Xmas pictures

Cousin Toya meets Jordan for the first time.

Jordan, in 15 years, I am going to tell you to mow the lawn. You will tell me no. I will show this picture to your girlfriend. That will be my punishment for you.

A special thanks to Aunt Shirley for making the trip to FL. I know it was rough for you, but it was worth it.

This is the 1st picture of the 3 of us since the NICU. I don't know how to rotate pictures on the blog yet, so just rotate your head.

You know, back before digital photos, it might have been unusual to see 3 people taking pictures of each other taking pictures. Of course, I was camera #4.

My guest commentator from last week. My sister Traci. If you think she looked nervous, you should see her reaction when someone says she's standing on the oxygen tube.

It doesn't get any cuter than this.

Mommy got her hair done.

Counsin Tony and baby Jordan.

Guest Commentary

Xmas pictures are coming soon, but I figured that my sister Traci might want to say something since she leaves comments about every 10 days anyhow...

So, the Auntie's perspective....
If you you've been reading the comments, you know I've been following Jordan's progress (almost religiously) through the blog. Well, let me just say that the pictures, the videos, the blog posts, the phone calls...none of it compares to seeing him in person! The last time I saw Jordan was right before he crossed the two pound mark...and while I look at him now and still think "oh, he's so little!", I remember where he's come from and am amazed at his progress. Add to that, seeing how well Big Ali and Mama Ali have eased into the roles of Daddy and Mommy makes me...proud - for lack of a better word. I guess that I'm trying to say that seeing the positive growth in my brother's family is something so amazing, and wonderful to see!

But back to Jordan...I got to hold him! Actually, I've gotten to do a lot of things that I've never done before, including changing my first "boo boo" diaper (Big Ali set me up on that one- he could have warned me :). I wanted to be around when they changed his cannula, but I missed that. Funny story, though: Jordan is slick! If you hold him a certain way, he knows that he can turn his head a certain way, rub his face against you and slip his cannula out of his nose. The first time I held him, I didn't know that. Well, as someone who hasn't had many children around her, and no experience with a baby so young, Jordan turned his head, slipped his cannula out and I freaked! We got it back in with no problem, but my cousin claims I almost killed her, she was laughing so hard. I guess it makes sense that he'd be able to make it for a few seconds without the cannula, but I had to be on point for this visit (Mama Ali and I have a history involving me as driver of her car and a mailbox) or I'd never get to babysit :)

Baby J is sitting behind me as I type, and I'm getting the itch again- I've got to get my last little bit of love in before I hit the road so in closing, Happy Christmas, Merry Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa anything else I missed, and a Happy New Year...and God Bless us Everyone!

Red Letter Day

Last night was a special night. First, Jordan was fed by grandma at about 4pm. After that, she left, and he kept fussing on and off all night. Between 5pm and 10 pm I fed him 3 bottles. I would have fed him larger amounts, but I refused to believe that he was still hungry. Anyway, by 10 pm I gave him over 12 ounces, and he gave me back 2 – 3 if you count the diaper. By the time he gets to sleep, I tell the mama Ali that she’ll have to do the late night feed. When he wakes up for the late night, she changes his diaper first and puts him down while she heats the bottle. By the time she gets back, he’s fast asleep. He stays asleep until sunrise! He goes the entire night without eating for the first time since he started eating! I know he probably won’t do it again for another couple of weeks, but now we can look forward to getting a full night sleep - uninterrupted.

Several people have been calling me and asking me what the baby needs for the holidays. Most of this has been from people coming to visit. The baby has plenty of clothes, but even his mother admits he doesn’t need anymore. The baby does not take an interest in toys yet, but we have a couple of those to start out with. The baby has swings, a high chair, and even a walker. The baby needs someone to wash and sterilize his bottles next week. The baby needs someone to feed him about every 4 hours – especially at night. The baby needs someone to change his crappy diaper while mom and dad are eating Xmas dinner. The baby needs someone to pee on while said diaper is being changed. The baby needs his laundry done. The baby needs someone to clean him up when he decides that he drinks 4 ounces but only wanted 3. Most importantly, the baby needs plenty of love and attention from people wearing clean clothes who have clean hands. I’m not making a threat, just a warning. No one gets through to see the baby until the mama Ali says so. If you get on her good side, you get more time with the baby.

Action and reaction

Jordan has become quite the adorable little baby. He now lets everyone know when he has to poop. He makes this groaning sound and tenses his whole body. He doesn’t really know which muscles to use yet, so to be on the safe side he uses them all. He sounds like he’s lifting a really heavy weight and it is usually accompanied by the sound of him passing gas.

He is spending about four or five hours a day awake and he’s learning a lot about the world – I hope. He hasn’t started to interact with it yet. He sees fine but doesn’t react. He finds the ceiling to be as interesting as the lit Xmas tree. He will look at his parents all day long, but won’t smile or interact in any way. The only way I can get him to do anything is I can make him blink by poking his eyes (yes, I wash my hands). He is such a serious looking baby sometimes I feel as if I’m auditioning on American Idol and he’s that British guy. Of course, everything works fine on the opposite direction. He makes one little sound and we react. I’ve seen his burps wake his mother at 3 am. I burp – he does nothing. Personally, I’m getting crazy about his development. He kicks his legs a lot and is starting to get good at playing with his cannula. He doesn’t care for any of his toys yet. When we hold him and he wants to turn from side to side he will only use his neck muscles, he doesn’t push off with his arms. I guess I just want to make sure that they all work OK, but I don’t really need him to start using them yet. The first time he pushes up it will be away from me.

I was going to put some photos up, but it’s a week till Xmas. Half the people reading this will be in the pictures soon, and the other half will have plenty to look at next week. Maybe if we’re lucky I can get him to smile.

Doctor's Visit

There was a doctor’s appointment Friday. First we visited the pulmonolgist. In the past when we take Jordan out he sleeps until you mess with him. This time, he was awake – and hungry. Overall, that’s not a problem, but he got hungry while they tried to get him to breathe without oxygen. He was screaming bloody murder because he wanted 3 ounce of formula – NOW, BITCH!!! That did not work, so they tried it while he was taking a bottle. Long story short, he needs to go 30 minutes without oxygen. He went less than 10. We’ll try again in a month.

He also had an appointment with the eye doctor. This was good news. His eyes are perfectly normal for a baby. No ROP, no immaturity, no nothing. The eye doctor won’t need to see him for another 6 months. The doctor didn’t even seem all that concerned about the cross eyed thing. It’s nice to have a specialist that we won’t have to see until next summer.

Jordan is in the 50th percentile for his adjusted age. That means he weighs more than half the kids born on his due date of November 3rd. Of course, he was born 117 days early on July 9th, and he weighs less than 99% of kids born on that date. He now weighs 10 pounds 11 ounces. He’s getting ready to move to a bigger diaper size. His formula costs roughly a dollar per bottle and he doesn’t care. He is also awake more and starting to move around more. He might even smile by the end of the month.

Shower Pictures

I think they spent part of the time playing with play-doh.

This is a picture of Tonya, who was nice enough to host the shower, and the guest of honor opening the gifts.

He would have been the guest of honor, but he's clearly not getting a shower, but a bath. He peed on me 30 seconds after I took this picture.

This is his excerise outfit for when he has to defecate really hard, really fast, and really often. Plus he looks cute.

This 'cake' is filled with various items for my son to crap himself in. That's why we took this picture, because it will soon be gone.

What do you do with a stinky baby?

You throw him a shower! I would have posted pictures, but the Internet connection at home was down last night. One of the best thing about being Jordan's dad is that we don't take him out that much. That means I got stuck at home all day Sunday watching football. Of course, I spent a lot of time doing wonderful things with and to Jordan. I would list some of them, but his mother reads this blog. I will simply say that he is safe and no worse for the wear. If you want to see pictures, they should be up in a few days. If you want to read about the shower, you'll have to ask the mama ali. Many thanks to Tonya for throwing the shower. We know it was a pain hosting it, but we really do appreciate it.
Yesterday, I got to show Jordan how to change the battery in a 2002 PT Cruiser. He started crying about halfway through. I had all sorts of crud on my hands and knew better than to touch him or his stuff. However, I didn't want to stop working on the car either. I knew he wasn't hungry so I told him to man up. He did pretty well, except for one thing. When he looked up at the sky (it was cloudy so I let him), he looked a little cross eyed. We'll mention it to the eye doctor at Friday's appointment. The good news is that I got the battery changed and the car is working fine now.