Pediatrician Appointment

Quick updates from Jacob's first pediatrician visit today:

Head Circumference: 50th percentile

Weight: 50th Percentile

Length: 10th Percentile

To sum it all up....he is a little short. :)

He gained 5.5 ounces since Saturday when he was weighed by the VNA nurse. He is 7 lbs 15 oz! One more ounce from 8 lbs and 2 ounces from my own birth weight! Jacob's doctor was shocked that he came home on no monitors, oxygen or meds. She said she is very pleased with his progress and we have an appt on 8/6 for his 4 month check-up and vaccinations. He is 4 months tomorrow, but since we had the first pedi appt today and we have VNA on Thursday and Tufts on Monday, she figured we'd give him a few days to chill.

That's all for now.

HOME (sort of)

We're home.....sort of. We are staying at my Dad's temporarily (he is on vacation) while our house airs out. We recently had our hardwood floors refinished and we are letting the house air out before we take the little bean back to his "real" home. Either way it is nice to have the little guy home with us and we are adjusting to life at home with a baby.

The first night wasn't so bad. I only had to get up twice at night for a feed. He pretty much eats every four hours and when he goes to the pediatrician on Tuesday she will let me know if I can let him sleep through the night. For now, they are having me wake him up every four hours regardless, but he pretty much is on that schedule anyways. I have only had to wake him up once.

VNA came to the house today to check on him and weigh him and he is 7 lb 9.5 oz. He has already gained half an ounce since he came home so at least we are going in the right direction and that is on no extra calories! He is taking a multi-vitamin with iron with his dinner feed, but that is it!

We have been having fun trying out all his new toys (bouncer seat, swing, play yard, etc.) and he is having a blast. He loves riding in the car and usually sleeps the entire time which is good because he has a big appointment coming up on the 28th at Tufts. He has an eye exam with Opthamology, an appointment with Endocrinology for his Rickets and an appointment with Urology for a circumcision and a look at his undescended testicles (if they don't come down on their own he will need surgery since this could cause fertility issues later in life) so maybe that will be my next update.

I have added a few new pics of his first days at home so enjoy and I will update soon.

GOING HOME!!!

JACOB IS COMING HOME!!!!!!!!

God Willing, Jacob will be discharged from the hospital on Thursday! This is such exciting news and I can't wait to bring our baby home!

He is having his carseat test tonight and they are tying up some loose ends (last minute blood work, a renal ultrasound, scheduling follow-up appointments, etc.). I am doing my overnight tomorrow night and then the doctor wants me to stay home Wednesday to rest and gear up for his homecoming on Thursday.

He weighs 7 lb 8 oz today and is doing great with his feeds. His tube came out on Saturday night at 8 PM (he took it out himself!) and he has been feeding by mouth for almost 48 hours all on his own!

He will be home before my goal date of 7/23! It has been a long road and it is not over just because he is coming home. There will be many doctor's appointments and he will have to play catch up with his peers for the next two years, but hopefully in time it will all come together.

I also forgot to mention over the past couple of weeks that they no longer hear Jacob's heart murmur (his VSD) and they have decided that it has closed. They are not even going to do a follow-up echo because it was so small that the doctor thinks if we haven't heard it in that long that it has closed by itself (which it usually would have done by the time he was born anyway so that was right on schedule).

Hopefully, my next post will be an update on how he is doing now that he is home. I am going to keep this website up and running indefinitely so if you have been receiving updates you will continue to do so.

Thank you so much to all for the continued support and prayers. Our miracle baby is coming home!!!

In the home stretch...

Here's the news for today: Jacob weighs 7 lb 6 oz (porker!) and he still has about 6 chins.

He had his follow-up eye appointment on Wednesday and there was good news. He is in regression!! Basically, this means the blood vessels in his eyes have stopped going crazy and are growing normally out into Zone 3. He has his next appointment in 3 weeks (instead of the normal two) and the FABULOUS news regarding this is that most likely I WILL BE BRINGING HIM TO HIS NEXT APPOINTMENT BECAUSE HE WILL BE HOME!!! The day nurse at the hospital told me she has a goal: to get Jacob home by the 23rd. Funny thing is that was my own goal from day one. Home by 4 months and no later!!!!

Yesterday he had a bottle at 8 AM, nursed at 11 AM, 2 PM and 5 PM and had a bottle at 8 PM!!! He didn't have to be gavaged for 18 hours! This is huge and hopefully they will let me do the overnight soon!!

We are getting ready to wrap everything up and get him moving towards home. I am bringing in his carseat soon so they can do the carseat test. All babies born before 37 weeks have to sleep for one hour in their carseats to make sure they can breathe in the sitting position. We also are scheduling his circumcision so that will be taken care of before he comes home. That is pretty much all that is left besides packing him up and taking him home.

Hopefully in the next week I can let everyone know what day they are shooting for. Yay for more progress!!

Calculating adjusted age

Tomorrow Jacob is 0 (zero!). Jacob's due date was July 7th which means that tomorrow Jacob will no longer be considered a fetus. He is now considered a newborn baby and his milestones and developments will be measured from tomorrow and not from the day he was born.

From here on out you may hear me refer to Jacob's "actual age" and his "adjusted age". Jacob's actual age is calculated from the day he is born and is how old he technically is. All of Jacob's milestones (crawling, rolling over, walking, talking, etc) will be based on Jacob's adjusted age. For example, on Tuesday the 8th Jacob's actual age will be 15 weeks, but his adjusted age will be 1 day old. If the average baby takes their first steps at 11 months old and Jacob takes his first steps at 11 months old Jacob will be 11 months adjusted and 14.5 months actual.

Today Jacob weighed in at 7 pounds exactly!!!! He is still doing great nursing, but the doctors and nurses are still feeding him on their schedule which is frustrating. I would prefer to feed him on demand because when I show up at his designated feeding time and he is not interested in eating he just sleeps. Today they actually let me feed him when he was up (an hour before his normal feed) and he did great!! When he nurses he does awesome, but it is the difference between him wanting to eat and the doctors designating a time for him to eat. We are going to discuss this with the doctor tomorrow. Hopefully, they will see it my way because this is the only thing preventing him from coming home.

I guess that is all for today. I have posted a new picture of his fat, little face with no oxygen!! You wouldn't believe it is the same baby that weighed 1 and a half pounds at birth! He changes so much day to day. There isn't much to update everyone on now that he is doing so well. He is just gaining weight and eating and soon enough he will be home where he belongs.

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and enjoyed their time off (if you had time off!).

Completely weaned off oxygen!!

Just a quick update for today! Jacob weighed 6 lbs 9.3 oz last night and he has been weaned off the oxygen since Friday night at 8 PM!! If you remember from my last post on Friday morning they tried him off it for a couple of hours and he needed to go back on. They tried again Friday night at 8 PM and he hasn't looked back! His oxygen saturation levels have remained between 95-100% for the most part which is right where he should be. He has been spell free since he went off Friday night and if you recall one of the 3 criteria for him to come home was that he has to be spell free for 7 days.

We are working on the last step to getting him home which is bottlefeeding/nursing for all 8 daily feedings. As soon as he does this I will spend 24 hrs at the hospital with him and they will weigh him after his nursing sessions to make sure he is getting enough to gain weight and then he can come home! Hopefully, we only have a couple/few more weeks!

Happy to be in Plymouth

Well, Jacob's move went well and we are happy to be in Plymouth. The nurses have been great and have really taken a liking to Jacob.

Jordan has been much easier than Boston! There is free parking, a 10 minute commute, less money spent on gas, etc. It is not as private as Tufts seeing as the nursery is about the size of a large storage closet (with 5 babies and their parents/visitors). They have to set up screens for nursing sessions and there are no curtains to section off your section of the room, but so far that has been our only disappointment. Luckily, we were able to secure the back corner of the room so we have to walk by everyone else, but nobody really makes it back as far as we are which helps.

As of Wednesday night, Jacob was 6 lbs 4 oz and he is still growing. He has done so much better with his nursing that they are no longer giving him the gavage feedings when I nurse him. This is experimental and as long as Jacob continues to gain weight we can start working on getting him to bottles/nursing exclusively so they can take his gavage tube out.

Today they tried him without his nasal cannula and he did good for a couple of hours, but once again after his feeding he started having some trouble so they had to put the prongs back in his nose, but for the first hour and 45 minutes before his nursing session he didn't set off the machines at all!

Just as an FYI, the nursery has informed me that people have been calling the nursery looking for me. Unfortunately, Jacob is in the continuing care nursery, not in his own room and I am unable to accept personal phone calls on the phone in the nursery. They haven't been taking messages so if you have been trying to reach me, please use my cell phone.

Hopefully, we will continue working on Jacob's feedings and weaning him off his oxygen and get him closer to coming home!