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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!

Friday, October 25, 2002
Hi Everyone!

Let's see, what all is new since our last post? A lot to tell you!

Jacob did fine with his immunizations on Monday, he didn't have any reactions or get the least bit grumpy! On Tuesday morning at 7:30 a.m. a home health nurse came and gave him his first Synagis shot (that's a vaccination to hopefully help him to avoid catching the RSV virus). The poor guy had already had 4 shots the day before (2 in each thigh since they couldn't find any "meat" on his body anywhere else) and they had to give him the Synagis shot in his thigh too, so needless to say, his poor little legs have been sore. He did well with the Synagis shot also and didn't seem to have any reaction. So, that's a huge relief! Later in the morning his physical therapist/developmental nurse from the local developmental center came by to see him. She was pleased with his progress and will come back in about a month to see him again. A little after she left, a nurse from the county health department came by to meet with us to tell us about programs that are available for Jacob. Since he is a low birth weight baby, he qualifies for programs under Part C of the Americans With Disabilities Act. He's considered an "at risk" child because of his low birth weight and prematurity, so the state and county try to become involved to assist in any way they can. They've found that early assessment and intervention make a huge difference with "at risk" children. By the time all of those appointments were over, the day was pretty much over and both Jacob and I were very tired!

The pediatrician called the other day to let us know that Jacob's blood test came back with good results. He is no longer anemic due to his prematurity. She wants us to continue giving him the vitamin supplement until he's about 6 months old. Thankfully, now that his anemia is gone, she won't be needing another blood test to check his hematocrit level until he's about 9 months old.

Jacob's pediatric gastroenterologist called yesterday and he would like us to take Jacob for another blood test to check his direct bilirubin count. If you'll remember, he had that HIDA Scan and ultrasound a few weeks ago to check his gall bladder and liver function because his direct bilirubin count has been getting higher and higher. The findings of that were that his organs are functioning just fine but are a little sluggish and that's causing the higher direct bilirubin counts. They think that the sluggishness is caused by his prematurity and that eventually everything will right itself. So, sometime soon, we'll be off to have another blood draw done - poor little guy!

Jacob still has a case of nasty diaper rash, nothing we've tried up to this point has worked (we've tried Aquaphor, Balmex, Desitin Regular, Desitin Creamy, Pure Zinc Oxide, Petroleum Jelly, Daddy Geoff's Homemade Butt Paste (made with a recipe from the doctor - Malox and Aquaphor), Triple Paste, Pure Lanolin and I think that's it). Someone my Mom met recommended trying Calendula Gel, a homeopathic remedy and that seems to be really working already. We're pretty impressed! We'll keep you posted.

Let's see, what else?
Jacob's appetite seems to be increasing again, as he's starting to ask for food early at every feeding now. So, we're going to increase the amount of formula he gets at each feeding. At this rate, he should be 8 pounds before we know it :-)! He's started smiling at us every once in a while when we're talking to him or being silly (smiles that we don't think are attributed to gas) and we're enjoying that. That's about it for now. We're enjoying him and watching him grow before our very eyes. Please continue to keep him in your prayers.

posted by Deb Shrieves at 2:22 PM

Monday, October 21, 2002
Our little Jacob is now 7 pounds! He's also stretched right out to 20 inches, so he's growing great! The pediatrician says he's showing a great growth curve, so things are on track although he's still just a little thing. He had a rough afternoon—his second round of four immunizations. Then they decided he should have another blood test, so he had to have a heel stick, which he was none too pleased with. Tomorrow morning, a home health nurse comes by to give him his Synagis shot for RSV, and then later on the child development specialist is stopping by. It's a long week for him, but he's a pretty happy guy, so he seems to take it all in stride once it's over with.
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 7:48 PM

Saturday, October 19, 2002
Hey, everybody! Sorry the updates are getting irregular, but sometimes there's just not that much to say. Jacob's been doing well, eating regularly and with gusto, sleeping now nearly 6 hours straight every night (which is very nice for us!) and generally just being a cute baby. He had another eye exam on Thursday and the pediatric opthamologist pronounced his vision good—no nearsightedness so far, which is amazing considering his parents eyesight! That's not to say he won't need glasses in the future, he probably will, but his ROP is gone so we're pleased with that.

We've posted some new pictures on page 41. Jacob's Uncle Doug came for a short visit, and we have a few pictures of him with his nephew. Also a picture of the foster kitties watching over him, and a couple of the Simba dog giving him a kiss.

We're going back to the pediatrician on Monday for his four month checkup, and we'll be anxioius to see how much he weighs. We're thinking he's pudging up nicely, we'll see what the actuality is and we'll post it here on Monday afternoon. Thanks for checking in!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 2:45 PM

Sunday, October 13, 2002
Hello again, everyone! Sorry for the delay in updates—there just really isn't much to report, which is good news! Jacob is doing just fine. He's swinging in his swing even as I write this, making little barnyard animal noises intermittently. He's been eating great, he's been sleeping pretty well through the night, and he's just a joy to be around! He has yet another pediatric opthamologist appointment Thursday for his ROP, but we don't expect there to be a worsening of his condition.

It has struck us that lots of folks who may visit this page do not know our story about just what happened and why Jacob was born so early. So we decided to slap together a little page that explains most everything (we hope!) and hope that it will serve to educate, inform and entertain. Please let us know if you have any questions or think we left anything out.
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 5:29 PM

Wednesday, October 09, 2002
Great news on Morgan—she had her operation for the Nissen wrap and the G-button, and it was a success! She's slated to go home Thursday (tomorrow). This is the news Sue has been so desperately wanting to hear, so we're all very happy for her, and we're sure little Morgan will thrive in the arms of her mom.
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 3:30 PM

Saturday, October 05, 2002
Allrighty, a bunch of new pictures of the little man and his grandparents. A couple were taken on the banks of the creek in Estes Park. Some show his new suits honorary Grandma Sandy sent him--very cute! Also got some of his bath time. Check 'em out on pages 39 and 40 at the left there. Enjoy!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 10:06 PM

Friday, October 04, 2002
The pediatric physical therapist stopped by the house yesterday to assess Jacob's development, and we're happy to say she was very impressed! He exhibits self-soothing behaviors and is very calm, which shows his neurological development is right on track, and his physical development either where it's supposed to be or slightly ahead. I think Mom and I could have told her that without an assessment, but it's nice to have the professional opinion! The nurse who had to stick the IV in his little arm on Wednesday made several comments as to how strong he was--she said she had a cramp in her hand from trying to hold his arm down. Our little Sampson! :-)

The gastroenterologist called yesterday morning, also, and had good news--Jacob's liver and gallbladder function are fine, just a bit sluggish! There really is nothing to do for him but wait and watch and the hope is he'll grow into more normal function, but the doctor was very optimistic and felt that there shouldn't be any problems. They'll keep an eye on his bilirubin counts through blood tests. We've had nothing but good news about our boy lately, and we truly feel blessed.

Update on Morgan: She was due to have her G-button and Nissen wrap surgery yesterday, and as soon as we hear an update we'll share it here! It looks good though--the RSV and pneumonia were a huge hurdle for her, and if the surgery goes as anticipated, she'll be going home very soon!

We have some good pictures from Granddad and Grandma's visit, we'll post those this weekend, so stay tuned!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 7:53 AM

Wednesday, October 02, 2002
Allrighty, we have quite an update here! Jacob has had a very busy couple of days.

On Tuesday, we decided to take Jacob and Grandma and Grandpa sightseeing, so we drove on up to Estes Park for lunch and some shopping. We had a nice lunch and souvenirs were purchased, then we headed on up to Rocky Mountain National Park, which was absolutely breathtaking. Literally. It's pretty high up. It was a cool, cloudy day, but we still saw some incredible scenery, and LOTS of elk. We drove part way up Trail Ridge Road, then decided to head back down. Jacob was great the entire time, he just slept mostly--that boy loves to ride in a car.

Today he had a pretty rough day with all his tests and scans. We couldn't feed him after 5am, so we made sure we gave him as much formula as he would take then. We drove on down to Denver in a cold drizzle and checked into P/SL for his ultrasound. The technician spent about 40 minutes checking just about everything out, taking lots and lots of pictures. The ultrasound showed that everything was normal. Then it was on to the HIDA scan. The first IV they inserted didn't flush out like it should have, so they had to try another vein. Fortunately. this one worked--he doesn't much like getting stuck, like anyone else, and protested loudly. They ran some radioactive dye into his veins, then used this huge machine to take snapshots of his liver and gallbladder every five minutes so they could see how his liver and gallbladder were functioning. It was pretty interesting for about five minutes watching his liver metabolize the dye, but got boring pretty quickly. It looked like a thermal heat signature on the computer screen, basically. As time passed, you could see his gallbladder beginning to take on the same colors his liver had, which is what they were looking for. We haven't gotten the official results from the doctor who ordered the tests, but the urologist who saw him an hour later said that the preliminary report was that everything was working okay, just kind of sluggishly. We'll see what the gastroenterologist says about it, and what if anything he wants to do.

After the HIDA scan (and Jacob was a very good boy through all this--he lay still when he was supposed to and didn't fuss much, although he was sucking that Binky pretty hard in hopes of some formula coming out!) we headed over to see his urologist. He will have a surgery to correct his hypospadias when he is about 9 or 10 months old. The doctor said there's about a 93% chance that it will be corrected with the first surgery, and we've heard nothing but good things about this doctor, so this should be a relatively minor procedure, we hope!

So, all in all, things went pretty well, although it was a long and trying day for all of us. It was good to get home again and let him rest and get some warm food in him!

Here's some good news--we got an update on Morgan, and it looks like she's turned the corner! Here's part of the email:

They moved her back to the Level III NICU (the highest intensive care NICU) NOT because she is doing poorly, but because she has to be in isolation because of her RSV. They had an open room, so they wanted to jump on it in case on Thursday they don't have any empty rooms and everything gets postponed until there is an empty room. The cool thing is that because she is in isolation, she has a nurse all to herself. So she is getting LOTS of lovin. The other day the nurse was reading the paper to her, had strung a string across the crib and had all of her toys hanging from it. She has a little stuffed Clifford dog that one of the other preemie parents gave her and she can look at that thing for 30 minutes just mezmerized by it. (blogger editor note: We gave her that in thanks for some clothes she passed down to Jacob--so glad she likes it!) I often go in there and they are rocking her and singing to her. That makes my heart so warm to see that.

Her surgery (for G Button and Nissen) is scheduled for Thursday, October 3 at 9:45 a.m. Before she is definitely definitely going into surgery, she has to do a few things...

• continue to have clear lungs as they back off her CPT and Nebulizer treatments. They are currently every 12 hours (they started off being every 2 hours!! She's come a long way).



• Keep her oxygen saturation level in the 90s while on a nasal cannula. They took her out of the oxygen hood a few days ago and she is doing well. In fact, they lowered her O needs to 160cc. She hasn't been that low since before she got sick! THAT is exciting!



• Keep her temperature up (she's been having trouble with a low temp)



• Continue to show signs of good health.