Grandparents keeping up with me

Here I am with Pappaw Ball. He's not used to a little boy, but he's mentioned fishing quite a bit. I just hope I'm not the bait!

This is Mammaw. It took her a while, but she finally realized I need/like the "wee blocker"! I can always count on her to rock me to sleep when she's here. She's also training me to be a bookie. :)

This is Pops. He was nice enough to let me use his name as my middle name. As you can see in the pictures, we're going to have many nice naps together. He wants to take me fishing too!

Last but not least is Nana. She tends to spoil me, but enjoys telling me about my daddy when he was small. At least I now have some dirt on him to use later!

Love you all!

Family visits & friends

You-know-who is keeping me busy these days! And when I'm not busy, I'm trying to rest or sleep. Not always successful at that though. Jacob is growing like a weed as they say. He's already up to around 11lbs (5 at birth). He's got the typical colicky symptoms in the evening which definitely test our sanity and patience. Last night though, he went 4 hours in between feedings! That was a treat!

We're graced with a visit Friday from his great Aunt Libby and great-grandmother Ball! Little Mammie, as we call her, is very excited about the idea of being a great grandmother these days. It's hard to belive that little Jacob is pushing them up the family tree. Little Mammie turned the big 89 yesterday! She was very excited to get to see her great grandson again. She last saw him right after he was born at the hospital. We were glad to see them, although Jacob didn't put on the best of shows as he's not quite used to being the center of attention for so many of us at one time!

Jacob has made a friend, although he isn't aware yet. Carter was born 6 days after Jacob (3 weeks early I believe) and his mother, Leslie was diagnosed with the same HELLP syndrome as me (yeah, 1 in 1000 chance if getting it!). We have been to visit with them a couple of times now.

They were also in our childbirth class. I'm entertaining the idea of getting a blog going for the couples in our class to share their experiences and advice. Maybe even getting some of us together to do the stroller thing at the park. It's a great time of year to get out and do that, just not so easy to get them loaded to go!

Well, we've enjoyed the morning sitting under the umbrella on the back deck. Better get back inside before that pollen cloud gets us!

First trip to Biltmore

We got a brief walk in the walled garden while it was still warm this week at Biltmore's Festival of Flowers.

First Outdoor Outing

We took a little trip to Lake Louise today to enjoy some of the Spring sunshine. He enjoyed it so much, he slept the whole time!

He's actually smiling in the one below.

In the middle of the night...

Jacob's First Month

So my tomorrow posting attempt turned into next week...

I think we're finally starting to get a handle on things again and the new routine. I'm doing much better than a few weeks ago. Sleep (or lack thereof) can do amazing things for the body and mind! My 2 week checkup indicated I'm healing well. My platelet levels are back to normal and things are functioning as they should.

Jacob has been doing well for the most part, however, he did start exhibiting symptoms that concerned us, so I called the doctor to find out if they were normal. He had been grunting unusually so, squeaking, spitting up and had - what I consider - excessively swollen feet. The swollen feet had the nurses/dr perplexed, so we had to bring him in for a look. They agreed they looked a little big and with the other symptoms, decided to run some tests to rule out what may be going on. They took some blood, collected his urine and due to the time of day (late afternoon) sent us to Radiology at the hospital to do a baby-gram (x-ray) of his chest and tummy. Everything came back within normal ranges with the exception of elevated white blood cell count and the baby-gram showed he had the beginning stages of a viral infection, which is like having a cold to us.

So, 5 hours later, we're continuing him on gas-x, starting him on baby Zantac for reflux and he's on his own to fight off the infection. The prior 2 mentioned also is to help him not strain and grunt so much, which may have been causing his feet to swell, not allowing blood to return well back up the veins in his legs.

He finally seems to be doing better. We keep him upright for about 1/2 hour after each feeding and Bill has put a towel under his bed wedge to keep his head elevated while he sleeps. So the crying, screaming, and fussiness seem to be subsiding for now.

Bill has gone back to work and I've tried a couple of days on my own without help and managed OK. We're still trying to take naps when we can to try and stay ahead of the game. As soon as we feel his immune system is strong enough and he's on some sort of schedule, we'll bring him out for visits. But I'm happy for now just hanging out with the occasional visitors.

Feel free to call or email us. If we're busy or sleeping, the answering machine will take care of things and we'll get back to you soon!

Acting full term

Jacob is eating, sleeping, tootin' and peeing...and then all over again! I think I'll be able to post new pics tomorrow. Got the home network back up and running again. That took long enough, huh?

It's almost 10pm and he's wide awake, in his swing. Sleep, baby Jacob, sleep!

Sweet dreams.