One to go

The nurses are removing Jake's arterial IV today. That leaves his feeding tube as the only device still plugged into his body. While it's good to get the IV out of him, it also means that once a day they will have to poke his foot or hand to get a small blood sample to check the different gas levels.

Other than that, Jake is slowly getting better and stronger each day. He's been holding stable for the past few days and his lungs are to the point where they are able to slowly start decreasing the amount of oxygen that they are pumping into the hood. He has also lost most of his water weight, so we should start seeing his actual weight begin to increase. He's still got a ways to go. He's at 45% oxygen right now, and room oxygen is around 21%.

Here are a few more videos that we took today. In the first video, he appears to smile (I've heard this is just gas, but Michele refuses to accept that as an explanation). In the second video we see him show a range of expressions, and we get to see his little tongue!

Click on the photos to launch the Yahoo Briefcase where you can play or save the videos.

Breathing better

(Please click on the photo to see more pictures)

What a surprise! We arrived at the CCN today shortly after 2:00 pm to find Jacob lying in the incubator without the ventilator! He has graduated to an oxygen hood. We were warned, however, that he may have to go back on the ventilator, but only if he gets tired out too quickly this way.

As of now, he only has two tubes running into his body. The first, the feeding tube, runs through his nose and allows him to get the breastmilk. The second, is a line into an artery in his umbilical cord. They occasionally draw blood through this IV and can give him meds if needed.

Improving

(Please click on the photo to see more pictures)

Jake is doing quite a bit better since the last post. As you can tell from this picture, the bilirubin light (and blanket) have both been turned off.

He is also feeding entirely on breast milk. They are no longer giving him supplements along with Michele's abundant supply of milk.

They have also stopped with all other antibiotics as well. He has received the third of three treatments to help his heart and lungs work together.

All-in-all today was a very good day for Jake. We were able to keep his incubator open for quite a bit longer than before, and he responded well to our probing and prodding.

The next major milestone will be to get him off of the respirator. While we would love to get him home as soon as possible, we both realize that he needs to take his time and build up to this major event. Once he's off of that, and able to breath room air, unassisted, he will be ready to try to nipple and the feeding tube can come out. But, that's getting a bit ahead of ourselves.

I was able to record a few silent movies of the little guy with our camera. I have compressed them so they may appear a bit grainy, and, as with all good silent movies, there's no sound!

Movies
Follow the links to the Yahoo Briefcase where you can then view or download the movie file.

• Jake sucking and moving a bit
  
• Jake's Medical Devices
  
• Jake opening his eyes and responding

Quick Update

(Please click on the photo to see more pictures)

Jacob is still doing well in the CCN (Huron Valley's nice name for NICU). He was showing signs of jaundice so they turned on the UV lamp today. He's expected to be under that for a little while. I guess we don't get to look forward to seeing him open his eyes again anytime soon, since he's got those cool shades on all the time now.

Early this morning, before the UV lamp, Jacob had both eyes opened and really seemed to be following our heads when we moved, trying to find us. We really got a kick out of it. Like everything else, though, he tired quickly and was back to sleep in no time.

Also, Michele came home from the hospital today! She's doing quite well. We need to schedule an OB appointment to get her incision checked out Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Otherwise, we'll just be resting around the house. Michele has frequent pumping sessions to look forward to. She is just happy that SOMETHING is going right in this pregnancy as she's an outstanding milk producer!

Lastly, here are a few more places to look for photos of Jake...
Aunt Nez and Uncle Dan
Grandma and Grandpa T

Happy Birthday - Jacob Daniel

(Please click on the photo to see more pictures)

Jacob Daniel was born this morning, March 21, 2006, at 8:04 am via cesarean delivery at Huron Valley-Sinai hospital.

He was quite a bit ahead of his due date which wasn't until May 5!

He is 4 pounds, 13 ounces and is 17 and 1/4 inches long.

He's an adorable baby, but then again, I might be a little biased.

After delivery, we got a few pictures and he was then whisked away into the critical care unit where he could remain until his actual due date. The nurses there sounded optimistic, and informed us that the main issue he's facing right now is his lung development.

We were very excited to meet him, although we could have waited a little longer!

Michele is doing very well, and even allowed me to leave the hospital to spend the night at home this evening!

Hello

Welcome to our new blog. Hopefully we'll be able to use this as a site to keep everyone up to date on what's going on in our lives.

Eventually, I would like to get this linked into dotphoto to allow for easy album sharing without all the crazy e-mails.

Feel free to leave comments directly on the blog (remember everyone will be able to see them).

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