Great Grandparents Day

Hello all. Today the family made the trek down to Vallejo to visit the Passalaqua-Jeffcoat relatives. Jack got to meet his Great Grandpa Joe for the first time, and hung out for a few hours while everyone got to know him a little better....outside of the hospital. Great Grandma Nan, Great Uncle Mike and Great Aunt Mary were alos there. Jack behaved himself for the most part, and was very content to be passed around and have the family hold him. Jack also seemed to enjoy his car ride (both there and back again). As soon as his head hit that car seat head rest he was out! It was very good to get down that way to see everyone, and it was a success as a first outing for Jack.

Tomorrow Aunt DeAnna is supposed to be stopping by to visit with er favorite nephew. Then Jack has a couple days of doctors appointments. One for a routine check up to make sure he is still gaining the weight (we'll also enquire about his possible reflux issue), then the next day for an RSV vaccination. Now if we can just figure out how to get him to sleep between 7 and 11 pm.

It'a Slumber Party

Tonight we get to sleep over in the hospital parents room with Jack. He is hooked up to the apnea monitor that he is going home with, otherwise it's like a test drive. Hopefully all will go well overnight and we'll be that much more ready to have him home. We both figure that we will be a little sleep deprived but a lot more prepared. He is still episode free (knocking on wood as I type). He also gained some more weight and broke the 7 lb mark (now 7 lbs 0.2 oz yes the 0.2 counts). So we'll see how things progress. It's 7:49pm right now and we have him in the room. Mary is feeding him and he seems content. Depending on how I feel I may update through the night and give you all a status of our sanity... I know we haven't even had him by ourselves for an hour yet.

11:30pm--- Jack is awake for his first feeding of the night. He has been grunting and talking a lot with some gas pains. So far everything is going well, now hopefully for some sleep.

4:00am--- Well, all is still going well. Jack woke us up around 1:30, he was pretty hungry. I guess he didn't get as much milk from Mary as we thought he did. Now it's about 4:25 and he is hungry again.

8:00am--- Time for Jack to eat again. Wow we made it through the night. No episodes, we didn't end up rocking back and forth in a corner and Jack seems to be no worse for the experience. Mary and I are a little sleep deprived, but glad we got to spend the night with our son. We can't wait to get him home!

Scarface

So Jack decided he was tired of all the nurses saying how cute he was. He said, "I'll show you!!". Now he has a wonderful scratch right across his nose (Say hello to my little friend). We immediately cut his finger nails when we saw the damage he could inflict on himself. When he gets gas pains he grabs at his face, and I think that's when he scratched himself. Other that Jack is doing well. No episodes and he's still gaining the weight, now up to 6 lbs 14 oz. Tomorrow night we are rooming in the hospital. They turn us loose to take care of Jack by ourselves. Of course the nurses are right outside our room should we have questions. We are resting up tonight because when sense a little sleep deprivation coming tomorrow. Between worrying about Jack and him grunting with his gas it will be interesting (we're a little nervous too).

The plan that I've heard is that they are going to train us on the apnea monitor. Have us do a sleep in night and then Jack will go back to his nursery pod for one more night. If things all work out he could be coming home on Thursday. We will keep knocking on the wood and keep our fingers crossed that our little guy will be home this week.

Happy Valentine's Day

Jack just keeps on getting bigger and bigger. He gained another ounce yesterday and is at 6 lbs 13 oz (I guess growing is what babies do). He did his carseat challenge today also. Basically they just test to see if he tolerates sitting in it without problems for 1 hour. He passed with flying colors, the nurse said he just fell asleep in it. We got a telephone call from the patient coordinator and found out that his apnea monitor will be in tomorrow. They will give us all the training to operate it tomorrow, then we will do a in-hospital stay with Jack overnight on Tuesday. It just us & Jack in a room with all the necessities and no monitors (except the apnea monitor). Obviously if there is a problem (which there will not be) the nurses will come in to assist. Then we are hoping for a release later this week, around Thursday or Friday.

Jack is still episode free since last Thursday morning and he is eating like a champ. We've been told that Jack is the most popular baby in the NICU right now. We won't tell him though, cause it might go to his head. I also included a video of his latest bath time. I meant to do it on Friday, but forgot, and the connection out in the trailer is too slow to upload anything that big. For those that can watch it...enjoy.