Five weeks without a post. I'm so disappointed in myself. What can I say? Life with a 15 month old is busy! Let's reflect, since the last post, we had Halloween - Jacob was a monkey and a cute one! The next weekend (Nov 3-4), we went to Wilmington for the weekend to visit family since I had a Friday mediation down that way. Then, the following weekend, Nov 9-12, Jeff and I attended a Charity Ball on Friday night, drove to Charlotte on Saturday morning (3 hours), went to a Panthers game on Sunday, drove back home on Monday. My mom watched Jacob Friday to Monday for us. We had a great time. Nov 17-18, I can't even remember what we did, but Jeff's birthday was that Monday. We probably ran errands and checked out the new Super Walmart that opened down the street on Nov. 14. Then, it was a short week and Thanksgiving. Back to Wilmington. My grandma (dad's mom) and my dad's brother were here. We had Turkey with my dad and family. Then, Jacob swam with his Grandpa in Grandpa's pool! He loves swimming! Friday, we went to see Jeff's mom and did some shopping. Saturday, we went to a birthday party for Caitlin who was 2. Sunday, we went back to my dad's and drove back to Holly Springs. Throughout Thanksgiving weekend, Jacob was completely off his usual napping schedule, but he was such a good boy. On that Friday, he slept a total of 45 minutes in the car for his only nap all day. Not something you want to do all the time, but he really is a laid back, go with the flow child.
Whew! This weekend, we've been to: Kid2Kid, BJ's Wholesale, Target, Kohl's, Panera, Harris Teeter, Super Wal-mart and Food Lion. And, we managed to get the tree up and the interior decorated! Jacob was such a little trooper. He is the best child!! I hope he stays that way.
I'm in shock it is December already. Christmas is in 22 days. We are taking an entire week out of that and going to Disney. Considering "Christmas" will "start" for us on the 22nd with our trip to Wilmington, and a week in Florida, that really leaves us more like 12 days to prepare. Finish Christmas shopping (I finally did start this weekend!) Wrap gifts. Get Christmas cards in the mail. And that's not even including all the busy stuff at work going on! What were we thinking to take a vacation a week to two weeks before Christmas? I've got serious vacation anxiety!
I'll try to find the time to post lots of pictures from the adventures in November!
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
And the echo results are in....
Jacob's heart is functioning beautifully!
We got up early this morning, made our trek to Durham, had a yummy breakfast at Elmo's Diner. Then, made our way to the Children's Clinic at Duke. They did a weigh & measure - Jacob was 30.5 inches and just over 23 lbs (he'd just eaten A LOT!) His vitals were fine. We then made the walk over to the hospital and to the 7th floor Echo lab. First, we tried just sedating with chloral hydrate, but after 30 minutes it was obvious that wasn't going to work, so they gave him 10 mg of Benadryl and he was out 5 minutes later. The echo itself was very thorough and performed not by an echo technician, but by Dr. Trivedi, a cardiology fellow who followed Jacob from admission in August 2006, right up until his discharge 16 days later. He apparently is now on a rotation in the echo lab, so it was very nice to see a familiar face. After about 45 minutes of taking echo images, Dr. Trivedi checked with Dr. Barker, who came back in and took several more images. Then, they told us everything looked very good, and that Jacob's pulmonary arteries and coronary arteries look great, about as well as one could hope after this type procedure. Then, we were sent back to the clinic to see Dr. Delaney. After quite a bit of waiting, we finally saw Dr. Delaney, who was also very pleased with Jacob's progress and heart function. He told us we don't need to come back until Jacob is TWO! So, we made an appointment for August 12, 2008 - nearly 10 months from now! It is such a relief that his appointment went so well!
We got up early this morning, made our trek to Durham, had a yummy breakfast at Elmo's Diner. Then, made our way to the Children's Clinic at Duke. They did a weigh & measure - Jacob was 30.5 inches and just over 23 lbs (he'd just eaten A LOT!) His vitals were fine. We then made the walk over to the hospital and to the 7th floor Echo lab. First, we tried just sedating with chloral hydrate, but after 30 minutes it was obvious that wasn't going to work, so they gave him 10 mg of Benadryl and he was out 5 minutes later. The echo itself was very thorough and performed not by an echo technician, but by Dr. Trivedi, a cardiology fellow who followed Jacob from admission in August 2006, right up until his discharge 16 days later. He apparently is now on a rotation in the echo lab, so it was very nice to see a familiar face. After about 45 minutes of taking echo images, Dr. Trivedi checked with Dr. Barker, who came back in and took several more images. Then, they told us everything looked very good, and that Jacob's pulmonary arteries and coronary arteries look great, about as well as one could hope after this type procedure. Then, we were sent back to the clinic to see Dr. Delaney. After quite a bit of waiting, we finally saw Dr. Delaney, who was also very pleased with Jacob's progress and heart function. He told us we don't need to come back until Jacob is TWO! So, we made an appointment for August 12, 2008 - nearly 10 months from now! It is such a relief that his appointment went so well!
Friday, October 19, 2007
Cardiology Follow-Up on Tuesday, October 23
I can't believe it has been six whole months since we've been to Duke for an echo and to see Dr. Delaney. Time flies. I remember back in April, when Dr. Delaney said that Jacob was doing so well, they would not need to see him back for 6 months. He couldn't even detect much of a murmur listening to his chest. Previously, we'd been told we'd be going every 3 months, so that was really good news! Jacob was 8 months old at that point, and I tried to imagine what he would be like in 6 months. I really had no idea!
Here we are now, with our 14.5 month old, and he is so much fun. He can now walk, he talks, he throws & rolls a ball, he can go get Elmo or Pooh, or other toys. He loves light switches and lights. He loves to open & close drawers & doors. He loves to crawl (fast) down our hall! He loves bath time and splashing (and ducks!). He loves to eat, especially any kind of veggie with roasted red pepper hummus on it! He also loves any kind of fruit, grilled cheese, and grilled chicken. And, he loves Fruity Cheerios and Goldfish. He is growing up before our very eyes. He is such a cuddly boy and gives great hugs! He loves his Slugger and his Lambchop puppet and sleeps with both every night. He still takes two naps a day and goes to bed at 7 p.m. He does wake up around 5:30 a.m., but he talks to himself and plays while mommy & daddy sleep another 45 minutes (or try to!). He loves the Wiggles & especially Dorothy (which he calls "Dor-tee") He is truly our little blessing and we love him so. I can't imagine our life before him or without him!
Anyway, I am confident we will have a report of continuing good health on Tuesday! I hope you will be thinking of us and praying for us on that day!
Here we are now, with our 14.5 month old, and he is so much fun. He can now walk, he talks, he throws & rolls a ball, he can go get Elmo or Pooh, or other toys. He loves light switches and lights. He loves to open & close drawers & doors. He loves to crawl (fast) down our hall! He loves bath time and splashing (and ducks!). He loves to eat, especially any kind of veggie with roasted red pepper hummus on it! He also loves any kind of fruit, grilled cheese, and grilled chicken. And, he loves Fruity Cheerios and Goldfish. He is growing up before our very eyes. He is such a cuddly boy and gives great hugs! He loves his Slugger and his Lambchop puppet and sleeps with both every night. He still takes two naps a day and goes to bed at 7 p.m. He does wake up around 5:30 a.m., but he talks to himself and plays while mommy & daddy sleep another 45 minutes (or try to!). He loves the Wiggles & especially Dorothy (which he calls "Dor-tee") He is truly our little blessing and we love him so. I can't imagine our life before him or without him!
Anyway, I am confident we will have a report of continuing good health on Tuesday! I hope you will be thinking of us and praying for us on that day!
Monday, October 8, 2007
Walking!
Where do I start? Since the last entry, of course, we have been busy!
We attended Elizabeth's 1st birthday party on September 8! Elizabeth is the daughter of Barry & Sandra, friends of ours who live about an hour away. Jacob had a good time and enjoyed having cake again!
The following weekend, September 15 - we went to Wilmington to visit my mom, my dad and Jeff's mom. They all enjoyed playing with Jacob.
It's hard to remember, but the last two weeks of September were busy ones for Jeff and I at work and I remember working quite a bit on the weekends. They were also filled with the usual trips to Target, the grocery store, etc. Boring stuff!
However, as indicated in the title of this post, we had a momentous occasion last week! On October 3, Jacob took his first solo steps! Jeff picked Jacob up from Chrissy's and took several steps to Jeff. Then, after they got home, we had a great time trying to get Jacob to take more steps! I'm going to try to post video here.... If this doesn't work, shoot me an email and I'll send you the link or video. Please post and tell me whether or not this works as I can't see it!
We attended Elizabeth's 1st birthday party on September 8! Elizabeth is the daughter of Barry & Sandra, friends of ours who live about an hour away. Jacob had a good time and enjoyed having cake again!
The following weekend, September 15 - we went to Wilmington to visit my mom, my dad and Jeff's mom. They all enjoyed playing with Jacob.
It's hard to remember, but the last two weeks of September were busy ones for Jeff and I at work and I remember working quite a bit on the weekends. They were also filled with the usual trips to Target, the grocery store, etc. Boring stuff!
However, as indicated in the title of this post, we had a momentous occasion last week! On October 3, Jacob took his first solo steps! Jeff picked Jacob up from Chrissy's and took several steps to Jeff. Then, after they got home, we had a great time trying to get Jacob to take more steps! I'm going to try to post video here.... If this doesn't work, shoot me an email and I'll send you the link or video. Please post and tell me whether or not this works as I can't see it!
Friday, September 7, 2007
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Back from Mini-Vacation to the Mountains!
We had a great Labor Day weekend in the mountains of N.C. We were fortunate enough to be offered a free place to stay at a beautiful condominium belonging to the parents of my dad's wife at Sugartop. We couldn't say no, so Jeff & I took off work on Thursday & Friday and we left on our adventure on Thursday morning. We stopped in North Wilkesboro for lunch and then on to Sugar Mountain, which is about 20-30 minutes from Boone. After we got checked in, we got settled and went out for supplies & provisions. By the time we got back, we just played with Jacob a little while longer, then fed him dinner. We put him to bed and despite being in a new place in a pack n play he had never slept in, he only cried for eight (long!) minutes before going to sleep!
On Friday morning, we waited until after his morning nap to get a start on the day. We headed over to the original Mast General Store in Valle Crucis. It's probably one of our favorite things to do, they have lots of neat stuff. We also went by the Annex store as well. As we were walking around, I showed Jacob a Lambchop puppet like this one. He took to it immediately and hugged it as we walked around the store, so of course, we had to buy it for him. [By the way, Lambchop has now moved right up their with Slugger. Jacob slept with his little arms wrapped around them both last night. It was adorable.] We went to lunch at Woodland's BBQ on Friday and it was pretty good! Jacob enjoyed his first BBQ and ate almost a whole hotdog too! We did some other shopping on Friday, but mainly tried to just get Jacob adjusted. We also went to the indoor pool at the condo on Friday and Jacob really enjoyed that too. We have an inflatable whale infant float that we bought before he was even born, and we finally got a chance to use it! Oh my, he loved it. Jeff took him out at one point, and he wanted to get back in!
On Saturday morning, we took a chance and left early before Jacob's morning nap, hoping he'd sleep in the car. He did okay, but not great with that. We were headed to Linville Falls. It was very foggy on the Blue Ridge Parkway. At one point, it was difficult to even see the yellow double lines on the road!! We considered turning back, but pushed on through the fog. We made it to Linville Falls and tried out a LLBean Child Carrier borrowed from some friends. It worked well and we hiked about 1.5 miles round-trip to see the falls & take pictures. Jacob seemed to enjoy riding during our hike. I even carried him on the way back and it wasn't too bad. After leaving Linville Falls, we headed further south on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Little Switzerland, an adorable little town in the mountains. We had a delicious lunch at the Switzerland Cafe, where our waitress asked us if Jacob just love to smile all the time. If we learned anything this trip, it's that Jacob likes to eat in restaurants! He loves looking all around at the people! After lunch, we went by the Orchard at Altapass and had some ice cream while listening to a band play mountain music. This is one of those attractions you don't see in the guidebooks, but we stumbled across it and we have enjoyed visiting a few times now. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite apple season yet, but the store and the music are lots of fun. Saturday was one long day, and we
actually went back out to the Mast General Store again. It was a lot more crowded than the day before, and we picked up a few more things.
On Sunday, we headed over to Beech Mountain, which is the highest incorporated town east of the Mississippi River. Wow, those were some STEEP and WINDING roads to get up there. I'm pretty sure the brakes weren't really fond of coming down either.... Anyway, they were having a Mile High Kite Festival. They even had free kites for kids, so we made Jacob a kite that read "Jacob's First Kite" and included the date. Then, Jeff & I tried our darnedest to fly it! We had a nice time and took some great pictures of Jacob sitting in the grass! I'm going to get all the pictures posted in a few days. When we left the Kite Festival, we went on a 2 hour expedition looking for lunch without any luck at all. Everything was SUPER busy because it was a holiday weekend and the weather was beautiful. We ended up giving up and hitting the McDonald's drive through on our way back to the Condo. For the record, Jacob wasn't too fond of chicken nuggets, and I couldn't be happier about that.
On Monday, we started packing up and headed for home around Noon. We stopped again in Wilkesboro for lunch (at the same Applebee's, no less!) and got home around 4:30 p.m. We had a great time on Jacob's first vacation, even if it was a short one!
On Friday morning, we waited until after his morning nap to get a start on the day. We headed over to the original Mast General Store in Valle Crucis. It's probably one of our favorite things to do, they have lots of neat stuff. We also went by the Annex store as well. As we were walking around, I showed Jacob a Lambchop puppet like this one. He took to it immediately and hugged it as we walked around the store, so of course, we had to buy it for him. [By the way, Lambchop has now moved right up their with Slugger. Jacob slept with his little arms wrapped around them both last night. It was adorable.] We went to lunch at Woodland's BBQ on Friday and it was pretty good! Jacob enjoyed his first BBQ and ate almost a whole hotdog too! We did some other shopping on Friday, but mainly tried to just get Jacob adjusted. We also went to the indoor pool at the condo on Friday and Jacob really enjoyed that too. We have an inflatable whale infant float that we bought before he was even born, and we finally got a chance to use it! Oh my, he loved it. Jeff took him out at one point, and he wanted to get back in!
On Saturday morning, we took a chance and left early before Jacob's morning nap, hoping he'd sleep in the car. He did okay, but not great with that. We were headed to Linville Falls. It was very foggy on the Blue Ridge Parkway. At one point, it was difficult to even see the yellow double lines on the road!! We considered turning back, but pushed on through the fog. We made it to Linville Falls and tried out a LLBean Child Carrier borrowed from some friends. It worked well and we hiked about 1.5 miles round-trip to see the falls & take pictures. Jacob seemed to enjoy riding during our hike. I even carried him on the way back and it wasn't too bad. After leaving Linville Falls, we headed further south on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Little Switzerland, an adorable little town in the mountains. We had a delicious lunch at the Switzerland Cafe, where our waitress asked us if Jacob just love to smile all the time. If we learned anything this trip, it's that Jacob likes to eat in restaurants! He loves looking all around at the people! After lunch, we went by the Orchard at Altapass and had some ice cream while listening to a band play mountain music. This is one of those attractions you don't see in the guidebooks, but we stumbled across it and we have enjoyed visiting a few times now. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite apple season yet, but the store and the music are lots of fun. Saturday was one long day, and we
actually went back out to the Mast General Store again. It was a lot more crowded than the day before, and we picked up a few more things.
On Sunday, we headed over to Beech Mountain, which is the highest incorporated town east of the Mississippi River. Wow, those were some STEEP and WINDING roads to get up there. I'm pretty sure the brakes weren't really fond of coming down either.... Anyway, they were having a Mile High Kite Festival. They even had free kites for kids, so we made Jacob a kite that read "Jacob's First Kite" and included the date. Then, Jeff & I tried our darnedest to fly it! We had a nice time and took some great pictures of Jacob sitting in the grass! I'm going to get all the pictures posted in a few days. When we left the Kite Festival, we went on a 2 hour expedition looking for lunch without any luck at all. Everything was SUPER busy because it was a holiday weekend and the weather was beautiful. We ended up giving up and hitting the McDonald's drive through on our way back to the Condo. For the record, Jacob wasn't too fond of chicken nuggets, and I couldn't be happier about that.
On Monday, we started packing up and headed for home around Noon. We stopped again in Wilkesboro for lunch (at the same Applebee's, no less!) and got home around 4:30 p.m. We had a great time on Jacob's first vacation, even if it was a short one!
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Jacob's One Year Check-Up
Jacob had his one year check up with his new pediatrician, Dr. Ramsdell with Ramsdell Pediatrics yesterday. First off, it's a long story why we switched, but I couldn't be happier. Jeff really likes her too, and Jacob seemed to take to her as well. At one point, he reached his arms out for her to pick him up! I can't say he ever did that with his other doctors!
His stats were 20.14 lbs (19th percentile); 30.25 inches (63rd percentile) and I think his head was around 18 cm (57th percentile). We talked about his development and she feels he is just fine in that category as well. He knows 4-6 words pretty well, responds to his name, seeks approval, claps, drinks from a straw/sippy cup, feeds himself etc. He's not walking yet, but he will in his own time.
He couldn't get his shots yesterday though. He's come down with a cold, complete with snot & a nasty cough that is mostly present at night and keeping us all awake. She put him on Xopenex by nebulizer for the next week or so and gave us a new prescription for that. She ordered breathing treatments every 4 hours for the first day or so, then back to every 6 hours as needed. She said he was fine to go to "school," as long as he wasn't running a fever, so we sent him on to Chrissy's today with his nebulizer.
It's funny he is so skinny because I really don't think he could eat any more! Lately, he is loving fruit of all kinds. Last night at dinner he had sprite melon (similar to a honeydew/muskmelon/cantelope), raspberries, grapes, bananas, and applesauce! He also had some veggies & about 1/2 of a turkey sausage.
His stats were 20.14 lbs (19th percentile); 30.25 inches (63rd percentile) and I think his head was around 18 cm (57th percentile). We talked about his development and she feels he is just fine in that category as well. He knows 4-6 words pretty well, responds to his name, seeks approval, claps, drinks from a straw/sippy cup, feeds himself etc. He's not walking yet, but he will in his own time.
He couldn't get his shots yesterday though. He's come down with a cold, complete with snot & a nasty cough that is mostly present at night and keeping us all awake. She put him on Xopenex by nebulizer for the next week or so and gave us a new prescription for that. She ordered breathing treatments every 4 hours for the first day or so, then back to every 6 hours as needed. She said he was fine to go to "school," as long as he wasn't running a fever, so we sent him on to Chrissy's today with his nebulizer.
It's funny he is so skinny because I really don't think he could eat any more! Lately, he is loving fruit of all kinds. Last night at dinner he had sprite melon (similar to a honeydew/muskmelon/cantelope), raspberries, grapes, bananas, and applesauce! He also had some veggies & about 1/2 of a turkey sausage.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Birthday Recap & Roseola!
Wow, it's already Friday - where did the week go? At this time last week, we were getting ready for Jacob's party which was last Saturday. I took a half-day Thursday to do some birthday party shopping. My brother, John, & his fiancee, Katherine, flew in on Thursday night from Austin. My mom picked them up from the airport. They got in too late to see Jacob, but on Friday, they pretty much spent the day with him while Jeff and I shopped for food for the party. We got lots of stuff from BJ's (like Sam's, Costco), including burgers, hot dogs, appetizers, lots of food! We spent the rest of the day getting various things ready around the house and preparing as much of the food in advance as we could. I had numerous lists to keep up with all the details! After all, we were expecting around 35 adults & kids!
Friday night, after Jacob went to bed, we decorated the house with ducks galore, duck garland, streamers, etc. Saturday morning, he was up bright & early. I was chopping fruit for fruit salad at 6 a.m.! The party was scheduled for 11 a.m., and Katherine and I went to the Farmer's Market at 8 a.m. for some produce for the fruit salad & pasta salad. (Yes, I'm crazy to wait until the last minute!) I sent John & Jeff on the mission for the cake, ice, balloons & a propane tank! Somehow we got everything ready by around 10:15 a.m. and had a brief moment to shower & change. In the midst of all the activity, Jacob only took about a 40 minute nap and would not go back to sleep. He was pretty fussy.
Guests began arriving, and we served veggies/dips; chips/dips; tortilla chips/salsa; pinwheels, etc. Jeff started grilling hamburgers around 11:30 a.m. and they took longer to cook than we expected! We had 23 hamburgers and they were gone as soon as he could grill them. He then grilled about 24 hot dogs and most of those were gone quickly as well. We also had the aforementioned pasta salad, fruit salad, and baked beans. Everyone ate and the kids played in the living room. We got lots of great pictures. Jacob was really getting tired & yawning, so I knew we needed to get on with gifts & cake! I told Jeff's cousin-in-law, Holly, to tell everyone gifts in 5 minutes! Then, I told her to tell them to come on now because Jacob was seriously tired. Jeff held Jacob while I "helped" open presents. He got lots of great toys and some clothes too. He also received lots of books, which he loves! All the kids were very good while he opened his presents! Then, we quickly moved on to cake! I decided last minute not to get Jacob his own separate cake and just to give him a slice of his ducky cake. Even though he was tired, he didn't pass up on the cake. He dug right in and we gave him 10-15 minutes to enjoy it. Here he is right before I took him up for a bath:
Friday night, after Jacob went to bed, we decorated the house with ducks galore, duck garland, streamers, etc. Saturday morning, he was up bright & early. I was chopping fruit for fruit salad at 6 a.m.! The party was scheduled for 11 a.m., and Katherine and I went to the Farmer's Market at 8 a.m. for some produce for the fruit salad & pasta salad. (Yes, I'm crazy to wait until the last minute!) I sent John & Jeff on the mission for the cake, ice, balloons & a propane tank! Somehow we got everything ready by around 10:15 a.m. and had a brief moment to shower & change. In the midst of all the activity, Jacob only took about a 40 minute nap and would not go back to sleep. He was pretty fussy.
Guests began arriving, and we served veggies/dips; chips/dips; tortilla chips/salsa; pinwheels, etc. Jeff started grilling hamburgers around 11:30 a.m. and they took longer to cook than we expected! We had 23 hamburgers and they were gone as soon as he could grill them. He then grilled about 24 hot dogs and most of those were gone quickly as well. We also had the aforementioned pasta salad, fruit salad, and baked beans. Everyone ate and the kids played in the living room. We got lots of great pictures. Jacob was really getting tired & yawning, so I knew we needed to get on with gifts & cake! I told Jeff's cousin-in-law, Holly, to tell everyone gifts in 5 minutes! Then, I told her to tell them to come on now because Jacob was seriously tired. Jeff held Jacob while I "helped" open presents. He got lots of great toys and some clothes too. He also received lots of books, which he loves! All the kids were very good while he opened his presents! Then, we quickly moved on to cake! I decided last minute not to get Jacob his own separate cake and just to give him a slice of his ducky cake. Even though he was tired, he didn't pass up on the cake. He dug right in and we gave him 10-15 minutes to enjoy it. Here he is right before I took him up for a bath:
After his bath, I put him in some comfortable clothes, and we came downstairs and he told everyone good night because he was off to nap. I put him down for a nap in his crib upstairs and we turned on the surveillance camera on our TV so everyone could watch him while he went to sleep! He was so exhausted, and I was so happy he didn't freak out during the party. Our guests began to leave, and we all finally relaxed. I was glad we had the party early in the day.
Later that evening, Jeff, John, Katherine & I went to dinner and to see the Simpsons movie. We had a great time. Sunday, we did little more than venture out to Trader Joe's, and had eastern Carolina style BBQ for dinner at my brother's request. Jacob was still very tired, and he was now running a fever.
Monday, Katherine & John flew home. Jacob still had a fever, my mom stayed with him. Tuesday, I stayed home with him. On Wednesday, he broke out in a classic Roseola rash. He's still more tired than usual, but the rash is starting to fade a little. Whew! What a week!
Here are the rest of the pictures from his birthday week: http://www.jacobjones.shutterfly.com/
Monday, August 6, 2007
Our Family.... Simpsonized!
I'll give the recap of Jacob's birthday shortly, but first - over the weekend Jeff and I went to see the Simpson's Movie with my brother, John, and his fiancee, Katherine. Sunday, while sitting around, we saw the Burger King commercial for "simponizing" yourself, so we simpsonized everyone, and John put us all in the same shot using MS Paint! Here's the picture:
From Left to Right: Katherine, Me, Jacob, Jeff, John and my mom!
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Jacob's Story - Part 6 - A Happy Ending
Gradually, over the next few days, he started eating more and more; he also started shedding more of his tubes and wires. Here is one of the first pictures of his little face without any tubes or oxygen!
We continued doing chest PT on him. By Tuesday morning, miraculously, his congestion had cleared to the point he didn't even need a chest x-ray! On Tuesday, he was also switched to oral medications. He also started gaining weight. He had made it back to his birth weight on Tuesday evening.
We were discharged on Wednesday, August 16. Jeff and I finally were able to bring our baby boy home with us. It was a very happy day. This is Jacob and I on the day of discharge:
We have had outpatient visits at Duke in August, September, November, January and April. At Jacob's last appointment, on April 24, 2007, his echocardiogram looked great, and when the cardiologist listened to his chest, they could not even detect a heart murmur. For the first time in his short life, they told us we wouldn't need to come back to Duke for 6 months. In fact, he was 11 months old before he had a month without seeing a doctor!
We continued doing chest PT on him. By Tuesday morning, miraculously, his congestion had cleared to the point he didn't even need a chest x-ray! On Tuesday, he was also switched to oral medications. He also started gaining weight. He had made it back to his birth weight on Tuesday evening.
We were discharged on Wednesday, August 16. Jeff and I finally were able to bring our baby boy home with us. It was a very happy day. This is Jacob and I on the day of discharge:
We have had outpatient visits at Duke in August, September, November, January and April. At Jacob's last appointment, on April 24, 2007, his echocardiogram looked great, and when the cardiologist listened to his chest, they could not even detect a heart murmur. For the first time in his short life, they told us we wouldn't need to come back to Duke for 6 months. In fact, he was 11 months old before he had a month without seeing a doctor!
Thank you for reading!
Today, August 1, 2007, Jacob is one. He is the happiest baby.
We are so thankful to our friends and family who supported us so much during Jacob’s first weeks and throughout the last year. The outpouring of love, kindness and prayers from near and far has been amazing. We are truly blessed and our prayers have been answered.
I hope Jacob's Story has helped to raise
awareness for Congenital Heart Defects.
My little man is one today....
August 1 has finally arrived. One year ago today, we were overjoyed to have a 6 lb. 9 oz., 19.75 inch baby boy, and unsure what the future would hold. We are blessed!
(The final chapter will post in a little while, but you already know the ending anyway!)
(The final chapter will post in a little while, but you already know the ending anyway!)
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Jacob's Story - Part 5 - Surgery & ICU
On Monday, August 7, Jacob was scheduled to be the second surgical case. We spent all morning with him, and stayed until they came to get him, around 1:00 p.m. We walked with them as they wheeled him to the elevator that would take him to the surgical floor. It was a very emotional and tear-filled moment when they took him away. Our last picture taken before surgery:
We got our first update at 4:30 p.m., three and a half long hours later. They had completed the Arterial Switch and were in the process of taking him off the heart/lung machine. About 15 minutes later, they called back and said his heart and lungs were working perfectly. Fortunately, they were able to close his chest too. Around 5:15 p.m., the surgeon, Dr. Jaggers came and told us everything went well. A few minutes later, they wheeled Jacob by. They had told us it would take about 45 minutes to clean him up. We waited almost an hour and a half until 7 p.m. to go back to see him. He had tubes & wires everywhere. It was so hard to see him like that, but he also looked the pinkest we had ever seen him!
About 24 hours after surgery, they took him off the ventilator. I remember one of the younger doctors saying on rounds, that he was a "rock star," and ready to come off the vent. But, we still couldn’t hold him because of lines that were delivering medicine to his heart. That evening, they put a CPAP mask on to assist him with breathing, but after a few hours of that, he didn't like it and he took it out himself! They put him on nasal cannula oxygen, and he did fine. We continued visiting Jacob as much as we could the remainder of the week. On Wednesday, the doctor gave the order to have the last line removed that was running to his heart, but it was late in the day, so they wouldn't remove it until Thursday. We had left for a little while and came back, and Jacob was wearing clothes for the first time! This is a preemie-sized outfit!! (The head I.V. is just lovely, don't you think?) Also, look at how pink he is compared to just before surgery!!
By Thursday, the lines were removed and we were finally able to hold him again. We started feeding him from little two ounce bottles. We brought his own clothes to the hospital and started dressing him up! This was taken on Thursday - the doctors who rounded on him just loved it....
Jacob was delayed in getting out of the PICU by fluid build-up from surgery that caused chest congestion and a partially collapsed lung. We were taught by the nurses how to do chest PT. After nearly a week in PICU, on the Saturday after surgery, August 12, we were finally transferred to the pediatric floor around 6 p.m. We were very happy because we could now "room in" with Jacob. It was quite a change for Jeff and I because we pretty much started caring for him around the clock. But, here's two more picture, one from Aug 11, and then from Aug 12, from the last day in ICU...
Monday, July 30, 2007
Jacob's Story - Part 4 - Catheterization
The Lifeflight team took Jacob to Duke, where Jeff was already waiting to fill out the paperwork. Of course, I wasn't there, so I'm not fully aware of the details. After arrival, Jacob was initially admitted to NICU, and since he had a heart defect, he actually was eventually admitted to PICU, the pediatric intensive care unit. All babies are in NICU at Duke, except heart babies, they go to PICU.
After Jacob was admitted to Duke, an emergency echocardiogram was performed. (Later, towards the end of Jacob's stay at Duke, the echo technician told us she remembered his admission and that they called her in an hour before her shift normally began to perform his echo.) The echo confirmed the Transposition diagnosis.
The "temporary fix" is to perform a balloon septostomy via a catheterization - they go up through a vein the groin and into the heart, where they place a hole between the atria of the heart to allow the non-oxygenated blood to mix with the oxygenated blood. As soon as the Transposition diagnosis was confirmed, Jacob was rushed to the cath lab. I believe it was around 7 a.m. by the time the ballon septostomy was completed. Here is Jacob after that procedure...
The balloon septostomy was successful. Jacob's oxygen saturation levels went from 55% to 98% almost instantly. Jeff called me after the procedure, and told me Jacob was doing a lot better and that they had taken pictures. I told him to hurry back with the camera so I could see them. My friend, Heather, took the camera and had all the pictures we had taken of Jacob so far printed and she put them into an album and brought it to me at Rex. There was a very noticeable improvement from seeing him in the special care nursery to after the catheterization.
In the meantime, the nurses at Rex were telling me I would be discharged that morning (of August 1) so that I could go be with Jacob. By the time my doctor rounded at 11:00 a.m., he basically suggested I stay put, having given birth less than 12 hours earlier. There was nothing I could do for Jacob except rest. Well, that, and I had starting pumping. Rex kept me overnight, and I was discharged on Wednesday, August 2.
Jeff and I drove straight to Duke to see Jacob. I remember being so excited to see him, and yet so scared about everything that was happening. He was sedated, and on a ventilator, but he was still with us!
After Jacob was admitted to Duke, an emergency echocardiogram was performed. (Later, towards the end of Jacob's stay at Duke, the echo technician told us she remembered his admission and that they called her in an hour before her shift normally began to perform his echo.) The echo confirmed the Transposition diagnosis.
The "temporary fix" is to perform a balloon septostomy via a catheterization - they go up through a vein the groin and into the heart, where they place a hole between the atria of the heart to allow the non-oxygenated blood to mix with the oxygenated blood. As soon as the Transposition diagnosis was confirmed, Jacob was rushed to the cath lab. I believe it was around 7 a.m. by the time the ballon septostomy was completed. Here is Jacob after that procedure...
The balloon septostomy was successful. Jacob's oxygen saturation levels went from 55% to 98% almost instantly. Jeff called me after the procedure, and told me Jacob was doing a lot better and that they had taken pictures. I told him to hurry back with the camera so I could see them. My friend, Heather, took the camera and had all the pictures we had taken of Jacob so far printed and she put them into an album and brought it to me at Rex. There was a very noticeable improvement from seeing him in the special care nursery to after the catheterization.
In the meantime, the nurses at Rex were telling me I would be discharged that morning (of August 1) so that I could go be with Jacob. By the time my doctor rounded at 11:00 a.m., he basically suggested I stay put, having given birth less than 12 hours earlier. There was nothing I could do for Jacob except rest. Well, that, and I had starting pumping. Rex kept me overnight, and I was discharged on Wednesday, August 2.
Jeff and I drove straight to Duke to see Jacob. I remember being so excited to see him, and yet so scared about everything that was happening. He was sedated, and on a ventilator, but he was still with us!
In a wonderful twist of fate, his nurse the first two days was Mary Jo, who is a friend of friends, and I had met her before. We caught the doctors on rounds that Wednesday afternoon. They were hoping to do surgery on Jacob the following week. They explained he would need open heart surgery to fix the defect. Fortunately, there is only one surgery needed to "fix" most cases of Transposition - the Arterial Switch Operation. It restores the heart to as near as anatomically correct as possible, with just the risk of stenosis and scar tissue, which would be standard with any open heart procedure. The amazing thing is that the ASO has probably only been done for about 25 years. Prior to that, another surgery was performed - the Mustard or Senning procedure, and children could have serious heart problems as adolescents.
Jeff and I didn't want to go home without our baby. We live forty five minutes away, but that was too far for us. My dad made arrangements for us to stay at a nearby hotel for the first week. We were so grateful that we didn't have to worry about driving that far every day.
They left Jacob on the ventilator on August 2 and 3 because he had a brain MRI scheduled for August 3 and it was safer for him to remain on the ventilator during the MRI. While he was on the ventilator, we could not pick him up and hold him. When we arrived on the morning of Friday, August 4, Jacob was on nasal cannula and had the ventilator tube out of his mouth. Since he was finally off the ventilator, we could finally hold him!! Yes, this is the first time I had held him since he was born!!
On Friday, August 4, we also got the results of the brain MRI, and it was completely perfect!
On Saturday morning, we arrived at the hospital, checked in and went to the room he had been in the past few days, and there was no baby there! They had moved Jacob to a room with all babies - it is a NICU nursery with probably 8 NICU beds and 4 PICU beds. We had a lot of visitors on Saturday. I had many friends come by and Jeff's entire family, his mom's 6 brothers & sisters, some of their spouses & kids all came by and met Jacob. On Sunday, I spent lots of time holding and cuddling him! Sometimes, I even left Jeff, or one of our moms hold him!
Friday, July 27, 2007
Jacob's Story Part 3 - LifeFlight
Quite frankly, from that point forward - the next 12-24 hours, everything is truly a blur. The entire experience was surreal. I could not believe this was happening to our baby. Dr. Barrett finished up with me and went to check on Jacob. She came back and told me Jacob was very sick, but she did not know any details.
My delivery nurse told me that Jacob would need to be transferred to another hospital and Jeff would have to go with him so he could admit him. I would need someone to stay with me. They wanted us to call our parents, but we couldn't call them at 3:00 a.m. with this news and risk them driving in the middle of the night all upset and worried. We decided to call our friends, Katie & Daniel, who lived pretty close by, and are familiar with Rex. I'll never forget calling them in the middle of the night. Daniel answered the phone, and I told him Jacob had been born, but he wasn't doing well. Daniel told me they would be there as soon as they could and passed the phone to Katie. I briefly explained things to her, and she said they were on their way.
At one point, Dr. Barrett took Jeff & I (me in a wheelchair) to the nursery to see Jacob. As they wheeled me past the other babies, I remember thinking that even though those babies were in special care, they looked like they were doing so much better than Jacob. We reached the end of the long nursery, and Jacob in a hospital bassinet surrounded by nurses and doctors. A nurse was using a bag to breathe for him. He was blue. We touched his little hands and face. Tears streamed down both our faces. It was almost unbearable. I remember hearing later that his APGAR was 9 at one minute, and 2 at 5 minutes - one point for respiration, and one for heartbeat, and that was it. He was completely unresponsive.
There was a neonatologist on staff who examined Jacob. They did a chest x-ray. He pulled us aside and showed us the x-ray and told us his heart was not enlarged, which was good, but he felt like Jacob had a heart defect. They suspected it was one of three defects, but could not diagnose him without an echocardiogram, and they did not have those facilities. He told us they had begun administering prostaglandins to keep the patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) open, which would help if it were one of the three defects. Essentially, this saved Jacob's life. Soon after he was born, his PDA began to close, and that's why he was blue - we later learned he had Transposition of the Great Arteries. The aorta and pulmonary artery were switched, so the heart was pumping the "blue blood" from the body, back out to the body, and the "red blood" from the lungs was going back to the lungs. The very little bit of red blood getting to the body and brain was from the PDA being open, and then from the PDA being kept open by prostaglandins. Prior to the prostaglandins, Jacob's blood oxygen levels plummeted to 30-40%. After giving him the medicine, it stabilized around 55%. At some point, they took me to my new recovery room. Katie & Daniel had arrived, and we explained what we knew so far.
After settling in, Dr. Barrett came back and took us for a second visit to the Special Care Nursery. One of the nurses told us that Jacob would need to be transferred to either Duke or UNC, and that the transport team would bring him to my room so I could see him before he left. Then, another nurse shook her head, indicating no, that he was too critical for the side-trip to my room. Ironically, a few moments later, the Duke Life Flight team arrived, and they ushered us out of the special care nursery so they could prepare him for transfer. They took me back to my room, and Jeff left with Daniel to go on over to Duke.
I think it was around 5:30 a.m. that the Duke Life Flight people did come by my room with Jacob. I was so grateful. Katie grabbed the camera and snapped pictures. The two pictures she took are below. Truly, I did not know if this was the last time I would see my newborn baby. It was a somber moment. As they took Jacob away, Katie hugged me and I just cried my heart out. Then, we said a prayer for Jacob.
My delivery nurse told me that Jacob would need to be transferred to another hospital and Jeff would have to go with him so he could admit him. I would need someone to stay with me. They wanted us to call our parents, but we couldn't call them at 3:00 a.m. with this news and risk them driving in the middle of the night all upset and worried. We decided to call our friends, Katie & Daniel, who lived pretty close by, and are familiar with Rex. I'll never forget calling them in the middle of the night. Daniel answered the phone, and I told him Jacob had been born, but he wasn't doing well. Daniel told me they would be there as soon as they could and passed the phone to Katie. I briefly explained things to her, and she said they were on their way.
At one point, Dr. Barrett took Jeff & I (me in a wheelchair) to the nursery to see Jacob. As they wheeled me past the other babies, I remember thinking that even though those babies were in special care, they looked like they were doing so much better than Jacob. We reached the end of the long nursery, and Jacob in a hospital bassinet surrounded by nurses and doctors. A nurse was using a bag to breathe for him. He was blue. We touched his little hands and face. Tears streamed down both our faces. It was almost unbearable. I remember hearing later that his APGAR was 9 at one minute, and 2 at 5 minutes - one point for respiration, and one for heartbeat, and that was it. He was completely unresponsive.
There was a neonatologist on staff who examined Jacob. They did a chest x-ray. He pulled us aside and showed us the x-ray and told us his heart was not enlarged, which was good, but he felt like Jacob had a heart defect. They suspected it was one of three defects, but could not diagnose him without an echocardiogram, and they did not have those facilities. He told us they had begun administering prostaglandins to keep the patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) open, which would help if it were one of the three defects. Essentially, this saved Jacob's life. Soon after he was born, his PDA began to close, and that's why he was blue - we later learned he had Transposition of the Great Arteries. The aorta and pulmonary artery were switched, so the heart was pumping the "blue blood" from the body, back out to the body, and the "red blood" from the lungs was going back to the lungs. The very little bit of red blood getting to the body and brain was from the PDA being open, and then from the PDA being kept open by prostaglandins. Prior to the prostaglandins, Jacob's blood oxygen levels plummeted to 30-40%. After giving him the medicine, it stabilized around 55%. At some point, they took me to my new recovery room. Katie & Daniel had arrived, and we explained what we knew so far.
After settling in, Dr. Barrett came back and took us for a second visit to the Special Care Nursery. One of the nurses told us that Jacob would need to be transferred to either Duke or UNC, and that the transport team would bring him to my room so I could see him before he left. Then, another nurse shook her head, indicating no, that he was too critical for the side-trip to my room. Ironically, a few moments later, the Duke Life Flight team arrived, and they ushered us out of the special care nursery so they could prepare him for transfer. They took me back to my room, and Jeff left with Daniel to go on over to Duke.
I think it was around 5:30 a.m. that the Duke Life Flight people did come by my room with Jacob. I was so grateful. Katie grabbed the camera and snapped pictures. The two pictures she took are below. Truly, I did not know if this was the last time I would see my newborn baby. It was a somber moment. As they took Jacob away, Katie hugged me and I just cried my heart out. Then, we said a prayer for Jacob.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Jacob's Story, Part 2 - The Delivery
I think I was in labor on July 31, but I wasn't sure. Around lunchtime, I didn't feel very well. I continued working the remainder of the day, but I left work around 4:00 p.m. so as to avoid the traffic in case I went into labor. Around 6:30 p.m. I finally called the doctor. I was pleased to learn that my favorite doctor, Dr. Barrett, was on call that night. Since it was my first pregnancy, she told me it would be fine if I wanted to come in to the hospital to be checked.
Jeff and I packed a bag, and called our moms on the way to Rex Hospital. We told them we were pretty sure I'd be sent back home. Since they both live over 2 hours away we told them not to come just yet. We had planned to tell them to come once we knew I was in labor or was admitted to the hospital. When they checked me at the hospital on Monday night, I had not had much progress from the previous Wednesday's OB appointment - I was still around 2 cm and 80% effaced. The doctor said it was close, and I might be 2.5 cm. They let me walk around for an hour or so. I finally saw Dr. Barrett again around 11:30 p.m. At that point, she decided to keep me overnight and if nothing was going on by morning, they would discharge me. It was late, so we decided not to call our parents and get their hopes up. At 12:15 a.m. Dr. Barrett checked me and I was 3 cm and she decided to break my water. I was pretty happy because that meant I would not leave the hospital still pregnant!
Breaking my water certainly got things moving. Every 15 minutes, the nurse would come in and check on me, at 12:30 a.m., 12:45 a.m., etc. and each time, I would tell her I was managing without pain medication. Finally, at 1:30 a.m., I decided to ask for Stadol, but I still did not want an epidural. When the nurse checked me, she told me I was 9 cm! I had progress from 3 cm to 9 cm in one hour and fifteen minutes! Apparently I was in labor! By that time, I couldn't have gotten an epidural if I had wanted one, but they did give me Stadol.
By 1:50 a.m. I wanted to push, but had to wait until a little after 2:00 a.m. to be fully dilated. After 19 minutes of pushing, Jacob was born at 2:27 a.m. I remember they put him on my stomach and I felt such awe looking at him. I noticed a little angel's kiss over his left eye. A few minutes later, they whisked him over to the warming table to check him out. Jeff was snapping pictures left and right. As they were examining Jacob, I heard a nurse say to get the special care nursery team right away. There was something wrong. I had no idea what was going on. Then, I remember them saying, "bag him," and knowing I had heard that on T.V. before, I knew he was having trouble breathing, and things were not good. Then, they rushed him away to the special care nursery since Rex Hospital is a smaller community type hospital, and does not have a NICU. The confusion was just beginning...
Jeff and I packed a bag, and called our moms on the way to Rex Hospital. We told them we were pretty sure I'd be sent back home. Since they both live over 2 hours away we told them not to come just yet. We had planned to tell them to come once we knew I was in labor or was admitted to the hospital. When they checked me at the hospital on Monday night, I had not had much progress from the previous Wednesday's OB appointment - I was still around 2 cm and 80% effaced. The doctor said it was close, and I might be 2.5 cm. They let me walk around for an hour or so. I finally saw Dr. Barrett again around 11:30 p.m. At that point, she decided to keep me overnight and if nothing was going on by morning, they would discharge me. It was late, so we decided not to call our parents and get their hopes up. At 12:15 a.m. Dr. Barrett checked me and I was 3 cm and she decided to break my water. I was pretty happy because that meant I would not leave the hospital still pregnant!
Breaking my water certainly got things moving. Every 15 minutes, the nurse would come in and check on me, at 12:30 a.m., 12:45 a.m., etc. and each time, I would tell her I was managing without pain medication. Finally, at 1:30 a.m., I decided to ask for Stadol, but I still did not want an epidural. When the nurse checked me, she told me I was 9 cm! I had progress from 3 cm to 9 cm in one hour and fifteen minutes! Apparently I was in labor! By that time, I couldn't have gotten an epidural if I had wanted one, but they did give me Stadol.
By 1:50 a.m. I wanted to push, but had to wait until a little after 2:00 a.m. to be fully dilated. After 19 minutes of pushing, Jacob was born at 2:27 a.m. I remember they put him on my stomach and I felt such awe looking at him. I noticed a little angel's kiss over his left eye. A few minutes later, they whisked him over to the warming table to check him out. Jeff was snapping pictures left and right. As they were examining Jacob, I heard a nurse say to get the special care nursery team right away. There was something wrong. I had no idea what was going on. Then, I remember them saying, "bag him," and knowing I had heard that on T.V. before, I knew he was having trouble breathing, and things were not good. Then, they rushed him away to the special care nursery since Rex Hospital is a smaller community type hospital, and does not have a NICU. The confusion was just beginning...
Update on Nicole's Dad
Nicole's father made it through last night, which they weren't sure he would. He's had some good things happen, and the doctors have gone from "Not Optimistic" to "Encouraged." He has a long road though, so please continue to pray for them.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
7 days & counting.... Jacob's Story
I've written Jacob's story and next week a shortened version should go up on the http://www.kidswithheart.org/ website for his first birthday. I'm going to share the story in parts over the next few days since it is kind of long... Part one follows:
Jacob's Story
Jeff and I had been married for about 2 and a half years when we decided we were ready to start a family. We got pregnant in November. Towards the end of November, and beginning of December, I felt different, and I thought I might be pregnant. On Saturday, December 3, I took a home pregnancy test, and it was positive! I showed Jeff the test and had to explain the results as he woke up Saturday morning and needless to say, he was thrilled. We surprised our parents at Christmas with our big news. In January, we told our friends and family.
On March 8, we had an ultrasound and found out we were having a baby boy. We were very happy and had already picked out a name, Jacob. At the March 8 ultrasound, Jacob was in a funny position and they could not get a clear view of his heart. The ultrasound technician mentioned that they may send me back for another ultrasound to try to view the heart at a later time. I had my next OB appointment a week later, but it was hurried, and I forgot to ask about the ultrasound. At my April appointment, I asked the doctor about the ultrasound. He hurriedly went over it with me. I asked him about the heart not being visualized clearly. He said since there was no family history of heart problems, that a repeat ultrasound would not be necessary. Of course, we had no reason to suspect anything unusual, so we did not press the issue.
The remainder of my pregnancy was very normal. It was quite a hot summer, but I managed by drinking milkshakes whenever I could! In July, by 36 weeks, Jacob had "dropped" into position, and one of my doctors said that meant I probably would not go past my due date of August 11. At my 37 week appointment on July 26, I was 2 cm dilated, 80% effaced, and Jacob had dropped from negative 1 to 0 station in the pelvis.
To be continued...
Jacob's Story
Jeff and I had been married for about 2 and a half years when we decided we were ready to start a family. We got pregnant in November. Towards the end of November, and beginning of December, I felt different, and I thought I might be pregnant. On Saturday, December 3, I took a home pregnancy test, and it was positive! I showed Jeff the test and had to explain the results as he woke up Saturday morning and needless to say, he was thrilled. We surprised our parents at Christmas with our big news. In January, we told our friends and family.
On March 8, we had an ultrasound and found out we were having a baby boy. We were very happy and had already picked out a name, Jacob. At the March 8 ultrasound, Jacob was in a funny position and they could not get a clear view of his heart. The ultrasound technician mentioned that they may send me back for another ultrasound to try to view the heart at a later time. I had my next OB appointment a week later, but it was hurried, and I forgot to ask about the ultrasound. At my April appointment, I asked the doctor about the ultrasound. He hurriedly went over it with me. I asked him about the heart not being visualized clearly. He said since there was no family history of heart problems, that a repeat ultrasound would not be necessary. Of course, we had no reason to suspect anything unusual, so we did not press the issue.
The remainder of my pregnancy was very normal. It was quite a hot summer, but I managed by drinking milkshakes whenever I could! In July, by 36 weeks, Jacob had "dropped" into position, and one of my doctors said that meant I probably would not go past my due date of August 11. At my 37 week appointment on July 26, I was 2 cm dilated, 80% effaced, and Jacob had dropped from negative 1 to 0 station in the pelvis.
To be continued...
Nicole's Dad...
The father of my very good friend, Nicole, had open heart surgery yesterday. A triple bypass was scheduled, but the surgery did not go well as an unexpected aortic dissection was found. The medicine given after surgery made this condition worse, as more stress was placed on the aorta. Her father is not doing well and the family has been told that the doctors are not overly optimistic about his chances. Please keep them in your prayers.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Jacob's One Year Pictures
Oops - thought I posted this last Friday!
Hold your hats! It's a whole two posts in one week! And stay tuned next week, when we start the birthday count-down - I have a surprise for my faithful (and occasional) readers!
I'm posting some of my favorties from Jacob's Portrait Innovations pictures last Saturday. You can see the whole lot of them at http://www.jacobjones.shutterfly.com/, but here's a couple!
Hold your hats! It's a whole two posts in one week! And stay tuned next week, when we start the birthday count-down - I have a surprise for my faithful (and occasional) readers!
I'm posting some of my favorties from Jacob's Portrait Innovations pictures last Saturday. You can see the whole lot of them at http://www.jacobjones.shutterfly.com/, but here's a couple!
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Three Weeks & Counting!
I can't believe Jacob's birthday is in three short weeks. The party will be the following Saturday and I'm so happy my brother & his fiancee are coming from Texas! Here is the front of the invitation. I love Shutterfly! They printed, addressed & mailed them! It could not be easier!
I encourage you to stop by http://www.kidswithheart.org/, as well as to return there in a few weeks. There is a good chance that if I can get Jacob's "story" written in time, he will be the feature story for August. Right now the feature story for July is posted about a little boy named Cayman who was born on July 22 and lost his fight with CHD on the day Jacob was born. It's not a happy ending, but it is one that potentially could have been had the defect (Coarctation of the Aorta) been detected. [See Mayo Clinic - treatment for Coarctation of the Aorta] Congenital heart defect awareness is so important. I think Cayman's story shows that even medical professionals still need to be educated!
I encourage you to stop by http://www.kidswithheart.org/, as well as to return there in a few weeks. There is a good chance that if I can get Jacob's "story" written in time, he will be the feature story for August. Right now the feature story for July is posted about a little boy named Cayman who was born on July 22 and lost his fight with CHD on the day Jacob was born. It's not a happy ending, but it is one that potentially could have been had the defect (Coarctation of the Aorta) been detected. [See Mayo Clinic - treatment for Coarctation of the Aorta] Congenital heart defect awareness is so important. I think Cayman's story shows that even medical professionals still need to be educated!
Friday, July 6, 2007
Eleven Months Old!
Duh! I forgot to post earlier this week that this past Sunday, Jacob was 11 months old! I cannot believe how fast he is growing up! He will be a one year old in just 26 days!
We are so excited about his birthday party! I designed invitations on Shutterfly and they went out earlier this week! I'll have to figure out a way to post the front of the invitation!
We are so excited about his birthday party! I designed invitations on Shutterfly and they went out earlier this week! I'll have to figure out a way to post the front of the invitation!
Patio furniture, July 4th, Snot, & Eczema
As I posted last week, my mom came up last Thursday and stayed with Jacob on Friday. I know they enjoyed their time together! On Saturday, Jeff and I did a marathon shopping trip - we got a new umbrella for the deck, as well as new chair pads. Then, on Monday, Jeff found a great deal on a set of deck furniture on overstock.com that is black metal. We ordered the six-top table & six chairs. The furniture was scheduled to arrive on Monday, but Jeff just called and said it just arrived today!
We had a great 4th with Chris, Nicole, Devyn & Megan. They came over around 4 p.m. and the kids all swam in Jacob's little pool. We got some great pictures that I'll post soon (with Nicole's permission of course!) They had fun splashing around for about an hour, and then we got them cleaned up and fed Jacob & Megan dinner, while Jeff & Chris grilled hot dogs, brats, burgers & portobella mushrooms. (You would have thought we were cooking for twice as many people, but hey, we like leftovers!) Jacob actually ate his first meal all by his big-boy self - he fed himself goldfish, about a half of a hotdog and about 3/4 of a banana, plus 2-3 animal cookies.
Thursday morning, Jacob sneezed about 7-8 times before we could get him out the door! He seemed to be pretty happy, and the drainage was clear, so we proceeded on with our day and dropped him off at Chrissy's. Jeff wasn't feeling well himself, so he stayed home from work. I told Chrissy if Jake seemed to not feel well to call. I ended up picking Jacob myself around 5:00 p.m. Chrissy said Jacob had just started seeming tired and not feeling good in the last hour or so, and she figured we would be there soon, so she did not call. He slept pretty restlessly last night and seemed pretty tired this morning. Jeff decided to stay home with him today. So, I have a sick husband and child at home today.
The other thing Jacob has had going on lately, is eczema on his legs, arms, back and torso. Through diligent use of Vasoline Creamy ($2.47 Target!) 4-5 times a day, we have the back, torso & arms under control, but his legs are still red, splotchy & dry. We are now trying Baby Eczema Cream ($8.59! ouch!), but I can't say it's worth more than 3 times the price of the Vasoline so far!
We had a great 4th with Chris, Nicole, Devyn & Megan. They came over around 4 p.m. and the kids all swam in Jacob's little pool. We got some great pictures that I'll post soon (with Nicole's permission of course!) They had fun splashing around for about an hour, and then we got them cleaned up and fed Jacob & Megan dinner, while Jeff & Chris grilled hot dogs, brats, burgers & portobella mushrooms. (You would have thought we were cooking for twice as many people, but hey, we like leftovers!) Jacob actually ate his first meal all by his big-boy self - he fed himself goldfish, about a half of a hotdog and about 3/4 of a banana, plus 2-3 animal cookies.
Thursday morning, Jacob sneezed about 7-8 times before we could get him out the door! He seemed to be pretty happy, and the drainage was clear, so we proceeded on with our day and dropped him off at Chrissy's. Jeff wasn't feeling well himself, so he stayed home from work. I told Chrissy if Jake seemed to not feel well to call. I ended up picking Jacob myself around 5:00 p.m. Chrissy said Jacob had just started seeming tired and not feeling good in the last hour or so, and she figured we would be there soon, so she did not call. He slept pretty restlessly last night and seemed pretty tired this morning. Jeff decided to stay home with him today. So, I have a sick husband and child at home today.
The other thing Jacob has had going on lately, is eczema on his legs, arms, back and torso. Through diligent use of Vasoline Creamy ($2.47 Target!) 4-5 times a day, we have the back, torso & arms under control, but his legs are still red, splotchy & dry. We are now trying Baby Eczema Cream ($8.59! ouch!), but I can't say it's worth more than 3 times the price of the Vasoline so far!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Beach Weekend & Bumped!
Another week between postings!
Since last Thursday, the Threejones headed down to the beach. I had a girls' beach weekend getaway, that was lots of fun. Jeff stayed one night with his mom nearby and then went and stayed one night with my mom. Our sitter Chrissy is on vacation this week, and unfortunately, one of our main "back-up" sitters, has been sick this week! Get well Nicole! So, Jeff and I eached worked half-days both Monday & Wednesday. Another friend, Angie, kept Jacob Tuesday & today. My mom is coming up tonight and will watch Jacob tomorrow as planned! Whew - it's been some week!
This morning, I maybe left five minutes late, but then traffic was at a crawl, making me probably more like 15 minutes late. Then, I got bumped from behind by a Saturn, whose driver was looking for a CD apparently. I actually saw her in my rear view mirror just after she hit me come up with 2-3 CD's in hand. Jacob was fine, the car was fine, and I'll be okay also. Since I was running late and damage to the car looked minimal-to-none, she and I just exchanged insurance information.
Since last Thursday, the Threejones headed down to the beach. I had a girls' beach weekend getaway, that was lots of fun. Jeff stayed one night with his mom nearby and then went and stayed one night with my mom. Our sitter Chrissy is on vacation this week, and unfortunately, one of our main "back-up" sitters, has been sick this week! Get well Nicole! So, Jeff and I eached worked half-days both Monday & Wednesday. Another friend, Angie, kept Jacob Tuesday & today. My mom is coming up tonight and will watch Jacob tomorrow as planned! Whew - it's been some week!
This morning, I maybe left five minutes late, but then traffic was at a crawl, making me probably more like 15 minutes late. Then, I got bumped from behind by a Saturn, whose driver was looking for a CD apparently. I actually saw her in my rear view mirror just after she hit me come up with 2-3 CD's in hand. Jacob was fine, the car was fine, and I'll be okay also. Since I was running late and damage to the car looked minimal-to-none, she and I just exchanged insurance information.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Week and a half Recap! & Jacob's Clothes
You know you need to post to your blog when your husband says, "Honey, you haven't posted anything in over a week!"
Sorry to be MIA Jacob fans! To recap since the last post, let's see
6/13 - I had a mediation in Greensboro - it settled;
6/14 - I had Bunco - I lost.
6/15 - I had a mediation in High Point - it didn't settle - grrrr.... but, I did make an afternoon of it and stopped at Peaches-N-Cream and got Jacob the most adorable outfit for his birthday!
I also went to Carter's which is having a great 40-70% off sale, $5 polo shirts, sunsuits, etc. Great deals!
6/16 Went to the Farmer's Market, BJ's, etc. We had our friend Katie & Daniel over for dinner that night, which was really great to be able to socialize on a Saturday night since Jacob goes to bed so early. They are special friends - they came to Rex at 3 a.m. when Jacob was born. Katie stayed with me and Daniel drove Jeff to Duke.
6/17 Jeff's First Father's Day. He absolutely loved his present and has been showing it off all week. If you'd like to view the photobook I made him on Shutterfly - click here.
6/19 Tuesday - mediation - yet again to Greensboro. However, the plaintiff's attorney failed to notify me before my arrival he had not talked to his client since MARCH! He did realize this last Thursday, but felt it was too late to tell me! Grrr...
Last night, I was laying (or is it lying?) awake at 4 a.m. drafting a blog post in my head, but now of course I can't remember it. I was going to write about how shopping for clothes for Jacob is really more fun than even buying clothes for myself. I remember when I found out we were having a boy, a part of me wanted a girl because I wanted to be able to dress up a little girl in cute dresses. They make so many cute girl clothes. But, I also tend to think that boy's clothes are getting way cuter too. I'm a sucker for buying them all! Today, Jacob is wearing a very cute shortalls with a blue polo - the shortalls have little fishes embroidered on them! Wow, I just found them on Overstock! I got this outfit for BJ's and I think I paid maybe $10? This is not good. I didn't realize Overstock sold baby clothes! I'm really in trouble now! Look at this outfit!!! ADORABLE!!
Jacob has so many clothes for summer in size 12 months that he could probably wear a different outfit just about every day of the month. I wish I were exaggerating! Fortunately, he is growing a lot slower these days than in the early days, but he is so long, that some of the 12 months outfits are getting too short. We virtually have no 18 months clothes, so I did buy some Carter's Polos at the outlet last week that he'll wear this fall probably. His birthday is coming up too in just less than 6 weeks!
And of course, in his just 10.5 months, he's outgrown many, many clothes, in fact, more than three large plastic containers full! What to do with all these clothes? Save them? Sell them? Consign them? Give them away? What do you do with your kids/babies too-small clothes?
Sorry to be MIA Jacob fans! To recap since the last post, let's see
6/13 - I had a mediation in Greensboro - it settled;
6/14 - I had Bunco - I lost.
6/15 - I had a mediation in High Point - it didn't settle - grrrr.... but, I did make an afternoon of it and stopped at Peaches-N-Cream and got Jacob the most adorable outfit for his birthday!
I also went to Carter's which is having a great 40-70% off sale, $5 polo shirts, sunsuits, etc. Great deals!
6/16 Went to the Farmer's Market, BJ's, etc. We had our friend Katie & Daniel over for dinner that night, which was really great to be able to socialize on a Saturday night since Jacob goes to bed so early. They are special friends - they came to Rex at 3 a.m. when Jacob was born. Katie stayed with me and Daniel drove Jeff to Duke.
6/17 Jeff's First Father's Day. He absolutely loved his present and has been showing it off all week. If you'd like to view the photobook I made him on Shutterfly - click here.
6/19 Tuesday - mediation - yet again to Greensboro. However, the plaintiff's attorney failed to notify me before my arrival he had not talked to his client since MARCH! He did realize this last Thursday, but felt it was too late to tell me! Grrr...
Last night, I was laying (or is it lying?) awake at 4 a.m. drafting a blog post in my head, but now of course I can't remember it. I was going to write about how shopping for clothes for Jacob is really more fun than even buying clothes for myself. I remember when I found out we were having a boy, a part of me wanted a girl because I wanted to be able to dress up a little girl in cute dresses. They make so many cute girl clothes. But, I also tend to think that boy's clothes are getting way cuter too. I'm a sucker for buying them all! Today, Jacob is wearing a very cute shortalls with a blue polo - the shortalls have little fishes embroidered on them! Wow, I just found them on Overstock! I got this outfit for BJ's and I think I paid maybe $10? This is not good. I didn't realize Overstock sold baby clothes! I'm really in trouble now! Look at this outfit!!! ADORABLE!!
Jacob has so many clothes for summer in size 12 months that he could probably wear a different outfit just about every day of the month. I wish I were exaggerating! Fortunately, he is growing a lot slower these days than in the early days, but he is so long, that some of the 12 months outfits are getting too short. We virtually have no 18 months clothes, so I did buy some Carter's Polos at the outlet last week that he'll wear this fall probably. His birthday is coming up too in just less than 6 weeks!
And of course, in his just 10.5 months, he's outgrown many, many clothes, in fact, more than three large plastic containers full! What to do with all these clothes? Save them? Sell them? Consign them? Give them away? What do you do with your kids/babies too-small clothes?
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Tuesday Ramblings...
My mom came up on Friday night to visit, and on Saturday morning, we went to the Farmers Market again. Between my mom & I, we bought strawberries, green peppers, banana peppers, three loaves of fresh bread(!), two pints of homemade strawberry jam, and two basil plants. It is so wonderful having this so close by, I'm sure we will go every week! I can't wait til the tomatoes come in!
After the Farmers Market, mom and I went to Target with Jacob. He's such a good boy. He is happy even when he's tired and is so good in stores! I'm a realist though, and I know this might not last! We bought him the cutest little beach chair! We were actually looking for one of those hard shell baby pools for him, but Target, nor Lowe's had one. After an hour or so at Target, we headed on back home. Jeff got back from Farmers Market around the same time. After some lunch, Jeff and I headed back out to find Jacob a pool! We went to Rose's, but the pool was too big. Then to Walmart, which of course, has everything. They had 3 sizes and we bought the smallest one. We came home and filled it up on our deck. It's nice because the deck is mostly shaded, so Jacob is out of the sun. We put him and his rubber duckies in the pool, and he loved it! He splashed and chased the duckies around for a good 45 minutes. We got lots of great pictures, which I'll post soon.
On Sunday, two of Jeff's aunts came to visit for the day from Greensboro. They had not seen Jacob since he was 4 months old (at Christmas)! These are probably Jeff's two favorite aunts, and one of them also is dear to us because she came several days when Jacob was on the peds floor at Duke and sat with him and read him books so that Jeff and I could escape the hospital for a couple of hours a day. It's so nice that Jeff has a big family that all live pretty close by since he is an only child and since Jacob's only uncle (and future aunt) live in Texas!
Jacob continues to sleep pretty well at night. He did cry for about 5-10 minutes around 9:15 p.m. last night. We watched him on the surveillance camera, and he did not seem to wake up. I think maybe he was having a bad dream, but he went back to sleep pretty quickly. This morning, I went in his room and he was lying there so quietly, I thought he was sleeping! He saw me, and his little head popped right up!
After the Farmers Market, mom and I went to Target with Jacob. He's such a good boy. He is happy even when he's tired and is so good in stores! I'm a realist though, and I know this might not last! We bought him the cutest little beach chair! We were actually looking for one of those hard shell baby pools for him, but Target, nor Lowe's had one. After an hour or so at Target, we headed on back home. Jeff got back from Farmers Market around the same time. After some lunch, Jeff and I headed back out to find Jacob a pool! We went to Rose's, but the pool was too big. Then to Walmart, which of course, has everything. They had 3 sizes and we bought the smallest one. We came home and filled it up on our deck. It's nice because the deck is mostly shaded, so Jacob is out of the sun. We put him and his rubber duckies in the pool, and he loved it! He splashed and chased the duckies around for a good 45 minutes. We got lots of great pictures, which I'll post soon.
On Sunday, two of Jeff's aunts came to visit for the day from Greensboro. They had not seen Jacob since he was 4 months old (at Christmas)! These are probably Jeff's two favorite aunts, and one of them also is dear to us because she came several days when Jacob was on the peds floor at Duke and sat with him and read him books so that Jeff and I could escape the hospital for a couple of hours a day. It's so nice that Jeff has a big family that all live pretty close by since he is an only child and since Jacob's only uncle (and future aunt) live in Texas!
Jacob continues to sleep pretty well at night. He did cry for about 5-10 minutes around 9:15 p.m. last night. We watched him on the surveillance camera, and he did not seem to wake up. I think maybe he was having a bad dream, but he went back to sleep pretty quickly. This morning, I went in his room and he was lying there so quietly, I thought he was sleeping! He saw me, and his little head popped right up!
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Randomness
This past weekend was the first Farmer's Market in Holly Springs. Jeff has been working on this project with some other staff now for about a year. Everything went really well. Since Jeff had to basically work 7 A to 1 P on Saturday, I got to spend the morning with Jacob, which was nice.
Around 9 A, Jacob and I went out to the Market and ran into some friends of ours. We bought new potatoes, strawberries, and homemade meringue cookies. Jeff came home later on with some shrimp. Everything was so good. The strawberries were very ripe & sweet. I must have eaten a half-quart just standing in the kitchen. I bought angel food cake later, and we hardly had any left!
Sunday was a quiet day around the house. Storms were predicted, so we did four loads of laundry!
Jacob has mostly been sleeping through the night 6:30 P to 6:00 A for a good month or so. Jeff and I are spoiled. Friday night, and last night, Jacob woke up in the middle of the night and cried/fussed for a little bit, maybe 10 minutes. Then, he'd be quiet for 15-20 minutes, and you'd hear him fuss for a minute or so. Repeat. For an hour and half. Both Friday & Monday nights. And he was up at 5:00 A and fussed for a minute or two. I'm not sure what is going on with him sleepwise, though we do think he is starting to cut two more teeth on top.
Jacob started eating banana chunks this weekend and arrowroot cookies. These are the first foods other than puffs or wagon wheels he has been able to feed himself really.
Lastly, I'm very excited about Jeff's Father's Day present. And, I'm proud of myself for planning ahead. It's already ordered and will be shipped later this week. I'd love to tell you all about it, but you'll have to wait! Now I just need to figure out something for my own Dad!
Around 9 A, Jacob and I went out to the Market and ran into some friends of ours. We bought new potatoes, strawberries, and homemade meringue cookies. Jeff came home later on with some shrimp. Everything was so good. The strawberries were very ripe & sweet. I must have eaten a half-quart just standing in the kitchen. I bought angel food cake later, and we hardly had any left!
Sunday was a quiet day around the house. Storms were predicted, so we did four loads of laundry!
Jacob has mostly been sleeping through the night 6:30 P to 6:00 A for a good month or so. Jeff and I are spoiled. Friday night, and last night, Jacob woke up in the middle of the night and cried/fussed for a little bit, maybe 10 minutes. Then, he'd be quiet for 15-20 minutes, and you'd hear him fuss for a minute or so. Repeat. For an hour and half. Both Friday & Monday nights. And he was up at 5:00 A and fussed for a minute or two. I'm not sure what is going on with him sleepwise, though we do think he is starting to cut two more teeth on top.
Jacob started eating banana chunks this weekend and arrowroot cookies. These are the first foods other than puffs or wagon wheels he has been able to feed himself really.
Lastly, I'm very excited about Jeff's Father's Day present. And, I'm proud of myself for planning ahead. It's already ordered and will be shipped later this week. I'd love to tell you all about it, but you'll have to wait! Now I just need to figure out something for my own Dad!
Monday, June 4, 2007
Quick LG update
We were told today that LG has been released from the hospital and is continuing to recover at home! What a wonderful ending to this story!
Friday, June 1, 2007
Cruisin' - 10 months old!
Today Jacob is 10 months old! He is growing up so fast. He pulls up on furniture in a matter of seconds now. He's also cruising. I watched him cruise the length of Chrissy's couch this morning.
I cannot believe he will be a year old in just two months!!!!
Pictures from the end of May have been posted here:
http://jacobjones.shutterfly.com/action/
More pictures to come! Just downloaded them from the camera last night!
I cannot believe he will be a year old in just two months!!!!
Pictures from the end of May have been posted here:
http://jacobjones.shutterfly.com/action/
More pictures to come! Just downloaded them from the camera last night!
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Memorial Day Weekend!
What a great weekend we all had!
We went down to Wilmington on Thursday morning, so I could go to a mediation in Jacksonville that afternoon. Jeff stayed at my mom's with Jacob and Jacob truly wore him out! He's into everything! We semi-babyproofed mom's house using pillows to block off the dangers. On Friday morning, I had a mediation in Wilmington, and Jeff took Jacob down to see his mom in Ocean Isle Beach. Jacob had a lot of fun with his Grandma and Jeff reports he liked riding their black lab, Sissy. Jacob was so dirty, Jeff had to give him a bath before he brought him home! I had to put stain stick all over his outfit before we washed it!
On Saturday, Jeff and I went over to my dad's pool and swam for a bit. It was a nice and relaxing afternoon. That evening, we went to Heather & Jed's for a cookout. We had some wonderful steaks and baked potatoes! It was like eating at a steakhouse, but better! Thanks guys!
On Sunday, Jeff and I had planned to meet some friends at dad's pool, but Jacob had other plans to nap during that time. He slept the morning away, and finally we went over to dad's for around an hour to let Jacob swim a little bit. He loved it. We'll post those pictures soon!
Sunday night, Jeff and I checked into the Wilmingtonian. It's a quaint all-suite hotel in downtown Wilmington. We last stayed there on our wedding night. We didn't have the exact same room (it was booked), but we did have the room right below it! We did some walking around downtown that afternoon, and to our surprise, Front Street Brewery had reopened. This is one of our favorite places to grab a beer, and we haven't been in two years. In the meantime, they had closed for 8 months and just reopened last September! We love the Raspberry Wheat ale! After a little browsing around downtown, we found the Little Dipper, where I REALLY wanted to eat dinner. It's a fondue restaurant, and the menu looked wonderful! We made a reservation, and went back to our suite to rest up and shower. We went back for dinner around 8 p.m. and started with wine on the deck overlooking the river. Then, our table was ready, so we moved inside. We had a Tuscan Sun-Dried Tomato cheese fondue, which our waiter aptly described as "pizza-dip." It was very good. We both had the chef-salad, also very good and rather big! For dinner, we shared the Dinner for Two - Surf N Turf, with filet mignon, shrimp, and lobster-stuffed ravioli. It was so much food, we could not finish the filet mignon! For dessert, we had the "Half-N-Half" - one half smooth peanut butter and one half dark chocolate. This was the best chocolate fondue I've EVER had. They even give you a cinnamon-sugar-graham cracker mixture to dip your dippers in after dipping in chocolate. Delicious!!!! I can't wait to go back!
On Monday, we leisurely slept in until 8 a.m. How wonderful! We went back to mom's, and had planned to meet the Prince William Tall Ship. My dad is the President of WHET in Wilmington. He and other WHET members have been working for a couple of months on getting the ship to stop in Wilmington. About a week ago, the captain of the boat invited my dad and other WHET members, as well as the media to board the ship in Morehead City on Friday and to sail around for the weekend, arriving in Wilmington on Monday. The ship arrived around 12:30 p.m. We made it downtown a little after 1 p.m. and met my dad and his wife. After spending a little time with them, we headed on home.
It was a great weekend all-around. The best part is, we kept Jacob on a great "sleeping schedule". He slept great at my mom's in the pack-n-play. Jeff gets a lot of credit too for putting Jacob down for naps in the pack n play right away on Thursday! Her house is just two bedrooms, so Jeff and I actually set up camp in the living room, so as not to disturb Jacob's slumber! It worked though!!! For several weeks now, he's been sleeping 10-11 hours a night! Knock on wood!
We went down to Wilmington on Thursday morning, so I could go to a mediation in Jacksonville that afternoon. Jeff stayed at my mom's with Jacob and Jacob truly wore him out! He's into everything! We semi-babyproofed mom's house using pillows to block off the dangers. On Friday morning, I had a mediation in Wilmington, and Jeff took Jacob down to see his mom in Ocean Isle Beach. Jacob had a lot of fun with his Grandma and Jeff reports he liked riding their black lab, Sissy. Jacob was so dirty, Jeff had to give him a bath before he brought him home! I had to put stain stick all over his outfit before we washed it!
On Saturday, Jeff and I went over to my dad's pool and swam for a bit. It was a nice and relaxing afternoon. That evening, we went to Heather & Jed's for a cookout. We had some wonderful steaks and baked potatoes! It was like eating at a steakhouse, but better! Thanks guys!
On Sunday, Jeff and I had planned to meet some friends at dad's pool, but Jacob had other plans to nap during that time. He slept the morning away, and finally we went over to dad's for around an hour to let Jacob swim a little bit. He loved it. We'll post those pictures soon!
Sunday night, Jeff and I checked into the Wilmingtonian. It's a quaint all-suite hotel in downtown Wilmington. We last stayed there on our wedding night. We didn't have the exact same room (it was booked), but we did have the room right below it! We did some walking around downtown that afternoon, and to our surprise, Front Street Brewery had reopened. This is one of our favorite places to grab a beer, and we haven't been in two years. In the meantime, they had closed for 8 months and just reopened last September! We love the Raspberry Wheat ale! After a little browsing around downtown, we found the Little Dipper, where I REALLY wanted to eat dinner. It's a fondue restaurant, and the menu looked wonderful! We made a reservation, and went back to our suite to rest up and shower. We went back for dinner around 8 p.m. and started with wine on the deck overlooking the river. Then, our table was ready, so we moved inside. We had a Tuscan Sun-Dried Tomato cheese fondue, which our waiter aptly described as "pizza-dip." It was very good. We both had the chef-salad, also very good and rather big! For dinner, we shared the Dinner for Two - Surf N Turf, with filet mignon, shrimp, and lobster-stuffed ravioli. It was so much food, we could not finish the filet mignon! For dessert, we had the "Half-N-Half" - one half smooth peanut butter and one half dark chocolate. This was the best chocolate fondue I've EVER had. They even give you a cinnamon-sugar-graham cracker mixture to dip your dippers in after dipping in chocolate. Delicious!!!! I can't wait to go back!
On Monday, we leisurely slept in until 8 a.m. How wonderful! We went back to mom's, and had planned to meet the Prince William Tall Ship. My dad is the President of WHET in Wilmington. He and other WHET members have been working for a couple of months on getting the ship to stop in Wilmington. About a week ago, the captain of the boat invited my dad and other WHET members, as well as the media to board the ship in Morehead City on Friday and to sail around for the weekend, arriving in Wilmington on Monday. The ship arrived around 12:30 p.m. We made it downtown a little after 1 p.m. and met my dad and his wife. After spending a little time with them, we headed on home.
It was a great weekend all-around. The best part is, we kept Jacob on a great "sleeping schedule". He slept great at my mom's in the pack-n-play. Jeff gets a lot of credit too for putting Jacob down for naps in the pack n play right away on Thursday! Her house is just two bedrooms, so Jeff and I actually set up camp in the living room, so as not to disturb Jacob's slumber! It worked though!!! For several weeks now, he's been sleeping 10-11 hours a night! Knock on wood!
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Peace College Reunion Weekend!
This past weekend, May 19-20, I attended the Peace College reunion with my 3 roommates from Peace, Kim, Heather & Jenna. We had such a wonderful time! This is Peace's Sesquicentennial (150 years, founded in 1857) Year, so the Reunion weekend was much grander than usual. They offered alumnae the chance to stay on campus, but it was rather expensive, so the girls, at the suggestion of my husband, opted to stay at a nearby Embassy Suites. I'll try to post a few pictures of us as soon as I can get them downloaded from the camera!
The other "interesting" thing going is on that Jacob has not been to Chrissy's since last Thursday! Her son, Evan, has been sick, and has even had two hospital overnight stays due to dehydration. (He is doing better now though.) Fortunately, Nicole kept Jacob 1/2 of Thursday, all day Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. Today Jacob is at Angie's, another friend who is a SAHM. She is the sister of my law school friend, Katie, but also a friend of mine for the last few years now. I'm so fortunate to have such great friends to help out! Tomorrow and Friday, Jeff had already planned to take off work because I have mediations for my work in Jacksonville & Wilmington, so we are all going to Wilmington on Thursday morning and staying through the holiday weekend with my mom. Jeff will probably take Jacob to his mom's on Friday and I imagine we may go to my dad's on Saturday or Sunday. Jeff and I are contemplating sleeping in my mom's living room and giving Jacob the guest room to try to keep some semblance of normalcy to his sleep schedule! He slept until 6:30 a.m. this morning! His sleep is WONDERFUL right now! Keeping fingers crossed this continues!!!
The other "interesting" thing going is on that Jacob has not been to Chrissy's since last Thursday! Her son, Evan, has been sick, and has even had two hospital overnight stays due to dehydration. (He is doing better now though.) Fortunately, Nicole kept Jacob 1/2 of Thursday, all day Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. Today Jacob is at Angie's, another friend who is a SAHM. She is the sister of my law school friend, Katie, but also a friend of mine for the last few years now. I'm so fortunate to have such great friends to help out! Tomorrow and Friday, Jeff had already planned to take off work because I have mediations for my work in Jacksonville & Wilmington, so we are all going to Wilmington on Thursday morning and staying through the holiday weekend with my mom. Jeff will probably take Jacob to his mom's on Friday and I imagine we may go to my dad's on Saturday or Sunday. Jeff and I are contemplating sleeping in my mom's living room and giving Jacob the guest room to try to keep some semblance of normalcy to his sleep schedule! He slept until 6:30 a.m. this morning! His sleep is WONDERFUL right now! Keeping fingers crossed this continues!!!
Friday, May 18, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
LG Update
Ms. LG underwent her transplant surgery on late Monday/early Tuesday and the 2nd part of the surgery was completed about two hours ago! So far, she is not out of the woods, but her recovery is going well. Thank you for your thoughts & prayers!
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
7 Random Things 'bout Me
Nearly a week ago, I was tagged by Emily to give 7 random facts about myself... a meme (an idea shared from blog to blog.) Well, I'm finally getting around to it. Emily's son, Gabe, had heart surgery yesterday (he's doing well!) - that's his cute mug right there at the top left of this page!
So, without further adieu, my seven random facts:
1. Drew Barrymore was enrolled in my third grade class. (She was filming Firestarter.)
2. I was born in Ohio and we moved to Carolina Beach when I was 8 years old. We lived 3 blocks from the ocean.
3. I've been to London.
4. I cannot stand having my face wet, in the shower, pool, etc.
5. I've lost 50 lbs since January 2001.
6. I'm one-quarter Swedish. (My Grandma Elsa was born in Sweden.)
7. I scored a 4 out of 5 on the AP Calculus exam, but I couldn't tell you the first thing about Calculus now!
And now I must tag others.... Kellie, Tracy, Christine, Julia, and Terri. I hope some of you will decide to play!
So, without further adieu, my seven random facts:
1. Drew Barrymore was enrolled in my third grade class. (She was filming Firestarter.)
2. I was born in Ohio and we moved to Carolina Beach when I was 8 years old. We lived 3 blocks from the ocean.
3. I've been to London.
4. I cannot stand having my face wet, in the shower, pool, etc.
5. I've lost 50 lbs since January 2001.
6. I'm one-quarter Swedish. (My Grandma Elsa was born in Sweden.)
7. I scored a 4 out of 5 on the AP Calculus exam, but I couldn't tell you the first thing about Calculus now!
And now I must tag others.... Kellie, Tracy, Christine, Julia, and Terri. I hope some of you will decide to play!
Mother's Day Weekend
First, some pictures!
Jacob Napping
Making a mess at dinnertime!
New use for the pacifier he doesn't like?
He prefers boxes to his toys!
He likes boxes!
We all had a good Mother's Day weekend. Jacob is still fighting off this cold. He had his 9 month (well) check up on Friday. He was about 18 lbs, 2 oz and 28.5 inches long. I'm not sure the weight is quite right because he was squirming and the scale they use is too small for him now. He did drop down a few notches on the growth charts, but this was to be expected since he is so much more active now. He pulls up all the time and is crawling everywhere!
On Saturday, we went to a birthday party for our friend's Chris & Nicole's 2 year old daughter, Devyn. She is so cute! They put the cake in front of her to blow out her candles, and she said "Where's a fork?!!"
For Mother's Day, I got a lovely card from Jacob and another one from Jeff. I also got a Mother & Son keepsake box by Willow Tree and a necklace to wear my Mama-Baby charm on that Jeff gave me when Jacob was born. (My other necklace broke in February!)
Later, we drove to Wilmington for the day to see my Grandma Elsa who is visiting from Florida. Odd, since it was Mother's Day that we were with my Dad! But, our moms understood. My mom was here the previous weekend, and Jeff's mom will be here this weekend. We let Jake swim for about 10-15 minutes in Dad's pool with his new baby float.
This thing works GREAT! He loved, loved, loved it!
I don't want to jinx us, but Jacob has been sleeping soooo good for about 2-3 weeks now. He's going to bed at 6:30p to 7:00p, and he sleeps until the next morning around 6:30a. He did wake up at 9:30p last night, crying, but I went and checked on him and no fever, no wet bed or anything. He settled back down and stopped crying. I don't think he ever actually woke up though. Maybe he had a bad dream?
Friday, May 11, 2007
Somber Day
It's somewhat of a somber day around my office. For those of you who don't know, I've worked in State Government for a little over 2 years now. When I first started, a coworker, we'll call her LG [she's a very private person, so I want to try to protect her privacy], showed me around and even attended some of my first meetings with me, riding 2 hours in a car each way together. Shortly after, LG switched jobs, but was still in my Section, so I'd still see her, but we didn't work together.
About a month ago, we found out LG was in the hospital. She's young, around 29 years old. Apparently, she was born with some type of congenital condition with her liver. She had reached a point that she was in desperate need of a new liver and had been placed at #1 on the Duke liver transplant list. This all came as somewhat of a shock to our coworkers, who had no idea she was sick. About two weeks ago, we all took a picture of our entire staff wearing Duke t-shirts, framed it and gave it to her because she is a huge Duke fan, and in fact is at Duke right now. She was very impressed, especially because probably at least 1/2 of our coworkers detest Duke sports, and love UNC or Wake, etc.
Today, we were told that if LG doesn't get a liver in the next few days, she will not live. She's reached a critical point, and her kidneys have failed. In a conversation just yesterday, I was talking to some other moms a few years older than I am. (They have teenagers.) One was telling us that she has found that even when things are grim, you have to count your blessings, and pray that God's will be done. That is so hard, but right now, I just keep thinking, Thank God that LG is still healthy enough to receive a transplant. The Lord has a plan for all of us, and he does work miracles. I would ask that you keep LG in your prayers, as well as her family at this difficult time.
About a month ago, we found out LG was in the hospital. She's young, around 29 years old. Apparently, she was born with some type of congenital condition with her liver. She had reached a point that she was in desperate need of a new liver and had been placed at #1 on the Duke liver transplant list. This all came as somewhat of a shock to our coworkers, who had no idea she was sick. About two weeks ago, we all took a picture of our entire staff wearing Duke t-shirts, framed it and gave it to her because she is a huge Duke fan, and in fact is at Duke right now. She was very impressed, especially because probably at least 1/2 of our coworkers detest Duke sports, and love UNC or Wake, etc.
Today, we were told that if LG doesn't get a liver in the next few days, she will not live. She's reached a critical point, and her kidneys have failed. In a conversation just yesterday, I was talking to some other moms a few years older than I am. (They have teenagers.) One was telling us that she has found that even when things are grim, you have to count your blessings, and pray that God's will be done. That is so hard, but right now, I just keep thinking, Thank God that LG is still healthy enough to receive a transplant. The Lord has a plan for all of us, and he does work miracles. I would ask that you keep LG in your prayers, as well as her family at this difficult time.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Nine Months Old!
Jacob was nine months old on Tuesday. That evening, he had a "first." He pulled himself up to standing at the bottom of our stairs! (Of course, Jeff and I were standing right there in case he fell, but he did it all by himself.) I think it's entirely possible he will be at least "cruising" before he is one. He has also been sleeping just great from 7:00 pm until about 6:30 a.m. He will occasionally cry out during the night, but he quickly goes back to sleep on his own. We are SOOO lucky!
Jacob has been on antibiotics since Thursday and he seems to be doing better. He's been going to Chrissy's this week, and you can tell he is so happy to be there! Yesterday, when I dropped him off, I put him on the floor with Sam. He went to crawl over Sam, remember - Santa baby, and he got stuck because Sam's belly is so big! Chrissy helped him crawl on over. Chrissy says they are so funny playing together and that it reminds her of little puppies! Jeff said yesterday when he picked Jacob up, he even cried a little because he didn't want to leave!
I've been on the road for work - Monday in Wilson; Tuesday in Statesville; and Wednesday in Fayetteville. Also, Monday through Wednesday, we had our house painted. We thought we had picked a shade of tan (Sea Sand by Porter Paints) that would be darker than our yellowish tan, but it looks almost like the same color. On one hand this is a little disappointing, because it's not what we were going for, but on the other, we will not have our HOA breathing down our neck for not getting the color approved ahead of time! In any event, we are glad it is done, because it needed painting! We have hardiplank, but the house is 10 years old this year!
Jacob has been on antibiotics since Thursday and he seems to be doing better. He's been going to Chrissy's this week, and you can tell he is so happy to be there! Yesterday, when I dropped him off, I put him on the floor with Sam. He went to crawl over Sam, remember - Santa baby, and he got stuck because Sam's belly is so big! Chrissy helped him crawl on over. Chrissy says they are so funny playing together and that it reminds her of little puppies! Jeff said yesterday when he picked Jacob up, he even cried a little because he didn't want to leave!
I've been on the road for work - Monday in Wilson; Tuesday in Statesville; and Wednesday in Fayetteville. Also, Monday through Wednesday, we had our house painted. We thought we had picked a shade of tan (Sea Sand by Porter Paints) that would be darker than our yellowish tan, but it looks almost like the same color. On one hand this is a little disappointing, because it's not what we were going for, but on the other, we will not have our HOA breathing down our neck for not getting the color approved ahead of time! In any event, we are glad it is done, because it needed painting! We have hardiplank, but the house is 10 years old this year!
Friday, April 27, 2007
It's all in the family....
Yes, it was bound to happen. After three days of your little one sneezing on you, coughing on you, and generally using your clothes as a snot rag, you are going to get sick yourself.
Jeff and I started feeling the effects of what little Jacob has been going through yesterday afternoon. Lots of congestion, sore throat, general fatigue, headache, etc. I think it is hitting Jeff a little harder than it is hitting me today. Either that, or I've found a right combo of meds with taking that psuedo-Sudafed (the on-the-shelf variety) + 600 mg of Ibuprofen. I decided to come on into work and get as much done as I can today. I was supposed to attend a dinner tonight, but I don't know that I'm going to make it in light of having a sick husband and sick kid at home by themselves all day.
On a good note, Jacob did sleep through the night last night for the first time this week! He awoke at 8:37 pm and cried for one minute. Then, quiet. About 8:42 pm, cried for another minute. Then, silence. The entire night. Not even a cough from him. At 6:00 am, I went in and he was lying there quietly. As I opened the door, he lifted his head and crawled towards me in his crib. You could almost hear him thinking.... Mom, pick me up! Mom, pick me up!
Jeff and I started feeling the effects of what little Jacob has been going through yesterday afternoon. Lots of congestion, sore throat, general fatigue, headache, etc. I think it is hitting Jeff a little harder than it is hitting me today. Either that, or I've found a right combo of meds with taking that psuedo-Sudafed (the on-the-shelf variety) + 600 mg of Ibuprofen. I decided to come on into work and get as much done as I can today. I was supposed to attend a dinner tonight, but I don't know that I'm going to make it in light of having a sick husband and sick kid at home by themselves all day.
On a good note, Jacob did sleep through the night last night for the first time this week! He awoke at 8:37 pm and cried for one minute. Then, quiet. About 8:42 pm, cried for another minute. Then, silence. The entire night. Not even a cough from him. At 6:00 am, I went in and he was lying there quietly. As I opened the door, he lifted his head and crawled towards me in his crib. You could almost hear him thinking.... Mom, pick me up! Mom, pick me up!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Sick once again...
Starting on Saturday, Jacob seemed to be coming down with something. He went to WalkAmerica with me, but wasn't himself. He was very quiet. By that afternoon, he felt hot, and I took his temperature - 102.5. Gave him some Infant Motrin and it went away. Sunday & Monday, I don't remember him feeling hot, but he started sounding congested - just upper respiratory. Tuesday, same thing, congestion, no fever. I think it was Tuesday night he woke up and felt hot. He was also very lethargic from the sedation they gave him at Duke. We decided to stay home with him on Wednesday. Needless to say, Jeff and I slept very little Tuesday night. We were so tired Wednesday, Jacob went to bed at 6 pm and Jeff and I were shortly behind him at 8 pm. That is the earliest I've gone to bed in my life. Even growing up, bedtime was 9 pm! We were asleep by 8:30 pm. Jacob woke up howling at 9:30 pm. He was HOT. I took his temperature - 103.4. We gave him some Motrin and spent 2 hours trying to get him to sleep in his crib to no avail. We finally let him sleep with us around 12 midnight. When he awoke at 5:30 am, he was not hot, and it had been more than 6 hours since we gave him Motrin, so I figured the fever was over. But, he was having major sinus drainage. I've even seen some green drainage near his eye! By 7:30 am, he was ready to go down for a nap. I called the doctor at 8:30 am and they said to bring him in at 9:30 am. I went to wake him up at 9 a.m. to get ready to leave, and he was hot again. By the time we got to the doctor, his temperature was 102.5. The nurses were very concerned about this and immediately gave him Tylenol drops. Dr. Ryan examined him and his ears & throat were fine. She sent us down for a chest x-ray since Jacob had pneumonia at the end of February. She also ordered blood work. Fortunately, the lab & the x-ray are all in the same building as our peditrician's office. We have already taken advantage of this on multiple occasions. It took approximately one hour to get the lab work & x-ray completed. Believe it or not, the chest x-ray was much more stressful on both Jacob and I than drawing blood! Drawing blood was over in a matter of seconds. The chest x-ray required Jacob be placed in this plastic contraption with his arms straight up over his head and the whole thing tightened around him. He screamed the entired time. The technicians reassured me... don't worry, we get better pictures when he is crying because his lungs are filled with air. Needless to say that did not make me feel better. It was one of those times you want to run in and get your child and run out of there. Finally, after that was over and we went back upstairs to see Dr. Ryan & get the results, which were good. The CBC was normal and the chest x-ray, based on her unofficial reading, looked fine, and was definitely better than February's x-ray. She had already told me that with his history, regardless of the results, she was going to give him an antibiotic. So, Amoxicillin for Jacob and I had to go to Kroger to fill it on the way home. What an exhausting morning! On a good note, we go back for his 9 month check up in 2 weeks - I made the appointment. I noticed the only "item" for that appointment is a blood count. I asked Dr. Ryan as we were checking out if we could use the blood work we did today and not have to stick him again in 2 weeks and she said that was fine and to remind her of that!
I'm so hopeful he will start feeling better. The poor kid is just not himself. When he has a fever, he just moans and moans. I am glad we decided to take him on to the doctor though.
I'm so hopeful he will start feeling better. The poor kid is just not himself. When he has a fever, he just moans and moans. I am glad we decided to take him on to the doctor though.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
A visit to Duke Children's Clinic
Today, we took Jacob for his 5th follow up visit since his discharge from Duke on August 16. We see Dr. Delaney, who is Jacob's pediatric cardiologist. Dr. Delaney is also an interventional catheterization specialist - he was there the morning Jacob arrived at Duke and performed Jacob's balloon septostomy along with Dr. Rhodes. Dr. Delaney also sat down with Jeff and I before Jacob's surgery and detailed Jacob's condition and surgery and let us ask questions. He is a good doctor and has a good "bedside manner." Anyway, on to the visit...
After our traditional breakfast at Elmo's, we arrived at Duke at 8:45 a.m. We were taken back for a height & weight check. Jacob's length was 28 inches and his weight was 18 lbs, 7 oz. Then, it was over to the main hospital for the echocardiogram. This was Jacob's third outpatient echo, so Jeff and I thought we had the routine down. We arrived on the 7th floor to find a sign that said something to the effect of wait by the elevators for x, y, z and peds echo. That was odd. The paper we were given at the Children's Hospital said to go to the waiting room at 7416, which is where we usually went. We walked towards the waiting room anyway, and found doors covered in plastic. Something was definitely different. We went back to the elevator area. A nice woman we'd seen on the elevator figured out we were there for a peds echo and offered to tell them we were waiting. A little later, they came out and walked us back to the echo room. The nurse explained that they had a pipe burst in the waiting room and it was being repaired. It's funny because the Children's Hospital receptionists had no idea about this.... Anyway, so we get back to the echo room, and we wait.... and we wait... and we wait. It was 10:00 a.m. before the doctor overseeing the echo labs came in to examine Jacob. He recognized him from his treatment last August and noted how great Jacob looked. This happens to us pretty frequently at Duke. Nurses & doctors that we don't necessarily remember, remember us and remember Jacob. While heart defects are 1 out of 100 babies born, transposition (a.k.a TGA) is seen about 1 in 1000, so Duke sees maybe about a TGA baby a month (a nurse told me this), so they tend to remember those patients.
Anyway, Jacob finally got the sedation medicine, chloral hydrate, about 10:00 a.m. For the next 15 minutes, he went from crying, to babbling and doing raspberries. He was quite funny. We noted he was a funny "drunk." Finally, we went to sleep about 10:20 a.m. and they began the echo. After taking echo pictures for about 25 minutes, the technician went out to discuss everything with the doctor. The nurse came back in about 5 minutes later and said we were all done. We headed back over to the Children's Clinic and were immediately taken back to the exam room since our appointment was 11:00 a.m. with Dr. Delaney.
A little later, another doctor came in. He introduced himself, but all I caught was "Roddy" was his first name. He talked to us about Jacob's last 3 months, and then went to discuss with Dr. Delaney. A little later, Dr. Delaney came in and said that the echo results were "excellant." Everything is flowing along just great. Of course, they are keeping an eye on the pulmonary artery, as well as the arteries (?) to the lungs for stenosis, but so far, so good. They were very pleased that Jacob doesn't even sound like he has a murmur on exam, which would be typical. The best news is we don't have to go back in 3 months! They told us to return in 6 months and Jacob will have another echo at that point. For probably the next 2-3 years, they will want to echo him every 6 months, but in January, he mentioned they would want to see him every 3 months in between echos, so this was good news! Dr. Delaney did mention that Jacob's weight had fallen down a notch on the growth curve, but this is likely due to Jacob crawling and becoming more active. We have Jacob's 9 month check up with his peditrician in a couple of weeks, so I'm sure we can address that then. From what I understand, that isn't all that out of the ordinary.
So, the bottom line is Jacob gets an A+ on his echo and no return for 6 months!!
He slept until 12:30 p.m., had a bottle, a little lunch around 2:00 p.m. and passed out again at 2:30. He's still asleep at 4:45 p.m.! I need to go wake him!
After our traditional breakfast at Elmo's, we arrived at Duke at 8:45 a.m. We were taken back for a height & weight check. Jacob's length was 28 inches and his weight was 18 lbs, 7 oz. Then, it was over to the main hospital for the echocardiogram. This was Jacob's third outpatient echo, so Jeff and I thought we had the routine down. We arrived on the 7th floor to find a sign that said something to the effect of wait by the elevators for x, y, z and peds echo. That was odd. The paper we were given at the Children's Hospital said to go to the waiting room at 7416, which is where we usually went. We walked towards the waiting room anyway, and found doors covered in plastic. Something was definitely different. We went back to the elevator area. A nice woman we'd seen on the elevator figured out we were there for a peds echo and offered to tell them we were waiting. A little later, they came out and walked us back to the echo room. The nurse explained that they had a pipe burst in the waiting room and it was being repaired. It's funny because the Children's Hospital receptionists had no idea about this.... Anyway, so we get back to the echo room, and we wait.... and we wait... and we wait. It was 10:00 a.m. before the doctor overseeing the echo labs came in to examine Jacob. He recognized him from his treatment last August and noted how great Jacob looked. This happens to us pretty frequently at Duke. Nurses & doctors that we don't necessarily remember, remember us and remember Jacob. While heart defects are 1 out of 100 babies born, transposition (a.k.a TGA) is seen about 1 in 1000, so Duke sees maybe about a TGA baby a month (a nurse told me this), so they tend to remember those patients.
Anyway, Jacob finally got the sedation medicine, chloral hydrate, about 10:00 a.m. For the next 15 minutes, he went from crying, to babbling and doing raspberries. He was quite funny. We noted he was a funny "drunk." Finally, we went to sleep about 10:20 a.m. and they began the echo. After taking echo pictures for about 25 minutes, the technician went out to discuss everything with the doctor. The nurse came back in about 5 minutes later and said we were all done. We headed back over to the Children's Clinic and were immediately taken back to the exam room since our appointment was 11:00 a.m. with Dr. Delaney.
A little later, another doctor came in. He introduced himself, but all I caught was "Roddy" was his first name. He talked to us about Jacob's last 3 months, and then went to discuss with Dr. Delaney. A little later, Dr. Delaney came in and said that the echo results were "excellant." Everything is flowing along just great. Of course, they are keeping an eye on the pulmonary artery, as well as the arteries (?) to the lungs for stenosis, but so far, so good. They were very pleased that Jacob doesn't even sound like he has a murmur on exam, which would be typical. The best news is we don't have to go back in 3 months! They told us to return in 6 months and Jacob will have another echo at that point. For probably the next 2-3 years, they will want to echo him every 6 months, but in January, he mentioned they would want to see him every 3 months in between echos, so this was good news! Dr. Delaney did mention that Jacob's weight had fallen down a notch on the growth curve, but this is likely due to Jacob crawling and becoming more active. We have Jacob's 9 month check up with his peditrician in a couple of weeks, so I'm sure we can address that then. From what I understand, that isn't all that out of the ordinary.
So, the bottom line is Jacob gets an A+ on his echo and no return for 6 months!!
He slept until 12:30 p.m., had a bottle, a little lunch around 2:00 p.m. and passed out again at 2:30. He's still asleep at 4:45 p.m.! I need to go wake him!
Monday, April 23, 2007
Good Monday Morning!
Our weekend went pretty well! Jacob slept great! He even let us sleep in until 7:30 a.m. on Sunday! Wow!
Saturday morning, Jacob and I went to March of Dimes' WalkAmerica at Nortel Networks. I ended up raising $230 of my $250 goal. Not bad! Our team raised $3,240 so far, and our goal was $3,000! We walked the 3.1 miles. Jacob was such a good baby! He didn't cry one time. I don't think he was feeling very good on Saturday - he was rather quiet. When we got home, he was running a little fever, but seems to have beat whatever he had. (Keeping fingers crossed!) Since he was running a fever, we skipped the birthday bash across the street and the wine festival. My mom ended up taking herself to the airport. So the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday were pretty quiet.
Last night, Jacob did not want to go to sleep. After 45 minutes of trying to get him to sleep (reading, rocking, back-patting), he still wanted to cry whenever he was in his crib. I finally gave up. We had to let him cry. From 7:45 p until 8:15 p, he cried off & on. For example, he would cry 6-7 minutes, and then stop for 5 minutes, then repeat until about 8:15 p. He did sleep the rest of the night without a peep. This morning, at 6:30 a, he was awake and cheerful.
Tomorrow, please keep Jacob in your thoughts & prayers. He has his appointment at Duke with Dr. Delaney, his pediatric cardiologist. Prior to seeing Dr. Delaney, he will have to be sedated for an echocardiogram. These appointments seem to get more difficult the older he gets, and I think that will continue to be true. I'm praying we continue to get the good news we've had at his last 3 appointments in September, November & January.
I've uploaded March & April pictures to shutterfly. They will be added to the collection really soon! I just need to do some editing!
Saturday morning, Jacob and I went to March of Dimes' WalkAmerica at Nortel Networks. I ended up raising $230 of my $250 goal. Not bad! Our team raised $3,240 so far, and our goal was $3,000! We walked the 3.1 miles. Jacob was such a good baby! He didn't cry one time. I don't think he was feeling very good on Saturday - he was rather quiet. When we got home, he was running a little fever, but seems to have beat whatever he had. (Keeping fingers crossed!) Since he was running a fever, we skipped the birthday bash across the street and the wine festival. My mom ended up taking herself to the airport. So the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday were pretty quiet.
Last night, Jacob did not want to go to sleep. After 45 minutes of trying to get him to sleep (reading, rocking, back-patting), he still wanted to cry whenever he was in his crib. I finally gave up. We had to let him cry. From 7:45 p until 8:15 p, he cried off & on. For example, he would cry 6-7 minutes, and then stop for 5 minutes, then repeat until about 8:15 p. He did sleep the rest of the night without a peep. This morning, at 6:30 a, he was awake and cheerful.
Tomorrow, please keep Jacob in your thoughts & prayers. He has his appointment at Duke with Dr. Delaney, his pediatric cardiologist. Prior to seeing Dr. Delaney, he will have to be sedated for an echocardiogram. These appointments seem to get more difficult the older he gets, and I think that will continue to be true. I'm praying we continue to get the good news we've had at his last 3 appointments in September, November & January.
I've uploaded March & April pictures to shutterfly. They will be added to the collection really soon! I just need to do some editing!
Friday, April 20, 2007
Cars, UGH!
Just got a call from our mechanic....
My 2005 Escape not only needs new brake pads, but also new rotors, servicing the rear brakes, and a brake fluid change, plus an alignment. At least he's going to rotate the tires while he's at it...
Total cost $595.00. On the bonus side, Jeff found a $10 coupon - so it's only $585.00 now. :D
My 2005 Escape not only needs new brake pads, but also new rotors, servicing the rear brakes, and a brake fluid change, plus an alignment. At least he's going to rotate the tires while he's at it...
Total cost $595.00. On the bonus side, Jeff found a $10 coupon - so it's only $585.00 now. :D
T.G.I.F.!
What a week....
Sunday night, Jeff & I attended the A.P.A. opening reception at the Grand Hall of the PA Convention Center. The reception took place on two different levels and approximately 6000 people were there! They had lots of fun foods from Philly & a great band!
Monday, we recovered from Sunday night, and toured the U.S. Mint where they make coins.
Tuesday, I flew home and was so happy to see Jacob!
Wednesday, Jeff flew home, and I picked him up at the airport. After a quick BJ's run for diapers, formula, baby food (do you also run out of everything at once?), we went to pick up Jacob from Chrissy's. He was very happy to see his "da-da."
Thursday, first semi-normal day this week, except Jacob did not sleep well again Wed. night - he decided to be up from 11:30 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. when we finally gave up fighting and let him sleep with us. And, I had to go to Greensboro for work.
And, now it's Friday. The weather will be beautiful this weekend! Jacob slept great last night! He did wake up crying at 8:15 p.m., and for the first time, we let him cry. He only cried about 15-20 minutes and went back to sleep. We did not hear from him again all night! Around 6:15 a.m., Jeff went into his room, and Jacob was awake and said, "Hi Dada!" He says, "Hi," and "Hey" and adds in Dada too! He also says "ba-ba" and he means it! It's so precious!
Tomorrow, Jacob and I will be doing the 5K walk for WalkAmercia for the March of Dimes! In fact, it's not too late to contribute! www.walkamerica.org/jennimc1975 is my walker page! I think we can take contributions for a few weeks after the event. I'm walking for my friend Audra's twins, born 2 years ago, who did not survive; my coworker Vanessa & her 27 weeker, born in October, who is doing very well; my sitter Chrissy's twins who were 30 weekers and also doing well now. Another friend, Laura, is an aunt to a 32 weeker. So many preemies! And of course, I'm also pleased that March of Dimes supports congenital heart defect research, though of course, there focus is prematurity. P.S. - Thanks to all of you who have contributed already!!!
Also tomorrow, we have a belated birthday party at our neighbors for their son Gavin who turned one a few weeks ago, but was quite sick on his birthday. And, we are taking my mom to the airport - so she can fly to Texas to see my brother, and then we are going to the Great Grapes Wine Festival, which I won tickets to this week!
I will try to get more pictures uploaded here & to Shutterfly this week!
If you haven't checked it out - Jacob's Shutterfly link is www.jacobjones.shutterfly.com
Sunday night, Jeff & I attended the A.P.A. opening reception at the Grand Hall of the PA Convention Center. The reception took place on two different levels and approximately 6000 people were there! They had lots of fun foods from Philly & a great band!
Monday, we recovered from Sunday night, and toured the U.S. Mint where they make coins.
Tuesday, I flew home and was so happy to see Jacob!
Wednesday, Jeff flew home, and I picked him up at the airport. After a quick BJ's run for diapers, formula, baby food (do you also run out of everything at once?), we went to pick up Jacob from Chrissy's. He was very happy to see his "da-da."
Thursday, first semi-normal day this week, except Jacob did not sleep well again Wed. night - he decided to be up from 11:30 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. when we finally gave up fighting and let him sleep with us. And, I had to go to Greensboro for work.
And, now it's Friday. The weather will be beautiful this weekend! Jacob slept great last night! He did wake up crying at 8:15 p.m., and for the first time, we let him cry. He only cried about 15-20 minutes and went back to sleep. We did not hear from him again all night! Around 6:15 a.m., Jeff went into his room, and Jacob was awake and said, "Hi Dada!" He says, "Hi," and "Hey" and adds in Dada too! He also says "ba-ba" and he means it! It's so precious!
Tomorrow, Jacob and I will be doing the 5K walk for WalkAmercia for the March of Dimes! In fact, it's not too late to contribute! www.walkamerica.org/jennimc1975 is my walker page! I think we can take contributions for a few weeks after the event. I'm walking for my friend Audra's twins, born 2 years ago, who did not survive; my coworker Vanessa & her 27 weeker, born in October, who is doing very well; my sitter Chrissy's twins who were 30 weekers and also doing well now. Another friend, Laura, is an aunt to a 32 weeker. So many preemies! And of course, I'm also pleased that March of Dimes supports congenital heart defect research, though of course, there focus is prematurity. P.S. - Thanks to all of you who have contributed already!!!
Also tomorrow, we have a belated birthday party at our neighbors for their son Gavin who turned one a few weeks ago, but was quite sick on his birthday. And, we are taking my mom to the airport - so she can fly to Texas to see my brother, and then we are going to the Great Grapes Wine Festival, which I won tickets to this week!
I will try to get more pictures uploaded here & to Shutterfly this week!
If you haven't checked it out - Jacob's Shutterfly link is www.jacobjones.shutterfly.com
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Pictures of Jacob & Caitlin
Jacob meets Caitlin for the first time in 7 months...
At first, she's not too sure about him...
After much persistance on his part, she starts to warm up to him...
And, a little while later, even gives him a little peck on the cheek!
The truth is, this is about the 3rd kiss she gave him - we finally captured this one on film!
At first, she's not too sure about him...
After much persistance on his part, she starts to warm up to him...
And, a little while later, even gives him a little peck on the cheek!
The truth is, this is about the 3rd kiss she gave him - we finally captured this one on film!
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