Tuesday, December 26, 2006

SF Chron article about Christmas NICU babies

UCSF Christmas at the NICU from S.F. Chronicle.

God bless all babies!

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Christmas Time

Just so you all know, you will get a Christmas card from the DelloIacono-Thies family (assuming I have your address). I didn't order the cards until this past week. Is it Christmas already?

Grandma Linda and Grandpa Terry came over and cooked us Christmas crab and shrimp. It was wonderful. We opened gifts. Grandma and Grandpa are already spoiling Little E. He loves it. Susie joined us for day 2 of early Christmas celebrations. She is looking like a hot momma herself with little miss someone growing, growing.


My Christmas present from Aaron this year was our beautiful tree. It was a wonderful holiday surprise. Eric needed some place to hang all his First Christmas ornaments.


Tonight we are dining on the traditional Christmas hamburgers accompanied by salad and egg nog. Of course the hamburger is top notch, organic and grass fed.

Most importantly, we are enjoying the most joyous gift of all, our son Eric.

Merry Christmas



Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Outings

Eric had is second outing, which was to the eye doctor, Dr. Good at the Pacific campus. Pretty amazing that a 10 minute appointment took two hours preparation to get there on time. Eric's eyes look good and are developing well. I bundled Eric up really well for the trip. Actually I bundled him up too well and had to remove a layer so he would fit in the car seat.



Eric also had a visit from Cindy, the visitin nurse, who weighed him and gave us some useful tips. Eric now weighs 7 lbs 9 oz.



Eric and I had fun today with him in my Moby Wrap while I put some decorations on our tree. He protested a little bit when I put him in the wrap but once he got comfortable he snoozed for a few hours, which means he is likely going to be wide awake at 3:00am. Funny how 3:00am and 3:00pm are a lot the same these days, wearing the same clothes and doing the same activities.




We have been giving Eric some tummy time. He surprised us with some pushups and a roll over.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Grandma visits

Linda spent the weekend with us and got to bond with Eric. Oh and she wiped out a massive pile of laundry and filled the freezer with a week's worth of delicious heat n' eat homecookin. When she first arrived, Eric burst into a smile session and in only 10 minutes, earned himself a lifetime of grandma love and spoiling.



Here I am sometime in the midst of week 1:



Sleeping in full fuzzy gear.


Friday, December 15, 2006

Getting To Know Each Other

We have been home with Eric for 5 days now and are having a lot of fun with a side of sleep. Eric is getting used to his new quiter surroundings and seems to like all his gear. His most wakeful time is 2:00am to 5:00am. I am cool until about 3:30am and then I need to call in Dad for reinforcement.



Eric has had 2 visits from the home nurse and one visit to his pediatrician. He is doing well and continues to gain weight, now at 3280grams or 7 lbs and 4 oz. He is 19 1/2 inches long. Right now he breasts feed twice a day and the rest fed bottled breast milk fortifed with some extra calories and nutrients, which I am of course calculating out in great detail, something only a nutrition nerd would do.



Eric is excited to spend time with Grandma Linda who arrives today for a weekend visit. Grandma may want to sleep at the other end of the flat if she wants to sleep in the early morning hours.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Mommy is famous

Introducing.... Tara

Monday, December 11, 2006

Eric and Tara at home

It took all of us a day to get used to the new situation. Eric was very fussy and hardly slept at all for the first day and night at home. The NICU is a noisy, bright place and he probably couldn't figure out why everything was suddenly so quiet. But today he seems to have adjusted and has been sleeping like he's supposed to. Now if only Mom and Dad could make such a quick adjustment.

Here's a shot of Tara and Eric loving life together at home:

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Homecoming: pics and videos

Finally after nearly 14 weeks in the NICU, Eric has come home!

To get ready for his graduation we first gave him a bath. Oh the indignity:


Then he got his carseat test, which he passed with flying colors. He was just too dang cute chillin in the seat.



After that we stayed with him overnight in one of the hospital rooms for a "dry run" with the nurses nearby. It went fairly well but it's kind of like camping in your backyard.

Eric had to say goodbye to his buddy Ryan Karbowski, who has been with him in the NICU nearly from day one. We all are just in love with these two guys!


After a final check-out with the doctors, we loaded Eric into the Corolla and drove him the 20 blocks down Lake St to our home on 17th Ave. Little E is home!

In his crib he looks like a little pea in a big pod. Just as in the NICU crib his faithful doggie stands guard:


Thank you to all the wonderful doctors and nurses at CPMC who helped bring Eric into this world and care for him, and special love for all the parents and babies we met during Eric's first 3 months. We love you so much! You are a beacon of light in a scary world.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Getting Ready - added pics

We are busy getting ready to bring Eric home. Yesterday our power was shut off for several hours so the electrician could do some work. Remember the picture of the milk in the freezer? Well, we loaded a cooler and the hospital generously is storing it for us until the electrical work is complete. There are a lot of hours logged in that milk.

Eric passed his hearing test the other day and passed. He also had is regular visit from the eye doctor, Dr. Good, and everything looks good. We were pretty sure his hearing was good because he responds to our voices and other noises throughout the room. Yesterday they took his pulse oximeter off, which reads his oxygen saturation. So he no longer has the wire hooked to his foot. Free feet for the first time. Well, there was one other time they took it off and we got to walk around the nursery with no wires attached at all.

Today he will get his car seat test. They let him sit in the car seat for one hour to make sure it is in a good position for him. Aaron got him new car seat so he can ride in style. Eric will also get the circ before he comes home.

He as been given his first round of shots and will also be given something called synergist to help protect him from RSV, one of the causes of the common cold. Eric will not be allowed to have visitors for a while because if he catches anything it could put him back in the hospital so the doctors have told us to take precautions. We will all be home bound for a while with no visitors.

Until we are ready for Eric to meet everyone the best way for you all to see him, say hi to us, and keep intouch is by reading the blog and leaving us comments. We really enjoy reading everyone's comments and are so touched by how closely you all follow along. I cry when I think of how blessed we are to have so many wonderful friends and family members out there.

Here are so more cute pics. Eric loves to give hi-fives.



Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Busy, busy

We are very busy getting ready for Eric's home coming. We have been doing a lot of preparations at home to make sure we are as organzied as possible. We are still not exactly sure of the date, but he could come home as soon as this weekend. I have been spending a lot of time at the hospital trying to learn how to feed him while he is still learning how to coordinate his sucking swallowing and breathing. He is getting better at this, and I think I am. Over the weekend he was sometimes eating as much as 90 cc's in one feeding, which is about 3 ounces.

Eric doesn't wake up hungry very often and most if the time we have to wake him up to eat. Once we wake him up he is reminded his stomach is empty and starts to squirm for it. My mom told me that she too had to wake me up to eat.

Here are some more photos: