Your name is Jacob

Hi son. You are now 4 days old, and you are incredible. We arrived home from the hospital today (finally). Your mom had to have an operation called a "C-Section" to get you born. Doctor Spencer Johnson performed the surgery...you'll see pictures on my website. There are many stories to tell about our 4 days at the Conway Regional Women's Center, but for now I'd like to just focus on today's events. Aside from being born, this was probably the second most difficult day for you. Here's how it all started.

You got your little wang chopped off for starters (not ALL of it, just the standard circumcision). Our pediatrician is in a small group of doctors that switch off hospital visits, so your regular doctor, Dr. Champlin, was not doing the procedure. Instead, his partner Dr. Craig came and told us all about the little surgery. Dr. Craig is a good man, and he explained all the details in great detail. After he left, the nurse came and took you away. Before we knew it, you were back in our room again...fast asleep. I thought to myself, that must have been pretty smooth, but your mom was in tears...putting herself in your place in her mind. She imagined the cutting and the bleeding and the feeling of being away from your mother and also that your mother and father let this happen to you. She felt so sad inside even though she knew it was the best possible thing for you. And as she cried for you, you just laid there peacefully, dreaming of placentas and umbilical cords (what else could babies dream about?). Your peaceful face let me know that it was all okay.

Believe it or not, that isn't where the day's drama ended. The next step was being informed that you were looking yellow, which means jaundice. Jaundice is caused by a build up of bilirubin in your body. The natural way for the baby's body to get rid of it is to poop it out. Breast fed babies have a higher occurance of jaundice than do bottle fed babies. You have had some pretty good poops (the current funny phrase is "blowouts"), but apparently you haven't had enough just yet. The medical team had to draw blood from you and send it to the lab to be tested. If your bilirubin count is too high, they would keep us there another day so you could have treatments under the bili-lights. There's a whole "bili" world apparently that I didn't know much about. It turned out that your bili-count was only up to 11 and the magic number meaning we'd have to stay was higher at 15. Thankfully, we packed our things and made our way home. You had your first ride in your mom's Ford Escape, and your own infant seat. It was very non-dramatic, just like the Ford Escape. Okay, that little jab wasn't necessary, but it felt good.

The next big event was attempting to feed you. You got into this pattern of fighting before you feed...hmm...fight-n-feed. You will throw a huge fit as your mom tries to nurse you. You will move your arms in front of the...ahem..nipple, you rare your head back and forth and side to side, you kick your legs angrily, and all the while you'll have your mouth open saying "feed me!". It's pretty exasperating for you all of us. Your mom is trying something new every feeding now (cuz she's a champ who won't give in so easily). I just keep encouraging her b/c sooner or later you and she will find the right combination. One thing we have all derived about you is that you have quite a temper. One book I've been reading says that you may be getting overstimulated during this time. But that would probably mean that you are getting overstimulated quite a bit. But here's the cool thing: you sleep like a little angel. And when I hold you up to my chest, you just nuzzle your face into my neck and find your peace. Those moments are pure gold. ...It makes me tear up a little even now thinking about you...sleeping in the other room. You're going to have us all working our rear ends off for the next 6570 days, and it will be tough. But I am hoping that most of those days are "neck nuzzling" type of days for us.

There were other hairy adventures today that I'll just briefly mention.

• I had to go to the doctor for a strained ligament in my foot. He speculated that it may actually be partially torn, and gave me some medicine, some treatments and a lace up foot brace(ugh). I'm supposed to go easy on it for the next 3 weeks.
  
• Another wonderful issue is that our garage door opener is acting up. It's not working correctly so I have to find a remedy fast (before I go back to work next week)...and I'm afraid that it will be expensive.
  
• We have to find someone to mow the lawn since my foot is messed up.
• Our toilets are both leaking, though slowly. I'll be fixing them this week if everything goes as planned.
• Topping it all off is this sense (Kendra & I both) that we have so much to do to get things straightened out in our house for you. I know it's weird. None of the problems are going anywhere, so the rush is only percieved. But that instinct is kicking up in both of us.

Of course, we are soooo blessed to have you, and we have had other blessings today as well:

• Your Nana and Auntie Terri are here staying with us to help us out with stuff.
• Jan Sturdivant from church brought us food from Market Place Grille - it was very satisfying! She also brought a pie and some banana bread, all very well received.
  
• Jan also brought a gift bag from herself, Sheryl Pachosa and Lisa Vanover. It had all kinds of great stuff in it that you will enjoy either directly (a great Teddy Bear and book) or indirectly (a box of 1 million baby wipes, or so it looks like - this box is huge).
• Also, I have been encouraged by the phone calls and email of friends and family that have wished us well over the past 4 days. We have received a ton of email and it's really picked me up when I have been tired or discouraged (seriously, we're going to have to work on your temper!).

I hate to forget anything, but I also know that I need some sleep in order to do it all again tomorrow. What am I talking about, I'll be doing it again every "2 to 3 hours". I love you buddy, and it is overwhelming to me (tearing up again) as I think about all of the blog entries I made to you over the past months. I am now merging those thoughts and dreams with your actual face, your body language, your dimpled chin, your light brown hair, your sweet smile, your temperament and mannerisms, your gestures...it's all finally become real for me. And I love you even more now. ~Dad.