Happy Due Date, Baby Boy!

My Son, Jimmy,
Today was your Due Date - the day the doctors calculated you should have been born.
But what do they know, anyway?
You are already 11 1/2 weeks old, six and a half pounds, and full of personality. I couldn't imagine having you still inside me!
You are so perfect. The doctors can't find anything wrong with you, or your body. Besides being a a tad immature, you have been protected, nurtured, and grown in God's arms. You are such a testimony of His goodness, His power to answer prayer, and how much He cares about His children. God has used you in so many ways. As you grow I'll tell you all about what God has been doing through you.
I look at your precious eyes, your rose bud lips, your itty bitty toes, and sing His praises in my heart!

Here are some pictures I took of you today. You are so precious and *such* a baby! :)

That's Life, Kiddo

When you're the third kid,
you just gotta squeeze a nap in whenever you can

First walk in the home-made baby wrap
(Devin is more than ready to get movin')

Sleeping right through his big sister's joke

There's always entertainment
(Lions and Tigers and Singing - oh my!)

This life sure is tiring for such adorable itty-bitties! 

Ahhhh --- Home!

All together - Sharing joy, tired grumpies, lots of play time, snuggle time... and.... ahhhhhh moments of delight.

The Boys

Praise the Lord for our amazing, healthy, adorable baby boy! 

Still praying for strength and especially good health during this season of rsv and other sickness that could be dangerous to Jimmy's immature lungs and immune system. If you don't see much of us or the kids in the next couple of months, it's because the doctor has advised we hide away from all those icky germs! I'm terrified of Jimmy being re-hospitalized because of illness, which unfortunately isn't uncommon for preemies. 

And if you do see us, I hope you won't be offended when I ask you to not touch the baby (I know! nearly impossible!), or to wash your hands as soon as we get within arms length of one another. 

I'm trying to not be overly paranoid, but, I'll admit, I'm not trying all that hard ;) 

~Annie

(here's Andrew with the important stats and other stuff. I'm off to dote on the baby...)

Jimmy is up to 5lbs 13oz today at the weigh-in at is first post-hospital dr appointment! We are hoping for between 3/4 and 1 oz weight gain each day.  For those of you who speak metric that is about 21-28 grams/day.  The little guy is mostly just sleeping, then eating, then sleeping, but it is great having him home.  He is still a little reflux-y but normal preemie stuff.  The kids LOVE that Jimmy is home.  K loves to "pet" him and really delights in her little brother.  D is fighting a cold or something right now so please pray it will not spread to us all and especially not Jimmy.

It's TODAY!!

Today is THE day!! Oh Yes it is!

Our little guy put on 75 grams last night! (or perhaps a paci or two made it's way to the scale?? )

We *finally* get to walk through those stinkin' hospital security doors and whisk our baby away from that place. So thankful for all they've done in the last 10 weeks, but it's time to say Goodbye. (Funny, 10 weeks on bed rest, 10 weeks in the hospital...20 weeks can sure feel like an eternity.)

I'm sure there will be lots of pictures to come. ...if I can take my eyes off my precious baby long enough to share them :) 

((( Squeal ))) He's really going to be here in my house, sleeping next to my bed, nursing on my couch, playing on my floor, snuggling with his own big brother and sister! :) :) :)

My, How far we've come......

Just born - on CPap to ease his breathing, IV fluids,
Antibiotics, Feeding tube, lots of monitoring wires

2 pounds 3 ounces

9 1/2 weeks old, 5 lbs 10 ounces!

Let's Win!

**Update**
So, apparently Jimmy felt the pressure of being Biggest Baby 2012 was just too much for him. He still wants to be a little baby, at least for now - He only gained 15 grams - but thank the Lord he didn't lose any weight. The hospital staff really want to see Jimmy go home. He is SO ready! Praying tonight is the night of a good weight gain (and if not, a little birdy told me she'd weigh him with a wet diaper and put a finger on the scale to *ahem* help things along... :)

I'm very hopeful tomorrow (Friday) will be the big day!

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Jimmy gained 20 grams last night. And the Doctor came by to chat today, to see how I felt about where he is at with his eating skills, and to answer any questions I might have. She told me she was happy to see his weight gain last night, and if he is able to gain at least 20 or 25 grams at his weigh-in tonight she'd be comfortable sending him home tomorrow. if he gains less than that she'd want to keep him here for at least one more night of gaining. If he loses weight it'll need to be watched for who knows how long, and at least another two days in a row of gaining.


Whew! Somehow this feels like that weight loss show The Biggest Loser. Only in reverse. (The Biggest Baby?)

"In order for Jimmy to be the Biggest Baby, and be above 'the yellow line' he must gain at least Twent-five grams, and earn 'immunity'.


Then we'll have the chance to vote him right out of the hospital - for the title of 2012's Biggest Baby! He'll win the Grand Prize of one noisy, busy, snuggly, warm house with his very own family at his beck and call! Now let's see if Jimmy has done it.... "

Lets all ask The Lord to help Jimmy gain 30 grams for tonights weigh-in ----

We're ready to WIN! 

Go Jimmy! Go! 

Or, Maybe Not Coming Home. Yet...

Jimmy has lost weight two days in a row, and finally gained some tonight. He's still so sleepy, and is inconsistent in waking to eat. He will only nurse when he's wide awake and active. So we made the difficult decision to focus on bottle feeding for a couple days to see if that helps him take in enough calories to come home so we can *finally* feed him like we want to. (I hate to see bottles shoved in his mouth so he eats in his sleep, but hey, if it's his ticket out we'll do what we have to)

Praying for peace during these days of not knowing if he will come home in two days, or two weeks. Today, if I wasn't running around crazy trying to get things done, (or snuggle my little almost-sick big boy) I was uncontrollably crying my eyes out. The big, deep emotions of this difficult pregnancy, draining hospital stay for me, then for Jimmy, on top of life with two busy kiddos... all those emotions are bubbling to the surface and can't be stifled. The nurse practitioner today was so sweet to talk with me a long time, cry with me, and encourage me. She said our little guy is in the top 1% the babies they see, with how well he's done. God has truly carried him through ever moment of every day since his conception.

I remember, back when I was pregnant and first started to bleed for days on end, and fearing we were losing our child....

I remember choosing to give our son all the love I had to give. To delight in his life, every moment of it, however short it may be. I gave him my heart, my devotion, my never ending motherly love.

Even if I was only able to give him that love in utero, for a few short weeks.  Many times we thought it was the end, nearly time to say goodbye to our boy. And over and over again God breathed life into him. He held my placenta together (just barely) with His hand, and nourished my boy, gave him LIFE... until the exact moment He had planned for him to start his days outside my womb.

Not a moment too soon, nor a moment too late.

God matured his lungs, grew his digestive system, protected the intricate places in his brain, nerves, blood vessels, kidney, heart.... Exactly as He had planned. We gave our whole heart to this tiny boy, cried out to God to protect him from a life-too-short...and that is exactly what He's done.

My some James has my whole heart, even as he sleeps in a crib too far away. God is still protecting him, maturing his body....all for His own Glory. God, truly, is so good to us.

Even when I can't stop crying for all we've lost along the way. I choose to praise His Powerful Name for all He's done for my Jimmy.
...Tears of grief washed away by tears of rejoicing....

Coming Home!

**Update**
The doctor did her rounds this morning while I was here feeding Jimmy. Turns out he lost 15 grams last night. And hospital policy is he must have two nights in a row of gaining weight before discharge.

Hoping Wednesday is the day! For now, I'll be here at the hospital doing whatever Jimmy says we're to do. (Even type my blog updates one-handed while we snuggle :)

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I shouldn't be surprised when God answers our prayers and moves in our life - but He is! And I am!

Jimmy had his NG tube pulled on Sunday morning, a sign that the doctors see how well he's eating, digesting and thriving. (Truly a gift from God!) That's Jimmy's ticket to call the shots on how much he eats and when. So far he loves being the boss and is doing quite well. We just have to pass his car seat test, keep eating well & stooling well, gaining weight...and he gets to come home on TUESDAY!

I'll be spending all day today and tomorrow with him so he can ad lib his nursing. I love those quiet, peaceful moments with my baby. And otherwise I'll be running around crazy getting everything ready! (you'd think after two months we'd have everything ready for his home coming!)

We're oh-so-delighted....and a little anxious.

The time has *finally* come! :) :) :)

8 weeks old & a whole lota nuthin'

I really can't complain.
But you might hear me complaining anyway.
There's been a whole lot of nothing going on at the hospital lately.

I suppose that's a good thing, but I'd really quite like there to be more of something - specifically some champion bottle feeding. But he is progressing some, taking a few more bottles a day than he was last week. We have no idea how much longer he'll be in this stage, it could be one week or it could be three or even four weeks until he's consistently awake enough to eat for every feeding.
He's up to a big 5 lbs 2 ounces! And practically chubby, as you can see! And oh-so-extremely adorable! It's getting harder and harder to say goodbye to this precious face... I'm sure he misses me when I'm gone, and boy is that painful for my mommy heart.

I like to smell one of Jimmy's outfits
while pumping for him.
He has such a sweet baby scent.

He's still anemic and sleepy. But his body is trying to make blood, so hopefully he's reached his low point and will pull out of it on his own soon. He still isn't stooling great, the poor guy. They have started him on a teaspoon of Organic, pulpy pear juice to give him some fiber to move things along. It seems to be helping a little bit. It's hard to see him straining and grunting and uncomfortable so much of the time.

We've been really struggling more recently. The last 8 weeks (9 months?) have really caught up with us. We've long since run out of adrenaline and are now barely running on fumes. Even the kids seem fed up with this craziness... although generally still doing ok. Please pray for us in this regard.
I don't know how long we can keep going like this...