The Cubby Chronicles XXXI

Has the pacifier










Losing the pacifier












Lost the pacifier













Looking for the pacifier





Note: Jacob Raymond Walker was born 12 weeks prematurely at Duke University Hospital the morning of Monday, May 19 2008. The following are updates, notes, & observations on his growth & development.

The big news out of Durham is that the little guy is now up over 4 pounds!!! While not just being double his birth weight its also the magic number for Jake to go home. We mentioned earlier that he's ticked off most of the things he needs to do (breathe on his own, keep himself warm) & now that his weight is above the magic number, its all about the bottle feeding.

Jake is currently getting fed by bottle at least once a shift & we're working with the Speech people each day. I'm not sure if they're too territorial, too sensitive, or we just got stuck with someone that we clash with, but we haven't been too impressed with them. The real issue is they never catch him when he's fully awake and when he doesn't eat a lot (say, only 6cc) they assume he's 'not ready' or 'not stable.'

Of course when we're working with the nurses (who don't seem to be big fans either) he will eat 20 or so cc because he's fully alert & hungry. I imagine they're trying the best they can to catch him at his feeding time but its just not working. Luckily we get to practice on our own without them around at least half of the time.

I actually had my first bottle feeding experience last night (he took 16cc, BTW) and it went well. Of course when I was burping him mid-way through the feed he spit up on me but I guess its just the first of many. We were trying to figure out if I'll give him hundreds or thousands of bottle feedings in the future (given K will do some bottle feeding, there will be breastfeeding interlaced, & he'll eventually eat solid foods)--it looks like the latter but it could be right on the dividing line.

We also had some reassuring news yesterday from one of the lead attendings who believed that Jake would be home by his August 13th due date. While this is exciting news, we're getting less patient each day that goes by. As Jake has grown and matured our interactions & feelings have changed.

When he was young we were just so happy & relieved that he didn't have major medical issues & we constantly stressed about the challenges he did have. We would walk out of the hospital at night and hope he would breathe well overnight when we weren't around or wonder if his stomach would be able to handle his feedings.

Now that he's much more stable & we're able to hold and kiss him all the time, its tough when we have to put him back in his crib and know that he's alone (kind of like the extreme version of the Ferber method). We're excited to count the days down & each day it gets harder to leave the hospital without him. We looked at the calendar & we only have 2 baby-less weekends left, very exciting. Hopefully they go by quickly........