Milestones

Today, September 14th, is Greyson's original due date. He is nine weeks and four days old. I returned to work today after taking the last three and a half weeks off. Our remodeling project, which started the day he was born, passed the final inspection today.






My brother Jeff and his girlfriend Terry were visiting from Japan last week. We met them in Monterey for a night. We stayed at a place on the water where we could hear and smell the sea. Greyson, who usually sleeps between an hour and a half to three hours at a time, slept for five and half hours. The first thing we did when we woke up was book another night stay!

Home!

Last Wednesday, we deemed our house 'finished enough' to move in. We slept in our bed for the first time since since June 3rd. We were a little sad to leave the Ochoa B & B. It's going to take some adjustment cooking and cleaning for ourselves. Our shrimp stir fries and adobo are going to be replaced by frozen pizzas and cold cereal.

Since we've been home, we've spent several days cleaning, organizing, arranging a nursery for tGreyson, all stuff we thought we'd be doing before he was born.


On Thursday, Greyson was eight weeks old. He's probably about seven and a half pounds, almost double his weight when he was a couple of days old. By the way, his original due date is still a week away!

Trish

Trish is going in for some clean-up work today. Last week we found out there are still bits of placenta attached to her uterus. It's an out-patient procedure. She should be in and out of there in less than four hours. I'll be hanging out at the hospital showing off the kid to all the Antepartum and Labor & Delivery nurses we befriended during our stay there.

Our remodeling project is finally coming to a close. We're planning on moving back in possibly Tuesday after Trish has recovered.

Running on three wheels

Having practiced it several times in the climate controlled comfort of the living room before Greyson was discharged, I am now an expert at whipping his hi-tech stroller out of the trunk, snapping all the joints in place. Trish was a little less prepared. The other day we were unloading all our stuff out of the car. Trish decided to pull the stroller out of the trunk while I got the baby out of the car. "I got this," she said as she wrestled the mechanical equivalent of wet spaghetti over her head. With some coaching from me as I held the baby, she was able lock all the necessary pieces into place, we thought. While attempting to release the stroller brake, she had inadvertently pressed the 'wheel release' button effectively booby-trapping his ride. Minutes later as we wheeled Greyson through the parking garage, the mistake became evident as the rear wheel jettisoned itself across the parking garage. I used my cat-like reflexes to initiate a quick right turn to keep the stroller upright. I could be wrong, but I think we might be in for the ride of our lives.

New Parents

Greyson has been out of the NICU for six days now. The world outside the NICU is quite different for him. I'm sure the nights seem very dark and quiet compared to the constant, 24/7 commotion in the NICU. This kept him (and his parents) pretty restless for those first few nights. But that will go away in a few days,... right? As he is adjusting to life outside the NICU, so are his parents who are now full time parents for the first time in their lives.

For the most part Greyson breast feeds. Sometimes he gets his milk by bottle, however, to give his mom a break. The other night I was feeding him his bottle and was amazed at his progress as to how fast he could suck down a bottle now. What I didn't realize is that I hadn't seated the nipple in the bottle properly and most of the milk was running down the side of his face, soaking his onesie, and down my sleeve to my elbow. So I cleaned him off, changed his clothes, changed my clothes and warmed another bottle for him. And then, in my sleepless stupor, did the exact same thing... again. Perhaps the whole learning process is going to take a little longer for me.

Home! (Close enough)

Yesterday, on August 19th at 1 pm, one day short of Greyson's six week mark, he was discharged from the hospital. This ended 11 weeks of daily jaunts to
Alta Bates for me (because it's all about me). Special thanks to HealthNet for picking up the $750k (and counting) tab. Two clueless parents packed up their carefully nurtured package and inserted him into the car seat that installed in 17 easy steps. We drove him to the in-laws where we are staying while the remodeling project, that was supposed to be done before he was born, is completed. It was the first time Greyson rode in a car, it was the first time he was outside. It was the first time Trish and Karl were responsible for a child. It felt good to come home and finally get eight hours** of sleep.


The night before being discharged, Greyson had undergone a "car seat study" where the plug him in to all the monitors and have him sit through a 90 minute practice run of sitting in the car seat.


We had many good-byes as we embarked upon the next chapter of being parents. Among them were Louella, our favorite nurse at the the NICU. Louella was amazing. Not only is she one of the more senior staff, but she has amazing compassion for what she she does. She really made us feel comfortable about leaving Greyson at the NICU. We were really blessed to have crossed paths with her.



**Note that "we" constitutes the three of us, and "eight hours" is the total between the three of us. That eight hours occurred in 15 - 20 minute intervals through out the evening.

Gearing Up

A month ago, we were worried about Greyson's heart beating, lungs breathing, his murmur, his jaundice, his anemia. Now we're worried about his diaper rash. Fortunately, they got some stuff that works really well. It is Greyson's first, and certainly not last, experience with 'paste'.

It looks like Greyson is going to win the Baby vs Remodel Race. The house still has a couple of weeks left as we have added a few items (like painting) to the project. So when we say Greyson is coming "home", we actually mean his going to the Ochoa B & B which is probably better than "home". :)

Over the weekend, between breaks from the hospital, we spent our time making sure we have the essentials... diapers, wipes, place for him to sleep, etc. We even bought a small freezer to accommodate all of the frozen breast milk we have stored at the hospital.

Here are some updated pictures: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=11dwb14f.5v17wl33&x=0&y=-g9xycw&localeid=en_US