4 wks

Z is four weeks old today - time flies when you're having fun! It does seem like it has gone very fast, but at the same time, it seems like I've been away from work and what used to be "normal routine" for months and months! Hope I can remember everything when I go back in four weeks. :) I plan to work three days a week. Tyson's mom and a family friend, Judi, will watch him on days when I work. It will definitely be hard to leave him, but I'm also excited to get to that point. He will be two months old then, and hopefully he will be sleeping better through the nights. We should have more of a routine by then, and I envision a shower and make-up everday, grocery shopping, making meals, family outings, etc!

As I type this, Zade is sleeping beside me. Up until a few minutes ago, my main role was "pacifier hold-in-mouth lady" but now that he is asleep, I have no excuse for not emptying the dishwasher downstairs... or cleaning the bathroom.

However, I will finish up with a few updates:

* His umbilical chord fell off in the night, finally! Yeah to that!!

* I have learned his "hungry" cry.

* He has stomach aches frequently, usually in the evenings. He just fusses and cries and there's not much we can do 'til things run their course. We did find a natural "water" that we think is helping. I am also thinking it may have to do with me drinking milk. I haven't had any today and he has been great... will keep it up and see what happens!

* He still goes 4-5 hours in the night without eating, but he does not sleep the whole time. Usually 1-2 hours is spent trying to get him to sleep (usually putting the pacifier back in his mouth when he spits it out - even if he is drifting off, he wakes all the way back up when it falls out). We are going to try better to keep him from "deep sleeping" in the evenings so hopefully he will be able to figure out that our night should be his night.

* We love/hate the pacifier. For the most part, any time that he is fussy, the pacifier will calm him down. However, he loves it and also loves to spit it out. He gives you about 5 seconds to put it back in before he starts to fuss. I have had a couple of weak moments in the night that I have tried to get him to take his thumb. However, I have heard "you can throw away a pacifier when the time comes, but you can't throw away a thumb!" The nurse said some babies just have an urge to suck on something and since it only takes him ten minutes to eat (if he doesn't have a stomach ache), that might be why he thinks he needs it so badly.

* He can follow objects with his eyes, but it's not smooth. His eyes kind of "jump" from point A to point B.

* His chin still quivers.

* He throws his hands up in the air when he gets surprised - it's super cute.

* For the most part, he's a pretty chill baby, and we adore him! We still marvel at the miracle of new life.

Short video

Oh, the faces!

two and a half weeks old

* Zade has maintained his "0 to 60" attitude when it comes to being hungry. He definitely let's us know when it's time!

* He has slept several nights for 5 hours at a time, and last night he went 5.5 hours!

* He likes to look at lights on the ceiling.

* It is not uncommon for him to nearly choke when he first starts eating, he goes at it so fast!

* He is usually stilll sleepy in the mornings, and I take full advantage by cuddling him in our bed.

* He eats at least every 3 hours during the day, and is usually awake for 1 - 1.5 hours between feedings.

* Grandma Garwood (my mom) has spent the whole last week with us - she has been SO wonderful to have! Might be a bit of a shocker next week when I have to get our own meals, clean, etc! She also takes him in the night, and comes to get me only when he is hungry.

* He likes to be patted on the back and loves his pacifier.

* He dislikes "tummy time" very much. Tyson usually has to do this with him because I hate to hear him cry so hard. But he does really good about lifting his head and strengthening those muscles he will need when he crawls.

* His newborn diapers are starting to be a bit snug.

Zade Aaron

Welcome to the world, sweet Baby!!

Arrived January 25th, 2011 at 1:20 PM.
Weighed 9.5 pounds.
Measured 21 inches long.

COMMENTS HEARD:
"He is so brave!" -Mom, after seeing him hooked up to so many things and he wasn't even crying, just looking around

"Look at those chubby cheeks!" -Dad, soon after he was born

"He's a 0 to 60 kind of guy." -several nurses, referring to his "get me food RIGHT NOW" attitude

"I expect him to be 20 pounds at his 2 month appointment." -his pediatrician (he laughed and so did the nurses... I thought he was kidding but the doctor said "What? That's not bad!")

HEALTH:

Zade was born with lungs that didn't fully expand. He was a bit purple when he came out. Right away he was given oxygen. He was hooked up to monitors, given an IV for fluids, and was given oxygen through the nose. The oxygen had a bit of a force to it to make his lungs fully expand. Every once in a while, the nurses would have to stick a tube down his throat into his stomach to get rid of extra air that was accumulating because of the forceful oxygen.

Because of his lung issues, his respirations (breaths per minute) were high - he was taking faster, more shallow breaths. For the first few days, we had to limit our handling of him. We weren't allowed to hold him until about 9 hours after his birth. Extra handling caused his respirations to increase. For the first while, Zade was given sugar water through an IV, and was fed through a tube because he couldn't handle breathing, swalllowing, and sucking all at the same time. After a couple of days, when he would get hungry, the nurse would check his respirations and if they were low enough, we could feed him a bottle. One night while we were sleeping a nurse came and woke me up. She said we could try nursing because he was "rooting." It was so exciting to try this, and he got the hang of it right away! From then on we alternated bottle feedings with nursing, unless his respirations were so high that he needed to be tube fed.

I'm writing this on Wed, Feb 2nd, and we have been in the hospital for 8 days. Z man is over a week old! We are strictly nursing and are allowed to have him out of the nursery for up to an hour and a half, every three hours. I take him back to the nursery when he falls asleep after being fed, and they hook him back up to the monitors to "watch" his breathing and make sure everything is going good. His respirations are much more steady, and his lungs are doing great. We are still here, though, because of an infection that is in his lungs - he will have to have a total of 7-10 days of antibiotics to get rid of it. We are hoping to leave on Friday! 

VISITORS:

We have had several visitors stop by! Many have had to just look through the glass at him (earlier on when we weren't allowed to have him out of the nursery as much) but others have gotten to hold him in our room. I wanted to take pictures of everyone who stopped by but only seemed to grab the camera when people were able to hold him - there are many people I didn't get pictures of :( . Thanks to all who have prayed, called, texted, facebooked, or stopped by! We love and appreciate you all!

Looking through the glass at him into the nursery: