Thankful

Yeah its nice he has ten fingers and toes but we are really thankful for the freakishly big hands and feet.

Get in my belly

He has been pretty hungry and his belly is showing the workout results.

They grow up so fast.

The dream is over. The little one has moved beyond his preemie phase into full on baby mode. Gone are the lazy days of parenting when the babe only cared about looking cute and sleeping all day. He now does FUSSY. I have no idea how he learned this wholly undesirable trait but I have an idea. I believe the other babies of the NICU may hold some sway over my son. They speak to him with crying, the primary method of communication for babies. A secret language adults can barely understand. Maybe it all goes much deeper, maybe a baby cabal exists. The sole purpose of which would be to control the breeders (parents). A sly group they are hiding behind big funny heads and disgustingly cute little fingers and toes controlling a pair of entities many times larger, stronger, and smarter? They set the tiniest of hooks and you are at their beckon call, cry? Move over K someone else controls my life now.

Ok he was fussy one night. All is good, almost 5 lbs and eating very well from the bottle. I will let Red fill you in on the female specific feeding efforts but I will say he is just like pop, a ****** man.

Postponing the inevitable

Quite possibly the last warm meal Mama will have for years!

Big enough to wear clothes,

Almost. At the ripe old age of 17 days (36 weeks and 3 days developmently) he has packed on over a pound from his lowest weight and is gaining more than an ounce a day. A minor triumph yesterday, a complete bottle feeding of 40ml twice in one day. Being able to eat all his feedings from the bottle is the last major hurtle to going home. He has moved out of the isolette "chicken hatcher" and is able to keep himself warm. Still day to day but getting closer.

Scandal!

Boulder couple caught blood doping preemie! A two week old baby has getting regular EPO shots in order to raise his hematocrit. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has been notified in order to blacklist the child from future athletic competition. Admittedly pressure in Boulder is extremely high to produce world class althetes - with unparalleled competition to get athletic scholarships to preschool. When asked for comment the boys' father said, "I only wanted to give him a leg up on training, besides he'll be clean by the time he's competing. WADA can jam that suspension straight up its ***, besides with the joke they're making of themselves with the Armstrong thing they won't even be around much longer." The mother only said, "Would someone please just give my husband some of that EPO so he can stop whining about not being able to keep up with the average Boulderite."

"What are we going to do tonight Ash?"

"The same thing we do every night, try and take over the world!!!"

That new parent joke

There is an old joke about new parents. If you ask the mother and father of a newborn, "How is the baby sleeping thru the night?" The mother would say, "He's up every few hours." The father would say, "Great, he sleeps straight thru the night."

Miss You Boscoe

Thanks again to Pat & Karen for looking after our furry baby.

All Challengers

The small but mighty Ash will take on all challengers in a Boulder Community Hospital sanctioned Lexan Cube match for preemie supremancy.

He's a week old today!!!

More little steps... Ash's little belly button fell off yesterday. Why on Earth I think that is cute, I don't know... He also moved from his bed under a heat lamp to a little enclosed incubater-looking thing since they confirmed with a second blood test that his jaundice is gone. He already seems more comfortable in there - he's been out like a light all day. And he also had his little IV removed. They were giving him additional electrolites and other such liquids, but now he's eating enough milk that he no longer needs it.

The NICU here is now busting at the seams. When we arrived last week, there were only a few rooms taken. Now they have all 6 rooms full (3 sets of twins!) plus one overflow room full and a NICU set up in a regular Labor & Delivery room for yet another family. I think I just heard another baby has now checked in, so they are entirely out of NICU beds. I'm glad they had a space for us when little Ash arrived.

How Ash Got Here

No, I'm not going to explain the birds and the bees. I'm sure you can Google that if you have any questions...

Up until May 26th, I had a pretty easy, low-risk pregnancy. All of my pre-natal visits went very well, I had virtually no negative side-effects except for just a couple of weeks of nausea early on... Then, the week of May 22nd, I spent the week in Atlanta for work. By the time I got home, I had swollen ankles - not surprising considering the long plane ride and the hot and humid weather down south. I woke up Friday morning, May 26th, and the swelling just hadn't gone away yet.

Since it was the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, and Sean was down in Texas visiting Eric, I decided I'd give the doctor's office a call just to see if I should come in. They suggested I should, and when I arrived, my blood pressure was a 'little high' and the swelling was still there - although going away. They decided to do a quick blood test to just make sure I wasn't showing any signs of pre-eclamsia. Friday evening the doctor called back to say the blood tests were mostly fine, and since my regular doctor's visit was that Wednesday, she was ok with me going on with my weekend.

So, I went camping Saturday night (couldn't miss the Iron Camp Chef contest!!) and when Sean came home Monday, we went for a bike ride down to the Creek Festival here in Boulder.

Then Wednesday at my doctor's appointment, my pressure was up again. She asked that I take it easy and do a 24 hour urine test to check for protein, which I guess is released with high blood pressure and is a sign of concern.

We went back on Friday to get the test results. And that was the 'beginning of it all'!! The test results showed a TON of protein. My doctor put me on a monitor to watch the baby's heart rate; called a high-risk pregnancy OBGYN, Dr. Plotnick; and then gently told us that we'd need to go to the hospital - the baby may need to come early.

Needless to say, Sean and I were . We did drive home, packed a bag or two, called Pat to pick up Boscoe (THANK YOU AGAIN, PAT) and drove to Boulder Community Foothills Hospital.

Once at the Hospital, they sent me to the Labor and Delivery area where they checked me and Ash out. They decided that his heartrate looked stable enough to see if he could stay inside a while longer. The next morning, Saturday, they had me start another urine test while I was on bedrest and they monitored Ash's heartrate the whole time.

When the results from the second urine test came back on Sunday, the protein had more than doubled. Although we had REALLY hoped that the bedrest would bring down my pressure and allow Ash to stay inside longer, they made the final decision that it was time for Ash to make an appearance. So, on Sunday night, the started giving me medicine to induce labor...

Monday morning, I had contractions for a few hours. I kept pushing the nurse to turn up the volume on the medicine giving me contractions because I was DETERMINED to have this child on 6/5/06 - not on 6/6/06 which would just stink as a birth date (The Omen...). We were going through contractions until it was noticed that Ash's little heart rate would continuously drop with each one. It was determined that natural childbirth was going to have to be forgotten, and I was prepped for a C-Section. At this point, I think we were both feeling pretty defeated - keeping him in didn't work, natural childbirth didn't work, and now we were going with the 'last resort'. In a way, it was at least a relief to know there wasn't going to be another plan. This was it. We were having a baby today.

Sean snapped a few photos after putting on his very sexy scrubs, and we wheeled off to the operating room to meet the baby and find out if it was a girl or boy!!!

During the procedure, Sean was behind the curtain next to me. It was a very weird feeling to mentally know what was going on, but not being able to feel a darn thing. After what seemed like an eternity and a flash of a second all at once, the doc said, "OK Dad, time to look now". Sean stood up, peeked over the curtain (a vision I'm so glad I don't have in my head!!) and out came the baby! They told us it was a boy. I cried.

Sean will probably have to tell his story about what happened then. I know they took Ash to a little warmer in the corner, and then brought him over to me and set him on my chest. I cried.

All in all, when and how Ash was born was not exactly our 'birth plan'. But I have to say that I'm so thankful for the great pre-natal care at the hospital here, my great team of doctors and nurses that worked with us (and continue to work on little Ash), and Sean. He was cool as a cucumber towards me when I lost my sh** every few hours - I don't know what on earth I would have done had this all happened when he was in Texas!! (Eric, you are so lucky as I'm sure I would have figured out a creative way to blame ya...)

off the beach

the billy rueben (spelling?), jaundice has been stopped by the phototherapy lights. another small step forward.

slowly forward

Ash came into the world at 3 lbs 9 oz. the initial dip to 3 # 5 has been countered to a hefty 3 # 11. little steps.

mom & baby

its a boy

June 5 2006
Little Ash joined the family 6 weeks early. 3 lbs 9 oz and 16 inches long. Mom and baby are doing fine. More info to come.