happy one month, Jack!

Our baby was one month old on Saturday. It's hard to believe and amazing how much he grows and changes each day. He is so much fun!

happy one month to my little man!

ten for thursday.

1. 10 for Thursday is back after at least a month's break. I've been wonderfully preoccupied :)

2. My husband is awesome and has been a huge help during this time of adjustment.

3. I just drank a bug. Ok, almost drank a bug. It was floating in my apple juice and I realized something was up and spit it back out. Bleh.

4. Jack is staring at me right now from his swing. Love that boy.

5. 2 weeks ago we got Eli a swimming pool. It's one of those little round plastic ones, and he couldn't love it more. He jumps in it, washes his frisbee and tennis balls in it, and convinces his puppy sister to drink out of it like a giant water bowl.

6. My house is a mess. Makes me feel kind of crazy but it will get better.

7. I haven't cooked a meal in a month! It is crazy awesome and probably time for me to jump back into that game.

8. Target pharmacy is the best. I used to be a CVS girl but the one near us here is rough and I've only had bad experiences. On the other hand, Target pharmacy lights up my day.

9. We are kind of big fans of Jimmy Fallon's thank you notes. On a regular basis Tommy and I walk around making up our own Jimmy inspired thank you notes.

10. Netflix is great. And so is going for walks!

peace.

After 7 straight nights of 945 pm to 1 am inconsolable crying, my baby slept during that time last night and it was glorious! Glorious I tell ya! The good thing about all the crying is that we know his lungs are working well, and I'm very thankful for that.


This tired mommy is off to pick up a prescription as I have mastitis and a fever of 101.

diet... again.

I'm putting my nutrition knowledge into play in my own life again. Apparently my child is very sensitive to my diet, so I'm eliminating down to a bland diet. It's making me think about my diet a lot more than I want to right now. Oh well, we'll get it figured out, and it's just another way that I can relate to my patients.

This guy looks pretty happy if you ask me. He's so much fun!

reflecting.

I still don't think I've had the opportunity to process everything that happened with Jack. It was such a whirlwind and we had to handle it and didn't have much time to think about anything. I have had a few {very few} quiet moments to think and am still just amazed at what this little guy has been through. I'm so amazed at God's goodness. Amazed that He healed Jack. Thankful to have Jack. I love him or something :)

I finally uploaded all of our pictures from the hospital. It took me awhile to get them all compiled from the camera, Tommy's phone, and my phone. Here are some from Jack's adventure in the NICU.

Jack's first NICU bed. After he was off of the oxygen hood they moved him out of this bed and into a crib!

The crib--- quite the upgrade!

He was monitored. This is where we sat for hours and hours a day just holding our boy. We spent a lot of time watching that monitor- watching his respiratory rate and his oxygen saturation. One of the greatest feelings was watching the respiratory rate drop day after day from the 120s down to the 30-60 range over the course of a few days.

Changing diapers is really hard with all of these leads! He hated these and they came off a lot because he's a squirmy guy. The line in his umbilical cord was great so he didn't have to get stuck for every blood draw or a new IV. It was hard for me to look at him like this at first but now I love looking back and seeing that he doesn't need ANY of this stuff now!

His bruised little hands from getting sticks before he got his umbilical lines.

His adorable little feet that were attached to more of those monitors he hated.

Once his respiratory rate came down he was allowed to eat. This was his first bottle given to him by Dad. This guy loves to eat!

We spent a lot of time...

playing...

smiling...

laying on the boppy...

and rocking our sweet, sweet little man.

We spent a lot of time in these chairs. That rocker has some Morgan wear and tear on it now!

The day we got to go home. First time in the car seat getting ready for his big trip!

I couldn't be more thankful for the care Jack got. We had the best nurses, nurse practitioners, and neonatalogists. We met some sweet people with their precious little babies living in the NICU, and I learned a lot from my new NICU mom friend {a very sweet lady who always stopped me to check on Jack and see how I was doing even though it was difficult for her because of a language barrier}.


I love spending my days with this sweet baby who is such a blessing to us.

hanging out.

We've just been hanging out around here. It's the best!


Jack likes to spend his time thinking...

2 weeks.

My future baseball player. His Dad is pleased that he seems to be favoring his left thumb for sucking... left handed pitcher on our hands?

we're home!

Jack is home! We are all home together and it is amazing! Thank you so much to everyone and your kind words and sweet thoughts about us. I know there's been a lack of updates on here- thanks for still checking in! We've been a little busy the past few days--- awesome busy!

We brought Jack home on Thursday night. He had to stay an extra day in the NICU; he didn't have any more alarms after the last ones I wrote about but the standard NICU policy is that babies not have alarms for 3-5 days before going home so they were not okay with Jack going home after just 24 hours without alarms. He stayed another day and another night and first thing Thursday morning the nurse practitioner took his leads off and declared him free. Wednesday was so hard after we went there to pick up our baby boy and were told he had to stay. It was a small reminder of how I felt the week before on the day he was born when they took him down to the NICU. It wasn't nearly as bad but it was definitely disappointing. However, we understood and appreciate their thoroughness in making sure he was doing ok. Just easier to say that now than it was on Wednesday. I was so nervous to go in to Nursery A - Jack's room that he shared with 11 other babies - on Thursday morning. I was nervous to see if we would walk in and he would still have all of his leads attached and hear that he would have to stay for more testing, or if we would walk in and see him happy and ready to come home. It was better than I could have imagined! The nurse practitioner was taking his leads off as we walked up to his crib, and she looked up at us and said "He's getting out of here! I'm discharging him today!" It was an awesome moment. Ten hours later we were home with our little guy, and we could not be more thankful.

We cannot believe how much we love Jack. It's amazing. He is so fun and is changing every day. We are really enjoying this time as a family and appreciate so much Jack being home. We are so thankful to have him home and so thankful for his health. He had a great check up with the pediatrician on Friday and passed his first home health nursing visit on Saturday with flying colors. We are just blown away by the progress. Thank you to you all for speaking kind words, praying for us and with us, and showing us love and support. We could never tell you how much it means to us.