Bringing Jordan Home

Another picture of my little man on his ventilator.

This is right before they took out his head IV. The one in his arm was looking pretty bad and the only area they could find was in his head. Needless to say he did not appreciate it being taken out.

Jordan getting ready to come home. They left all his monitors on until right before we left. 

Little Man stalled out because his head wasn't exactly in the right position for birth. Instead of the crown coming out first the back of his head came out first! I was trying to capture the cone head of the back of his head. It reminds me of the Egyptians for some reason. Jocelyn also had this head shape!

I love his curly hair that he has. Drew had curly hair as a new baby too!

We took him to Grandma and Grandpa Wadley's to pick up our munchkins and head home. All the kids were so excited to see him and to be able to hold him. (No kids allowed in the NICU during RSV season!) Jocelyn did not want to let him go when it was time to let someone else have a turn, she kept yelling "My baby, my baby". She literally grabbed his face and body and tried to pull him back to her. 

Grandma finally got a turn to hold little man too!

Poor Jordan, he thought life was going to be so pleasant, little did he know that little miss was going to own him!

Welcoming Jordan Tate

Before we realized that this was going to take far longer than anticipated.

There was a little party going on in the room. They all looked like walking zombies by the time we finally delivered.

Sunday April 1st I was having a lot of contractions that were rather painful, to the point that I had John take me to ShopKo to walk around because it was too cold outside. Even with all the contractions I was still at a three, but I was effacing some. Grandma Tobi didn't want to leave Sunday night until we checked one more time to see if I had dilated to a four. (At a four they keep you at the hospital, even if your labor stalls out.) I knew I wasn't at a four because the contractions hadn't been that hard during the afternoon but we checked anyway and guess what . . . I was at a four! So off to the hospital I went. I was not having regular contractions, but I was having contractions and I was at a four so they kept me. At about 8:00 Eric broke my water and I got my epidural. We figured he'd come flying out before midnight and he'd be stuck with an April Fools birthday. Once I hit a five I generally deliver within half an hour. I stalled out at an eight though and I was stuck there for nearly three hours. They finally gave me some pitocin to get things going and they got going. But Jordan didn't like it and they ended up having to put a scalp heart rate monitor on him THREE times. They stopped the pitocin so Jordan would calm down and he did. Thankfully the contractions kept going! I still couldn't sit up or roll off my right side without him reacting badly though. Finally, after a couple of pushes we had our little man at 3:27 am!

Jordan Tate

April 2, 2012

6 lb 5 oz

19.5 inches

I was only able to hold him for a few minutes before I gave him back to the nurses. He sounded like he had fluid in his lungs and guess what . . . he did! Poor little guy had to go up to the NICU.

They tried the CPAP machine first but he didn't do as well as they would have liked so they moved him to the ventilator.

Thankfully he only had to stay on that for a few hours, long enough for the surfactant they gave him to kick in. They thought he might have pneumonia so they started the antibiotics and he had to be on them for three days.

His third day he had to be under the bilirubin light to help with some jaundice. We didn't have to take the lights home with us, which was great. He also didn't have to come home with oxygen or anything else which was so nice. In total he was in the NICU for three days and had to have his bilirubin levels checked for five days.

Grandma and kiddies

I didn't realize that I looked so blah sunk into this recliner. I was only a day and a half from delivering so what can you expect?

Grandma Tobi came into town in the hopes that I would deliver while she was there. I generally deliver at 37 weeks so we were hoping that that is what would happen this time. As luck would have it, she was able to be there for the delivery of little Jordan.

Crayons

There was a little boy who had cancer, the kind you don't survive, and he loved race cars. We decided to make some crayon race cars to send to him to help make him happy. The kids loved making the crayons and  then using the ones that weren't sent out. (The little boy ended up dying the day before Memorial Day, hence the reason that I'm talking about him in past tense.) We got a thank you letter from his family and the kids loved it! He loved their cars but refused to use them because they were his "special race cars".

The kids had so much fun making them that for Alexis' birthday at school we made race cars and flowers as the treat she gave out.

Talent Show

For the talent show at the Elementary School each class had their own talent show and they then voted to send two acts to the big school talent show. This little girl had a book on CD that talked about painting everywhere. She acted it out and was so cute doing it!

This little guy was super flexible and folded himself up in a couple of different moves. He was one of the winning acts.

He played a piano piece and did great!

She read a story to the class, she did a great job of making it fun!

Alexis and her friend Jordyn did hula hooping to a hula hooping song. They also won the classroom part of the competition and got to move onto the big school talent show. They had fun jumps and spins and different speeds when they were practicing but they got on stage and got scared. They stayed on stage and hula hooped even though they didn't want to so I was very proud! When I told Alexis that maybe next year she wouldn't be so scared and could do the things she'd planned she responded with: "There won't be a next time!" More like her mother than her father apparently!

Biggest Loser

On the Biggest Loser they had some Zumba dancing. We've never done such a thing but the kids were excited to give it a try. While it wasn't perfect, it sure was cute! They had so much fun they requested that we rewind it a few times so they could do it again.

Trampoline Heaven

March 23rd

 March 24th (9 days before baby Jordan)

Because I was very large and couldn't get out to the yard and up and down the hill the back yard to help the kids get on and off the trampoline, John built stairs! The kids LOVE them and now they can get up and down whenever they want to. I've caught Jocelyn out there a number of times by herself enjoying having the entire trampoline to herself.

Drew took John's picture as he was jumping out of the swing. John was so good to go and play with the kids while I was busy sitting on my buttocks cooking Jordan.