James

I took a few pictures of James this morning.

There are more pictures at flickr

Christmas

The kids made a killing this year. I really didn't think that they had all that much until I saw it under the tree.

Pam was thrilled that Santa ate all the cookies she left.

The three older kids unwrapping their gifts. There was a sea of paper and boxes by the time they were done. Actually, we are still under a sea of boxes.

Merry Christmas

The Snyder kids want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Anthony is having a very hard time going to bed. I have chased him back to his room many times already. I will post pictures of the destruction tomorrow. I will be surprised if the tree stays standing after Anthony and Pam get to it.

(click on the picture to see more)

pictures

Here is James all dressed and ready to come home.

Anthony enjoying the snow.

You can click on the pictures to take you to flickr to see more.

James is Home

Friday was an event filled day. When Mary called the NICU to check on James in the morning she got a scare as the nurse told her that they didn't have a James Snyder in the NICU. Luckily the nurse who had been caring for him overheard this and quickly corrected her that he had been transferred to the ISCU (Infant Special Care Unit). This was one step closer to home. Mary called the nurse in the ISCU, but she had just been informed that James was her patient and had no vitals to report other than saying that if he was moved there he must be doing better and that the doctor was supposed to make rounds within the hour. I wanted more info (being a numbers guy) and asked Mary to get more info by lunch. School was cancelled, so she was busy with the other 3 and did not get a chance to call before I called home at lunch time, so she called them while I finished my lunch and they said we could bring him home. His respiration rate was still a litlle high, but we were supposed to get a decent winter storm over the weekend and they determined he would be better off at home. I cut out of work early to go with them to get James and on the way home got in a fender bender. My front bumper was ripped off and the other car had some minor damage. Thankfully nobody was hurt. A King County Sheriff's officer pulled up behind us and helped us clear the road. Since we were in Snohomish county, she told us to exchange info and fill out some form she gave us and be on our way, but his insurance company told him to get a police report. This ended up being costly for him since he had 2 kids in the car that were not in car seats. One of them was 2 weeks old. I finally got home and we went into the city and got James. Anthony informed the nurse that the baby goes in the car seat as soon as we got there, but we told him that James needed to get dressed warm first (and be discharged). The kids are fighting (politely) over who gets to hold him next. I had to avoid him all weekend since I have been sick. Mary is sick now but, being that she is his primary food source, she can't avoid him. All this and we still have almost none of the Christmas shopping done.

Day 3

I did not make it down to see James today. There was going to be a big snow storm and I thought it wise to stay off the roads. The snow hasn't really come yet.

I called the NICU a couple of times today and I do have some news. James was taken off oxygen and antibiotics. His feedings also went up to 10cc of formula. So he is doing really well. His respiratory rate is still around 78 and they want that down between 40 and 60. Hopefully that will come down soon and he will then be able to have a bottle. Because once those two things happen he should be able to come home.

The kids had a snow day and stayed home so I had fun with them watching TV and playing video games. I am hoping to make it down to see James tomorrow if the weather is good. So maybe I'll have a few more pictures tomorrow.

Day 2

James was happier today. He is no longer under the oxygen hood. This means he can finally suck his thumb. When we got down to the hospital we were able to hold him so that made Jaime and I feel a lot better.

It also made big brother very happy. He did get a bit depressed when he realised that he couldn't hold James but he took it well.
The other big news is that James was able to eat for the first time since arriving at Swedish. James now has a tube going through his nose and down to his stomach. Jaime was able to give him his first feeding there, a tiny 2cc of formula.

This is good progress for the little guy. We are still waiting on test results but they should be in tomorrow. So hopefully, we will know a little bit more soon.

To try and keep things normal for the older two, we took Pam to gymnastics and Aaron to basketball tonight.

If you want to see more pictures click on one and it will take you to flickr.

James was born

James entered the world on 14 Dec at 1:13. He weighed in at 9lbs. 8ozs. and is 22in. long.

I came home from the hospital yesterday morning and at the same time James was transferred to Swedish Medical Center's NICU. James is doing fine. He is just having a little trouble with breathing. The doctors are fairly sure that he has a little fluid in his lungs from when he was born that is causing him to have a bit of trouble. They are sure he is fine and should be released in a few days. The doctors just want him to be watched carefully while his body does its thing and gets the fluid absorbed.

Jaime and I took the kids up to see James last night. James is on oxygen and they are slowly bringing the levels down so he should be off the hood and on to the tube in his nose today. Other than that they have him on IV fluids and antibiotics. The antibiotics are for just in case he is sick. They are still running a bunch of tests to rule things out.

Just to recap...James is doing fine they just want to watch him to be sure he stays fine. And I am tired but home.

Food and Santa

Really what could be better?

Aaron had a practice game for Basketball that morning along with Basketball pictures. So Aaron was not able to stay long for the Santa Breakfast last Sat. He helped set up the craft stuff for the little ones. Aaron had planned to help out more but he did enough to finish earning his Religious Square knot for Cub Scouts. He was also able to eat a little food before he had to leave to get his picture taken. What fun that was for Jaime and I.

Pam, Anthony, EJ and Caroline stayed with me and made candy cane reindeer. Yeah. Did I mention we brought 2 extra kids with us? They were really well behaved for me so it wasn't that big of a deal.

Anthony was a smart cookie. He noticed a lot of adults on the stage and he lined up with a few older kids. He is a smart one that boy. He was one of the first ten kids to see Santa. I heard him ask for a Diego something. Knowing Anthony it was probably all Go Diego Go toys.

Pam waited in line for a while because she was busy playing. She was very excited and asked for the Dora the Explorer game for the Wii.

Aaron's game went OK. they lost but it doesn't count on their record. And still no baby. But James will be here no later than this Sunday. My doctor is having me induced Sunday. So hopefully I'll feel up to posting a few pictures of the little guy by Monday.

trains

As everyone who knows Anthony would know, he loves trains. Everyday I find him playing with his Thomas the Train wooden trains. So it shouldn't have surprised me that one of his first drawing that I can tell what it is that he drew is of a train.


He even drew the trains tender. I am not sure when he drew this exactly. I found it last night when I was cleaning the living room.

Not much else is going on here.

We had a nice Thanksgiving. Lots of food and lots of sleepy days watching TV with the kids.