Update

Simon is still in the NICU, but has made a lot of progress in the last two weeks. He was taken off of the ventilator on Wednesday 7/22, and moved from his previous room to a "transitional" room on Monday 7/27. The only treatment he is receiving now is a small amount of oxygen, to keep his oxygen saturations at high enough levels. They actually did take him off oxygen completely this past Tuesday, and we were told that if he made it through 48 hours with stable vital signs, that we could take him home on Friday. He made it for 40 hours, but then had some spells where his oxygen saturations dipped too low, while he was sleeping. (When awake, he is always fine.) So he's back on oxygen for the time being.

In the transitional room, we can take a lot more initiative for his care. So we can feed him whenever he is hungry (and I can breastfeed him if I want to, or we can give him a bottle of pumped milk, which is what they do when I'm not there.) We can also change him, pick him up, read him stories, and rock him to sleep. So it feels like we are contributing a lot more, which is nice for us.

We absolutely cannot WAIT to have him home. He's not quite ready yet, as he was a really sick little boy those first few days. But we are very, very hopeful that he'll be well enough soon.

Lots o' pictures are here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/reynolds.anne/SimonJamesReynoldsRyba#

A few of our favorites:

Our little boy

Simon James Reynolds Ryba

Born 7/17/2009, 11:59 p.m.

7 lb. 11 oz., 20 in.

Simon has been in the neonatal intensive care unit since shortly after birth. He aspirated meconium in to his lungs during delivery, and has needed assistance breathing and other support while he recovers from this. The first few days were a struggle to balance things like his oxygen saturation, blood pressure, heart rate, reaction to antibiotics and even sedation. He'll likely be in the NICU for another few weeks. But he is slowly but steadily improving, and we couldn't be prouder of our little boy for being such a fighter.

We will post more pictures soon. Thanks to everyone for their love, support and prayers over the past few days.

40 weeks

The waiting game

So... our due date is tomorrow. It's the ultrasound-calculated due date, which is pretty much what I thought the date should be from the beginning. But depending on which way you do the math, you can come up with anything from the 14th to the 17th. My doctor informs me that she thinks it should be the 17th.... BOO. But for obvious reasons, I like the 14th. Which means it's tomorrow.

Which means I'm officially impatient! We're ready to meet this kid already!

Not to mention the fact that there is family pressure - tomorrow is my sister's birthday AND my uncle's birthday. My mom reminded me early on that she managed to have my sister on her brother's birthday, so surely I can manage to have this kid on my sister's birthday. Believe me, there is nothing that I would love more than for that to happen! But I have this sinking feeling that this kid isn't going anywhere for another week or so. We'll keep you posted!

The baby's room

It was a great 3-day weekend that was both productive and relaxing. The biggest news is that we finished off the nursery set-up -- we only had little things left to do, but it is wonderful to finally have them done.

We'll hit the 39-week mark on Tuesday! So it's a good thing that I also got my hospital bag packed this weekend. Fingers crossed that we'll get to use it sooner rather than later... we're ready to meet our little man already!

Passed!

Just a quick note to say that I passed the Patent Bar exam! I couldn't be more relieved. Now we can focus entirely on our little one's upcoming arrival!!!

It's been awhile...

But in our defense, we've been busy!

Thankfully the move went well, and we are mostly unpacked and settled. There are still a few things to do, but for the most part we have things put away. Again, I had very little to do with the entire process, other than taking things out of boxes when they were set in front of me and then letting Troy put the things away. Anyway, photos of the new place can be found here.

As will be clear from the photos, we have lots of built-in shelves that we haven't done anything with yet, but that will all get done in time. The only room we don't have a picture of is the guest bedroom, because that's been the staging area for unpacking and we still aren't done setting it up. And obviously we've got a start on the nursery, but still lots to do like washing clothes and bedding, hanging stuff on the walls, etc.

We also had a wonderful weekend in Princeton, NJ for Michael & Sarah's wedding. Oh - and I've been studying for the Patent Bar Exam, which I am taking in 3 days. (Yes, I am somewhat insane. But I really want to get it out of the way before the baby arrives.)

Photo of me at 36 weeks is below! Everything is still going smoothly, except for the typical stuff like being tired and not sleeping wonderfully anymore. But that's all to be expected at this point!