I’ve been coming and going the past few days…
Connor has been at Grandma’s…
Victoria has been at the hospital…

So, today Maggie and Kuddles must have thought they were in a time warp back to January 2008 (when Connor) was born. We returned home with Jacob this afternoon and Connor was still over Grandma’s house. Victoria began to breastfeed Jacob and Maggie and Kuddles took these positions. This is quite unusual and even for Maggie to let me get this close to her is amazing…I wonder what they were thinking…

I can’t tell you how many times I have typed Connor instead of Jacob when writing on the blog.  I know my grammar isn’t always the best and the spelling can be off frequently, but you would hope I could get my son’s name right.

Even talking on the phone with family I get confused and call him Connor by mistake.

Now, can you imagine how it was for my Mom and family members when my brother was born???  It was “Donnie and Danny”.  I can remember my Grandma always confusing it and she would just finally give up at times when trying to get our attention.  Donnie/Danny…Danny/Donnie…Jacob/Connor…Connor/Jacob…ahh, no matter what, you both are LOVED VERY MUCH!

I am sure I will get better…I haven’t heard Victoria make the mistake yet, but I will be watching/listening!!!!

Connor and Jacob both share birthdays with relatives on Victoria’s side of the family.

Nick (Connor’s 2nd cousin) was born on January 18th like Connor.

Aunt Tessie (Victoria’s Aunt and Mimi’s oldest sister) shares her birthday with Jacob, August 16th.

They just came in and took Jacob to give him his billirubin test in anticipation of all three of us going home.

I took a peek at his chart and his has lost just around 3 ounces as of 7pm tonight.  Hopefully that has leveled off as he has been doing good with formula and even took some breastmilk from Mommy twice tonight.

I looked back at when Connor left the hospital…he was 5 ounces below his birth weight when he left.  I think 10% is the magic number, so Jacob is well under that right now.

Another thing I looked up was how we did the bottle to breastmilk “migration”.  Evidently it took 7 days to go from formula to breastmilk with Connor.  I am starting to see signs of Jacob looking for Victoria instead of the bottle.  (I remember this happening with Connor as well.)

We should know later this morning what the story is on us ALL going home…check back later!

Jacob has been able to keep his temperature up this afternoon and has not had to stay in the nursery since last night.  They have run a couple of blood tests (one this morning and another this afternoon) because Jacob’s blood counts (don’t ask which one, because I don’t know) were low in the morning.  As of 7pm tonight, everything was back to normal and he was maintaining his temperature.

He is starting to eat regularly using formula and Victoria/Jacob are working on the breastfeeding.  He seems to have a issue sucking right now and the lactation consultant said it is just because he is so “young”.  Hopefully it will all work out…if I remember correctly, we started Connor on formula due to Victoria being on anti-seizure meds when he was delivered…then he was gradually switched over to breast milk over the 2nd and 3rd week.

It’s moments like these that I have looked forward too…

Grandma brought Connor up to the hospital today and the plan was for me to bring him into the room (without Grandma) and introduce him to Jacob.  He was a little tired because he had fallen asleep on the car ride over, so it wasn’t starting as I had imagined.

Regardless, Connor came through and showed me the big brother his is going to be.

Initially he was real quiet and didn’t want to go with me.  I showed him were the other babies were in the nursery and told him that Baby Jacob was in there yesterday.  Then I said let’s go see Baby Jacob and Mommy.  Down the hallway we walked, holding hands.

I brought him in the room and he was a little nervous.  He didn’t understand why Mommy was in this strange bed and the room had all kinds of things in it.  I took him over to the bassinet that had Jacob in it and let him stand on the cart it sits on top of.  He looked and didn’t say much.

Next I sat him down in a chair and asked if he wanted to hold Jacob.  Initially he said no, so I sat beside him holding Jacob.  He looked at Jacob and didn’t say much…uh oh…my “plan” is not going the way I imagined.  I asked, “Do you want to hold Baby Jacob?”  and he responded, “Yes.”  So I let him hold Jacob.  he squeezed him with both arms.  Soon after that he kissed Jacob and gave him a hug.  I was proud of both of my sons and especially proud of the “big brother”.

I then said let’s go get Grandma so she can meet Baby Jacob.  Down the hallway we went and back we came with Grandma.

When it was time to go, Connor asked if he could give Jacob a kiss…I picked him up and allowed him to kiss baby Jacob while he was laying in Mommy’s arms.

Here are a few pics of Connor holding Baby Jacob once Grandma returned with us.

A little unsure...

Warming up to him...

Inspecting Jacob's face/nose.

No problem now...

Well a few of you who read this blog already know that I was nervous about having Jacob.  It seemed so long ago that we were feeding, burping, and diapering an infant.  I didn’t know what to do.  Everyone was telling me that it would be like “riding a bike”.  Once you have done it, you will always know how to do it.

Fast forward to today…

Jacob is having a hard time keeping his temperature up, Jacob is not breastfeeding or even taking formula because he is sleepy, I don’t know how to burp him, I can’t swaddle him as tight as the nurses, etc…

I know…woe is me…

Anyways, after a short break this afternoon Jacob and I got on the “feeding regime” I did for Connor when he was an infant and he was having difficulties breastfeeding with Mommy.  He’s had 12 ml earlier and now just finished off another 11 ml of formula.  The sucking is finally starting to take hold.  The lactation consultant is working with Mommy too, so that is starting to come around too.  He has been maintaining his temperature the last 4 hours, I changed 3 diapers in the last 5 hours, I burped him several times (successfully), and my swaddling skills have improved (Papa won’t like that).

Mommy and Jacob are sleeping and I will soon follow as I have the next “off shift”.  So, as I take a breather, boost my confidence as a father, I am starting to feel better.  Trust me, the last few hours have not been fun but we are getting the hang of it again!

I noticed Jacob was a little cold when he was in our room earlier this evening (despite being swaddled). The nurse came to take him around 12:45am to get his nightly stats. Victoria and I took a nap. When I checked on him at 1:45am, they said he needed to stay under the warming lamp that way he does not have to stay in the neonatal unit (NICU).

Being 35 weeks and right around 5lbs puts him in the category that they have to pay attention to his vitals and make the best decision for him so that he does not get an infection. So, Jacob is hopefully staying warm and Mommy and Daddy are going back to sleep for a little while.

The nurses could not guarantee that he would not have to go in the NICU but told me they wanted to try “warming” him first.

More on this tomorrow… (I am finding it hard to sleep…I am still on the “emotional high” from his birth nearly 7 hours ago.)

****UPDATE at 3am****

They brought Jacob back in with us as he “warmed up”.  Victoria and Jacob are doing good with the beginning stages of breastfeeding.  We have to keep him double wrapped and he has two hats on.

First bath:

I’ve got some “downtime” right now…Jacob and Mommy are sleeping so I figured I would give you the short and sweet play-by-play on how Jacob entered the world.

Sunday, Aug 15

1am — Victoria’s water breaks

2am-10am — she goes to the “bathroom” once every 20-40 minutes

10:30am — I talk to Mimi and Aunt Sandy and Grandma.  Consensus is call the doctor as it might have been her water breaking.

10:40am — the doctor says go to the hospital

12:30pm — we arrive at the hospital and find out her water did break early that morning

3pm — they move us to labor and delivery room #2.

3-8pm — Victoria is having contractions every 3 to 4 minutes.

8pm — dinner arrives and amazing her contractions stop.

9:30pm — we go to bed

Monday, Aug 16th

8:30am — Victoria gets breakfast in bed (eggs, pancakes, sausage, coffee, etc…)

10:45am — Dr. Hurt arrives and says there will be no ultrasound and they will start inducing labor soon.

11:30am — they give Victoria pitocin and antibiotics.

1:30pm — contractions start

3pm — Victoria asks for an epidural

3:30pm — Epidural is given to Victoria

3:35pm — 2 cm dialated

3:45pm — Victoria takes a nap

5pm — Victoria wakes up

5:30pm — Mimi and Papa arrive

6:15pm — Victoria feels pressure and Daddy calls for the nurse.  (Jacob is right there.)

6:20pm — The doctor is paged, Mimi and Papa go out in the waiting room.  The labor and delivery room is prep’ed for Jacob’s birth.

6:45pm — Jacob is getting real close to “delivering himself”  (Victoria is not pushing, just contracting and breathing easy.)

6:55pm — they bring in another doctor as Dr. Hurt was still about 5 minutes away (via car).

6:59pm — the stand in doctor is rubbing Jacob’s head and kind of holding him in place.  We see Dr. Hurt running across the parking lot in her scrubs and the nurses are laughing.  Saying, “If Victoria makes it through this contraction, then Dr. Hurt can deliver him.”

7:01pm — doctor arrives, puts her gloves on, Victoria takes a deep breath, pushes for 2 seconds and Baby Jacob was born.  Daddy cried like a baby!  Mommy was so amazing and happy.  She didn’t remember Connor’s actual birth because of all the difficulties.

What an amazing time!  Victoria and Jacob did such a great job.  What a difference between the two births!  No major issues with this labor and delivery…and there were even so “light moments” (like the doctor running across the parking lot).

More to come on Baby Jacob (and his big brother’s first visit Tuesday morning)…

Love,

Donnie