His First Week

Jack was one week old yesterday. This past week has flown by but last Thursday still feels like a million miles away.

After Jack was born he was taken straight to the NICU due to some breathing issues and he was hooked up to a ventilator and an IV. They weren't able to get the IV in his arm or leg so they had to put it in his head. He wasn't on the ventilator for very long and then they just put him under an oxygen hood to help his breathing. He was hooked up to heart rate and respiratory monitors and placed on a heating bed.

I was in recovery from my C-section and I wasn't able to get out of bed and in a wheelchair to see him in the NICU until about 6 hours after he was born. Zack arrived about 2.5 hours after he was born and was able to go straight to the NICU to be with him while I recovered. At 3:00 am on Friday morning, he had the hood removed which was only 12 hours after he was born. That was very encouraging.

Grandpa (my dad) flew in at a moment's notice that night on a midnight flight. Grandpa was indispensable for those first two days as he took care of Aida so Zack could stay with me in the hospital. He took her to the movies and the pumpkin patch. He is such a good grandpa (and dad) to our family.

Saturday, they were able to take him off the warming bed and into a regular bassinet (his big boy bed) but they did have to insert a feeding tube. At this point his breathing and temperature were pretty stable and now he just needed to learn how to eat. He was still sleeping most of the day and not waking up for all of his feedings so he needed the tube to make sure he was getting enough food and gaining weight.

On Sunday morning he had his IV taken out. The hardest part was pulling off all the tape that was stuck to his hair but he hardly even cried, just sucked like crazy on his pacifier that was dipped in sugar water.

Sunday morning, Zack and I finally narrowed in on a name and made it official. We named him Jack David Benway. Jack has always been one of my favorite boy's names and Zack's dad used to tell him and his brothers stories about "Captain Jack", a character he made up that went on crazy adventures. David is Zack's dad's name and his oldest brother's name. His dad passed away in 2000 so even though Jack and Aida will never meet their grandpa we wanted to remember and honor him by carrying on his name with his grandson.

I was discharged from the hospital on Sunday afternoon. I had the option to stay another day but due to the hospital's policy of no children allowed during flu season, I hadn't been able to see Aida since last Thursday and I missed her too much. It was bittersweet leaving Jack in the hospital but getting to see Aida's smiling face at the window when we pulled into the driveway was wonderful.

My mom had to leave on Monday afternoon so it was a short trip for her, she had to go to a conference but is returning on the following Saturday and will then get to stay for another week. Jack just spent the day sleeping, eating and looking cute.

His billirubin levels weren't dropping as fast as the doctor would have liked, so they put him on the lights on Tuesday. His levels weren't bad but they figured they might as well take care of it while he was still in the hospital. He was only on the light bed for about 12 hours and then didn't have any more issues with jaundice.

We had a huge snowstorm on Wednesday that lasted all the way into Thursday morning. It dumped over a foot of snow but Jack stayed nice and cozy inside the hospital. (Seriously, they keep that special care nursery heated to about 80 degrees, it is always so warm and toasty in there.)

On Thursday morning, we took Aida sledding before going to the hospital. We couldn't pass up all the snow since it was supposed to warm back up on Friday and melt everything. She loved the sledding but mostly she just liked to eat all the snow.

Zack and I headed to the hospital around 3:00pm for Jack's one week birthday. He had a celebratory bottle just for the occasion.

After his feeding, he had his first real bath and he loved it. The nurse kept him wrapped in a blanket even when she put him in the water and then we wrapped him in a huge towel straight out of the warming oven and put him on a warming bed to dry him off. The nurse took his tube out and switched it to the other side so it was nice to see his little face without the tube for at least a few minutes. He totally thought he was at the baby spa.

Happy one week, little guy!! You've had a busy week but you are doing great and we can't wait for you to come home. We love you!

Welcome to...

Jack David Benway
10/22/09 3:24pm
5 lbs. 14 oz.
19 1/4 inches

Baby Boy Benway!

He's here! Five and a half weeks early but he's here! We don't have a name yet but here are the other details:

Born at 3:24 pm on 10/22/09 (original due date of 11/28/09)
5 lbs. 14 oz.
19 1/4 inches

I will post the whole crazy story of how I woke up one morning thinking I would be having a normal day, taking Aida to preschool and maybe Bouncetown in the afternoon and end up having a baby instead. :)

But for now, here are some videos of The Birth:

And here is a video I took at about 3am after they took his oxygen dome thing off:

Sick Day

Aida came down with a little viral infection in her chest on Tuesday. It came on pretty quickly, Tuesday morning she was fine and by the time I picked her up from the babysitter at 5pm she was breathing like Darth Vader. We tried to teach her how to clear her throat or cough up some of that phlegm but she wasn’t very good at it so it was just rattling around in her chest all night. We did all the normal things: chicken soup, a steamy bath, Vicks Baby Rub, and a humidifier with eucalyptus oil. She didn’t have a fever so we just put her to bed. She woke up about half and hour later in a panic because she couldn’t catch her breath. She had so much build up in her throat and chest that she couldn’t clear and it was making it hard for her to breath. I didn’t want to risk that it might actually be an infection in her lungs since her breathing was so labored so we decided to take her to the doctor.

She did have a low grade fever (100.8) so they gave her some Tylenol and that perked her right up. She started exploring everything in the hospital room and Zack was trying not to have a germophobic meltdown by washing his and Aida’s hands every 5 minutes. The doctor confirmed it was just an upper respiratory infection and not in her lungs and sent us home.

We kept her home all day on Wednesday and she was already starting to feel better. She is pretty much back to normal today except for her cute little scratchy voice. She still can’t quite clear her throat and I couldn’t resist taking a video, which means of course she clammed right up as soon as I pressed record. :)

New York, New York!

We went to New York last weekend for Zack's brother's (Dave) wedding to the lovely Sherrie. We left on Thursday morning and came back Monday evening and had such a fun time seeing the sites and visiting with all of Zack's family. It's rare that Zack and all 3 of his brothers and his mom are ever in the same place at the same time so it was a great weekend catching up with everybody. Aida had the best time. When I told her we were going to New York and it was a really big city she asked "Are there going to be skyscrapers?" I don't know where she even learned that word or associated it with big cities but she was excited when she saw how many skyscrapers there actually were.

Thursday night after we arrived and checked in, we went to Dave's apartment on the Upper East Side for an open house for all the family and wedding party. We were staying in Times Square (literally right across the street from the TKTS booth) and after a couple subway mishaps, being unable to catch a cab at rush hour during the UN weekend, and some walking we finally made it. It was such a fun night getting back in touch with everybody and Aida immediately became inseparable from her cousins, Dagny and Sumner (Dave's kids), and Alexis (Sherrie's niece). All we heard for the rest of the weekend was her asking when she would get to see her cousins again.

Friday we walked around Times Square and walked over to Herald Square to try to go to the top of the Empire State Building but we decided we didn't have enough time before we had to get ready for the rehearsal dinner. We thought we could just come back another day but ended up never making it to the top. After the rehearsal we had the rehearsal dinner at Le Train Bleu, a posh restaurant in the Bloomingdale's department store.

Saturday morning, Zack, Aida and I walked around Central Park. Aida played at one of the playgrounds and then we all rode the carousel. Zack left to go to Dave's house for some boy time before the wedding and Aida, Ysa (my sister-in-law) and I got ready, got a cab in record time (I think me being 7 months pregnant definitely helped) and made it to the church with about 10 minutes to spare. The wedding was at The Brick Church on Park Ave. It was a really beautiful ceramony and Sherrie looked absolutely gorgeous. The reception was at the New York Athletic Club and can I just say that was some of the best food I've ever had, wedding or not. Mushroom ravoli with sage cream sauce, goat cheese and fig salad, filet mignon and sea bass, fruit with vanilla creme sauce, and chocolate wedding cake. Aida and her cousins ran themselves ragged and we didn't get her to bed until close to midnight. Luckily she slept in till 10:30am on Sunday.

We went back to Dave's apartment on Sunday for brunch with all the family to see the newlyweds before they left for their honeymoon in Greece. After they left, the rest of the family all took a walk in Central Park and then went back to the hotel for some relaxing. I took a walk around our hotel while Zack and Aida were chilling. I went over to the NBC studios, Rockefeller Center, and Radio City Music Hall. I also stopped at Magnolia Bakery and bought two cupcakes. Those cupcakes were everything I've ever heard about Magnolia cupcakes and more. We went back to Dave's apartment for delivery New York pizza and more family time.

Monday morning we slept in later then we planned so by the time we packed and got checked out we had about 1.5 hours before we had to leave for the airport. We tried once again to make it to the top of the Empire State Building and actually got in the line but it was taking longer then we thought and we started to get nervous about time so we ended up bailing and catching a cab to the airport. We might have made it but I really didn't want to be stranded at La Guardia all day if we missed our flight.

Enough of me yapping, here is a slideshow of the pictures from our trip and a little video of Aida getting down at the reception:

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Congratulations Dave, Sherrie, Dagny and Sumner!