Jacob Ian Starkes

NOTE............These pictures/posts are in reverse order...............

I mentioned in an earlier post that the labor/delivery part of having Jake was great. Shortly after I had him though, they noticed his breathing wasn't quite right. So, after only getting to hold him for a few short minutes the nurses took him to the special needs nursery and there he stayed from Sunday until Thursday, when he got to come home.

The whole time he was in the nursery was like an emotional roller coaster. When he first went to the nursery, I wasn't able to go see him for a few hours because my legs were dead from the epidural. Then, Dr. Baily (his pediatrician) came in my room and told me that Jacob had fluid in his lungs and may have to be sent to a larger hospital that could better care for him. After the Doctor left I called my nurse and had her help me into a wheel chair, so that I could go see my baby. To say the least I was terrified.

In the nursery, I found Jacob with an IV in his arm, and oxygen in his nose and all sorts of monitors hooked to him. The Doctor told us we could touch him but we couldn't rub or stimulate him. During that first day, I sat by him all day, unable to feed or hold him. It was a very long, sad day.

That night Brian left because he had to be at work early the next day. Shortly after he left, Jacobs nurse told me that he was doing a lot better...... and I could hold him!!! I cant express how happy I was to get to do this. Poor Brian though, he hadn't got to hold him at all. Anyway, a few hours later the nurse told me that we could try to feed him. At first we just fed him with a syringe. After a few of these type of feedings, I finally got to nurse him.

On Monday, Brian came to the hospital and got to hold Jake. Jake also made a few big improvements (They were able to take him off 90% his oxygen but when they tried to stop the last of it, he would turn blue). Then on Tuesday, Dr. Baily said that Jake was showing signs of Pneumonia.... and that they may end up sending him to the valley after all. So I called Brian and asked him and President Whipple to come give Jake a blessing.

I feel like I witnessed a miracle, as Jacob stayed stable that day, and then in the middle of the night, the nurse tried again to stop the oxygen, and was successful!!!! Wednesday morning Dr. Baily called the specialist and the two of them decided together that Jake might not have Pneumonia after all. She also said that if he could go 24 hours without the oxygen then he could go home!!!

Thursday morning we were finally able to take our sweet little baby home. Dr. Baily did say that he might be a little more susceptible to respiratory illnesses, so we need to keep him home for a while.

Its so fun to have Jacob home with us. He is such a good little guy. I LOVE everything about him.....

Here is a picture of Jacob with a nurse that took care of me when I was a baby. My mom pointed her out to me a long time ago. So when I saw that she was going to be Jacobs nurse I told her that she took care of me. When I told her this, she gave me a big hug. She was so kind to us during her whole shift. She said she has been working there for 30 years now!

This is Jacob having his IV taken out. It was so sad to see everyone poke at him all the time. I was glad that it was coming out rather than in though!

Here we are getting ready to go home! This is the room I got to stay in after I was released from the hospital. It is right off the nursery and is for parents who have sick babies. I was the first one to get to stay there.

This is the first of many kisses that Eric has given to "baby Jake". Eric loves Jake and kisses him about every five minutes.

When Jacob started doing better, he finally got to have a bath.

Here is Jacob... all clean.

These are random pictures. Some of them are of his first bath, and some are of him right after he got off oxygen.

This is just minutes after Jake was born. At first they let me hold him with oxygen sitting right next to him. But when they saw that it was not helping, but rather, he was getting worse, they took him to the nursery.

This is minutes after I first got to see him in the nursery.

First diaper change that I got to see. When we got to start touching/ holding him I changed all his diapers.

This is where Jacob spent his first five days of life.

Our new addition.....

I am so excited to announce our new addition.... Jacob Ian Starkes was born on Sunday, the 19 of July. He was born at 4:50 in the morning after a smooth, and in my mind, an ideal delivery. He weighed 6.15 lbs and was 19 2/1 inches long. He has dark blond hair, which looks golden, almost red when it is wet. Jacob was the 9th baby born in the new OB unit of the Hospital. Everything was so nice, new and clean. I am happy it was done just in time for our little guy!!!

Here is my "freakin cool" hubby on Saturday night. He was so proud of what he wrote under the family comments. What was REALLY funny is when he fail asleep and my labor nurse erased "cool "and wrote "asleep" in its place, with an arrow pointing to him. We were both trying to get some sleep at that point because my epidural was going strong and I was feeling good.

Here is our little guy. I was so excited to see him. I was also shocked that everything turned out so EASY! I had painful contractions for about 8 hours before my epidural.... but I didn't have one contraction that was so painful that I couldn't talk, walk or laugh through it. Then when pushing time came, it only took four contractions to get him here. He did have the cord wrapped around his neck, really tight. Which could have contributed to the problems he had after delivery (I'll get into those problems in my next post..... so stay tuned).

Tomorrow is D-Day!!!

I went to Windy's office today (my OB) and she said she wanted to jump start my labor tomorrow!!! I'm excited, scared, worried, happy and relieved all at the same time. I know my actual due date isn't for a few more weeks, but I was told that my baby is going to be really big if he stays in much longer. Callie and Tyler were both born 20 days early and were still good sizes. So apparently I make big babies.

Windy said she will just do a quick procedure in her office tomorrow morning which should trigger some good labor contractions, and then meet up with me a little later at the hospital after I've progressed. I don't think it will take much to get me going because I've been having regular contractions for months now. I'm actually really surprised that I've made it this far. I'm sure that if we weren't doing this tomorrow I would still have him in the next few days. This weekend will be great timing because Brian, being a teacher, hasn't worked ALL summer, but now he happens to be in the middle of a two week job. So I'm really happy that he wont have to take time off work.

Callie, Tyler and Eric are so excited. Tyler wanted to tell everyone. So I let him call and tell my mom and a few other people. Callie cant wait to see her new brother. She helped me pick out an outfit to bring him home in. Eric is excited because we are all excited. I don't think he understands what is going on. I 'm really looking forward to seeing how he reacts to all of this.
Brian is excited too. He tells Eric to say "Come out baby Jake and play with me!" .

So, hopefully everything will be fast and pain free! I wish I could walk into the hospital tomorrow feeling fine, get an epidural and have the baby without feeling a thing! That would be soooo great....

Anyway, I hope that this time tomorrow I'll be holding my little baby! I cant wait to see what he looks like. I cant wait to hold him. I cant wait to show him to our other kids.
Wow, I hope I can sleep tonight ;).

Donald's Park

Not to long ago Brian was out of town, so I took Callie, Tyler and Eric to the McDonald's in Show Low to Eat and play. Eric loves to go there, he calls it "Donald's park" (I love how he says it). Anyway, as the kids were playing, Eric spotted a little boy around his age. This little boy was wandering around aimlessly, singing "do dood, do dood, do dood" so Eric walked up to him and said, "Hi Do Dood, lets play". Do Dood didn't acknowledge Eric, so Eric tried again, saying, "lets slide Do Dood". Do Dood still had no response for Eric, so Eric spit on Do Dood. I had Eric say "sorry" to Do Dood, and then we left. When we got into the car I tried to talk to Eric about how it was OK if some people didn't want to play. After I told him this, Eric got an angry look on his face and said, "I spit the Do Dood"! It was so hard not to laugh.
Eric still talks about poor little Do Dood. If you ask him where Do Dood is, he will say, "at Donald's park".

37 weeks

37 Weeks ago I was not expecting to get pregnant, but was open to the idea of it.

33 Weeks ago I was shocked as I watched the positive line on the pregnancy test turn pink.

31 Weeks ago I started getting pregnancy sickness.... and found out that that my pregnancy had a few complications.

24 Weeks ago my pregnancy sickness went away.

17 Weeks ago I found out that my earlier pregnancy complications were gone. We also found out we were having a BOY!

7 Weeks ago we decided to name our baby Jacob Ian.

3 Weeks ago I finished Jacob's room.

1 Week ago I went into labor and was given medication to have it stopped.

Now today I'm 37 weeks along, and was told at my OB appointment that the baby would be safe if he came now. So I am sitting here thinking about how FAST the last 37 weeks went by! I am am also thinking about how scared I am for the delivery. I'm sure everything will be fine, but I'm still scared....... On the other hand I cant wait to meet my little baby! Wow, I have a lot of things running though my mind!

Happy B-day Brian!!!!!

Yesterday was Brian's birthday! He ended up working ALL day, so it probably wasn't that exciting of a day for him. He told me mid-day that it was his 27th best birthday (he turned 27). He had a smile on his face when he said it, so I think he was just kidding. He probably thought of that line weeks ago and saved it for his birthday ;). I'm a year and a half older than Brian, so right now he is 27 and I'm 28. That doesn't seem too bad, but in a few short months I'll be 29 and he will still be 27. I keep trying to tell him that because I'm older, I'm also wiser, so he needs to listen to everything I say. He doesn't see eye to eye with me on that.... go figure!

Happy Birthday babe!

Made my day....

So how do you make a pregnant woman's day? You tell her (upon entering the local grocery store) that the ice cream freezer is down and they are giving away FREE ice cream!

So my day was totally made yesterday, when Keith and Donna Bigler, Brian, Eric and I all walked to the store to get Eric a piece of gum. We all left with at least one ice cream product in our hands. I got a gallon of chocolate ice cream and a package of Strawberry Shortcake Skinny Cow sandwiches. I was on cloud nine.

At the moment I'm trying to decide if it would be right or wrong to have ice cream for breakfast!