All That Jazz

Jeffrey is finally sleeping through the night consistently. And we have 2 things to attribute this wonderful event to: Danielle’s idea to put blankets up over his windows to keep the bright morning sunshine out of his windows and the smooth jazz sounds of our new local radio station, 90.1 WGMC. Although his room is as dark as midnight when we get him out of bed in the morning – at 9:00 AM!!! – it’s allowed him to sleep for about 12 hours uninterrupted for the past week.

All of this helps us to develop a consistent schedule for the young lad. He goes to bed now between 9:00 PM and 10:00 PM, and we do our best to make sure we hold to that. Babies need a schedule. And Danielle appreciates it, because she’s getting a full night’s sleep.

We’re just glad that this post isn’t named “3AM Eternal”. Jeffrey’s right on track with this milestone, since most resources say that a baby should be able to sleep through the night by the time they reach about 12 pounds or 3 months.

Check Your Head

The board book on the table was called “How Can I Make My Insides Smile for the Camera?” and it explained what an MRI was for those who still got their information from… well, board books. Unfortunately, Jeffrey doesn’t read yet, so we just glossed over the details with him. Mostly we were surprised that he wasn’t screaming for food, since a requirement of the anesthesia was no feeding after 3 AM. We got to the hospital at 6:30 AM and got redirected a few times before finally finding the correct registration desk.

Our little heavyweight tipped the scales at 12 pounds at check-in. The nurses had a little difficulty getting an O₂ sat on him, but he’s always been that way. “Transportation” came down to bring us into the MRI room, where we met with the doctors who would be administering the anesthesia and performing the diagnostic imaging. Jeffrey had to remove his onesie (it had metal buttons) and put on an unbelievably small hospital gown. They advised us about the risks of anesthesia, told us that he’s probably be tired all day and might have a sore throat from being intubated. Mom and I each gave him a kiss and went to family waiting room where they would contact us when he was finished. There really wasn’t much fanfare to write about. That’s pretty much as exciting as it got.

The nurse in the recovery suite called us at about 10:15 AM to let us know that he was just waking up. They gave him 3oz of sugar water, because it’s pretty easy to digest. Jeffrey was admitted to the pediatric floor for observation. Aside from being on the shortest leash he’s had in 3 months, there didn’t seem to be any change in this temperament.

We spent the rest of the day at the hospital. It was strange to be back on the 4^th floor after spending so much time around the corner in the PICU annex of the NICU. While we were in the pediatric department, our nurses Trish and Amanda kept us very comfortable, and even made accommodations for both Dani and I to stay the night, which was very nice of them. Dr. Kita came to visit us, but really had no news to tell us.

It was hard to adjust to Jeffrey being on heart and breathing monitors again. During the day when he was excited, his heart rate was 150-170, but during deep sleep it dropped to a disconcerting 99 BPM! Although his alarms went off regularly through the night, none of it was any cause for concern since it was just normal fluctuations and movement and all were self-correcting. We’re sure glad he didn’t have to come home on any monitors!

Jeffrey was discharged from Golisano Children’s Hospital the next morning and Dr. Weddig came to see us off, but the results of the MRI were not available yet. We’d have to wait 5 more days. On Monday afternoon, Dr. Smith-Burke called me at home to say that Jeffrey’s brain looks perfectly normal, and that the cysts found on his previous ultrasounds were absent on this MRI. The only finding was a thin Corpus Callosum, which connects the two hemispheres of the brain, but she assured me that it will have no affect on him whatsoever. Hooray! We’ll see her Tuesday for his next checkup!

Welcome Back

Alright now that Brian is finished with school, my Mom has gone home and life has settled down a bit, I’m ready to start posting again. I apologize for the length of time between posts, but hey people we have a new baby and we’re not exactly experts at this whole parenting thing!

So that being said, I have some unfinished business to take care of. I want to send out a huge thank you to Sue’s friend Sue. She wrote a beautiful comment on one of our earlier posts and it just really made my day and I wanted to say thanks.

Next, I wanted to share some thoughts about my first Mother’s Day as a mom. To start with, Jeffrey rocks at gifts, he got me a binary shirt that said Mom and a chemistry shirt. (It’s good that he knows I’m geeky from an early age!) He also gave me a clock that runs on water. It is very cool. I felt very appreciated as a mom. I was really unprepared for how all encompassing motherhood is, but in a good way. I can barely imagine life anymore without Jeffrey. I spend everyday at work, waiting not so patiently for it to go by so that I can get back home to my little boy. He is so amazing. Everyone tells you how much being a parent will change your life and how much you’ll love them, but you just don’t understand until you get here. I feel so privileged to have this special boy to wrap my life around. Anyway, I just wanted to share how honored I am to be his mother and a little bit of what it means to me.

Next point. He’s huge now! Our last doctor’s visit was on May 24^th and Jeffrey was 10lbs. 10oz. Dr Smith-Burke says everything looks like it’s going perfectly for him, and that he may reach the (low end) of the normal growth chart by 6 months. Yay for Jeffrey! We scheduled his MRI for June 14^th to look at his PVL and see how it’s doing. He has to stay overnight at the hospital for it since he’s getting anesthesia and is under 6 months of age. I’ll post the results and findings as soon as we get them next week. I’m a little nervous about it but we’ll be there with him the whole time and hopefully everything will be fine. I’ll calm down once it is over and he’s back home with us again.

In other news, Jeffrey is spending his first night with a babysitter next Tuesday. Brian and I are going to see Phil Woods at the Eastman Theatre and will be dropping him off with Liane so that we can take in the show. (Thanks Liane!) I also have started playing volleyball again at the beach this summer. I figured that Brian can bring the baby to the beach and we can spend some time together. We’ve only had one game so far but it’s worked well so far. Also Brian has started hosting a weekly radio show on WITR called ITSO Tech from 10pm until midnight on Wednesday evenings. He and a few other geeks host it and they talk about techie things. You can listen from WITR’s web site. That’s what Jeffrey and I do from home.

So that’s about it for now. I’ll post more later this week. I’m going to try and be more regular from now on. Hope everyone is doing well and keep a look out for thank you notes. Coming soon to a mailbox near you! Be sure to check out all of the new pictures we’ve posted.