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.
Our apologies for the delay in the updates. Last Wednesday we switched over to Directv, mostly because they have the Big Ten Network. Since football season starts Saturday & we're pretty much home bound these days, it was a good time to make the switch. Of course in such a move there are winners & losers.
It seems that our friends at Time Warner Cable didn't take to the switch too kindly because they cut our cable internet at the same time they shut our cable down (Kristin believes they were just idiots while I enjoy a good conspiracy so I like to think it was purposeful). So after a few down days, today they sent a tech over to flip the switch back on.
Anyway, Jake is doing well & his weight last Thursday was a little over 5 & a half pounds. We've been to his pediatrician's office twice & she's quite pleased at his progress. We're heading back to Duke tomorrow for his first check up since his discharge & sometime soon we'll have a full update.
In the meantime, we've been taking plenty of pictures now that he's home & since everyone would probably prefer them to my meandering prose, here's a batch:
S
nooze time is all the time these days...
Jake & his 'big brother' from his aunt Kimberley. Granted, he's a small guy but that's still one big bear.........
(Jeff Foxworthy Voice) 'If your head doesn't even reach the headrest in your swing, you might be a preemie.' 
In general the Cubby just a happy go lucky guy. Other than when he's really hungry he doesn't really cry or fuss.
Mom, Ben & little Jake are out & about on his first walk. He's in there somewhere....
.....there he is.
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.
It has been about a week since the little guy came home and we're all doing very well. For the first few days Kristin & I would stop ourselves in disbelief that Jake's actually here & not in the hospital, and it's still amazing that he's home for good. I remarked the other day as we sat him on the floor to roll around ('Tummy Time' for the uninitiated) that I felt we were normal parents, which is a wonderful feeling.
Kristin & I were discussing how we thought the week had gone & for the most part parenthood is how we expected it to be so far. It's actually going even better than I'd hoped so far as Jake isn't too fussy & he's not much of a crier (clearly we're hoping that stays consistent). Even the dogs have adapted to him quite well (that's Chloe above) Of course the one thing we're still working on is feeding the little guy.
Since Jake eats every 3 hours I've told people that it seems we're always either finishing up feeding him or getting ready to feed him. Since the entire routine involves diaper changes, burping and keeping him upright to minimize the GERD, not to mention the actual feeding, its good for an hour. That only leaves two left until the process starts all over again.
The constant interruption isn't so hot for the sleep cycles but we're working on refining our technique. Jake eats at 12, 3, 6, & 9 so one of us takes 9PM & 3AM & the other does midnight & 6AM and its working for now. Check in with us next month...
A quick warning to all the non-parents here is that the rumors are true. Once you have a baby, you just can't believe how much you can love that tiny little person. I've seen Jake every day for 3 months but every time I see him I forget how precious he is & just have to give him a few kisses on the head (& I've never been much of a family kisser). Every day he either gets a little cuter or I get a little softer; we'll see how long it continues.....
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 Cubby is home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*And he even came home one day earlier than the doctors were planning to release him at that. We had heard rumors last night that there was a chance he could come home today instead of Thursday but we didn't quite believe it.
When scrubbing in this morning I heard the great news that they were releasing him one day early probably due to an equal mixture of his progress, a little less conservative practitioners on call today, & general need of bed space in the ICN.
Here's a quick re-cap in pictures of how it went down:
Here's the three of us standing with Kathy, one of our favorite nurses. In ICN terms, Jake is now considered 'wireless' as we just took off all of his leads that tracked his heart rate, breathing, & blood pressure. If you look closely you can see the monitor in the background that we used to constantly stare at finally showing no input.
As Jake leaves the nursery he gets the 'bubble parade,' an ICN tradition whenever a baby 'graduates.'
Here he's getting his first taste of being outside as he's strapped into his car seat leaving the hospital. His official 'going home' outfit was given to us by our good friends Lenny & Heather.
After a quick stop at Chick-fil-A (that will be a good bit of trivia in the future) Jake finally arrives home at 3:00PM on Wednesday, August 13, 2008. Maybe going home early was fate, today was his original due date.*NOTE--Do not check yourself in to the nearest asylum or adjust your computer clock; the post has been backdated for historical record.
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.
Quick but important update--as you may have noticed in the photo above, Jake doens't have any feeding tubes. He's been taking all his feeds by bottle the past couple of days which is the last hurdle to him leaving the hospital.
The doctors have been pleased with Jake's progress & have chosen this Thursday, August 14 to send him home!!!!
The date is still considered tentative but he's on the mark to meet it. More information (including a countdown clock I imagine) soon....
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.
Jake has had a busy day here at Duke Hospital. I was hanging out with him this morning & nothing much was going on. Just holding & feeding him (he's taking more and more of his feeds by mouth & eating greater volumes of them) and having some 'guy time.' Everything thing was pretty quiet until Kristin came in.
She brought a form letter from the Wake County child services that said according to their records Jake had failed his hearing scan. Obviously this was a little worrisome because A. we don't remember Jake ever having a hearing scan & B. everyone would like their child to be able to hear. As we sat talking about how Wake County would have such a record when we were never informed that he'd received a scan, much less failed one, the Audiologist walked in.
Sure enough, he'd never been tested & she went ahead and performed the screen right in front of us. She did an Auditory Brain Stem Response test which consisted of strapping plastic cups on Jake's ears & taping electrodes around his head (it was quite a get-up, see the picture below). The idea is sounds are played into the ear cups & the electrodes pick up the 'correct' brain activity for each ear. Thankfully, Jake passed the test quickly with both of his ears but not before we snapped some photos.
I tend to take lots of pictures of the little guy every day so he's quite comfortable in front of the camera (either he's a natural model or he's just a baby who doesn't notice/care--you can be the judge). Regardless, his talent for looking cute & laying still served him well today when the nurse manager & people from the fund raising office came by & wanted to take pictures of Jake for upcoming campaign media.
Its somewhat of a toss-up on why Jake was picked--on one hand he's clearly the cutest kid in the entire place (I might be a little biased). On the other we do know the nurse manager & she had a pretty good idea that we'd be at his bedside so consent/release forms could be signed. I will note that there were at least 3 other families back in the TCN & untold numbers in the larger ICN that they could have chosen.
Anyway, the fund raising people said that they wanted to get some pictures of the chief of the children's hospital with a preemie baby for future brochures,etc... and Jake was the man for the job. Kristin changed his outfit & wiped his face off (potential stage mom alert) while the photographer set up her angles, flashes, & other camera equipment. We met the chief who seemed like a nice guy & they ended up taking 30 or so shots of him holding Jake in different positions.
The whole thing was pretty interesting & the media woman said she'd e-mail some of the pictures back to me which I'll pass along. The Cubby, to his credit, basically slept through the whole shoot which is exactly what he needed to do . In Hollywood that's called 'nailing it.'
Clearly he's going to be the next top baby model. Of course we're in need of an agent since we didn't negotiate any returns for his services. We're not suggesting that he get a cut of any money they raise, but it wouldn't kill them to at least have knocked something off of his hospital bill, right?
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.NOTE: The following is an experiment in mobile blogging. This post may (will) change after you've read it. UPDATE: Well, I'm not sure that mobile blogging is quite ready for prime time. Originally the post didn't have any formatting, I couldn't include links, & the picture didn't come through. Now of course that's all taken care of. Also, since this was such a short post (hey, you try typing these things out on a phone) we've also included an extra picture. I know, I know, you're welcome....We're sitting here in the hospital with the little guy and since Kristin is holding him I've got idle hands. My buddy Ben (who really was ahead of the curve on this blogging thing) told me I could post from the iPhone & of course I have to try it.
Jake's doing really well overall and is now officially 4 & a half pounds. He's taking some food by bottle or by Kristin every other feed or 4 times a day. He's still a little scattershot with them & sometimes he takes up to half of his volume but usually it's more like 1/3. The nurses & doctors say one day it'll just click & he'll be taking everything by mouth. Hopefully that happens sooner rather than later so we can get the little man home. In other news his nursery is really coming together. We bought a glider that is almost lime green. It was on clearance so we got a good deal (what a surprise) & I was initially unsure about the color but it blends in perfectly with his beach themed room. We can't wait to break it in with him....
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