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Jacob was born on June 21, 2002 via emergency C-section at 3:16 PM. This blog follows him through the NICU and the graduate nursery to his home—and we'll see where it goes from there!

Look, Ma! No tube in my nose!

New pictures posted for all of Jacob's adoring fans. Look at Page 33 in the table at the left there.
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 10:09 AM

Friday, August 30, 2002
Weight: 2190 grams! 4lb 13oz.

At 3:16 today, he was 11 weeks old. His gestational age is 39 weeks--his original due date was September 9! And he's eatin' like a truck driver!

Let's hope it continues! Jacob decided for himself and for the nurses that he had just about had it with his NG (nasal gavage) tube. He pulled it out twice last night, so the night nurse left it off. She put another one in this morning, and he promptly yanked that one out twice again, so the nurses decided just to leave it out altogether since he's been doing so well on his feedings. It's the first time we've seen our boy without a tube in his nose, down his throat, or any kind of appliance hooked to his head, and he looks great! He's been nippling all his feeds, and he's taking the full amount nearly every time and has good coordination. Nurse Megan (his primary nurse) has really been pushing to get him ready to come home, and it's paying off. They're talking about us spending the night there in the parenting room Sunday or Monday night to be sure that we feel comfortable with taking care of him without any monitors hooked up to him to fall back on. I think we're up to it--it's getting harder and harder to leave him there every night and come home without him!

So, we're feeling pretty excited and optimistic that Jacob will be home with us sooner rather than later. We hope we aren't jinxing it by sharing the news, but we're pretty happy--this is the first time they've talked with us about bringing him home. They still have to talk to the doctor about it, though, so there is definitely nothing set in stone, and if he backs off his feeds, they'll have to keep him longer. But he seems to have a pretty darn good appetite, and he doesn't brady when he eats, so it looks pretty good. Everyone keep a good thought or say a little prayer!

We took some pictures, of course, since we can actually see his whole face now, but it's late--I'll post them tomorrow.
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 10:11 PM

Thursday, August 29, 2002

Weight: 2145 grams. And probably more than that, as that was his weight at midnight last night.

We didn't make it to the hospital today--when I got home from work, there were severe thunderstorms, flooded streets and a tornado touched down in south Denver and destroyed a construction site. So we decided to forgo it since if the weather didn't get us, the traffic probably would have. We're getting very antsy and are ready to bring the boy home. We talked to his primary nurse tonight, and she says that as soon as he starts to nipple all his feeds, he'll be ready to go. He's nearly there now--and his primary will push the issue, so that's good. She said he's doing great today, and he woke up fussing for his bottle about a half-hour before his normal feeding time, so that's another good sign.

Well, I posted some new pictures, take a look at pages 31 and 32. Everyone have a nice Labor Day weekend!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 9:15 PM

Wednesday, August 28, 2002

Weight: 2125 grams--again! Looks like he gained back the weight he lost yesterday.

Jacob continues to do well with his feeds, taking nearly all the formula through his bottle. He sounded a bit stuffy today and had trouble breathing and drinking at the same time, but he still managed to drink about 40cc's at his 5 PM feed. He looked really good, as usual! We are so lucky he doesn't have more serious problems.

He also had another test for ROP today, and the good news is his eyes haven't gotten any worse. They haven't gotten any better, either, but slight Stage 2 in one eye is not a big problem for us. They'll test the poor little guy again in 7-10 days to see if it progresses or gets better. Not much new to report--I guess the next big step will be getting the nasal gavage removed, and then of course bringing him home. We did get the crib assembled on Sunday and worked on his nursery all day, so it's looking pretty good and it's ready for him to come home!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 9:15 PM

Here's a news story from the Denver Post on the staph infection at P/SL.
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 7:21 AM

Tuesday, August 27, 2002

Weight: 2075 grams. 4lbs., 9 oz. Yeah, he lost a bit, but the difference could be that between a full and an empty diaper!

More importantly, he nippled his entire feed tonight--and he did it in record time! I was amazed at how fast he actually drank it down. It was a far cry from the days not so long ago when it took him 30 minutes to drink about 15ccs. He did 48 tonight (his feed and his medicine) in about 20 minutes; it was surprising and very gratifying. If he can just keep it up, we can start to allow ourselves to think about him coming home soon.
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 8:35 PM

Monday, August 26, 2002

Weight: 2125 grams! That's 4lbs., 11 oz!

Even better news--as we arrived this evening, the nurse was feeding Jacob and she said he had taken his full feed at 3:00 pm--that's 45cc's! She said they normally skip a nippling after a feed like that and just gavage the next one, but he was acting hungry, so she decided to try to nipple him again. He had taken 20cc's when we got there, and Deb got another 15cc's into him before he got too sleepy to eat any more. He gavaged the rest. This is pretty big news to us, because this is the final step toward getting him home--if he can drink all his feeds, he's ready to leave the hospital, so we're hoping for the best!

Jacob looked really great tonight, very alert and ready for some interaction. His buddy Andrew from Room 9 (Jacob's previous room before the MRSA outbreak) dropped off a couple of outfits he has outgrown--Jacob is becoming the well-dressed preemie these days! We'll post some new pictures in the next couple of days. Everyone keep him in your thoughts and prayers that he'll begin to nipple all his feedings!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 9:36 PM

Sunday, August 25, 2002
Jacob is doing fine after his vaccinations--no fever, he doesn't seem irritable, although he does seem a bit more tired than usual. Which is to be expected. So, we can be thankful that he hasn't shown a reaction! He nippled 15cc's twice last night for his nurses, but they didn't want to try today since he seems tired. When they're tired, they tend to choke or brady more often than when they are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Some of you have asked about the colors in our nursery, so we provided a link at the left here which shows our bedding and the colors.
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 6:04 PM

Weight last night: 2065 grams (4lbs. 9oz.)

Another mini growth spurt! We also managed to get him to drink 15ccs from the bottle, but he sounds so stuffy that he's having problems breathing and drinking at the same time. The nurse said she bulb-suctioned his nose a couple of times yesterday, but it didn't seem to help. She was getting the suction machine out as we left. Poor guy, but hopefully it'll clear him up some.

Jacob was also getting his first round of immunizations last night. Hepatitis B, Hib (bacterial meningitis), polio, DTaP, and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines were all on the schedule, followed by some Tylenol to try and keep him comfortable. That's a lot of needle sticks!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 11:21 AM

Saturday, August 24, 2002
Weight last night: 2025 grams.

Here's a conversion chart. Or maybe I should just start tracking it in pounds and ounces? It's about 4lbs, 7.5 oz. Anyway, we had a nice visit last night, just getting around to posting an update now, although we'll be heading out to the hospital to see him shortly.

I added a new comments script to the page--the old one was ridiculously slow, didn't work more than half the time, and I couldn't even get to their home page to see what the deal was, so it's gone. Hopefully the new one will work better for us and you!

Jacob had his second eye test yesterday for ROP and the doctor said one eye is a bit worse, approaching Stage 2. So they'll do another test in about a week and see if it's still getting worse. Don't anyone worry--we really didn't expect to have a child that didn't need glasses--I've worn them since I was 6 years old, and Deb had all sorts of eye problems due to her prematurity, so Jacob's issues right now are really minor. Of course, we want him to be perfect (and he actually is perfect to us!) but we do realize that he could have many, many more serious issues due to his prematurity.

Deb managed to get him to nipple about 13cc's yesterday, which is pretty good considering the exhausting day he had with the eye test and all. He actually seemed to be in a pretty good mood. We took a couple of pictures, we'll post 'em when we get enough.
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 1:41 PM

Thursday, August 22, 2002
Oops, almost forgot--two new pages of cute baby to look at! Pages 29 and 30 in the table at the left will get you there.
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 10:15 PM

Weight: 1995 grams.

Jacob lost a bit of weight, but that's not unusual. I'm sure tomorrow he'll have packed on a few more grams! The nurse on the late shift last night was able to feed Jacob his entire bottle, so that's exciting news! But today he was only able to take about 12cc's. He's making steady, sure progress.

Well, now the entire NICU and Level II nursery are in isolation--that means EVERYONE there has to don the purple nitrile gloves and the blue shower curtain before they can go into the nursery rooms. And it's going to be that way until all the babies who now have been exposed or tested positive go home. That could be months. So, no one is very happy about it, but it needs to be done so they can get rid of the MRSA.

Jacob was awfully cute tonight--we had some pretty dramatic thunderstorms we had to drive through to get to the hospital, and the nurse said she opened the window so he could watch because he seemed really interested. I've noticed that he likes to look out the window, too...

Oh, this is big news, and I nearly forgot! He passed his hearing test today! It's pretty interesting how they do it--they test otoacoustic emissions and perform something called a Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response. We're learning more about infant medicine than we ever thought we would!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 9:36 PM

Wednesday, August 21, 2002
Weight: 2002 grams.

Well, it was a pretty interesting visit tonight. When we arrived at the hospital, our nurse told us that Jacob had been moved to another room because they've been having an outbreak of MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and his culture came back postive. So they set aside a couple of rooms where they put all the babies that have tested postive. We have to put on plastic hospital gowns and sterile gloves before we go in the room and wash our hands before we leave--not the most intimate of settings for cuddling with your baby!

It seems that everyone has staph aureus on their skin and it normally doesn't cause any problems. If something happens to break the skin, the bacteria can creep in and cause an infection. This can happen in a NICU through an IV, a gavage; any number of things. Normally, the staph can be treated with antibiotics and everything is fine. But there is a strain now that has become resistant to methicillin (a type of penicillin) due to an overuse of antibiotics. Anyway, the upshot is, Jacob does not have an infection and isn't showing any signs of sickness or anything. They are just being very careful and isolating the babies who have tested positive to try and get rid of the outbreak. If it DOES cause an infection, it can be cleared up using Vancomycin. The CDC has a great web page that explains all this much better than I can here.

So, we're not really happy about the change, but hopefully on the next test it will show that it has colonized, which means that he can't give it to another baby and he can get back to the more comfortable room. We have a bunch of new pictures to post, but it'll have to wait a bit--I'm too tired to post 'em tonight.
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 9:30 PM

Monday, August 19, 2002
Weight: 1938 grams.
That's just over 4lb, 4 oz. Jacob was in rare form tonight--we got there just a bit late for his feeding because the nurse said he was pitching a fit early, so she went ahead and fed him. We snuggled with him for a while, and he slept mostly. Then mom put him in his crib to change his diaper, and it was like he decided it was play time! His eyes were wide open, he was checking everything out, smiling, waving his arms around; just having a good old time! We ended up just hanging out by his crib for a while playing with him. It's awfully hard to leave him when he's awake and looking so cute!

Now, this is NOT a hint or anything--we have everything we really need for Jacob right now, but a few folks have been asking us if we have a baby registry anywhere. So many friends and family have sent us such wonderful gifts already! But we did set up a registry at Amazon.com, which can be found here for those of you who have asked about it. We'll put a permanent link in the frame to the left.

Jacob nippled another 20cc's today! That's two days in a row that he's surpassed his regular 15cc's, so we hope it's part of a trend! The sooner he can start drinking his entire feeds, the sooner we can bring him home!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 9:44 PM

Sunday, August 18, 2002

Weight: 1909 grams

Looks like Jacob lost a bit, but weigh-ins do have a tendency to fluctuate according to how much liquid he's retaining and how much he wiggles on the scale! He's doing well tonight, and he nippled 20cc's for the nurse this morning--that's the first time he's done more than 15, and the nurse said he did really well--he was coordinated and didn't choke or "brady", so that's great.

Posted a new page of pictures of the little fella--check out page 28 in the table at left. Spent most of today cleaning up and Mom spent quite a lot of time getting the nursery ready for the day (hopefully soon) when Jacob will come home. Still haven't put the crib together yet . . .
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 9:26 PM

Saturday, August 17, 2002

Weight: 1925 grams! Wow!

That's just about 4lbs. 4 oz. He seems to be going through a mini-growth spurt, let's hope it continues! Jacob was a bit grumpy tonight for some reason, but we bottle fed him a little bit and snuggled with him for a while. No real news to report; just a quiet Saturday visit. Dad is going to try and assemble his crib tomorrow--wish me luck!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 9:51 PM

Friday, August 16, 2002
Weight: 1885 grams!

Wow, pretty nice weight gain for one day--could it possibly be from bumping up the calories in his formula? Whatever, that's just over 4lbs 2 oz. It was a blazing hot day today--100 degrees when I got home from work, so we waited for the sun to go down before we drove to Denver. Got there about 8:40 and held and snuggled with Jacob for a while. He looked really good, and was in a great mood tonight! Not much new to report other than the weight gain.
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 11:16 PM

Thursday, August 15, 2002
A very interesting visit with Jacob tonight! We arrived at around 5:30, just when a doctor came by to check Jacob's eyes. I asked what he was going to look for, and he said retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). The link will tell you more about it than I can, but basically when a baby is born prematurely, his or her retina still hasn't completely developed, and they can have ROP between stages 1 and 5, 1 being the least problem and 5 being basically born blind.

The doctor strapped some pretty fancy headgear on with a bright light, and then he used these little metal clips that looked like something out of "A Clockwork Orange" to hold Jacob's eyelids open so he could examine them. Jacob did not like this whatsoever, and made his displeasure very loud and clear. But it was all over soon enough, and the doctor said he had Stage 1 ROP in both eyes, and he told us it is to be expected and is nothing to lose any sleep over. They'll check him again in about 7-10 days to see if it gets any worse, and if it reaches Stage 3, they can do a laser surgery to correct it. Or it could just correct itself as he continues to develop. The doctor seemed to think that since Jacob is no longer on oxygen he'll probably be fine. So, that's the latest!

Jacob weighed 1823 grams tonight--that's just a smidge over 4 lbs. He drank about 13 cc's of (24 calorie!) Pregestimil tonight--they've bumped up his caloric intake. He took the rest through his nasal gavage. Hopefully, he'll begin drinking more and more on his own, since that is one of the criteria for letting him come home. Keep your fingers crossed!

New pictures are posted--check pages 26 and 27. The ones dated August 15 have some where his eyes are very red and irritated-looking--these were taken after his eye exam. He looked much better by the end of the night!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 9:43 PM

Tuesday, August 13, 2002
Well, Jacob not only did not lose any more weight, he actually gained a bit! He weighed in at 1814 grams today--that's just a hair over 4 pounds! His temp was good when we visited him at his 5:00 pm care, too--98.6. Doesn't get much more normal than that. They're keeping him well bundled up, though, with two blankets, two little hats and booties on his feet inside his gown. We had a good time trying to feed him, too, he was very awake and checking everything out. We only managed to get about 7 cc's into him, but anything we can get into him orally is good. He just gets sleepy after a while and doesn't want to try anymore.

So things are going well! I'll second Deb's post--thanks to everyone who has been so supportive of us and Jacob during this time!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 9:42 PM

Hi Everyone! Just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for their continued support. Your guestbook signatures, comments, e-mails, cards and gifts mean more than you can know. We're putting a baby book together for Jacob and we're going to save all of the well wishes for him so that he can see just how many people were praying for him!
posted by Deb Shrieves at 3:03 PM

Monday, August 12, 2002
Great news tonight--we strolled into the graduate nursery tonight to find Jacob in an open crib! That's a big milestone, so we took a few pictures. Page 25 in the table to the left should get you there. One of his nurserymates, Andrew, gave him a nice card and a little red preemie suit he has outgrown, and another of his nurserymates, Morgan, gave him three little suits on Saturday. He's wearing a couple of them in the pictures. Two of the suits from Morgan were hand-me-downs from Andrew, too--he's outfitting the whole room! We're going to pass them along as Jacob grows big and chubby and outgrows them.

Our nurse was a bit concerned that Jacob lost a little weight since he was put in the open crib. He weighed in at 1799 grams last night, and weighed 1772 today, so we bundled him up warmly so he wouldn't have to use his energy to keep himself warm. If he keeps losing weight and doesn't control his body temperature well, they'll have to move him back into the isolette, so everybody keep him in your thoughts and prayers--we don't want to see him back in that thing if we can help it!

He nippled 15cc's at 2:00 today for his nurse, and Mom fed him another 12 or 13cc's when we visited tonight. He's looking very good these days...and he'll be looking even better when we get him one of these.
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 9:22 PM

Saturday, August 10, 2002
Hey--we're going to send Jacob's name to Mars during the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover mission. NASA is going to send up a CD-ROM with a bunch of names on it. You can see his certificate here if you want (103k gif file). And you can do it, too! (Kids only, please).
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 12:25 PM

Well, here it is Saturday morning! A beautiful Colorado day, and well past time to update this page. I've added some new pictures this morning for your viewing pleasure (see pages 23 and 24 just to the left there). We've had some good visits with Jacob the past few days, and as you can see from some of the pictures, we got to give him a bath! It's not the first bath he's had, but it's the first one we were able to be there for and help with. He actually seemed to like it pretty much--at least he didn't scream like some of them do.

Jacob's formula was switched from Alimentum to Pregestimil. The nurse was wondering if that was causing a problem, as his stomach looked bloated again, and we thought we noticed more swelling in his legs and face. But his girth continues to measure the same, and the doctors took a blood test and x-ray yesterday and everything was normal, so he seems to be doing okay. We bottle fed him just a bit last night (about 5 cc's), but I don't think the stuff tastes very good--he'd drink some, but after a bit he started to get a gag reflex, and he spit up a bit. They've put his feeds back on the pump that delivers it slowly through his nasal gavage over one hour, so we hope that will help him keep it down. The whole reason they switched him from the Alimentum to Pregestimil is because the Alimentum just doesn't have enough calories to keep him growing at the rate we want. If you read the link for the Pregestimil, you'll see that it was designed for infants with some rather scary problems, but Jacob does not have these problems.

He does have hydronephrosis and is being treated for that. From what we've gleaned from the Net and our nurses, they'll just observe it for a while, as it usually corrects itself as the baby grows. We need to remember that Jacob isn't supposed to be here even now! So he has a little catching up to do.

But he's really doing very well, and still gaining weight. He seems very alert and curious when we visit--his little eyes are looking everywhere! We hope we can get him out of that isolette soon and into an open crib.

Enjoy the new pics!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 11:13 AM

Wednesday, August 07, 2002
Howdy, all! Sorry for the late update--we went to see Jacob last night (he had 15cc's from his bottle yesterday afternoon; we'll find out tonight what he did last night) and he is continuing to do well. He gave the other mom's and visitors in the nursery a few big grins, which elicited quite a few "awwww"'s and "isn't he sweet"'s. He really does smile a lot, even when he's sleeping and dreaming (which begs the question--what do babies dream of?)

Anyway, we had a nice visit and cuddle, then tried to drive home, but ended up sitting in a colossal traffic jam for two hours. Blech. There must have been a horrific accident, but by the time we finally got to the site, it had been cleaned up, so we don't know what happened. But it made for a very late night and no time left to update the blog. We have a few pictures to upload, we'll try to get 'em on here soon!

P.S.--Deb's back is a little better; no spasms at least, but she's trying to take care of it with a heating pad and lots of rest! Keep sending her healing thoughts! :)
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 3:27 PM

Monday, August 05, 2002
I came home from work today to find Debbie in bed with a heating pad--she had some serious back spasms right before I came home, poor thing. I called the doctor and he phoned a prescription in for an anti-spasmodic. So, we weren't able to drive to Denver to visit Jacob tonight, but we called his nurse, and he's doing very well today. He drank another 15cc's today at his 2:00pm feeding before he got tired, and the nurse is going to try again tonight. She said he did real well today, though, he didn't choke and he swallowed well, so he's well on his way to being a bottle-fed baby! Then they can take that nasal gavage out of his nose, and that'll be one less tube he's attached to.

So, not much news to report--he's really doing very well, and sometimes no news is good news!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 8:38 PM

Sunday, August 04, 2002
Hey, check it out--I added a little "comments" script I found. . .don't know if anyone will use it or not, so we'll see what happens. If not, I'll yank it later. Just having fun with the blog!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 10:50 PM

Jacob drank 20cc's from the bottle for the nurse today, and Dad fed him another 7cc's tonight! That's really good for the little guy, and a very encouraging sign! He's weighing in at 3lbs 12oz., or 1705g. Remember, at 1800g he gets to come out of the isolette and live in an open crib! He's up to 35cc's every feeding now, so he's doing pretty darn good. He was wide-awake and alert again tonight, looking around at everything, very calm. We thought they were going to move him to the room right beside the one he's in now last night because the nurse over there had a bunch of fussy babies, and Jacob has gotten the reputation for being an "easy baby". Let's hope that continues! Anyway, they decided not to move him after all, so we didn't have to meet any new nurses tonight.

Mom and Dad stopped by the 7-11 next to the hospital on the way out to get a couple of bottles of Vanilla Frappuccino, and Dad managed to leave his wallet on the counter. Realized it about a block away, sped back and witnessed a minor miracle--it was still there! This at a a 7-11 that had two cops parked outside, one inside filling out a report--they must have caught a shoplifter or something. I guess God watches out for idiots. . .
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 10:38 PM

Check out the tux and the Christmas stocking preemie clothes here--for the well-dressed preemie!
Preemies Only--go to Products, then Specialty.
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 11:57 AM

It's actually a little bit after midnight, so the events below are referring to Saturday night. Still trying to get the hang of how the blogger works.

Big night tonight for little Jacob! We arrived at the hospital to find the nurses on duty cooing over him and telling us how cute he is. He was wide awake, very alert and ready for some snuggling. The nurse suggested we try to bottle-feed him tonight, so of course we were anxious to give it a try. So she filled a little bottle with 35cc's of Alimentum and Mom tried to coax some into him.

Usually, at about 35 weeks, the infant's brain is "hardwired" to handle the "suck, swallow, breathe" reflex. Since Jacob has been going to town on his binky for the last week or so, they thought he might be ready. Deb managed to get about 10 cc's into him, which is very good considering it's his first time! So, he had a busy night tonight, and his parents left the hospital feeling very gratified!

We posted a bunch of new pictures today; you can find them on pages 20, 21, and 22 to the left there. Don't be alarmed at the ones where he has what looks like a massive needle taped to his head. That was from when he was having a problem with his feedings, and they had to supplement him intravenously with some good stuff to keep him strong. It was only there for a day. His weight tonight was 1704 grams. 96 more, and he's out of the isolette and into an open crib!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 12:00 AM

Saturday, August 03, 2002
Well, we've decided to try something a bit different here for Jacob's page. It's called a weblog (or "blog", as the cool websters say), and it should allow us to make updates to the site much more easily and quickly. I'm finding I have less time to update as I am either working, running back and forth to the hospital to visit Jacob, sleeping, or eating. So this ought to make things a bit easier once I get everything set up the way I want it. Which is taking a little time, so please be patient! :)

Jacob is doing very well--we had a nice visit last night. He's up to 32 cc's of Alimentum every three hours, and he's tolerating it well, no residuals, no stomach distension. All the nurses remark on how round his head is--I call him Charlie Brown now. I guess a lot of preemies don't have such nicely-formed noggins! He's a real cutie, though. He's at 1680 grams now, and once he reaches 1800 he can be moved out of the isolette and into an open crib. That'll make things much easier!


He was actually put back on supplemental oxygen (with the nasal cannula) for a day or two late last week since they tested his oxygen saturation and they were in the low 90's. They took him off it fairly quickly again, and he's back on room oxygen. There'll be an photo update soon...just give me a chance to check out this blogging program and see what's possible here!

posted by Geoff Shrieves at 2:58 PM