR scares the crap out of me. They also showed us what to do in case babies choke, wow that is really intensive I had no idea. My mom and Mike's mom took the class with us, along with Tourah. I was keeping an eye on the moms during the entire class. My mom wasn't pushing down hard enough because she was afraid pushing down hard would hurt the baby. I told her I'd rather my baby breath then her worrying about hurting him. Mike's mom kept putting her fingers in the wrong position. I'm thinking I'm going to wait a while before having the grandmas take care of Jacob.
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