Okay, here's the recap!
He was born July 28th (happy birthday, Zoe!) at 22:11, which was 33 1/2 weeks for those of you counting. (His due date was Sept 9 -- happy birthday Schmop!). He was 17 inches long and 4 pounds 2.5 oz.
He was rushed to the NICU while Grace recovered, and was put in an isolette and stuck with many sharp things. Poor guy.
They told us in NICU Orientation that all the babies have ankle monitors, Lindsay Lohan-style, so an alarm goes off if someone tries to steal them. I can totally see some mom in a wild moment of panic grabbing her baby and heading for the hills. I can understand the impulse -- doesn't he look sad in there?? Grace kept wanting to jailbreak him. But then he couldn't breathe, which would be awkward. So she elected to keep him there.
Grace was in the hospital until Tuesday
And is now home and healing up just fine. (We just keep calling her Lady Gaga because she's incapable of wearing pants (because of the incision)) Unfortunately we had movers come on Monday... so she came home to a bit of a mess.
That is an understatement.
I'll have you know Kathy Spencer and I shoulder dollied those things all by ourselves.
(This is Gracie's Amelie face.)
Meanwhile, JD kept getting better and better. Initially he had a feeding tube and was only getting very tiny amounts (like 3 ccs of milk a day) to see if his little tummy could handle food, he had a thing in his lungs to hold them open while they formed, he was on oxygen, and he was jaundiced so they had to put a billy light on him that also meant he had to have a blindfold, plus the normal IV drips, heart monitors, thermometer, etc. Basically all you could see was his little back and chest breathing.
First he started keeping down his food and getting more and more of it. They even started to let Mama and Daddy hold him for a few minutes.
After he got out from the billy light they let Auntie Claire hold him too.
Cute family.
For those medically-minded among you (or those of you who want to compare/contrast to their own preemies), and because people keep asking questions I don't know the answer to (what the crap's an Apgar?) here's a snapshot of his Kardex. (HIPAA violation??) (JD says it's okay)
More later! Maybe even LIVE VIDEO of him hiccupping. Y'all. Most adorable thing ever. It's kicks Sneezing Baby Panda's ass. Just sayin.
Quel adorable!