Day Nineteen

After today’s call to the NICU, we are more confident that today will be Jaxon’s last full day at the hospital. He effortlessly won the car seat challenge this morning. His rash is still an issue, but the medical team seems to think it’s manageable. His weight seems to be stabilizing and he is eating and pooping normally. Jax’s heart rate and oxygen levels appear to be at normal specifications and his jaundice treatment has ended. He adapting to life with a circumcised willy and he seems to have good motor reflects. Arriving seven weeks before his original due date, he seems to be a solidly-built tiny person.

As a result, we are preparing to bring Jax home. This means cleaning as much as we can, assembling some last minute baby furniture and monitoring equipment. That is going as well as you would expect. The Pack-n-Play, which pretends to be portable and easy to use and assemble but is the size of a 1970s console television – and about as heavy. It takes up significant real estate in our living room and, naturally is a magnet for cats. Lara pushed me to have most things ready earlier, so if you’re keeping score at home, that’s a point for her. As a guy, I was vaguely aware of baby showers but thought that we could get those things ourselves. Thankfully, no one listened to me.

Certainly, we are very fortunate to have gifts and good thoughts from all of you. While many of you had a role in that, obviously, I’d like to thank Lara’s sister-in-law Donna for organizing parts one and two of the baby shower. And Donna, no, I didn’t get a push present as everything got pushed. For shower’s three and four, Angie, Shaila, and Kim did an amazing, incredible job. We would not have the things we needed for our kiddo without them. Thank you.

I’ve categorized these particular posts as “delivery”. The reason why is because Lara and I see delivery in the same way one would see the arrival of a package from Amazon – it has not arrived until you bring that package into your home. Once Jaxon crosses the threshold of our door, then he has been “delivered” and that will officially start our life together as a family: three humans and two and a half cats.

While Lara and I haven’t had this conversation about delivery, we instinctively did not remove our parental identification bracelets. Sure, part of it is out of convenience – we need them to enter the hospital, bypassing security and get a free parking pass. And yes, it’s an efficient way to identify us as his parents, it’s more than that. They represent a piece of our baby and access to him – constant reminders that he is on his way and will be delivered. We went though so much pain and trepidation to earn our bracelets, it makes sense that we keep them around our wrists until that delivery promise is fulfilled.

That’s it for now, thanks for your thoughts.