WELCOME HOME JACOB!!

Yes, he is here. Jacob got to come home today and everyone is glad to have him here. He now weights about 6 lbs 13 oz. He is looking really good and it'll be fun to have him here and figure out how things really are with 4 kids. Right now, he just seems so small compared to everyone. Charlie was our smallest at 7 lbs 8 oz. So, Jacob beat him by a bit.

Here are some pictures from right after he got home. Hope you enjoy them...

Coming Home?

After spending the night in the Hospital with Jacob he was looking really good to come home. The nurse weighed him and he had gained weight and she suspected that he would come home today. With that in mind we started preparing mentally for his arrival. There was plenty to do at home, but it was going to take some time to get that done. There were also a few things that we needed to do still in order to come home.

After awhile we found out that they were going to weigh him again after 2:00 and if he had gained again, we could go. If not, he would stay the night and get weighed again in the morning. If he gains in the morning he should be coming home tomarrow around 10:00 or so.

Thank you all so much for the prayers and support that you have given to us. The Relief Society has been great. They have been providing dinners as well as someone to watch the kids as we have been making nightly runs to the hospital. We appreciate it all very much.

Thank you!

No more tube pictures:


This is good.

Not so happy.

They took a picture at the hospital today. If you want to check it out go to www.hospitalportraits.com and do a search for Jacob J. birthdate 15Feb09 and you can see him.

Rooming In

Another big milestone today. Jacob is now off all assistance. The last thing to come out was his feeding tube. Jacob is now getting all of his nutrition himself through either bottle or breast (the nurses call it "All Nipple"). The final qualification for Jacob to come home is that he gain weight for 2 consecutive days. To help with this Becky is staying at the Hospital all night with him. She was given a recovery room and will share this room with Jacob tonight. After he is weighed tomorrow we will know better what the weekend will hold in store for us.

Better still

I'm sorry that I didn't get this out last night, but I guess it's better late than never. Yesterday turned out to be a very busy day. On Monday night I was told that I could come in and feed once/shift. So, I showed up at 10:30 for his feeding and he ended up eating really well. While I was there, they then told me that I could come up and feed him or have him bottle fed every other feeding. So, I could go back at 4:30 and feed him again. Mike was able to get home at 4:00 so I could go. He didn't eat as well as he had earlier, but not terribly either. When we went back later, we found out that we would be moving into the Special Care Unit. They needed the space for other babies. While there, Mike got to hold Jacob for his 7:30 feeding through the tube).



We then hung around while he finished his meds. and got the IV out of his head. They also changed his bed and we moved to the SCU. After we got there, I was able to feed him and he did pretty well.

We're not exactly sure what will happen next (it's all based on him and we just never know until it happens). We are anticiapting him being off his feeding tube completely by tomarrow. Here again, it could happen sooner, it could happen later. We are trying to work out details as to how we will do that when the time comes.

Here are some pictures of him with the $60,000 bed and the "tupperware" bed. Also, all he has left is his feeding tube, so he's looking really good!! YEAH!!

Not much change

Today things look good. He is completely breathing on his own and I got to try feeding him myself. I think it's going to take us a minute to get things going there, so we'll see what happens as the days go on.

Tomarrow, he should be done with his IV, so that will be fun and it'll be easier to hold him without a million cords.

Breathing on his Own?

Tonight we had a great achievement. Jacob was taken off of all breathing assistance. This is only a trial so we are prepared for him to go back on if things do not work out as well as we hope. There are a couple of things that we are looking forward to tomorrow and the day after. First Jacob will be off all medications on Tuesday, and possibly tomorrow Becky will be able to begin feeding him herself. Soon he will also be moved from the $60,000 bed he has been sleeping in to the "tupperware" crib (the traditional newborn bed). Once all of this is done, we are looking at Jacob coming home after 2 consecutive days of weight gain while eating on his own. Hopefully by the end of the week! Here are some pictures of tonights visit.

Photo Tag

I got a tag and decided that I would do it because it would be something different for a minute...

I was to take the fourth picture in my fourth folder. This one is it. It is a picture of Ben taken in 2007 after he had a hair cut. Really fun times. Looking at the picture, it's hard to believe how big he is now. They sure do grow really fast. He is almost 5 and excited to start Kindergarten in the fall. He is a great #1 child. He and the other two have been handling our current situation really well.

Last night for the kids at home we decided to have a little party. We got pizza and ate it downstairs and watched a movie with them. It was nice to do something for them as mom and dad just seem to come and go so much lately. We'll update with more of that later....

Anyone who wants the tag can take it.