Proud baby

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Yesterday when I was changing Jac in the afternoon he decided that he would pee on me! Not once, but four times! And not a little pee, a lot! The first one hit him in the face as I had my hand in the way - the other 3 got me and his changing table and various other objects. He looked so pleased with himself the entire time I had to take a few pictures.

Great Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the entire clan (Alexis and Chris arrived on Saturday morning). It was so cool to have the entire family together - 3 generations in their entirety!

We had several nice outings - one to Nederland which is at 8600 feet! It is about 30 minutes from Boulder and the drive reminded me of driving up Angeles Crest Highway in LA. Jac did very well in the car except for a little bit of crying and we had a nice lunch with the fam at a cute little restaurant up there. We put Jac back on his oxygen for the trip since we would be going up into the even! thinner air.

We spent a good amount of time at our house and at the rental house in Erie. The rental house was very large and gave us plenty of room to spread out. We brought a bunch of our cooking stuff over to the house and we made Thanksgiving dinner there as a group affair on Saturday.

On Sunday 6 of us went to see Beowulf in Real D 3D. The 3D was great! Go Joseph!

Jac is really growing up! He is moving his arms and legs a lot and his eyes are really starting to track and lock on. It is so exciting to see him change and it feels like he changes every day!

Playing in his Baby Einstein play gym

Jac really likes to play in his Baby Einstein Play Gym. We have mentioned this product before but it deserves mentioning again. He loves to bat at the toys and it is easy to switch them around so he can look at different things. The star is nice but I only play it once or twice in a row and then give him a break from it. He can go as long as 15-20 minutes playing in it, just batting at the toys.

Here he is having a grand old time!

Jac playing on the changing table

Jac really likes to play on his changing table. He will go from being mad about a dirty diaper to wanting to play as soon as it is changed. If you leave it open and his clothes off his legs he will kick around and wiggle. It is pretty fun to play with him like this as he seems to enjoy it so much. I wonder if he is going to want to be a naked baby when he can choose!

Jac in his sweatsuit

We pulled this sweat suit out of the closet today (a present) and dressed our little Jacie in it. Oh man did he look cute!

He wore this (plus another pajama underneath) when we went out on a walk with the whole fam later in the day. It was barely above freezing but he was nice and cozy. He was attached to Momma in the Moby Wrap and then inside two jackets!

Jac and Daddy having a snooze

I have been sick since Wednesday and this morning I took a nap in the bed while Dadddy took a nap with Jacie on the couch in his room.

The Johnson/Murray Fam are here for Thanksgiving

The Johnsons (Bill and Toni) and the Murrays (Matt, Ali, Madeline, Caitlin and the girls' nanny Linda) arrived yesterday (Thanksgiving) to celebrate. Alexis and Chris are coming tomorrow (Saturday) to join us. We are going to be celebrating Thanksgiving on Saturday at a house that the rest of the family is staying in nearby to our house.

It was very exciting to have Madeline and Caitlin meet their cousin. Madeline seemed very interested in Jac and was very excited to give him all of the presents that they brought for him! Caitlin seemed much more interested in Knutson!

Grandma, Madeline and Jac



Grandpa, Madeline, Caitlin and Linda

:-| :-p :-/ :-( :-)

Recently, Jac has started to figure out how to smile. About a week ago, Mommy started to notice his mouth starting to form the beginnings of a smile. I started to notice the same about two days ago.

This morning, as I fixed his diaper, Jac smiled off and on for about two minutes, responding to my coos and happy-talk. And, his eyes seemed to brighten in unison. Pretty neat!

When I took care of Jac tonight, he began to get restless and started sticking his tongue out -- a definite sign that he was getting hungry. As the milk was heating up in the warmer, he started to cry out loud, and there was quite a bit of tears in his eyes (also a recent development). Then, as soon as the readied bottle was in front of him, Jac made a wide smile!

So far, we haven't been able to capture his smiles on camera. It seems like the camera distracts him from smiling... We'll keep trying!

Update from Momma (11/24/07 12:48 AM)

This evening Jac was giving me lots of smiles. I asked Daddy to get the camera and as soon as I did Jac stopped smiling! Daddy did manage to capture an almost smile!

Brrrrr!

Things started to chill down quickly yesterday afternoon. By midnight, snow and frozen rain had started to fall. Then, after feeding Jac at 4 am, Taj noticed that there were people outside our condo clearing snow! There's at least an inch or two of snow out there now! Weather.com says it's 25 degF outside right now. It will be 14 degF tonight!

Latched on!

We practiced breast feeding again tonight and man did Jac ever get it! He latched on 3 separate times and swallowed 29 times we were able to count but I think there were a few swallows we did not hear. This is the first time he has just looked at my boob, taken the nipple shield and started sucking like he has always known how to do it.

He fussed a bit - but he does that when we are feeding him from the bottle all of the time! He had a diaper in the middle and after Daddy changed it he was able to get latched on again and get more sucks.

We don't know how much milk he transferred but it was enough to soften my boob a bit!

I am so happy! Daddy has always known Jac would do this but I was always not always so sure in my heart of hearts. Daddy has pointed out to me that we are not done learning - and there will be good days and bad days. I am equating this to when Jac was learning how to eat from the bottle. We would have a feeding where he took the entire bottle and then the next feeding he would take 2 ml or none. I am sure the process with the boob will be the same. When we were teaching him to eat from the bottle we would tube feed him when he couldn't take the bottle and now we will bottle feed him when he can't take the boob.

Until we get this down we will just do it in the evening when Daddy is home for support and to feed him after the breast feeding. Yeah!

Thanks for all of the encouragement that everyone has given us! We are getting there! Our goal is to be totally breast feeding by Christmas. Hopefully we will be able to go back and forth to the bottle (this would be ideal) so I can sleep a little! (selfish Mommy!)

Healing nicely

While changing Jac this morning, I noticed that the SteriStrip had fallen off the left incision (hernia surgery). The incision healed up pretty nicely -- there is a faint scar, but it looks pretty good. There are two tiny spots where it's still dark red, but the rest of it has returned a healthy skin color.

Big boy!

Jac had the last of his 4 month immunizations today. 2 shots and an oral one. I think the oral one was more upsetting to him than the shots!

He weighed in today at 6 pounds 14 ounces! Wow! We thought after having surgery last week Jac would only have a small weight gain this week but he gained 6 ounces in 7 days!

Here is another Diet Coke can picture and a link to all of the previous Diet Coke can pictures on flickr.com



He now has a fever which is not so good. Darn these immunizations. I know they need to be done but they are a little tough!

We have also been having some more problems with spitting up. On Sunday he spit up about 6 times in one day! Not good! 3 of them were through his nose. This is upsetting for him and us - much easier to deal with when you have two people around though. We have gotten pretty good at the drill to deal with the through the nose spit up and we can handle it in under 30 seconds usually if he is eating in his room.

Jac on his changing table

Jac likes to play some while he is on his changing table. Sometimes if he is upset and we set him down on the changing table he will stop crying and hang out. Also, after he has his diaper changed sometimes he will hang out and look very happy to wiggle his arms and legs around.

Jac has really made a lot of progress in terms of his control of his arms and legs. He is very able to move them around in space with some pretty good control. He is not really pruposeful all of the time with them yet though. He hardly shakes any more and he has really started to enjoy playing with objects hanging in front of him. Sometimes he grasps them but for the most part at this point he likes to look at them and swing his arms at them.

P.S. Karen I think you sent him this suit!

Jac sitting on the couch

Daddy likes to take pictures of Jac sitting on the couch which are very cute and very funny all at the same time!

Doing well

Jac is doing well and growing up so quickly. He spent 20 minutes tonight playing in his Baby Einstein play area. He was whacking his toys and having a grand old time.



We also did more breastfeeding tonight. He took 34 swallows in 2 times on the breast! This is a record. Daddy is very confident that he is going to take off now and we are really going to make good progress from this point on. I am feeding off of his confidence and we are all getting better at it!

Jac is now sleeping pretty well during the night - usually waking up once or twice and he seems to have recovered completely from his surgery. Mommy and Daddy are tired but otherwise doing well.

We are looking forward to having all of my family (including Jac's cousins) visit for Thanksgiving.

Jac grabbing his diaper bag

Jac has been using his arms more and more in the last week. While we were getting ready to leave the hospital yesterday I changed his diaper while he lay in his hospital crib. His diaper bag was right next to him and he started grabbing the handle.

Home from surgery and doing very well

Momma and Grandma had a long night last night in the hospital. Once Jac came fully around from his anesthesia he wanted to eat! and eat! and eat! He ate every 2 hours all night - tiring out Momma and Grandma! He then continued to eat all day - 13 times in total for the day! He is near his all time high for feed volume!

We made it home from the hospital with a bit of crying in the car but without much incident and we have settled back in at home. Grandma is currently holding Jac and I am about to take over.

Here is a picture of Jac in his car seat in the red wagons they use at the hospital to wheel the kids around!



Jac's incisions don't seem to be bothering him too much (he is taking Tylenol every 5 hours) and his bowels seem to be moving a bit better without the hernia causing problems.

I am glad this is over and he can recover and get back to the important business of growing!

Recovery is going well

Jac and Grandma and I have all settled into our room in the PICU now. The new TCH has all private rooms in the PICU - nice and quiet.

We have all settled in nicely and Jac is now asleep in his really large crib.



After some initial setup issues with his oxygen he has settled in and woke up around 7:30 pm wanting to eat! Really eat! He took 90 ml (3 ounces) in about half an hour and I think he would have taken it a lot faster if I had let him!

Daddy came to visit this evening (he had to leave around noon to do work!). Around 8:30 pm he took another 60 ml (2 ounces).

His incisions look really good. They are fairly small and in the creases of his legs. The stitches are dissolvable and on the inside and will dissolve on their own and the steri-strips will stay on for a few weeks and then just fall off. (I had the same sort of thing for my c-section but I had staples rather than stitches!)

He seems much more comfortable in terms of his digestions and general comfort level without the hernia to bother him. This is all preliminary though. The caudal block has worn off now but he is taking Tylenol which is pretty good pain meds for a little one like him.

We shall see what the night brings but for the moment he is resting very comfortably.

Jac has moved to the PICU for the night

Jac stayed in the PACU (The Post Anesthesia Recovery Unit) until 3 pm or so when he moved to the PICU. The doctors decided that he should spend the night in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) so he could be monitored closely to make sure if he has any A's & B's (Apnea and Bradycardia) that he has nurses and doctors right there.

He had a bit of a hard time for a few minutes when his sats went down into the 50s. I! realized that the problem was that his O2 had been cross-threaded so the cannulae was actually acting as an occlusion to his breathing rather than providiving him oxygen. We got that fixed and he has been resting comfortably since then. He is now sleeping on Grandma and I am about to take a little nap and hope he wakes up and wants to eat.

He has only eaten about 30 ml since his surgery - hopefully he is going to wake up and ask for food! He did a twice earlier but then he fell back asleep quickly. As the full effects of the anesthesia wear-off he should start to ask for food!

Jac is still asleep after surgery

Jac has been asleep ever since he came out of surgery. He was awake for a few minutes after surgery but then he went back to sleep and has been asleep ever since.

Here are a few pictures to enjoy while we wait for him to wake up.

Pictures from before surgery

Jac and Daddy with the nurse before surgery


Jac and a worried Momma

Successful hernia surgery!

Dr. Moulton (surgeon) just came out and told us that the hernia surgery went well. In addition to the hernia on the left side which we knew about, he found and corrected the hernia on his right side.

As I write this, Jac is getting transferred to the recovery room, and we should be seeing him in another 20-30 minutes!

Dr. Campanini (anesthesiologist) also gave us an update -- his IV went in on the first try (into the right arm), and the caudal block worked well.

During the surgery he had a breathing tube for general anesthesia which was removed after the surgery. After the surgery the anesthesia was affecting his breathing a bit -- he was holding his breath a bit -- so the doctors had to put him back onto the breathing tube for a few minutes after the procedure.

He is breathing out his anesthesia, but he now can be aroused to wake briefly. As the anesthetic gases come out of his system, he will get to a point where he will be awake, mad, and hungry!

We are now waiting for the nurses to confirm that he cries, wakes up, and clear his secretions. When that happens, it'll be time for his big breakfast! He has not eaten breast milk since 12:30 am and Pedialyte since 5:20 am!

We can't wait to see the babes!

Weekend lounging

Here's Jac, relaxing on a Sunday morning, after a nice drink of the good stuff!

"Wassup, Ladies!"

Jac and Taj's Little Black Book

We have a little black journal to log Taj's milk production, and Jac's milk consumption...

As you can see, they are constantly pumping/drinking throughout the day!

Inguinal hernia repair tomorrow morning

We are all getting ready for Jac's hernia repair tomorrow. Grandma Johnson is coming in late tonight and we are going to all stay at a hotel near the hospital. We have to be at the hospital at 7 am (with a baby that has not eaten since 2:30 am - only pedialyte or water from 2:30 am - 5:30 am and nothing after 5:30 am until surgery at 8:30 am) so we decided it would be best to not try to drive from Boulder to Aurora at that time of the morning on a Monday.

So - I am trying to get all of our stuff together to go tonight - amazing how much stuff you need for a baby - especially when we are pumping and feeding!

Think positive thoughts for little Jacie and nervous Momma.

Video: Jac wiggling his feet

In this video Jac is all swaddled up with just his feet showing and he is wiggling them around. It makes me chuckle and coo every time I see it

Happy 4 month birthday

Happy 4 month Birthday Jacie Boy!

In the last few days I have taken to calling Jac "Wackie Jacie" and Daddy is calling him "Cutie Jacie"! Oh man! Alexis will hate this!

Daddy has also told Jac that he is beautiful several times - which is of course undeniably true ;) but still!

Jac breast feeding with an SNS

Jac and I tried to breast feed again tonight (we did not try last night because I was attending a Infant/Child CPR class in Denver). This time we used both a nipple shield and an SNS (Supplemental Nursing System). Jac seemed quite content to suck while Daddy worked the SNS and I held him and my breast. Unfortunately I think we were a bit aggressive priming the SNS and Jac spit-up a huge amount while he was at my breast. Not pretty. We got him cleaned up and stopped the breast feeding and then fed him some from the bottle to clear the acid from his throat.

The SNS is giving me hope that we can get him used to eating at the breast and transition him from the bottle. The SNS supplies milk from a bottle attached to me through a small tube that sits right at my nipple so when he sucks on the nipple shield he causes milk to come from my breast and from the SNS. This way he gets the immediate gratification from the SNS but he gets used to eating from the breast.

Oh please let this and a lot of hard work get us to breastfeeding! Please!

Jac and his Diet Coke can

I took another picture of Jac with his Diet Coke can today - not the greatest picture but it does give a good perspective on how big he is getting.

He and I took a nice walk today. We walked to the hospital where he was born (and where his pediatrician and my OB have their offices) and delivered a milk donation to the Mother's Milk Bank and picked up his Prevacid prescription. It was a nice day for a walk but the sun is so brutal here that when it is 70 out I get hot! I always wear a hat when we go out but I am getting sunburned anyway - even with SPF 50 lotion on! I am going to buy a better hat! I keep Jac nice and protected from the sun so he is fine! Today I wore the Moby Wrap and he was very comfortable. It is about a 30 minute walk one way - and he slept all the way there. We took the milk donation and then visited with a few of the NICU nurses that took care of him. Then we got his prescription and headed home. He woke up just before we got him eand he was hungry.

He has spent the day today making up for how little he ate yesterday (he was feeling punky from his vaccinations yesterday). He has spit up quite a bit (once through the nose this evening) but all in all he has had a pretty good day and he is currently sleeping on Daddy.

Jac in his pontiff's hat

We took Jac out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Louisville. We packed him up and took him. We had him off of his oxygen for most of the day and he did just fine. The restaurant was great for Joseph and not as good for me - but c'est la vie. Jac wanted to eat while we were there also!

It was difficult to feed him in the restaurant because I am so used to being able to hear him and judge his state from his sounds. I am used to hearing his tummy and his farts and his burps and I couldn't hear any of those things. I was a little surprised how huge a different this made in my comfort level with feeding him.

When we got him home he looked so cute in his pontiff's hat we took some pictures!

4-month check-up

Jac had his 4-month check-up today (he will be 4 months in 3 days). He had two of his 4 month vaccinations today. We are waiting on the rest of them until after his surgery.

They also measured his weight and his height and head size and he is doing well on all of them!

His weight is now 6 pounds and 6 ounces. That is a gain of 7 ounces in 8 days!

His head is now 35.5 cm - which is up from 32.1 cm on 10/1/07! We have really been noticing how much bigger his head is!

He is now 18.5 inches tall which is up from 16.5 inches on 10/1/07. He was 12.5 inches tall when he was born!

Growing baby! His pediatrician is really happy with his growth - and she is amazed that he is doing it on pure breast milk!

He is still below the 3rd percentile for all of his measurements but we expect that. It is going to take him a while to catch up.

Developmentally he is doing well. He is tracking things with his eyes - side to side and up and down. He is grasping things. He is gazing directly into people's eyes. He is starting to react to our voices. He is occasionally smiling. He is occassionally making cooing noises.

Yeah!

Now we just need to get this darn hernia fixed. It is pretty clear that it is bothering him. Last night he was fussy for about 5 hours which is just not like him. Whenever we would check his diaper his hernia would be out. The doctor said she has seen this and she is glad we are getting it fixed so soon.

To see his growth chart click here.

Big Day

Jac had a big day today. Jac, Knutson, Paula and Daddy and I went on a walk around noon. We found a shady spot by the East Boulder Rec Center and ate some sandwiches (Daddy and I ate). Knutson walked so far and then walked all the way back! I carried Jac in his Moby Wrap. He fell asleep shortly after I put him in it at home and he slept for the entire walk!


This evening we had our first social outing with Jac! We went to our friends house and had dinner with them and their daughters. We had homemade sushi!

Jac in his papasan

Jac is sleeping in his papasan on the dining room table. The blue blanket was made by his Great Aunt Judy. It is very warm and cozy and soft and he really seems to like to sleep under it.

Spitting-up

Jac has been spitting up a lot lately. There are usually good days and bad days - once it starts it usually continues all day - and then he will have days where he does not spit-up at all. The doctor has explained that a lot of the spitting-up is caused by reflux.

He takes prevacid for his reflux seems to help - but the dose needs to keep on changing as he gains weight - which is of course constant. At the beginning of last week we upped the dose and it does not seem to working as well as we might hope. Everyone! warned us that his reflux is likely to get worse before it gets better - and perhaps that is what is going on! The estimate is that he will have reflux until he is at least 6 months (adjusted) and possibly as long as 1.5 years! Oh man! Let's hope he grows out of it sooner rather than later!

Here are some pictures taken by Daddy after a particularly bad spit-up which came shooting out his nose. This has happened about 4 or 5 times in his life and it has been dramatic every time. We have to put saline drops down his nose and then use the bulb to suction it back out. This is to try to clear the acid from his stomach our of his nose quickly enough that it doesn't really burn his nasal passages - how effective this is I don't know. We also almost always feed him again right after. This seems somewhat counter-intuitive but it seems to help. I think it helps to coat his esophagus and calm the burning down.


When he does a normal spit-up out of his mouth he is frequently not upset at all and if you happen to turn your head when he does it you don't always even know he did it until you see it.

Man can a good lens capture a lot of detail

Joseph has a very good lens for our Nikon D70 camera - a F1.8 ml - 50 mm lens. Oh man can it capture details. In my case perhaps ones I would prefer to forget about (the other day I really had to think to figure out how old I am ;) and in Jac's case ones I would like to remember!

(It's actually a 50mm F/1.8... not 1.8 ml... These days, it seems Taj can't write a number down without putting a 'ml' or 'kg' behind it! --Joseph)

More breastfeeding

Jac and Daddy and I worked on breastfeeding again last night. This time with a bit more luck.

Daddy's keen observational and strategic skills came in handy as usual. We moved from trying to feed in the nursing chair using a cross cradle hold with no boppy to nursing on the couch, with the boppy in the football hold.

This position seemed to work much better for Jac and I - I was a bit more comfortable and Jac seemed to like it. He is getting so much heavier (relatively) now that it has gotten harder for me to hold up all of his weight. With the boppy it is a bit easier (when I first started trying to breast feed he was just too small for it).

He was able to get latched on for maybe 3 minutes. This was after him falling asleep for a good 30 minutes before we all got ourselves organized enough! I think he took about 10 ml but is is very hard to know. He took a full bottle from Daddy after that while Mommy pumped.

Grandma Johnson is coming

Grandma Johnson is going to come next weekend and stay for a few days to help during and after Jac's surgery. We are greatly looking forward to seeing her and I am sure she will be very happy to see her even more chubby grandson!

Jac without his cannulae

Jac is going to have a bath today and his cannulae tape was coming off so we took his cannulae off for a little while. During that time we were able to take some pictures and this is the best one.

Jac and Daddy having a good burp

Sometimes we sit at the dining room table while we feed Jac. Here is Daddy helping him to burp.

RSV and Synagis

Jac had his Synagis shot today. This is a preventative shot given to help protect kids from RSV. RSV can be really nasty, especially for little ones like Jac.

The meds were delivered to our house this morning and a nurse came by at noon to administer the injection. She was very nice and it turns out she is the wife of the gentlemen that works for the medical supplies company that brings Jac's oxygen!

Jac was already crying (because of a dirty diaper) when she gave him the injection. He did cry harder but once I changed his diaper he calmed down fairly quickly.

It was a dramatic hour while she was here though as he had several diapers and spit-up through his nose.

He seems to be fussier this evening (which he is not generally). We are not sure if it is his hernia that is bothering him or perhaps the injection.