Jackster

Nicknamed by one of his doctors, Jackster, our little guy Jack, had another stellar week! On Monday, the day it was slated to come out, he pulled out his Anderson tube by himself. Yes, yanked it clear out of his stomach. I wasn't there for the event, but I'm sure he had a very relieved look on his face afterwards! Guess he decided he was sick of it. Then, the best news of all! We got to start feeds on Tuesday. Starting at 5 cc, which is about a teaspoon, we gave him his little bottle and as the days progressed, very slowly upped the amount. It didn't take him long to realize that this food business was good and that he wanted more. So far, he is doing amazingly well. However, we have heard far too many stories from moms about set backs and reversals and we don't want to get our hopes up just yet. I won't be excited until I am marching out the Hospital door with my baby in his car seat. :)



As with Tyson, I am taking a picture month by month next to a stuffed animal to record Jack's growth. Dusty selected this little elephant. Jack is already almost 9 pounds and I feel bad that I didn't get a picture when he was just a few days old.


Since Tyson wouldn't ever take a bottle, Dusty was excited to get to help in the feeding arena. It was cute watching him get comfortable and giving Jack his little snack.





We are discovering that in the NICU healing take lots longer than expected. We will be here for some time longer. I won't put a timeline up because I simply just can't. Only Jack decides when he is ready to come home. Hopefully sooner rather than later!

Quick update on our lives

Tyson got to visit us quite a bit this week. Although I never got to spend enough time with him, it was good to hug him and love him up. He has loved playing at the hospital- playing in the playroom they have there, getting an ice cream cone at the cafeteria, playing the nintendo in the same day surgery waiting room. He has been so good, being patient, doing lots of waiting.

Jack is slowly recovering. He still has his anderson tube in his mouth and we are waiting for his stomach to clear out so he can eat. But, things are moving faster and he might be able to start eating later in the week - that's the hope at least. :) The little guy will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. Can you believe it?

Mostly I just try to show up to the hospital without any expectations. Just the desire to cuddle my baby and hope for good news. Our sweet doctor came and found me this morning as I was scrubbing up so excited to tell me that Jack's tube was turned to "down-drain". She has been so great to call and update us. We are going to miss her, as she is switching to a new rotation tomorrow.



Tyson gets to be another week with the Grandparents. He is starting to act a little put out with us and I hope that he can bounce back quickly when we all go home. He keeps asking if he can go to pre-school and I keep reminding him that he can when his brother's stomach is fixed and we all go home.

Over all, we are doing as great as can be. Dusty goes home for the week days and comes up to see me for the weekends. Hopefully by the end of this week I'll have more good news to share!

Until then, take care everyone!

As of last night

This is the Jack we left last night. He has had his oxygen off a couple of days, and everything unhooked from his hands. Unfortunately for the little guy, he has to be under the bili lights, just as a precaution and I feel so bad for him. He tries to rip off the little mask all of the time. Poor guy. When we hold him, he just sinks into this deep sleep and you know he is relieved to be out from under the lights.

Tyson got to meet his brother again- this time Jack was awake too! Tyson kept giggling and saying things like "oh look, he moved his fingers!" It was pretty cute.

Tyson loved giving Jack his binki. Jack is becoming a champ binki sucker, which is good, because we don't want him forgetting how to suck on something while he still can't eat.

All in all, Jack is doing really well. The surgeons say he is right on track. Now it's just a waiting game; waiting for his stomach and bowels to work so we can feed him.

He is such a cutie.

Four days old

Just a quick post on our new little guy. We are able to hold him whenever we want (the nurses are really great about it), and help with lots. Last night we were able to help bathe him and change his monitors. He was so alert and alive. Finally not so drugged up! It's hard not to be able to feed him, but we are so glad that he is doing well.

We miss our little Tyson lots too. Does he miss us? Not as long as he is being spoiled by his grandparents. :) Both sets. We get to see him this weekend though and have lots of one on one time planned.

Jack Henry

Our little boy Jack arrived on Labor Day at the healthy size of 7 lbs. 4 oz. Here's our first good peek of him in the NICU after his birth.





These pictures were taken today, a day after his surgery. He is doing very well.

August and all that jazz

August turned out to be a whirl wind. Which is ironic, because I feel like I accomplished next to nothing except sitting on the couch and resting my feet. But if I really do some soul searching I realize that I did, in fact, get some stuff done.

I did my Week in the Life project that I had been planning since May and got the album all put together. Usually, I blog all about it as the days go by, but honestly there was no energy for that. I was just excited to have gotten it done at all. I wanted to do it one more time before another little person joined the family.

I got loads of scrap booking done. I was cranking those pages out. I think it was a combination of inspiration + knowing that I wouldn't have time in about a month to spend time in the craft room. It feels really good to have those stories told.

The main reason that August flew by was due to the fact that I lived my life in doctors offices. Let me explain. At my 30 week ultra sound, my OB found something that was concerning to him dealing with both me and the baby. I'm not going to go into specifics at the moment, but this led to specialist appointments and lots of following check ups. It turns out that I'm going to have to deliver up north so that the baby can be taken to Primary Children's for surgery and so they can keep a close eye on me during my delivery.

Yes, we are apprehensive and worried. But we have lots of reasons to be assured that everything will work out okay. It could be a million times worse. Unless this baby comes early -as in the next few days- I'll be delivering on Labor Day. I kid you not. :)

The support from family and friends has been amazing. Everyone has been so willing to keep Tyson busy and let me rest. Friends have spent so many special moments with me. We feel very blessed.

I promise to keep you posted here with tidbits and the arrival of our new little guy. We are so excited to meet him. I'm sure he'll be a feisty little fighter.