Jack Kaden

Which means that I am bored and have screwed with the layout. I am sure I will be berated later. Pray the Mets win, okay?

Also? Our interenet connection is sucking. It has taken me 20 minutes to type these 3 lines.

Jack is up to 2040 grams. He is ooed and ahhed over by the nursing staff (who all know him well by now) and was recently described to me as a “big boy.” Perspective is a good thing here.

He had his eye exam today and his ROP has progressed to stage 2. Nothing to get too concerned about yet. Stage 2 can still fully regress and his vision could be fine. Stage 3 means surgery, which we’d like to avoid, but could be a possibility if his eyes worsen. If he does have surgery it will be done in the NICU before his discharge. Arch and I agreed we can’t get too worked up about this. If this is as bad as it gets, we’ll take it.

Today was a fussy day in the NICU, which is turning into a pretty normal event on eye-exam day. Jack was NOT interested in the bottle and instead had his meal through a gavage tube (that tube he is so enthusiastically chewing on in Arch’s earlier post). We then both took a little nap together – which is when I learned something alarming, Jack slept better in my arms than in the isolette. Nice? very much so. Making me think I need to get a wireless headset for my phone for when he is home? also very much so.

Today Jack doubled his birth weight. That’s right. He’s 4 pounds 6 ounces and a bruiser of a preemie at that. 

Other things that are now doubled include his chin and the double roll of fat behind his knees. He is also double cute, but that’s just a mom talking.

Things to look forward to in Jack Land?

a) He’ll jump from Cannula to room air soon, maybe in the next couple of days

b) That plexi isolette? History as of this weekend. He’s going to take a crib for a test drive.

As Arch and I start thinking of taking Jack home we’re both becoming more than a little freaked out.  I get now that I am going to spend the rest of my life focused on my kid’s well being, and that’s just what parents do. It sounds like a gong should be going off somewhere as I write this – “for the rest of my life, GONG”

I am just going to let that sink in and then apologize to my parents (again) for the Night Photography Incident of 1987 and for all of 1989 through 1991.

I am sorry. But I am looking forward to Jack trying to pull the same tricks.