11 Days Old

Just a quick update from today . . . Jack weighed in at 5 lbs 6 oz this morning! He's slowly becoming a big boy. He is still on 50 ml's (that's almost 2 oz) of formula at each feeding. He's taking about 35 (a little over an oz) when they try it in the bottle. He has to finish those two bottles before they will add another one. He is growing so much, I am just ready for him to start eating from the bottle so we can bring him home. Callie held him for the first time today, I'm posting some pictures of them together. She did a great job! She only dropped his head once. :) Luckily he was laying on a pillow so it was uneventful.

Tim and I took Callie to the golf course this afternoon so that she could practice her putting skills. She has pretty good form and can hit it pretty accurately from a long distance. When she's close to the pin, she doesn't have much patience to actually get it in the hole. Here are some pics from that fun outing.

Walking to the putting green with Daddy

She was so excited!!

Here's how you do it . . .

Strike a pose . . . she was done by this point after about 30 minutes.

One Week Old

Mommy and Jack on Tuesday-One Week Old Today!

Waiting for Grammy to pick us up after visiting Mommy's doctor yesterday.

Callie and her baby brother

Grammy and her two grandkids . . . CRAZY!

Aunt Ginger holding Jack for the first time . . .

Grandma holding Jack for the first time

Jack is one week old today! That means he's 35 weeks gestation. He is still in the NICU but is improving each day. He's now in a "big boy bed" (that's NICU speak for an open air crib/bassinette). He is off of his IV and all other monitoring devices other than the ones monitoring his heart and breathing. He weighs 5 lbs 1.3 oz. He's eating 1 1/2 oz (45 ml) every 3 hours. Two of those feedings a day we attempt to give him by bottle, and the others all go through a feeding tube in his nose. He's getting stronger every day and is able to eat more from the bottle each time. Over the weekend he was only taking 5-10 ml's per feeding, but over the last couple of days he's eaten 25-35 ml's each feeding. Once he takes all 45 two times a day, they will attempt more.

He is also having 1-2 brady's per day. Bradychardia is when the heartrate goes below 80 (in Jack's case). He's only had one or two episodes where he stopped breathing, and he has recovered from all of the brady's by himself without needing stimulation. This is a common preemie problem. Fortunately babies develop the ability to maintain their heartrate around the same time that they are able to eat from a bottle.

The main reason that he's not eating it all yet is because he just can't stay awake long enough to get it all down. That will come with time. The neonatologist told me today that we are basically just waiting on development. He just needs to finish developing the reflexes to eat and breathe/maintain heartrate that he would have developed had he stayed in mommy's tummy to full term. We wll be able to bring him home when he can take 8 full feedings a day by bottle and has gone 5 days with no bradys. Hopefully he will have his "lightbulb moment" this week sometime so that we can work on coming home!

Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts. They are working because our little guy doesn't have any issues other than what is totally normal for being born at 34 weeks.

Pictures of Jack-They are backwards-ugh! Start at the bottom to see from the beginning

GO HOGS!!!

Look at your baby brother . . .

Our first family picture

Right before going in to see Jack for the first time

Tim's first time seeing Jack

Stephanie's first time seeing Jack

3 days before Jack was born

Jack has arrived!

Well, this has taken me way longer to update than I anticipated, but I haven't had access to a computer until today.

Charles Anthony Jack Romero was born via unplanned C-Section Tuesday, August 4, at 4:34 p.m. (6 weeks before his due date). He weighed 5 lbs 3 oz and is 19 1/4 inches long. He is in teh NICU at Centennial Medical Center in Frisco and will be there until he is able to take 8 bottles a day with no issues. They told us that will probably take 3-4 weeks.

He has had no breathing problems and is in an open air crib. He is no longer on an IV, but still has a feeding tube in his nose to help him get his food until he's able to drink from a bottle. Right now we are trying to feed him by bottle twice a day if he is awake and alert enough. He's trying really hard but gets tired pretty easily. They told us that by next week at this time he'll be a totally different kid. The neonatologist told me this morning that he is not concerned about anything now. That was a great relief!

I am going home tomorrow. I'm glad to be leaving the hosptial but sad to leave the baby here. I pray that it won't be for long. In case you haven't heard, here's how Tuesday went for me . . .

Tim left on Monday morning to go to Philadelphia for two nights. It was the first 2 night trip he's tried since I went into the hospital 7 weeks ago. Everything was fine unitl about 11 on Tuesday morning. I noticed some things out of the ordinary and called my dr. They wanted me to come in for an exam to make sure that my water hadn't broken again. I got there about 12:15. When she examined me, I was dialated to a 4. They decided to send me over to the hospital for observation to see if I was in active labor. By this time I had told Tim to start finding a flight home.

Needless to say I was in labor. My contractions started coming and never slowed down. They were 2-3 minutes apart. We had a specialist come in to do a sonogram to check the baby's position, and sure enough he was laying sideways. His head was on the right, his bottom was on the left, and his back was down. This was the need for the C-section. My dr told me we needed to do it right away because there was a big risk that there could be complications if we waited.

So I had to decide (with Tim on the phone at the airport) to have a c-section within 30 minutes. I was very upset that he wouldn't make it. Of course he wanted me to do what was best for me and the baby, so his mom went with me into the OR and was a HUGE support. It all happened so fast that, in the end, it didn't matter who was there. :-)

We are so blessed that Jack waited 7 more weeks to be born and that he has had no complications so far. Everything that we are facing is normal for a baby born at 34 weeks. We continue to pray that he will come home quickly. I will post pictures of him in a separate blog. Thank you to everyone that has prayed, visited, and helped us in so many ways. We love you all!!