Well we’re home!!! We finally made it home around 4pm. The Chinese food my Mom had picked up for me for lunch made a wonderful dinner for me and Nikki. As with everything else with this process it took way longer than it should have to leave the hospital. Check out is 11am, we left after 3pm… Once home we’ve now fed Elias and he’s had his first nap at home. The cats are very curious at the bottom of the stairs. Mo is at my parents. I’ve been taking lots of shots, but I’m beat. Maybe you’ll see them tomorrow, but we just took one everyone should like.
First 24 hours home!
We did have a rough first night at home though. Nikki hadn’t gotten much sleep at all at the hospital with all the checkups and feedings and I was lucky to get 3 hours a night. When we got home yesterday everything seemed perfect, but Elias decided he wanted to be fed every hour from about 10~11pm through 4:30am. Nikki and I were both exhausted and just needed some help so we called in Debbie to the rescue (she’s a retired pediatric nurse in case you didn’t know, and well, Nikki’s Mom). She managed to get up and out and made it to the house around 6am. She was a HUGE help and took care of Elias while Nikki and I both crashed until 10am.
Debbie has been an awesome help, so thanks Andy for lending her to us. If you’re looking for her call our house. Also if anyone wants to call, it is OK, just don’t expect us to answer. We’ve turned off the ringers on all the phones, but they light up when they ring. Murphy is no stranger here so the few calls we have received are inevitably when all hands are on deck… We’ve very much appreciated all the help, calls, comments, and flowers. It has not gone unnoticed, we’ve just been to busy to thank some of you personally.
Tomorrow is our first day home with no where to go. We’re hoping we can make it the entire day w/o leaving the house for anything. I’m also hoping to have more time to shoot some more pictures of Elias and hopefully with all 3 of us. We’ll see how that goes. You’re also only getting a few shots of many, so stay tuned, you’ll get more as time allows.
Day #2 at home!
Full house!
Why full house you ask? Well we have 3 cats, 2 dogs, 4 people, and a mouse in the house today. Andy was “dragged” skiing with a few friends, so Debbie brought Tasha (their dog) over for the weekend. The rest are ours, but one of ours brought in a mouse (alive).Beyond that we had Elias’ second Dr appt where he weighed in at 7lbs 14oz (1oz over birth weight, 6oz up from Wednesday)! He is also much less jaundicey so no need for another blood test. After his appt it was up to Nikki’s doctor regarding some pain she’s having. Today’s shots are all from a parking lot when Elias got hungry so she fed him in the backseat.There’s tons more to tell, but we’ve been so busy I’m just now getting this in with Elias on my lap out cold at 12:12… He’s been out like this for over an hour which is a record for him at night.
A day at home with nothing to do?
We also had our first 2 visitors to see Elias today. Nikki’s friend Danielle and my friends Matt and Leah both managed brief visits this afternoon. They had a great time seeing Elias in person (both are following the blog) and Matt took a ton of pictures, so I’ll be borrowing those from him when he gets them online. After that it’s been dinner and cleanup and now we’re working on getting Elias to bed in his crib. It’s just tough not holding him all the time because he’s so much fun to hold, look at, and watch. I suppose we’ll eventually get sick of that, but for now it’s just amazing to watch him for hours on end.Another update I keep forgetting to add: he lost his umbilical cord “stump” on Thursday!!! Right now he’s got a half innie, half outtie (audi?) similar to his Mom’s! It’s adorable. I’ll try to get some more pictures tomorrow, but I’ve been super busy today running errands, changing diapers or actually holding him so it’s been tough to get some shots. Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day, so we might venture outside with him for the first time.The other thing I feel we need to mention are some DVDs Kerrie gave Nikki. I feel bad because there is no way I could possibly thank everyone for all their generous gifts. But Kerrie gave Nikki these Dunston Baby talk DVDs we watched a few nights ago. They go over 5 words babies say, and what they mean. There’s “neh” for feed me, “eh” for burp me, “oh” for tired, “eairh” for “bottom wind” and “heh” for uncomfortable. We hear 3 of these regularly, and one a lot. The 3 we heard are neh, eh, and eairh. We’ve gotten pretty good at recognizing the other signs for feeding, so neh isn’t very often. Eairh we hear sometimes, but eh we hear all the time. And oddly enough every time we hear it we burp him and he settles right down! Eairh we heard last night and actually had to rewatch the DVDs to how to cure “lower wind” (gas)… One of their suggested methods produced a wicked fart and instantly stopped the crying!!! It’s been very interesting to watch, and not implement with Elias so thanks to Kerrie for that.
This evening Elias has been fed about 4 times in the last 5~6 hours so it’s looking like he’s getting his days and nights closer to right. We’ll see if he can go down for any prolonged periods tonight, and hopefully he can do it in his crib so we can sleep at the same time. Nikki’s feeling much better so she’s been able to feed him w/o as many issues sitting for all those feedings. I’m just very disappointed I only have one more day before I have to go back to work. That’s going to be very tough.
Glad you guys are home! Great first family photo!!
Great!
Awww! Thanks for the family photo!!!! Welcome home!!!
Congratulations and good job weldone .. luv from the kiwiskiracers midwife mum in new zealand!!!!
gr8 photography… must run in the family!!!!
jessica has made my day several times with her piks of our boy on the ski circuit!!!!
have lotsa fun and enjoy.. the wee man will grow fast!!!
Glad to hear that you guys are finally home.
And finally, the first of many many great family photos. Congratulations guys.
p.s. like the beard Ban. It suits you. 🙂
Great photo, guys. It’s nice to see you both looking somewhat rested. The Benling is so so tiny. It’s hard to believe we start out that small. The beard was a big surprise (on Ben I mean – I can’t make out any facial foliage on the baby or Nikki, thankfully).
Congratulations.
Ben & Nikki
What a beautiful baby!!! I love the name – good choice you two!
He has the best baby hair, it’s like spun gold!
Congrats from all at Karibou!
Elissa 🙂
Awwww… You all look so happy to be home, and quite content with life right now.
I can’t wait to meet the little guy!
*Welcome home, Jacobsens! Welcome Home! * Ty Pennington voice….
You three look great. It was nice talking to you today Nik. I miss you already. Give Elias a kiss from me.
Chewbacca!! Get away from that baby!!
HI Guys! Congrats to both of you. And then there were 3. Wait break out the cigars,no the rum,better yet another case of pampers. Kenny
Thanks for the update, hope you guys can get some sleep soon. Love the shot of Elias holding your finger…too cute. He’s so little! Dad says he’s very handsome!! Can’t wait to meet him.
Ben the shot of him holding your finder is fantastic!
That hand-holding shot is priceless. I know how it makes you feel inside. Another weird thing I miss from having a newborn in the house is that low whimpering noise. It’s not exactly crying out loud but it’s either on the way up to a full-blown “feed-me!!!” scream, or on the other side of the scream, a “I’m glad you picked me up to comfort me” whimper.
I am not sure all babies do that, though.
Anyway, good luck to you both. It will get easier as parents and children get used to each others’ schedules.
I’m glad you guys are getting some rest, and some help these first few days, what a wonderful grandma. The pictures are beautiful! Keep posting them (like you have nothing better to do), and we’ll keep checking for them. Hang in there, things will smooth out once you’ve caught up on your sleep. I am still amazed that he is finally out of his ‘egg’.
Love Kerrie
Wow! Glad Nikki is able to get some sleep. Hang in there Nik! You guys looks so cute with little Elias. We is so small. I love the shot of him on Ben’s chest, it really shows how tiny he is. And the one of him sleeping on his side is adorable.
hey guys! Welcome home. Thanks for all your beautiful pictures and the parenthood updates. I know you mentioned your phones are off, but will you guys be around this weekend, specifically Sat.? I’m coming into town and I’d love to see you guys. I’d understand if it’s too hectic or you’re too tired so feel free to say no. I’ll try calling or texting you…
love,
danielle
Where are the wailing pictures? Hah hah…I know you got some of those.
Heh.. Just kidding. Hopefully Elias will get on some sort of a schedule so you guys can sleep a bit better. It was the same way with my wife. She got up whenever the baby wanted to be fed. Babies usually wanted to be fed every hour to two hours.
It seems that you are doing great.
Hey Guys,
Glad to see you’re home and everything is going well. He is so adorable. Please Nikki, if Ben dressing himself in the photo above is an example of how’s he’s going to dress the baby, Please keep him away!!!
Awww..
I’m glad you put the video up there, it’s good to finally see his eyes open! 🙂
so very happy for you and nikki. he’s positively beautiful. good luck to all. you now have a job 24/7 for the rest of your lives. enjoy.
Hi guys!
I still can’t believe how beautiful Elias is. The mouse is pretty cute too. Nikki, you are starting to look like you old self, your face is no longer puffy :> It was good to talk to you yesterday, and I’m glad your all doing well!
Love Kerrie
🙂 Great seeing all of you today 🙂
I still can’t get over how cute/small/adorable the little guy is!!
Can’t wait to see you guys again soon!
Hey guys –
It’s great being able to look in on your lives like this. Thanks for giving us all ringside seats as Elias gets to know the world, and we all get to know him. If only he knew how much joy he’s giving the people around him.
On a somewhat different note, I’m wondering if we should get a set of those DVDs for ourselves. I’m thinking that techniques for correctly identifying and releasing the “wicked wind” would be of value to any houesehold.