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!
The story of a micro-preemie. . .
Born June 21, 2002
Weight: 750 g (1lb, 10.5 oz)
Length: 13.8 inches
Gestation age: 28 weeks
In other news, Jacob's surgery for his hypospadias has been postponed until May 30. We had some trouble getting our COBRA insurance coverage active within ten days of his original surgery date, so it's just been pushed back a month. No big deal, although we'd like to get it over with. But it just gives Jacob another month to get bigger and stronger. Hard to believe, but he just had his ten-month birthday on the 21st! He's growing every day, and getting so close to crawling and sitting up on his own. We're going to have to start putting him into his crib in his own room to sleep, as he's now pulling himself up on the sides of the bassinet to look out, as you can see from a couple of the pictures we just posted. Not sure how we're going to handle having him in another room at night, we've gotten used to him being right next to us! Guess it's all a part of him growing up.
Deb and I caught terrible colds back East, but Jacob managed to dodge it—we can only think the Synagis shots had some effect and prevented him from getting the full-blown cough that we did. But we're over it now, and we had nearly a week of cool, rainy and cloudy weather so we could just hang out and rest without feeling too guilty!
Jacob's been munching on green beans lately, and he seems to be pretty happy with them! Next we'll try him out on either yellow squash or potatoes. He really seems to like the baby food, and hasn't even made any strange faces or anything, but we've had the camera at the ready just in case!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 6:21 PM
Thursday, April 17, 2003
Hey there! Finally got around to posting some pictures, check out pages 54 and 55 there. We included a few of his first taste of baby food—we started him off on the carrots. He seems to like them a lot, fortunately! The kid does have a hearty appetite, I have to give him that. After a few days we'll try him out on some other veggie, stay tuned!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 11:31 PM
We stopped the first night in Topeka, then managed to make it to Grayville, IL the next day. Bustling metropolis there. Not really, but we were exhausted, and it had a hotel, so there we were. Next morning, we got up bright and early fully intending to reach Williamsburg. We made it as far as Staunton, VA, where we ate a late dinner at one of the millions of Cracker Barrel's across the country, then found a nice hotel. The folks at the Sleep Inn have a nice little marketing gimmick—they leave a little rubber ducky on the sink with a note under it and a poem instructing you to take the duck and remember where you got it so you'll come back. Jacob loves that duck!
So, Saturday morning we made a nice, drizzly drive through Central Virginia to Williamsburg, where Grandma, Grandpa, aunts, uncles and cousins were all waiting to meet little Jacob. He was a hit, I must say, flirting and loving being the center of attention. Not like he's spoiled or anything. Sunday we went to church where he met lots of the folks who had been praying so hard for him when he was born and in the NICU. Then we drove over to Chesapeake to see his Great-Granny and his great aunts and some second cousins. . .it gets rather confusing sometimes! But he handled it all well, hamming it up for the crowds. We thought there was a very good chance he could become overstimulated with all the new faces and people around, but he was fine. Monday, Grandma watched Jacob while I took Debbie on a tour of Williamsburg. My main focus was to get to the College Delly for a sub, which was accomplished, and they were just as good as I remember them being 20 years ago! Tuesday we just hung out and packed up some stuff for our drive to Maryland to visit Deb's family. We hated to leave, but we only had so much time, and a lot of it was going to be spent on the road, so no time to spare, unfortunately!
Tuesday night, we made it to Buckeystown to see Grandma Burg. We got there kind of late and were wiped out, so we didn't have a heck of a lot of time to visit that night, but had all day Wednesday to catch up. Jacob was as engaging as ever, winning over everyone he met, from one of Grandma's renters to all Deb's friends. Jacob had his pictured taken with the Easter Bunny at the mall; we'll get that scanned and posted soon. And hope to avoid any copyright infringement action.
Thursday Deb and I took a little drive around the neighboring countryside. It's very beautiful, and it was very spring-like. When we left Colorado, it was a little bit chilly still. By the time we hit Williamsburg, it was sweltering. Of course the locals thought it was pleasant, but they haven't lived in a low-humidity zone for 12 years. The weather alternated between muggy and warm to chilly and rainy. I preferred the chilly and rainy. On Friday night, we drove to Columbia to see Uncle Doug, Aunt Shari, cousin Lauren and cousin Will. We went out to eat at a Thai place, and visited for a while and had a great time. Saturday, Deb's friend Cindy came by and we went to visit an old family friend of Deb's who was absolutely delighted to see us and Jacob. Then we drove out to Libertytown to visit with Deb's godson and his family. Jacob was great during all of this, but he didn't have much sleep that day, which began to worry us. He slept like a log that night, let me tell you!
Sunday we were up early and had breakfast with Grandma Burg and Bud, and then we hit the road again for the long trip home. We took a different route this time, just hopped on I-70 and stayed on it all the way to Colorado. We made it to Columbus, OH the first night, which seemed pretty nice. At least the literature in the hotel room listed lots of pretty cool things to see and do there, like the German Village and the Bruce Lee museum. Monday, we drove. And drove. And saw a horrific accident about thirty miles east of St. Louis. I saw a small mushroom cloud appear on the horizon about half a mile away, and when we came upon it, a tractor trailer rig had crossed the median and hit another semi head-on, then rolled into the ditch and exploded. Never seen anything quite like that.
We made it as far as Columbia, MO by nightfall, and stopped in for a rest. By this time, both Deb and I were feeling like we were coming down with something. And sure enough, we did. Killer colds. Jacob had a little cough too, and some green goop collecting on the corners of his eyes, but he was still in good spirits, thank God. We drove to Hays, KS for Tuesday night. Driving through Kansas by this time is old hat for Deb and I, we've done it literally dozens of times on different Siamese Rescue transports. So we know it pretty well, at least the stretch along I-70. We got up Wednesday morning and had breakfast at the Pheasant Run Pancake place (which I can recommend heartily) where the waitresses doted shamelessly on Jacob. That kid makes friends everywhere we go. Then we drove over to Old Fort Hays to visit the buffalo herd. We'll post pictures of all this in the near future, it's a lot of pics to weed through and caption and all that, but we'll do it.
So, we finally made it home, and were very glad and thankful for a safe drive 3500 miles. Jacob was a great traveller, he didn't cry or scream unless he was hungry or had a bad diaper. It sure made it a lot easier to have such an easy-going kid. Hopefully he isn't saving it all up for his terrible two's. He seems to have gotten over his little cold, just a lingering cough once in a while now. Can't say the same for me and Deb, we've both been pretty miserable the past few days.
Oh, Jacob went to see his pediatrician on Thursday, he's 14lbs, 2 oz and 25 3/4 inches long! Getting big! She checked him out and said he was looking good, and his head has hit the growth chart finally. He's approaching it with his weight and length, too. Then we had to go to his pediatric opthamologist, who checked his vision again. No ROP, no nearsightedness or farsightedness. He has a slight astigmatism in both eyes, but his eyes are "nice and straight" as the doctor said, and he won't have to go back until he's 18 months old. So that's more good news.
We'll work on the pictures, gonna be a lot of 'em!
posted by Geoff Shrieves at 9:07 PM
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