Baby Shower and Visitors

I finally got to have my baby shower on April 2nd! Everything turned out great, thanks to Molly, Rose, and Bonnie! I am so lucky to have such amazing friends and family that came to help me celebrate James. We received so many wonderful gifts that we have already been able to get use of.

One of my absolute favorite gifts came from my FAVORITE art teacher, Ms. P! She drew the hippopotamus from my favorite book and placed James' name in his hands. We now have this hanging in his room. Thank you so much!!

Molly and her mom made wonderful sugar cookies for the shower, not only did they taste great, but they were also decorated beautifully!

James has also had quite a few visitors that couldn't wait to come over and hold him!

Tara

Our "Ms. P" =)

Miss. Amanda wanted to eat his cheeks, but decided that he was just too small!

Aunt Julie was so excited to hold her very first nephew!

Molly came for a special visit!

She was playing a game with James, or was James playing a game with Molly...

Look at me! I don't need any help, Auntie Molly showed me how to hold my bottle!

2 Weeks!

James has been home for 2 weeks now! It is amazing to watch him grow and change each day. When he is put down in his bassinet he will try to roll onto his side, so we have started to put him on his belly for some tummy time. After he attempts to eat the blanket, he will then move his head from side to side and lift it up for short periods, my little man is definitely getting stronger!

James had his first bath at home on April 1st. It was definitely a task for 2 people and because of this, I was only able to take a few pictures. James wasn't too fond of the bath, as soon as he hit the water he 'christened' both Mike and I. The second bath went much better!

We have gone on a few outings since he has come home, here are some of the places that James has visited:

• Grandma and Grandpa Owens' House
• Big Boy
• Target
• Babies R Us
• Olga's
• Sam' Club

Luckily James loves his car seat, so it is very easy to put him in the seat and go.  It was also very warm this past weekend, so we took James on his first walk. We walked from Gma and Gpa Owens' house to 7-11 for Slurpees. He did well, but I think he wanted a Slurpee of his own...maybe next year =-)

Also in the past 2 weeks, we have had many doctors appointments. I went for my 6 week appointment, and all is good! James went to the pediatrician for the first time, he did great, but I am not impressed with the doctor, we are now in the process of finding a new pediatrician. James also went to see the eye doctor last week. The doctor was looking for signs of a disease that premature babies can get which will cause them to go blind. If caught, there are drops that can be put into the eye to stop the deterioration. The doctor said that James' eyes look great, but we have to go back next week to make sure.

Linda, the visiting nurse, came to visit us today. She is wonderful, and I wish that she was a pediatrician because we would definitely see her! She assessed James and said he looks wonderful, and his breath sounds are great. Today he weighed in at 5lbs 12 oz. On average, babies are supposed to gain between .5 oz and 1 oz. per day. So far, James has gained 12 oz. in about a week! The nurse also said that preterm babies almost never do this, so James is ahead of the mark as far as she's concerned. Keep up the good work James!


Pictures from the first 2 weeks

James loves his new bouncy seat! Thanks Emily!!

He looks so different without the cannula on his face!

Poor little guy. He would not let go of the paci or the towel after the bath!

The Owens Family except for Mitchell, he's in Chicago.

The First Few Days

James has now been home for almost 48 hours and we are all adjusting nicely. Yesterday the Home Care Nurse came to the house to assess James, and his transition to home from the hospital. She said that he looks great, his lungs sound clear and overall he's doing fabulous! His oxygen tank was also delivered yesterday, we were given a portable tank of oxygen to get him home from the hospital, but we needed a permanent tank for the house. So we now have a 4.5 foot tall tank in James' bedroom. Because its not quite mobile, they gave us a 25 ft. cord to attach to his cannula. I can reach most of the house on this cord, except for the dining room. With any luck, James will not have to remain on the oxygen for much longer.

Pictures from the first 48...

Mike's first ever diaper change!

He did a great job, notice Grandma and Grandpa anxiously watching =)

All done! Happy Dad and happy James, life is good!

Jimmy #1 and Jimmy #2,  I love it!

It is a bit blurry, but I just love this little face!

Finally Home!

Well, James finally made it home! He was scheduled to go home on Tuesday after a brief desaturation (decrease in the capillary oxygen concentration) over the weekend, which pushed his discharge a day back from Monday. On Monday night, the hospital called and said the home oxygen service had all the necessary paperwork to set him up with a home oxygen tank and a few portable tanks. The orders for his medications had also all been sent to the pharmacy, so he was set to be discharged Tuesday. Well into Tuesday morning, we still hadn't heard from the oxygen people and the hospital wouldn't tell us what the company's name was so we could contact them ourselves. When Carolyn went to her appointment for a checkup, it was looking like they were going to take so long we would have to bump his discharge back to Wednesday. Thankfully, a little after 1:00PM they called me at work to set up what time we could meet them at the hospital to set James up with the portable oxygen tank. After making the arrangements I left work early to pick Carolyn up and drive to the hospital. After getting everything squared away with the oxygen tanks, I had to go to class (thankfuly WSU is a few blocks from the hospital) so Carolyn completed the paperwork for James's discharge while I was gone. By the time I returned, they were waiting for a single form to be completed before they released us. We finished up and had him home by shortly after 7:00.

This was where James was stationed since his move from the NICU into the Progressive Care Nursery.

James in his very cute going home outfit!

It's hospital policy for the nurse to carry the baby to the car. Nurse Heather was our discharge nurse.

Our big boy loved his car seat!

The Waiting Game

On Friday, we were told that James would be discharged on Monday as long as he passed his car seat test and didn't have any episodes. An episode being a heart rate drop, breathing difficulties, or oxygen de-sat. Well, over the weekend, he suffered one de-sat, so that pushed us back to today. Yesterday, I went to the hospital to feed him, and luckily I was there during rounds. I like to be there when they do rounds because they are done at the bedside and I can get all the nitty gritty information on my son. He was given the go ahead to come home today. HOWEVER, someone either with the hospital or the medical supply company is dragging their feet. James is coming home on oxygen and we are supposed to get trained on how to use it before he can come home. Needless to say, if he does not have his oxygen ready to go by the time rounds happens (at or around noon) he won't be coming home today. Its 11:15 a.m now, I'm not feeling too optimistic at the moment....

2 Steps Forward...

OK, since my last update quite a bit has happened. James was circumcised on Wednesday. Unfortunately, because of the procedure, he had to be put back on oxygen =( They also did a chest x-ray and they said it looked hazy, but not as hazy as it did before (love the technicality of all that). So, with that being said, they gave him another dose of a medicine called Lasix, this will hopefully help him. They have also concluded that the poor little guy has acid reflux. So now he is on medicine for that. He is also on iron supplements, sodium supplements and they are going to start adding more calories to my breast milk. Still not sure when he can go to McDonalds...

But in the meantime, yesterday my little man was officially one month old. Here is a side by side of then, and now!

Ok, I can't figure out how to put them side by side, but you get it =)


I have to mention our 2 other babies in this blog, our dear kittens; Linus and Lucy. How they will adjust to this little life in our home, is a good question. However, Lucy was being very 'helpful' yesterday when I was sorting laundry. Don't worry, these were getting ready to be washed!!

She has also discovered little socks.

She carried this around for quite some time yesterday.

It's almost time to go to McDonalds!

No, we are not going to lunch! The nurse used this phrase instead of the 4 letter 'h' word. Yesterday during my visit to see the little guy, I was informed that he had taken ALL of his feedings by a bottle. THIS IS HUGE! As long as this continues, he will be on his way to McDonalds. They are going to circumcise him sometime this week and with that, there is a chance that his oxygen saturation will drop a bit, it is quite a traumatizing experience for a little guy. If this happens, he will go back on oxygen, but most babies recover within 24 hours. Since we have not yet had our baby shower, we are now scrambling to get things that we will immediately need, onesies, diapers, wipes, crib sheets etc. My good friend Rose is going to let us borrow some of her baby items until (hopefully) we get them at our shower. Unfortunately since my little guy was born so early, 0-3 month clothes just don't fit, he has to wear newborn. We bought the car seat/stroller this weekend and Mike put it together yesterday. James has to pass the car seat test before he can be released. Basically all this is, is James sitting in a car seat for a certain period of time without any episodes happening, such as a decrease in heart rate, O2 stats and breathing. Hopefully he'll pass with flying colors...