One Sick Baby

About a week ago Jackson started showing signs he was getting a cold. He started with a stuffy nose, then he got gunky eyes and could barely even open them they were so yucky. I was going to call the doctor on Friday the 5th to see if he thought I needed to take him in but he started sounding better so I decided not to (I was kicking myself later for not calling!). Later that night he started in with a cough and got really congested again, but I thought it would be fine to wait and call the doctor on Monday. His cough just gradually got worse and worse until Sunday night after the superbowl we decided we better take him in to the ER. We were still up in Tremonton at Corey's family so we just decided to take him in to the hospital up there.

At the hospital they tested him for RSV, took chest x-rays, did bloodwork, and ended up deciding that he had bronchialitis. They decided to admit him because he wasn't able to keep his oxygen levels up on his own. A respiratory therapist would come in 4 0r 5 times a day and do some deep suctioning on him which is just sticking a little tube really far up his nose and sucking the mucus out. They put him on oxygen and they also did a few nebulizer treatments hoping that they would help him breathe better.

He ended up staying for two days (Corey's sister and mom were lifesavers and kept Raylee for us), and then on Tuesday they told us it was up to us on whether we wanted to stay another night or go home. He still wasn't keeping his oxygen levels up so if we went home we would have to have a homecare company come and bring the equipment we would need to have him on oxygen at home. We decided to go home since we didn't know how long he would need to be on oxygen (they said it could be a couple days up to two weeks) and we were tired of being at the hospital. So right now Jackson is stuck to about a ten foot radius in our family room. He is hooked up to an air compressor which filters the oxygen out of regular room air, as well as a pulse oximeter which measures heart rate as well as oxygen saturation levels, and we also have a humidifier going as well. We also took him in to Mckay Dee's bronchialitis clinic a couple times just to get him suctioned out so he doesn't get too congested again. He is still on the oxygen (5 days after getting out of the hospital), but is doing so much better at keeping his levels up and I think he will be off it completely in a couple days!

I have felt so bad for Jackson through this whole thing and wish there was something I could do to help, but he has been an angel. He was never extra fussy, and always ate really well. I definitely learned my lesson the hard way on this one, but I am so happy he is getting better now!

Superbowl!

The superbowl is always a big day in Coreys family. Each person has a football team that they cheer on, and everybody wears their team jerseys to superbowl party whether their team is playing or not. Corey is obviously training our kids to be dolphins fans and Raylee was so excited to wear her jersey. I tried it on her a few days before the superbowl to see if it would fit her and she didn't want to take it off after that. I know she would have worn it constantly if I let her. She calls it her superbowl.

All of Raylee's cousins in their team colors!

2 Weeks Old!

We took Jackson in for his two week appointment this last Thursday, and he is growing like a weed! The doctor said everything looks great, but I just can't believe how much he's grown in the last week. I guess I am just used to Raylee who just stayed small. Here are the stats from his 1 week checkup as well as his 2 week checkup.

1 Week
6 lb. 9 0z. 15th percentile

19 inches 12th percentile

2 Weeks

7 lb. 6 oz. 20th percentile

20 inches 25th percentile

Raylee is such a good big sister to Jackson. At times she is too helpful and smothers poor Jackson, but she is always really gentle. She tried to pick him up once, but after I told her that only big people can carry him, she hasn't tried since. She loves to give him kisses and hugs, as well as sing songs to him. She is constantly coming up to him and saying "Hi, Jackson", "Hi Brudder", or "Hi Buddy".

If Raylee is not right next to Jackson then she can often be found here in his carseat. Who knew that a carseat was such a great toy!

Poor Jackson already has to deal with a sister trying to make him girly. Raylee loves to share his jewelry with him. She especially likes it when he wears one of her rings.

There have been many times that I look over at Jackson and find Raylee's doll right there with him. I guess she doesn't want him to be left out of the fun!

First Bath!

We were finally able to give Jackson his first bath. Raylee thought it was pretty cool that he had a little bathtub. She kept saying little bath Jackson, big bath Raylee, and of course she had to help us give him his bath. Jackson seemed to really like it once he was in the warm water and didn't really cry at all which was the complete opposite of his sponge baths.

Our little monster!

Snow Fun!

Corey was able to take two weeks off after Jackson was born, and so he and Raylee got tons of playtime together. One of the things they did was go out and play in the snow a couple of times. Unfortunately, the snow wouldn't work for building a snowman, but Raylee still had a blast anyways!

He's Here!

Jackson Corey Barfuss

Jan. 14, 2010

6 lb. 4 oz.

19 1/2 in.

The Story:

My contractions started on Wednesday night at about 8:30. They were pretty far apart and not very painful so I wasn't too sure I was actually in labor. I went to bed at about 12 and was only able to get about an hour of sleep before they were strong enough and close enough together to wake me up and keep me up. My doctor told me not to go to the hospital until the contractions were 3 minutes apart, so I just got to wait around until about 5:30 and then we headed to the hospital. I was hoping when I went in that I would be dilated to like a 5, but I was only at a 3. My doctor came in at about 8:00 and broke my water and told me that if it took me too long to dilate I would have to have another c-section. After he left I got my epidural and was feeling good! I was expecting it to take quite a few more hours, but it ended up only taking about 3 hours to dilate from a 3 to a 10. I ended up pushing for about 40 minutes before he was born and was able to have a successful VBAC! I am so glad I decided to change doctors for this birth because the whole experience was so much more positive and I feel like it made a big impact on being able to do a VBAC.

During the delivery Jackson developed a heart arrhythmia which caused us a little bit of worry. The pediatrician thought that it wasn't anything serious, but had Jackson get an EKG and an echocardiogram just to be sure. Everything turned out ok, and the doctor said he would probably grow out of it.

Raylee came on Thursday night with my mom so she could see Jackson. She wasn't too sure about him at first and didn't really want to hold him, but she warmed up pretty quickly and now she won't stay away.

Raylee loved coming to sit with me on the bed and push the buttons to make the bed go up and down.

Our first family photo

We went home on Saturday morning. Coreys family has a tradition that the dad gets to pick out the going home outfit so we had to have a picture of Corey and Jackson in his going home outfit.

He looks so teeny tiny in the car seat.

Raylee thinks Jackson needs to be in the swing ALL the time. She loves to watch him in there and likes to put her toys on the tray so that he can see them.

We are absolutely loving life with our new little boy and can't believe how blessed we are to have two such cute kiddies.

Christmas

Christmas was a ton of fun this year. In fact, it was so fun and crazy, that I didn't really take any pictures at all. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning and Coreys family's house. On Christmas Eve we had a yummy dinner and a program and then we opened our jammies and one other present and sent the kids off to bed. Christmas morning was so much fun this year now that Raylee understood Santa a little better. She was really excited about her art easel, but the thing she was most excited for was that Santa had brought her a candy cane in her stocking. We spent Christmas day at my aunts house and then spent that night at my parents house so we could party more! Lots of fun!

Raylee's Stocking

When I finally brought our stockings up from the basement, I gave it to Raylee so she could see what it looked like. I turned around for a minute to do something and when I looked back at Raylee she had put it on her foot like a sock. Silly Girl!

Christmas Cookies

I actually got around to making sugar cookies this Christmas and Raylee had tons of fun decorating them. She didn't quite understand that you couldn't put the sprinkle bottle on the cookie, and so she needed some help but did a really good job. We could definitely tell which were the cookies she frosted and decorated because the entire cookie was covered in sprinkles!

Oh Christmas Tree!

I was really excited to decorate the Christmas Tree this year because I knew Raylee would love to help. She was so excited to hang the first ornament and she got mad if I didn't give them fast enough to her. Most of the ornaments ended up in about four different clumps on the bottom half of the tree, but luckily she didn't mind if we moved them somewhere else. She was really sad when we ran out of ornaments to hang. Everytime she comes down in the morning now the first thing she says is pretty tree. The day after we decorated the tree Raylee would lay down on the carpet in front of the tree and just look at it for a few minutes then go and play for awhile and come back to look some more. It was too cute. I tried to get a picture without her realizing it, but she saw me and looked at the camera instead of the tree. Corey will be putting lights up on the house soon, and I know she will love those just as much!