In today's news...

We went to the pediatrician today for a routine hospital follow-up.  Despite our best guesses, Jacob's weight is holding steady at 8lbs 4oz, but that's a good thing too.  As the doc checked him out, she said he has good reflexes and muscle tone and looks overall normal at this point.  That's pretty darn good, considering all he's been through.  She also had some reassuring advice about what's normal for newborn behavior

We had several visitors today as well.  Annie's friend Jamie came by with her two kids Sofia (3 1/2yrs) and Nicolas (5 weeks old).  Jamie and Annie grew up together in Port Angeles and now their kids will grow up together.  Nico is already giving us hand-me-downs too.  :) 

Annie's aunt and cousins came to visit today too.  Emily and Kayden were especially excited to see Jacob after following him on the blog; and looked on lovingly.  Thank you for the wonderful gifts! 

We are looking forward to a quieter day tomorrow, except that Annie's mom is heading back to Port Angeles.  She has been such a great help to all of us and we'll miss her.  Matt's mom is coming in for a couple of days though to pick up where Vicki left off. 

And just for fun, here are some candid pics of our sweet little Jacob. 

Today's adventure

Jacob slept well last night, which means mom and dad slept pretty well too!

Every day brings new challenges and discoveries. Today, we ventured to Costco! Jacob slept through the whole trip, until we stopped for lunch. We successfully did a feeding and diaper change in public for the first time. Yay!

We also had several visitors today to come meet Jacob, including some of his future friends Luke, Aaron, Kirby, and Frankie (ages 9 months to 3 1/2 years).

Tomorrow, we go to the pediatrician's office for a check up. We're taking guesses at how much he'll weigh. While he lost some weight after birth (down to 8lbs 4oz), he's been eating like a champ since we got home.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Rough night, good day

Jacob is 1 week old today!

So our first night at home together was, well, I guess what it's supposed to be like with a newborn. But it's all new to us! The feeding, diaper changing, crying, and sleeping (in decreasing order of frequency) is the new normal. Jacob is getting used to his new surroundings. Maybe he's missing the lights and noises of the NICU because he decided not to sleep much last night. But the place he was most comfortable was with mom or dad. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep last night either.

Today is a new day though. Both Matt and I got showers, which does wonders for making you feel human again. I had an appointment to get my staples out (yes, back to the hospital campus again), so off we went. Then we got the car seat checked out and adjusted. Since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped by to introduce Jacob to some of Annie's co-workers and came back with several baby gifts as well. And all this before noon!

Annie's brother Steve came to visit as well and did a great job in his first time role as uncle. Jacob enjoyed cuddling up in his arms.

The afternoon was quiet with Matt and Jacob taking a nap together and Annie's mom off to the grocery store. Jacob even slept through our dinner hour, allowing us all to have dinner together at the table. We know that will likely be a rare thing in the weeks and months ahead.

This late night post comes as we are settling in for the night, easing Jacob to sleep. We'll see how this night goes...

Until next time, nighty night.

We're Home!!

It was an amazing day. It all started in our little room at the hospital. It was great to spend the night with little Jacob; we all had a great night and we got more sleep than I thought we would. Jacob went back into the NICU for an ultrasound around 4:30 AM.

At a more reasonable hour several people came into the room to do tests on Jacob. He had a hearing test and the physical therapist came in to check him out. Finally the assistant of the neurosurgeon came in and told us that the ultrasound looked really good and that we could take him home today. We were overjoyed!!

We got out the car seat and he had to spend an hour in it while hooked up to the monitors to make sure that it wasn't causing him any undue stress. He passed that test and we were able to leave.


We came home and Annie's dad met us when we got here. He hasn't seen Jacob in several days and he was able to hold his grandson for the first time. What a proud moment!


Then Annie's mom came visiting. She is going to be staying with us for a while (and we are very thankful for the help) and was also able to hold her grandson.


Now we are sitting at home and Jacob is sound asleep (finally) on his grandmothers shoulder. We are all about ready to turn in for a short sleep.

The next chapter in our adventure begins--A Day in the Life with a Newborn. Stay tuned for updates! Although they may be less frequent since we don't have the relative peace of the hospital and endless support from fabulous nurses at our fingertips, which allowed us to focus completely on Jacob. But we'll figure this balance out together.

With much love, joy, and thanks for your prayers,
Matt, Annie & Jacob

On our way...

We all got a pretty good night's sleep last night, with a couple of interruptions for Jacob's lab draw and ultrasound.

So far today, he has been visited for his newborn hearing screen, the physical therapist for a baseline evaluation, the NICU nurse, the neurosurgeon's office, and the lactation specialist. Whew! But he has passed all his tests and we are just waiting on the last couple of things to happen before we go home. If all goes well, we should be on the road home early this afternoon!

Hooray! Yippee! Next post and pictures from the ride home from the hospital.

We started today with a call from the NICU, they said that during rounds the doctors took a look at Jacob and because he was doing so well we could spend the night with him. For that reason we are now back at the hospital in a room with Jacob!! We are sure that we will not get a full nights sleep, but we are sooo happy to be with Jacob. We also know that they are going to be taking him sometime between 2 and 4 AM to go get another ultrasound on his head. They just want to make sure that the shunt is installed correctly and that it is working (which anybody can see that it is).

His central line has been taken out and he is off all the monitors, he is a free man. So tonight is our first night in the big world outside the NICU. It is comforting knowing that if there is a problem several nurses are a phone call (and 20 feet) away, but at the same time they are giving us our space to be with our son. This is the next (and hopefully the last) step before we get to bring our beautiful boy home.

Day 5

Another great day for little Jacob. He had his skull cap and dressings removed early this morning so we were greeted with our little boy with a full head of hair. He had two of his biggest feedings today, which gave the doctors and nurses enough motivation to take him off of his IV!! He now only has the heart monitor and breathing rate monitor, so only 3 wires left (why those two things require three wires is beyond me?). They said they may take out his central line tomorrow.

Grandma and Grandpa came by today and so did Aunt Stephanie. Stephanie hasn't seen him since the day he was born and when she saw him she exclaimed "Is that the right child?" His head is much smaller and without the air tubes and all the other leads that they had coming out of him on his first day of life, he does look like a very different baby. Aunt Stephanie got to hold him, which was very exciting for her.


Jacob also had some snuggle time with mom this morning. He was very content and very happy to snuggle with mom.