Yup...He's a Richards!

Need I Say More?

2 Weeks Old

William turned 2 weeks old on Sunday. In his two weeks, William has learned:

• To scream hysterically when getting his diaper changed, especially when we are fastening up the new diaper.
  
• That he enjoys being wide awake anywhere from 3-5 hours at a time, leaving his parents (mom) worried that he's not getting enough sleep. Mom and Dad are thankful that he's not crying while he's awake, but they do wonder what it will take to get this little guy to sleep.
  

Doing Well

We've been at home for four days now and we are settling nicely. William is a very good baby so far (let's keep our fingers crossed). He rarely cries and when he does, he calms very quickly. We feel pretty fortunate. William finally learned to breastfeed on Saturday, so feedings are far less stressful now. Today Marc started going to work half days and Will and I did just fine on our own. We are thankful to all of the people who have brought us meals...its nice not to worry about what's for dinner. Here are some of the latest photos.

We Are At Home!

After 5 days, they finally let us go. We arrived home around 1:00 this afternoon. William has been sleeping since we arrived and we took the first quiet minutes at home to put away our things and get organized before the mayhem begins.

Not Yet...

Dr. Lee met with us this morning and William is doing perfectly fine health wise. The problem is that he is just not eating enough. Right now it is a struggle to keep him awake to eat 45mL of formula/breastmilk from a bottle. He should be eating 60mL (minimally) per feeding. So...she would like us to stick around until we are succesful at getting him to eat. We asked if she thought that there might be a neurological reason why he gets sooo sleepy and lazy when it comes time to eat and she assured us that this wasn't the case. He is just a lazy eater. Like everything else with this guy, he will probably turn it around, but on his own time.

The good news is that he is completely off all his monitors and gets to room in with us from now on. So, we get to have him by ourselves and hang out with him all day privately, just in a little cubicle of a room instead of our own house. While we wish we were home, it has been sort of nice to have a team of nurses who we can turn to with any questions. We know that we are putting a diaper on and burping correctly, we know that the little noises that a newborn makes aren't anything to worry about, etc. In a way its been nice to have been "eased" into parenthood with the help of the nurses.

Lets hope that Little Will decides he likes food today. We keep telling him that there's no way he can be ours if he doesn't like to eat! :-)

Coming Home Soon!

The doctors are pleased with William's progress thus far. This morning his bloodwork showed that his sodium is normal and his bilirubin is still low. We have made some progress breastfeeding, but it seems that William has a weak tongue (according to a lactation consultant). We are pumping what we can and supplementing with formula. We were hesitant to supplement, but the nurses reminded us that we have to look at it as though it is medicine. In order for William to stay off of the IV (which he as been for most of the day) he needs to be eating a certain amount every three hours. Tomorrow we will work with the lactation consultant some more and do our best to get him to latch on for a prolonged period of time. A room opened up for us today, so we are able to spend the night at the hospital until he comes home. They are hopeful that we may all be able to go home tomorrow, but it all depends on his bloodwork tomorrow morning. We'll let you know!

Not Coming Home Yet

I am being discharged today, but William will not be. Unfortunately, they are out of guest rooms for NICU parents, so we will be staying at home without him at night. We only live a few minutes away, so its not too terrible.

We just spoke with Dr. Lee, the pediatrician, and they are going to keep him today and most likely tomorrow. She is fairly certain that the hole in his lung has healed, but they are going to do an xray today to verify that. In checking his blood, they have found that his sodium is low and they don't really know why. They are going to put more sodium in his IV to see if that helps. If they can't get that under control, they might have to send him to Tacoma General. Dr. Lee doesn't think that will have to happen, but she wanted us to be aware that it is a small possibility so that we are not caught off guard if it does. The biggest thing we have to tackle before going home is his feeding. William has not taken to breastfeeding well at all, but they are not ready to give up on that and switch to formula just yet. He is not a very coordinated sucker/swallower, but she said that this sometimes happens to babies that have disorganized and stressful births. My milk has not yet come in (hopefully it will by tomorrow) and perhaps feeding will get easier for him once there is more for him to get. If my milk doesn't come in by tomorrow, or he begins losing weight, we will start him on formula. There is no way to really tell when he will get to go home, we just have to take it day by day and see how he does.

That's the lastest info on our little guy. We are very taken with him, but obviously this is all a bit worrisome.

I've Woken Up!

After spending most of his birthday snoozing, William was finally awake some today. We took these lovely photos after they took him off of oxygen. He looks much better without those tubes!

William Jacob Daily

William was born at 7:31 am on Sunday, January 7th. He weighed 7lbs, 4oz and was 20.5 inches long. They are slowly weaning him off of oxygen and I was able to start breastfeeding him. He is doing very well and we are eager for you to meet him!

Woo hoo! Today was my last appointment!

Well, we had our last trip to the OB's office today. I am so glad that I will no longer be going there three times a week! I am only 1cm dilated and 50% effaced, so there is still a ways to go. If he doesn't come on his own this weekend, then the process of induction begins Tuesday night.

On Tuesday, I will call the Birth Center at 5pm to see if there is room to take me (you don't get a reserved bed with an induction). They will do their best to fit me in since I am being induced for medical reasons. However, if they are full of ladies in labor, there is not much they can do. If they are full, we'll be on standby until they can get us a room.

At any rate, if all goes as planned, I will be admitted Tuesday evening and be given stuff overnight to ripen my cervix. Between 8:30 and 9:30 on Wednesday, the doctor will come to start me on the pitocin and hopefully labor will begin soon after. Depending on how long the labor takes, Baby Daily will make his appearance later that day, or the next.

This is our last weekend of freedom! Weird to think that in 4 more days we'll be in the hospital starting the process of having our baby. WOW!