Some hopeful news

They think that Zach could be coming home in as little as 4 days. He's feeding fairly well but still struggling just a bit with the oxygen. He just sleeps so soundly that he isn't breathing very deeply.
Olivia went to daycare today and Elena and I went to the hospital. We went to Salad Brothers for lunch. Thats about my favorite place to eat lunch in Rochester. You walk in and they have the menu that changes daily in colored chalk. Today I had a baked potato with salsa and cottage cheese. They have these complimentary golf ball to tennis ball sized bread rolls that are awsome. I usually have some sort of sandwich like a hot ham and cheese. Elena had some sort of casarole dish. They also have lots of soups. I had a cheese soup.
Nothing like trying the NYT crossword to crush a guy's ego. Back to the local paper. I hate those name ones (some poem author, conceptualist painter or polka revolutionary) or the long lame quotes.

Past two days

No post yesterday. Was busy burnin my irises playing warcraft. No real news from Zach. He just kinda lays about the place. He eats quite a bit and gets cranky when hungry. He'll just belt out some newborn cries. He's still a bit goofy on the oxygen levels. Every once in a while he will get so involved in what he's doing and forget to breath.

I used the last of my change to buy a newspaper today from one of those vending machines. I walked up to the hospital room and yea, it was exactly like the one I had read yesterday. So I took the elevator to the snack vending machines where there was a change machine. Then took the elevator back up to the first floor to go outside to another vending machine and get one.

I was mostly right about the football. Just didn't see the Pats blowing out the Steelers. Oh well. I don't see the Eagles doing much against them though. 27-10 Pats.

Olivia got a new bed today and she is oh so proud of it. Its a toddler bed and she can climb on and off. We picked it up at Toys-R-Us. They also had a bunch of games and I picked up the retro game set with Galaxian, Pac-Man, Dig-Dug, a car game and another space game.

There are certain padded wooden rocking chairs that are just the best. They rock like regular and if you lean way back it has a separate balance that just holds you leaning back thus enabling the user to stay reclined while reading yesterday's newspaper. Anywho, when we went to St. Mary's I was excited about using them again but alas I couldn't find any. And I looked. But today, oh yea, I found one and dragged it straight into Zach's room.

Olivia just decided that the jeans I am wearing are boring and needed to be spruced up with brown sharpie.

Football

Well, I'm thinking Philly finally wins the NFC over Atlanta by around 2 TD's. I think they'll shut down Mike Vick and Warrick Dunn. The Pats over the Steelers on a Vinatieri last second field goal.

Elena is at the NICU leaving Livvi and I to watch football. Actually, Olivia is getting really sick of the hospital. So we're going over in shifts to see Zach.

Today's Visit

We went to see Zach around noon. He's doing well in his private room. Just needs a bit of oxygen.
I kangaroo'ed him for a bit but he didn't sleep much, just wanted to stare around.



Olivia riding Will the Cart

Carpet for the basement

Elena went in to see Zach and saw that he was moved up to the feeder/grower room so that is an improvement. He's doing good still. No new news.
Dad came up and we worked on carpeting the basement. It was a big project for us. One big honkin roll of stuff. We finished it up except for some little stuff. It snowed quite a bit here and Dad needed to get home. It looks really good. Olivia approved it. There isn't anything except a few things in there so she can run around the big room.
I shoveled a lot of snow. It started noonish and still hasn't stopped.
No pictures today, sorry.

Iowa loses to Illinois in OT

The #24 Hawkeyes traveled to face the #1 ranked Illini this evening and took them to OT and lost by 4. Man it was so close.
Did some more painting downstairs. Its turning out nice I think. Olivia had a blast with a plastic ball bouncing off the hard flooring. She and I would throw it and it would bounce around and she'd just giggle and laugh.
Zach wasn't up for much today. We went in and he was kinda sleepy. He's eating quite a bit. Its just crazy how much volume they pump into his stomach. He gets kinda crabby when he's hungry too. He'll let you know. Olivia was very happy to see the baby and she got to touch him for the first time. She was very gentle and brushed his legs and arms.
It is just past 10 and I'm tired.

Painting the basement

Woke up this morning and went downstairs and painted the walls in our basement. A nice yellow color. Didn't take very long but I need to put on another coat later. We went to the hospital and Zach was sleeping. We both held him for a while and he woke up some and looked around. He became very upset with us for taking his picture with flash. His eyes would cross and then close and he would just be beside himself. I changed his diaper for the first time today. It really wasn't as much fun as you would think. Kinda smelly. We didn't take a photo.
We had a little dose of reality yesterday. In the NICU there is a main room where most of the babies are kept on their tables and there are two little rooms with glass doors and walls. These two rooms were being used by some twins when Zach was first brought in. We went to the hospital and noticed that the rooms were unoccupied. I started going over the local paper and read their obituary.
Elena told me that they were 12 days old and she had seen some professional photographers and lots of family there the day before but she didn't know how serious they were.
There is a child in there who is 16 weeks old. Imagine going to the hospital every day for 4 months.
On a brighter note, the neonatologist told us that there was nothing medically holding Zach from coming home. He just needs to learn how to eat. Probably another 3 weeks.
Olivia can climb out of her crib.

Not much happened today

We went to see Zach around 2:30 and he was in his plastic box. They were pumping just a little bit of oxygen for him. Olivia showed off what being a two year old is all about. He just wanted to sleep today except when we were about to leave then he perked up and was all about looking around.

Olivia was really goofy with a full length mirror at the hospital. She would laugh at the funny girl in there and then look beside it and just be still. She would stay there until she couldn't take it anymore and she'd look in the mirror and just crack herself up. She waved her hands and made small gesture and had a great time as that funny girl copied her. Of all the times to forget the video camera.

Internet problems

I sit down at the computer. I press the Mozilla icon. No connection. Doh. What did I do? I had messed with some stuff earlier in the day dealing with cookies and tracking software and thought that maybe one of those had corrupted my connection and when I removed it, it made it impossible for the computer to see the modem. This has happened before and I've been able to fix them with only a little bit of pain but this one was not good. I changed settings. I backdated the spyware finders. I backdated to earlier restore points. It was getting late or early as it were. I gave up and called for help. Charter Communications had a recorded message that they were experiencing dificulties with the internet in the whole state of Minnesota. Well, isn't that swell. Time to hit the sack and hope that Olivia sleeps in some.
I cross my fingers and turn on the computer. Connection. Sweet.
Yesterday we dropped Olivia off at daycare and headed over to Menards to pick up some stuff. We bought some paint for the wainscoating in the basement, some drain pipe for a leaky sink, and some carpet tape. We also bought #50 of End-Ice and I used the whole bag on our driveway and I don't know that it did much to the mounds of ice there.
We went to the hospital and talked with the doctors. They say he's doing ok but needs to keep working on his breathing. He eats a lot too. They pump a lot of milk into his stomach and he seems to enjoy it.
Elena and I went to Salad Brothers for lunch and I had a baked potato with salsa and cottage cheese with chives. Mmm.
We go back and kangaroo him for a few hours and he seems to enjoy that. When we put him down he gets all agitated and not happy with the nurse for doing cares.
We pick up Olivia and she helps me under the sink and we re-do the drain. I had just purchased some new hacksaw blades and man that made the job a lot easier and quicker. I wanted to put masking tape in the basement for painting but a show on the French Revolution came on that I wanted to watch so Livi and I watched that while Elena went back to the hospital.

Vikings lose

We tried to sleep in this morning and made it to about 9 so that was kinda nice. We bummed most of the morning and made it over to the hospital around one. Zach was looking good. He just had his cares done and was a bit worked up that the nurse was touching him and in general bothering him. He settled down and Elena kangaroo cared him for around an hour. He really liked that. His eyes opened up and he just looked around.
Olivia and I spent most of the time in the waiting room. We watched the viking lose to the eagles. Not so good. I dunno, they seemed to be in it but they'd mess up with a pick or questionable play calling. Oh well, maybe next year.
Elena made another trip over to the NICU tonight. Zach has gone through all the milk left for him and we needed to make another run. So Livi and I watched some TV. Iron Chef America was on and Bobby Flay won by a point. Then there was a bartender competition. That was pretty amazing with all the bottle flipping and juggling. They put Tom Cruise to shame. The winner would juggle 4 bottles with another one balanced on his forehead. They'd also flip the bottles to rest on those steel glasses or the backs of their hands.


Obligatory ring in hand photo.

Grandparents come up

Grandpa and Grandma Watson came up this morning to visit. We sat around the house for a while and watched TV. There was a high school football game on of all the top recruits. Iowa has a lot of good ones. One of the best classes we've ever had.
We went over to St. Mary's and saw Zach. He still is strugling to breath sometimes so he has room air pushed into his nostrils. The nurse told us that he really liked to lay on his belly today and was fussy at her when she put him on his back. Elena got to hold him for a long time and we stayed about three hours.

Eventful day

Olivia and I left for work and daycare around 6:30 this morning and I put in a good 6 hours of labor before heading off for a two week stint of FMLA. I left work around one and headed home for some mandarin oranges. Mmm. Elena was getting ready to head out for the hospital so I just got a brief rest in and we went off to the hospital. Olivia stayed at daycare until 5 so it was just the two of us. We had a nice time with Zach. He was under the bili (only 1 L in bili) lights and had C-PAP (?) tubes in his nose to assist breathing. For the most part he just rested there but he would wave his arms or legs from time to time. He also will suck on his feeding tube and it will make bubbles all around his mouth. He is a little over and ounce under his birth weight so that is good. He'll make up the difference quickly now that he's being fed more. We went to the visitor cafeteria for a break and had deli sandwiches. I purchased a USA Today while in line but unfortunatly as we were sitting down I saw a local paper vending maching right there so that bummed me a bit.

We picked up Olivia and headed home. Some friends called and said that they were coming up to say hi. Ben, Steph and Janet came up from Decorah and AJ and Linda came up from Strawberry Point. Paul came too. We went to the Olive Garden. Olivia showed her true colors there. She just couldn't figure out what she wanted or whether she was in a good or bad mood. She fell off her booster seat while chewing food and it looked as if she lost some teeth. All I could think about was how I did not want to go to the emergency room. We cleaned her up and didn't see any blood so that was a major relief.

We all went to see Zach then and had a nice time. We didn't stay very long in that it was late and those guys needed to drive home. Zach impressed them with his cuteness and a good time was had by all.


Our first family photo.






The last two are Olivia standing on her little keyboard. I just can't believe her balance and fearlessness.

Elena comes home

I got a call at work that they were going to let Elena go home. I think thats cool. She went over to St. Mary's and spent a good amount of the day with Zach. She got to hold him for a while and they had a nice time. He's breathing better and was on just room air by the end of the day. Meaning they shot room air down the breathing tube and he did ok, then they extubated him and he still was doing ok.
We're still looking at 2-3 weeks though.
There is another young guy that I work with had a kid yesterday that they named Zachary too. They had to induce her because she wouldn't pop on her own.

Trip over to St. Mary's

Olivia woke me up quite a bit last night. She isn't feeling the best and with Mommy in the hospital thats causing a lot of stress with the both of us. We're not so good with all the car rides and getting in and out of the car seat. She's holding up fairly well though. She likes to push the elevator buttons and the big square ones to open the handicap doors. She'll run up to them get so excited.
Elena, Olivia and I went over to see Zach around 5 tonight. He's looking good. He has a ventilator to regulate his breathing and the billi (?) lights on him to help with the jaundice. Shiela was his nurse today and she seemed nice enough. We talked about Olivia being in there two years ago but she didn't remember her and I didn't remember Shiela. A lot of the nurses that helped Olivia are still working there and hopefully we'll get to meet up with them again.




Just a few minutes old here



Mom and Zach meet for the first time about an hour after delivery

St. Mary's

This morning at work Elena called me and told me that he was sent over to St. Mary's while she was sleeping. Apparently his breathing wasn't getting easier and he needs to be intubated. This really upset Elena because he was on a TV monitor and she could watch him and then he wasn't there. And that she may have been able to be strong enough to go up and see him. It would have been just going up one floor. Now he is across town and she'll need a nurse and transportation to get over there on someone else's terms. This is not the best of days.
Frank let me go a bit early today so I'm enjoying a nice lunch by myself before going to the hospital. I had a bowl of golden grahams, a couple slices of lefse and a mug of hot chocolate.

Birthday

Just before 8 pm tonight Zachary Alex was born via c-section. He weighed in at a hearty 4 lbs 8 oz and is 17" long. He has a mighty cry as he came out and seems to be well on his way in life. His lungs are underdeveloped so they're watching that. He's been breathing well with a oxygen mask nearby blowing in at 40%.

Elena is doing well. She is sore but a lot happier with this surgery than the last one. This one was fairly organized and people were ready to go and the experts were in the room.

We don't know yet if Zach will go across town to St. Mary's because of the breathing but we'll find out tomorrow. If he goes over there Elena will have to stay in Methodist so thats not so good.

Its all just been harrowing around here and him being born, even early, has been a bit of a relief. We've been in and out of the hospitals and its just been not easy.

The next phone call

OK, Elena just called and said that they are booked for deliveries tomorrow so today is the day.
About 3 pm they're going to operate and we're going to meet little Zach for the first time. I told Olivia that she was going to be a big sister but she didn't seem that interested. She just wanted to eat her apple. Then spit it on the floor. sheesh

OK, I'm off to the hospital. Here goes nothing.

The phone call

Olivia and I are sitting around waiting to go to work and daycare when Elena calls me from the hospital. I just got off the phone with her. She tells me that the tests came back and that they are going to deliver tomorrow. They don't know what time and she'll let me know. I have the day off tomorrow so thats a good thing for scheduling.

Had to take a break there. Oliva just overturned the dogs food dish and wouldn't help clean it up.

Its looking fairly good. As well as can be expected. He should be able to stay in the Methodist Hospital but if his lungs don't keep up he'll be sent over to St. Mary's and that is what we don't want. But if he goes over it won't be for as long as Olivia.

First Post

Here we are with a weblog for my little boy still not quite born yet. Just getting this started.