Foot prints from hospital

Big feet.

I'm one week old

We were at doctor's offices all day today. We are all very tired and am glad to have a weekend to rest. The doctor changed Aiden's formula so that he may have a better time digesting his food. Currently, he is having very long nights and this means that mommy and daddy are sharing those with him. We hope switching to "Enphamil Gentle Ease LIPIL" will cure our issues so we can finally get some sleep through the night.

The doctor also feels that the jaundice will be gone before we know it. Aiden's color gets better and better every day. 

---

Mimi and Papaw came over tonight to visit me. Mimi got to feed and burp me. Before mommy and daddy could tell Mimi to not feed more than 45 mL, Mimi showed everyone an empty bottle (60 mL). After they left and I was laid down to sleep, I spit up. Ouch! Mommy and daddy are going to have to do a better job of monitoring that or they may get fired.

Mimi burping me

At the doctor today.

Medical Update

Yesterday went good. We headed back to the hospital to get blood taken for his jaundice test. His jaundice is dropping and the doctor is pleased enough to stop testing him for it at this time even though he is above the lower limit.

We have an appointment with the cardiologist at Children's Hospital for late February. Dr. Sharma is the one that read the ECHO and wanted a followup visit. That day can't come soon enough for mommy and daddy. We are feeling better about the diagnosis since we believe it not to be an immediate need. Hopefully, the heart condition will just have to be monitored and watched as he grows but we will know more in a month.

Other news

I had a great time last night. Mommy and daddy pulled a surprise and allowed my cousins to come over early. Even Aunt Heather was allowed to hold me. What a treat! Lulabelle and Princess Jonsey were both very excited to see me for the first time. I have pictures below to prove it. They told daddy he was spelling their nicknames wrong and set him down to tell him just how to spell them. Jonsey wanted "Princess" in front of her nickname.

Pictures from last night.

Princess Jonsey getting the bed ready

Aunt Heather holding me (Princess Jonsey, Aunt Heather, Lulabelle, and Mimi)

Princess Jonsey holding me.

Lulabelle holding me with Princess Jonsey being funny.

Uncle Wesley feeding me

Guess what. Another appointment.

The first pediatrician visit went well. We did receive the report from the Cardiologist at Children's through our pediatrician. The report was brief and detailed the findings. We have a followup visit with the cardiologist and we are going to leave it at that for now. We have not received an appointment time yet but we guess we will have an appointment scheduled by tomorrow. But there seems to be no rush on getting him there so we are viewing this as a good sign. They seem to think this is more a function of Aiden being nearly three weeks early. At least that keeps coming up in every conversation we have even though we didn't feel that was a big deal. Evidently, we were wrong. We do have to go back to the hospital and pediatrician tomorrow for another test regarding his jaundice. It is going the wrong way and we can't seem to stop it. Hopefully tomorrow it will show a sign of going backwards.

You can see Aiden taking it easy in his bassinet he is borrowing from his cousins Jonathan and Victoria. He slept like a champ in it! Aiden also wanted to say "Happy Birthday" to Victoria since their birthdays are very close.

Mommy feeding Aiden tonight. Where does he get that dark complexion?

Mimi and Papaw looking in the car at Aiden. None of Eric's family is allowed within breathing distance of me until Friday because Aunt Heather contaminated everyone with a nasty virus (the hospital even quarantined her). I have not met my cousins Lula Bell and Jonsey yet and I can't wait to have them hold me. It will be like having two more mom's that want to change my diaper and tell me what I am doing wrong.

About to be examined.

Just waiting for the Doctor to come in.

At first Doctor Appointment

Children's Update

We have went to Children's Hospital. We were there bright and early this morning. We hope the cardiologist reads our test data before our 3 pm appointment in a hour or so. I will post back more information after the visit.

Day 4

This will be short, be forewarned. We want to thank everyone for the prayers, phone calls. offers of help (even getting the groceries), and emails. We should have something posted up by 6 pm tomorrow night.

Children's had a miscue and sent their technician home early and we missed being seen. We have to be back at Children's at 8 am. They are going to run the Echo and other test(s) before we head to our pediatrician's office at 3 pm. The doctor this morning said he thinks it may be PDA instead of VSD. Either way, it is getting harder to hear and for that, we are very grateful.

Kelly's mom is here (grandma) and they are taking care of the baby while daddy goes to bed because daddy is a sleep deprived nervous wreck. Mommy is somehow going around the house getting things ready for little Aiden. Daddy and grandma said "slow down" but mommies are mommies. 

Mommy is doing better but that is very relative to the night where daddy was about to loose it looking at both of them and thinking which one will kill him faster. :-) After seeing thee day old Aiden roll himself over on his side in the crib, daddy is thinking Aiden, but it will be a long, slow and painful process starting in about 16 years. Mommy enjoys it too much to actually let me get off the hook.

To Lulu Bell and Jonesy, Aiden has laid claim to the orange bedroom unless you make a comment on here. He has left a poopy diaper in it too! Baby Aiden can't wait to see you both, he wants to meet his cousins and share cow lick stories.

January 26 - Waiting for the discharge notice (notice Mimi's quilt)

Aidens first bottle. Breast feeding didn't go so well for us.

Auntie Kendra being cautious before approaching nephew Aiden. 

Daddy and Aiden hanging out

Day 3

Last night was a very long night. Aiden is doing fine, just crying a lot and not wanting to sleep unless he is tucked up next to mommy. Daddy's hands and blue jeans are not that comfortable. 

The doctor came in this morning and gave us some good news. The heart murmur that was present yesterday has reduced in volume drastically and the doctor feels this is good news. So do we since he feels this way. We are anxiously awaiting tomorrows visit to Children's Hospital to confirm this.

Mommy experienced complications last night from surgery and had all the nurses in our room non-stop throughout the night. When they worry, we start worrying. There was a lot to worry about last night and daddy passed out from exhaustion around 1 am and didn't even hear little baby Aiden cry (yell) 10 feet away. Mommy came in from the hallway to see what was going on and there was daddy sleeping on a bed where his legs hanging off and little baby needing some attention. Mommy is doing better this afternoon but progress is slow going. Unless you are immediate family, you are not allowed to visit today.

-----------------

The above was wrote by noon. It is now 6:30 pm and everyone is just getting settled down. Kelly is going to try and get some sleep and that just leaves me up to watch baby Aiden. He is sleeping now as well.

Kelly's mom came and stayed the day with us and we want to thank her for that.

Day 2 with Aiden

This morning (Saturday) daddy thought it was Sunday afternoon. Daddy can't get a grasp of time since all the excitement has started.

This morning we received some news that was not good to hear. Our pediatrician came by and delivered the news that Aiden has a heart murmur. The doctor believes this to be a hole in his heart between the great pumping chambers, often called VSD. Monday morning the hospital is going to call and schedule an appointment to have an echo cardiogram at Children's Hospital performed. The staff at Children's who routinely schedules these appointments are not in. After that appointment, we are hoping to go straight to our pediatrician to get the results. THe doctor did say he believes this to be a small hole that closes up on its own. Let's pray he is correct.

Mommy is recovering and doing better every hour. Everyone is waiting anxiously for good news on Monday.

Aiden Reece Barger is here!

Right after making the post about deciding the name, Kelly went to bed. At ~10:30 pm Kelly let me know that something was wrong. I knew something was out of the ordinary but I was not expecting the next few minutes to transpire as they did. Kelly complained of two sharp pains right as she laid down to go to bed. After a brief two minute conversation, Kelly called her doctor. Keep an eye on it. Fifteen minutes later, Kelly says it is time and pack the bags.

 

We just took our time and showered, packed, and loaded the car. By the time I had the car loaded, Kelly was sure that we had to get moving or else. We drove to the hospital like normal people drive to the movies and entered the hospital. Upon arrival into the hospital, we learned that Kelly was very close to delivering the baby. Whoa! We got to skip all that stuff on the videos we had to watch in pre-birthing classes.

Aiden under the warming lamp 

After two hours of hard pushing and zero progress, Kelly went in for a C-Section. At 7:37 am I was holding my breathe waiting for someone to acknowledge our child was A-OK! 7 ponds, 3 ounces, and 20 inches later we were both hanging on every word.

The longest minutes of my life past by. At the sight of our child we both cried our eyes out like little girls. Aiden didn't say a word. He just went with the punches and I am pretty sure didn't mind the attention from all the females in the room. 

He has been fed, had his first bath, and was held by daddy for ~45 minutes while mommy had very important things to do. What a sight! We both are very thankful we have a healthy happy boy.

Aiden's first bath

Nieces bring over the coming home outfit

Tonight the girls came over to give Aunt Kelly and Uncle E the "outfit" that little Baby Boy Barger will go home. They went shopping after school today to find the outfit. They were supposed to wait until Saturday but I don't think they could wait until then. They love to shop.

After much debate in the store, an argument over coordinating the outfit between the girls, a decision was made. Little britches would get dibs on the baby suit and Lula Bell would have dibs on the baby suit. Put them together and you now have a well coordinated outfit for little baby to come home in.  

Below are photo's of the nights presentation.

It is official. We have a name!

It is official. It was decided on this day, January 22, 2009, the name of Baby Boy Barger. We are not telling the name, we are just telling you that we have a name. :-)