Mystery Shower Gift - Itzbeen

So, the following shower gift came via the mail from Target, but it did not say who had sent it. We use it all of the time, but want to know who to thank! If you sent the Itzbeen, please let us know since Target won't tell us... :-)

Update from home

Sebastian has now been home for a week and it is so nice to just be home. He has had some good nights and some not so good nights, but all is as expected with a newborn. It's hard to believe that it was 4 weeks ago today that our journey into sudden parenthood started. It's hard to believe that Sebastian is already 4 weeks old. Time has gone by so fast and yet so slow at the same time. We had some pictures taken on Monday by our good friend and amazingly talented photographer, Danica Cooper. Since we can't go to public places with Sebastian yet, Danica came to our house to take some pics. Here are some of our favorites:

Swing Rides

Sebastian has discovered the swing... they used a swing one night at the hospital when he was fussy and wanting to be held, but that was the only other time that he had been in a swing. We have 2 swings at home, one for upstairs (aka: middle of the night swing) and one for downstairs (aka: I need to cook swing). We weren't sure how he was going to like the swing since he hadn't really used one with us before. This morning we thought we'd give it a try. I needed to get dinner started in the slow-cooker, and Mark was getting ready to head out for a flight. So, we got the swing out and set-up, and Sebastian loved it. For the first 15 minutes or so, he was looking around at everything with a big smile, then he proceeded to fall fast asleep. Now, granted, he only takes up 1/2 of the swing and we have to fill the rest with receiving blankets, it just makes it extra cozy for him. Here are some pics of his first swing ride at home:

Home Sweet Home

So, now that we are home everyone has been wondering how Sebastian has been doing. He has been great! Our first night home we wanted to stay up late and be held until the wee hours of the morning, but wasn't fussy, just wanted to be held. He slept the rest of the night and all morning after that to make up for it though. He slept all night last night with the exception of waking up to feed and proceeding to go right back to sleep afterwards. Can't complain with that for his second night home. He also has periods of being awake during the day in which he is alert and happy, but we haven't really had times in which he is fussy (unless we are dressing him or changing his diaper).

He's been having fun checking out all of his new toys that he didn't have at the hospital too. We are enjoying being able to pick him up and hold him without the hospital leads being plugged into the monitors. He had his first bath at home last night and did really well with it. We were bracing ourselves for the bloody murders screams, but they never happened.

It has been great having him home as well as my parents here the past couple of days. This weekend we will be on our own outside of visitors, so we will see how that goes :-) Sebastian can have visitors, just not too many any one time, no one with a cough/cold/etc, and be prepared to wash your hands plenty :-)

Here are some pics from him being home:

Bath Time

Playing with Daddy

Sleeping :-)

Sebastian is home!!

We wanted to thank everyone for the thoughts and prayers over this last couple of weeks! We have now luckily closed one chapter of this journey and are beginning a new journey, one with less hospital visits!!!

I couldn't wait to get to the hospital this morning to find out how last night went, so I called first thing to check-in. All of the nurses know us so well now, they knew exactly why I was calling :-) They let me know that he had a great night and the doctor was working up all of the final discharge itemss as we spoke. When we arrived at the hospital after Mark was done with work at 10:15am, they had everything all ready for us. We went over all of the discharge items over the next 90 minutes and gave him his last meal in a hospital. And off to home we went :-) Here are some pics from today and the past couple of days.

Another Good Night...

Well, Sebastian had another great night last night. If he keeps this up, we will only have two more nights in the hospital. We thought tomorrow would be our last day, but the last Brady that he had was actually at 1am on Friday morning, rather than Thursday night, which moves us from a Tuesday discharge goal to Wednesday. It's a bummer, but what is one more night at this point in time. I can tell you that Mark and I probably won't be sleeping well the these two nights though since we have been close to discharge before. Time for lots of prayers that he is over these Bradycardia episodes!!! Other than that, he is sleeping well (starting to get his days and nights straightened out some), eating really well and still charming all of the nurses. He very rarely cries, usually only when we are changing his diaper or when he is hungry. He has been very easy to soothe as well, so we are hoping that this will continue at home. The nurses tell us it will and that he would have shown his "true colors" by now if he was going to be much different, espcecially since we are at the hospital most of the day every day.

So, here is to the next two nights!!!

Here are some recent pics of the little guy, hope you enjoy!!

New Nicknames

So, since I posted the other day on what we were planning on calling Sebastian for a nickname/short name, we have had different people letting us know what they have been calling him as well. Now that the nurses know about Ian, the ones that we are close with are all calling him Ian; His Grandpa Jim is calling him Seby; his Grandpa Bob is calling him Sebas (See-Bass) as is his Aunt Cheri & Kate; and we are still calling him Sebastian until he get's his little bootie home :-) We'll see what other nicknames pop up as he gets a little older. If anyone has any other nicknames that they are using for Sebastian, let us know as we are keeping it all to go in his baby book.

Good Night :-)

So, we had a good night last night! If he keeps this up we should probably be able to come home on Tuesday. At least that is our hope... His weight is going up everyday. Yesterday he returned to his birth weight, and today the chow-hound hit 5 lbs! His lowest weight here in the hospital was 4 lbs 4 oz, and he has been steadily putting on weight over the past 10 days. I know it doesn't sound like much but he just looks so much bigger and older than he did 2 weeks ago.

Yesterday we started bringing in some of his clothes from home to try to entice him to get on the road to discharge and to get him out of the hospital clothes. The preemie outfits fit him perfectly, some are a little big and some are a little small, but only becuase he is longer than most preemies. He just swims in the newborn outfits though. Here are some pics that you may enjoy with him in his frogger suit... These are for Grandma Cate and Aunt Cristin :-)

Discharge... not quite yet

So, yesterday, in my conversations with the doctor we aere looking at a Sunday discharge goal. Then, last night the little stinker had another Brady and the discharge count rolls back to zero. On one hand its better for him to have them here at the hospital since we know that they are happening, but on the other hand we want this ordeal overwith and him home. Many babies, and most preemies, have these Brady incidents but since they are not hooked up to a monitor 24/7, we never know about them. But to be on the safe side, since we do know about them, we (and teh doctors) want them all resolved before he comes home so we don't wake up to our worst nightmare one morning. All of his have been self-recovered which is really good, and they all have been a evry short duration (that really only a monitor could pick up), but with babies, especially preemies, they want to be extra cautious so Mark and I have to be extra patient... Not a strong suit for us, but I guess welcome to parenthood... Some babies have Bradys that need intervention and they would have to go even longer in the hospital without an incident in order to be able to be discharged, so at least all of Sebastian's incidents have been self-recovered, and quickly at that.

The nurses here at the NICU are phenomenal!! It's like we have an extended famioy and support group while here. I don't know how I would get through each day without them This morning they asked me what nickname Mark and I were planning on for the little guy since Sebastian is long. I realized that we haven't told many people what his "short" name will be... so, we are planning on calling him Ian for short. If you are wondering where that is coming from, look really closely at the spelling of Sebastian and you should be able to get it :-) But... until he gets home from the hospital, he will be Sebastian. His daddy is going to have a stern discussion with him this evening before we leave regarding the Bradys and the fact that he needs to stop having them. We have told him how much more comfy it is at home, but he is just a little immature at this point and needs a little more time before coming home.

So, that's the latest here. Just taking it one day at a time. Depending on what time we get home tonight, I will try to put up some new pics, if not tonight then tomorrow morning.

But here is one piece of new news, he is back up over his birth weight as of today. Today he is 4 lbs. 13.2 oz. A whole .2 oz over his birth weight... woohoo!! We are on our way!

Thursday Update

So, the little guy is not a day eater. He chugs his food down in the evenings, overnight and mornings, but during the day it can be hard to get hime to eat the full feeding... We are just telling ourselves that it's becuase he's full (not a huge fan of burping yet and has had a couple blowouts - all contained by the diaper... luckily) and not a fan of feeding on someone elses schedules (the hospital has him eating every 3 hours rather when he is hungry. Also, all nitgh long he has the professional feeders (aka: nurse) feeding him so well all night long. When I am able to be here early or later into the evening he does fine, but the 11am and 2pm feedings here, those are just painful... We are lucky to get through 50ml in 30 minutes. But, once we get him home he can eat when he's hungry rather than on a schedule and the nurses are telling me that he will eat much more consistently once home.

We are hoping (crossing our fingers, praying, doing all we can) that he can come home this weekend. He just needs to not have any brady (bradycardia incidents) between now and then and we are home free. We'll see what the doctor has to say tomorrow...

Anyways, here are some pics of Sebastian enjoying his favorite activities... sleeping & eating (when he's in the mood and not full).

Not quite so fast...

So, we thought we were being discharged on Monday, but as you may have read, that wasn't the case. Sebastian had two Bradys overnight on Sunday. They were all incredibly fast and self-recovered (all of his have been), but still, it was a sign that his nervous system isn't quite there yet. So, this morning I got to the hospital really early to talk to the doctor before he was set to be in meetings all day. I was going to talk to him about the discharge plans since he seemed to have turned the corner from Sunday/Monday. So, what happens... he had a Brady last night. There goes that conversation... It was such a fast Brady that he had self-recovered back to baseline before the nurse could turn around, but still it happened and the monitor registered it. Now we are praying that it was the last one and that we will be able to go home sometime this weekend. This has been a roller coaster of a couple of weeks, and it takes its toll on us big time, both emotionally and physically (not to mention trying to recover from the C-section). Anyways, that is the latest here... just praying that we are over the worst!

Bummer... :-(

Well... the little stinker decided to have a BRADY overnight and one this morning around 8am (info about Bradycardia - http://preemies.about.com/od/preemiehealthproblems/f/AsandBs.htm). A Bradycardia incident is called a BRADY. That was exactly what had to happen for him to not be discharged today. It looks like it will be more like Wednesday - Friday of this week, and perhaps over the weekend. So, this morning, Mark and I got the diaper bag packed, outfits picked out, and off we went to the hospital. We knew that there was a chance that he could be staying at the hospital, but we were being optimistic. When we walked into the hospital and found out we were bummed, but we knew that if he was still having BRADYs, we want him to have them at the hospital and not at home. He self-recovers from the BRADY, but it's still the fact that they are happening.

Other than that he is doing great. He is feeding amazingly. He is doing both bottle and breastfeeding, and seems to have no issues doing them interchangeably and during the same feeding.

Here are some pics from over the weekend and today.

Sleeping in mom's arms

Looking out at the world

Bath time with Dad

His open air crib

Chilling in his open air crib

Weigh-in

What a weekend!!

On Saturday we had the baby shower at our house and it was great! Thank you to everyone for coming and for everything that you gave us for Sebastian. I still can't believe the amount of artistic talent that we had in the room. From the photography genius of Erica & Danica, and Erica's incredibly creative shower games, to the amazing quilting and cross-stitching of Cam Harder, Charlotte Zehner & Auntie Laurie. Wow! It was impressive. Pictures from the shower will be coming soon.

On Sunday morning Mark and I headed over to Target to finish up picking up the essentials of what we would need to bring the little guy home sometime this week. Let's just say that we had such a bad experience at the Target, that we might not ever being going back to a Target... So... off to the hospital we go to spend time with Sebastian (we could have spent an additional two hours with him if it weren't for Target... still a little (or a lot) peeved at them...).

When we got to the hospital, the first thing we heard about was how fast Aunt Lori's (Wolfe) salsa was devoured. Aunt Lori used to work with some of the NICU Doctors when she was a respitory therapist down at Sutter Memorial Hospital. So when she came to visit last Thursday she saw some of them and told them she would bring in more of her famous salsa. They loved it, and the nurses did too...

We were told that we could expect to bring him home this coming Wednesday to Friday. But yesterday Dr. Wertz told us there was a very large possibility that we could br bringing him home today... AAHHHH!!! Great news but a little overwhelming for mom & dad. So... yesterday evening off to Babies R Us and Walmart we go to get the essentials, and then home with Grandma Jaxine & Grandpa Bob to put everything away from the shower and shopping trips, laundry, assembly of gifts, etc. It was a very busy night and m,y stomach is definitely feeling it this morning, but it is all worth it.

So, we are about to head off to the hospital again today where we will find out if he is coming home today or tomorrow. We will post tonight and let everyone know (and I will try to put some pics form the weekend up). But here is one to leave you with of him taking a bottle from Dad :-)

WooHoo!!

Sebastian was able to take a whole bottle yesterday for me! He had done it a couple of times for the night nurses and got really close with the day nurses but hadn't really come close for mom & dad. He would just tucker out after about 15-20ml and then they would have to give the rest to him through his gavage (feeding tube). But yesterday we got closer and closer for mom & dad, and then at the 5:00pm feeding, wha la! He took 41 out of 45ml and he only needs to take 40ml. Everyone said we were doing everything right, but after a little bit you start to doubt yourself. So, yesterday was redemption!  Hopefully he did well over night and they will be able to take his gavage out. If that's the case, we are on the path towards discharge. He also gained weight the past 2 days, so, here's hoping that when we get in there this morning he gained weight again. We need 48 hours of consistent weight gain and taking everything from the bottle...

We have the baby shower this afternoon and then we will be back over at the hospital afterwards. If he took all of his night feedings by bottle and gained weight, mommy is going to be very happy and excited at the shower :-)

Anyways, here are some of the pics from yesterday. Tomorrow or later tonight I will post pics from today at the hospital and the shower.

Origin of a name

Many people have asked us how we came up with Sebastian for the little guy. Well, while we were living in Washington D.C., we were talking about different names one evening. Mark said he always liked the name Sebastian and asked what I thought. At first I thought, "Where did that come from, that's a random name..." I told him I wasn't sure on Sebastian. Then, over the next couple of days I found myself thinking about the name. 2 days later I told Mark that the name actaully grew on me and now I really liked it. So, Sebastian became a front-runner. We knew we really didn't want to use any family names, we have way to large of a family and would have to have way too many kids in order to be able to cover all of the bases, so we were able to focus on non-family names, at least for a first name. I have always loved the name Michael, and I have a very dear friend who has always had an inner strength and faith that I have admired. He hasn't had the easiest life, but he is never afraid to pave his own path and to make the decision to go down the road less travelled. So, Sebastian Michael came into play. Sebastian means "the revered one" and Michael means "one of God". We loved the town of those meanings put together. Not too mention Mark did the "yell" test. He stood downstairs and yelled Sebastian Michael upstairs, and boy is that a good name to draw out to let him know when he has got himself in trouble :-).

We are starting to feed :)

Well, Sebastian is starting to get the bottle down, for a couple seconds at a time anyways. We need to work on his stamina. Once he is able to take all of his feedings from the bottle, and able to finish them in a reasonable amount of time, we will be closer to reaching the next milestone towards discharge. We are keeping on working on breastfeeding, but he is so young, the docs and lactation consultants say it could be a month or so, perhaps longer, before he gets the hang of that. In the mean time, my pump and I are becoming best of friends. It's amazing how fast the day goes by when they are broken up into 2 hour increments. Last night I found this article online about trying to breastfeed a preemie and wow... did the author capture the feelings, frustration and hopes of a new mother of a preemie. (Here's the link to the article: http://www.breastfeed.com/articles/preemies-multiples-and-adoption/breastfeeding-a-preemie-2636/)

Anyways, he is doing well we just need to keep working on feeding so we can all come home together. The less nights we have to leave him and come home alone the better!! No pics today, we were really bad taking pictures yesterday. We will be better today, we promise. Once Mark puts together the slide show for tomorrow's shower, we will see if there is a way that we can post it online for all of those out of town to see. Thank you for all of your support! We appreciate it more than you know!!

Better & Better

Sebastian is getting stronger every day! It is incredible to witness. He is now off of all of the machines and monitors except the respitory rate & heart rate monitors. But he ill be on those up until he is discharged. They took him off of the phototherapy on Tuesday and yesterday he was able to come off of the billiblanket for his jaundice. They need to continue to monitor his billiruben (sp???) levels, but they think that he now has it under control. We hope so!

He still has the feeding tube, and will continue to have that until he completely figures out the whole eating thing. He is trying though, and with each feeding he is getting a little better. They tell me to just have patience and that I am doing everything right, but it sure is hard to keep trying without a ton of progress being seen. Appartently the whole suckling instinct doesn't normally form until 37 weeks and since he isn't even at 36 weeks, the fact that he is doing little bits here and there is a good sign. We are just anxious to be able to have hime home so that mom & dad don;t have to go through the heart-wrenching process of leaving him every night. We are still hoping to be able to bring him home next week, so cross your fingers and say a prayer for us.

Now that he is off of the machines, we can actually hold him. And now that he has a taste of what it is like to be held, he doesn't really like being put down. He doesn't normally fuss when we put him down but he has a hilarious grimace each time he is laid back in his crib. And since we weren't able to hold him for so long, all we want to do now is hold him. Which is what I spend my days doing now. And the reason there was no blog post yesterday :-) I brought my computer thinking, I'd post something throughout the day, but with him in my arms I never got there... Anyways, here are some of the latest pics from the last 2 days.

The grimace...

On Tuesday, I went to the doc for one of my follow-ups and when I arrived back at the hospital, this was the first thing I saw. Melted my heart!

We are bringing our video camera today, so hopefully we will be able to get some of his funny faces and noises on film and be able to post that. More to come...