Today was his second checkup and he hit six pounds and nothing else was amiss. He's definitely been pigging out on the breast milk and it shows. More recent pictures (not yet posted) showed his cheeks filling out quite nicely.

He's still kinda dinky and has no derriere to speak of (well, in terms of size...there's no doubts a fully functional one is there!)...but he's our boy and he's healthy and growing and that's all we really care about! :)

It's pizza day...Nicholas's first foray into the wonderful world of the restaurant!

Mind you, he slept like...well, a baby...through the entire meal but he looked awfully content in that baby car seat!

Well, it's official...Daddy has been given notice that he's getting kicked out of port with orders to set sail on Tuesday morning (27 May). Yep, that's right...back to sea goes the intrepid programmer/database weenie. But I'm quite sure there will be interesting things for me to see and do in the coming week when I get home after a day in Chapel Hill... :)

Today was Nicholas' first real adventure out of the house. Julia had an appointment with her OB/GYN consultant and we planned a raid on the local Babies 'R Us.

In today's lesson, we discovered that proper packing for an outing is essential. Whilst we had all of the really critical things such as diapers and a bottle of Mom's finest, we did forget the bragging book, a second set of clothes, and a pacifier for the little guy. As it turned out, none of those items were truly required for the outing (and when it came time to change the diaper, Estrogen Central (aka "The Mother Ship" or Babies 'R Us to those uninitiatiated to the temple of all baby things!) had a special room for that very purpose well-stocked with newborn diapers). Two thumbs up! (BTW, I'm just goofing on you ladies...there are cool things for guys to see there, particularly if they're the ones that get to go round with the scanner gun to shoot a baby registry and the toy section is pretty neat! :)

We got a couple of lovely shots of Dr Smith with Nicholas (Dr Smith was the catcher on duty that fateful morning and he had his hands full servicing all of the babies being born round noon!). Try to imagine this for a moment...there was at least one and possibly two babies on his docket at the same time Julia was doing the pushing thing. He was going from room to room and typically shows up about five minutes before the head crowns. Talk about good timing, folks! When it was Julia's turn, he was right there to do that doctor thing. I'm glad we got pictures of him...he's a really neat chap (and quite the busy one at that!).

I think at some point I'll put some of Babies R' Us stock in the old portfolio...I'm quite certain their bounce in sales this quarter is due in large part to our offerings at temple!

Anywho, that's an awfully full day for a little one and predictably, he sacked out a little more than usual last night which was very welcome!

Today was Nicholas' first appointment at the pediatrician's office in Garner. After filling out the interminable paperwork which often asks the same billing information five times over and the requisite (but ultimately worthless with all of the government-imposed loopholes!) HIPAA privacy declaration, we were ushered into the office to await our consultant.

We didn't have to wait too long for Dr Johnson who was very engaging and thorough in his examination. We were pleased to find out that Nicholas is now one once above birth weight (now 5 lbs 9 oz) and his lungs sound clear as a bell. We also had a fair amount of time to get to know Dr Johnson and he had some good observations on being new parents, the most important being you know more than you think you do. OK, so that's really Dr Spock's idea...but it's true!

One copay later, we're on our way to show Nicholas off to a few of Grammy's Longaberger friends and then back to the house for some well-earned rest.

Of course, the first golden shower christening goes to Daddy who was nailed by a certain mischievous son in the prone position during a diaper change (good aim, kid...that was one shot in a million!). Anyone who has been to a Fayetteville Force/Cape Fear Fire Antz hockey game knows the chant by heart when the home team scores a goal: he shoots, he scores...hey goalie, you SUCK! It even says so on the gag gift apron from the Fayetteville gang (which I was stupidly NOT WEARING at the time of the diaper change). Memo to self: remember your Star Trek training and when there is an unknown ship in front of you...SHIELDS UP!!!!!!

But it's all good in the end..after his afternoon feeding, he slept all cuddled up in my arms for a good two hours and the only reason it ended was that I was starting to nod off and it was time to head off for a massage / mostly nap with Julia.

It's a sobering thought I've had since I first held him in my arms. Here is someone who loves you no matter how lousy a day you've had or how big a jerk you've been. Here is someone who trusts you so much to comfort and protect them that they'll sleep quite soundly without a care in a world knowing you're there. And heaven help the person who tries to interfere with that or hurt this beautiful child because that loving feeling is one thing worth fighting tooth and nail to protect.

A Day in the Newborn Life

Nicholas has been settling in quite nicely at home. As he tells me, it's a really simple routine:

During each of those steps, I display my amazing cuteness and charm and make everyone round me love me for being the cute guy I am! :)

HE'S HOME!!!

Nicholas certainly had an activity-filled day today. In addition to the usual discharge stuff, he had his circumcision which went well as well as the hearing test that he passed with flying colours. He's even gotten his first required hepatitis B shot. He does more before lunch than most people do all day, folks! :)

Of course, the really important stuff occurred when we finally sprung him from WakeMed and got him into the Escape for his first trip home. At 1425 local time, Nicholas was piped aboard here at the house (well, as well as one can do without an actual bosun's pipe!) and got his first look at his new digs. After a quick shot of the good stuff, he was off to bed for a little rest.

In keeping with family tradition, he did a bang-up job of christening his crib via a leaky diaper. Memo to self: Pampers is the way to go, Huggies really doesn't! The diaper allowed us our first opportunity to test the Diaper Genie and the cutting blade works as advertised...too bad we'd missed the instructions which says that the inner ring is the one to turn when you deposit a diaper to become a diaper sausage link. Oh, well...live and learn...and we didn't use up a whole lot of the Diaper Genie insert to do it!

Of course, the excitement never ends here in Clayton as my family from Fayetteville showed up for their first look at Nicholas. It had been a long time coming considering medical necessity plus the general lack of holding due to all of the wires and probes and tubes.

But once again, Nicholas blatantly stole the hearts of everyone round him. He really took to Gram (my mother Osa) who dutifully provided the holding/cuddling action, a bottle of the good stuff, and even a fresh diaper for good measure. Mom's been waiting for this day for quite a while (her favourite observation was that she was ready to have a grandchild who was not furry and four-legged and Nicholas certainly qualifies on all counts!).

Truth be told, we've been waiting quite a while for this day as well. There is something magical about bringing your child home for the first time knowing they'll find comfort and shelter here with you...and knowing that whilst they're growing up, we will be as well.

We got some interesting news when we showed up for the 1200 breastfeeding session: Nicholas is being kicked out of port... in other words, he's coming home sometime tomorrow!

We've still got a fair heap of stuff that we'll need to do to get him home (car seat installation, circumcision, and general discharge sort of stuff).

But he's coming home and the rest of the world can cease to exist tomorrow for all we care because our boy is finally coming home and the rest of the journey can begin.

The last of the tubes have come out and all of the bili lights/blankets/tinfoil are gone. Nicholas is now feeding exclusively via bottle and the breast. The breastfeeding is a bit hit or miss depending on how awake he is (last night at 2100, he did a really good job of latching on...we don't know how much he got but at least he's figuring out how to get the reward!).

He's also ditched that fancy bed with the heater for a simpler plastic crib without all of the bells and whistles.

He's looking cuter by the day and is a joy to hold...being cuddled is something he very definitely enjoys! :)

He's finally come off the oxygen as of this morning and is breathing just fine on his own. His bili levels are also down from where they were which is a positive thing. We've started him on breast feeding and he's getting additional feedings via formula...the personnel there have started mentioning the magic word "home" as soon as he gets the hang of that feeding thing. We're hopeful he'll come home next week at some point.

Short version...Julia's coming home today and Nicholas is making great progress in terms of being weaned from the oxygen and now we're just figuring out how we can do the feeding thing.

I can't begin to describe how much fun we're having with the little guy when we get to see him over in ICU...

The story so far...Julia is recovering from the birth and her bout with preeclampsia. Nicholas has been in ICU intubated on a ventilator getting surfactant treatments to try to get him breathing properly.

As of 1100, Nicholas has been extubated and is now only got the small nose clips giving him oxygen. He has been responding quite positively to the respiration treatments and the weaning from oxygen is going as well as can be expected. Blood gases are looking great and the number of lines going into him are decreasing dramatically...we might actually get some really good pictures of the boy today and get to hold him which will be really great. Next step is to get his sucking instinct kicking in so he can do that "get the groceries" thing by himself but that's relatively minor compared to the breathing thing.

Julia's going to stay one more night due to swelling of the lower extremities...they're trying to reduce that so she'll be more comfortable when she comes home.

Other than that, we're doing well (surprisingly!) on so little sleep...hopefully this is a good omen for when he comes home and we're doing the 0300 feedings... :)

The short version is that Julia was admitted at 0400 on 10 May complaining of gastric distress. They monitored her through the day and a couple of labs started going a little south (due to preeclampsia...pregnancy-induced hypertension/swelling which could, if untreated, lead on to seizures if not worse...the only cure is to get the baby out). At 1900 10 May, the decision was made to pull the ripcord and induce her labour...I'll spare you the details of just how fun forcibly dilating a 0cm/0 effaced cervix can be. Let's just say Julia was a real trooper and progressed much faster than anyone expected.

She also did all of this without the epidural support (she has a shunt which they didn't feel all that comfortable going poking about in there). She also did this with essentially little to no sleep over a 48 hour period...she's got the juice as far as I'm concerned.

Come Sunday morning, the contractions started at 0100. She hit 3cm at 0230 when the catheter fell out. I was called at 0600 and arrived on scene at 0715 where she was 4-5cm. An hour an a half later, she had raced to 7-8 and the contractions were spacing out nicely to 3 minutes. She hit transition at 1045 (transition sucks, folks...there is no nice way to put that...but thankfully it's real short!) and pushing started at 1105. First view of the head was approximately 1210 and he literally flew out at 1225. We're talking ten seconds from the time I saw his head, Dr Smith gave a three second quarter turn left to turn the shoulders and the next thing I saw was his ding-a-ling flying past along with him on his way to the neonatal team! ;)-

Very loud and lusty cries (he's got my pipes and my attitude, apparently!)...first minute APGAR 7, five minute APGAR 8 (darned nice for a 35 weeker). Julia got to hold him, then I got him briefly until he was whisked away to ICU.

For 35 weekers, there are two things you've got to fix...respiration and feeding. He's ended up going from oxygen hood to CPAP (forced oxygen) to surfactant treatment...he had only started practising breathing on his own about a week or so before he was born and he's responding as well as can be expected to that treatment. The other thing is that they have a sucking instinct but it's generally weaker than normal and they'll work on that as well. He may not come home with Julia but that's OK...as long as he's getting the care he needs to be a normal and healthy boy, that's all I'm concerned about. The staff in ICU just love him...it's rare they get such a "fat" baby to play with...and he's already showing signs of my attitude toward and willingness to fight medical procedures... :)

Julia needed some quiet time to get past the first 24 hours (where there is a better than average risk of seizures due to preeclampsia) and she's done just that in Bristol fashion. She's sounding much more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (and is so looking forward to the results of raiding Neomonde...WakeMed is a wonderful facility and the medical teams are just outstanding...but a gourmand's delight they ain't!).

That's where we stand right now...I'll have more updates/pictures as I get them (and have some time to type them in!). From all of us in the Williams household, we'd like to express our profound appreciation for all of the support, good karma, and just all round good wishes and gifts that have been bestowed upon us. That means quite a bit in these interesting times and helps give us the strength to push on with great vigour! :)