a decrease in grunts and snorts

as i noted in the previous note, Jackie has recently taken to grunting and snorting. it got to a point that we got a bit concerned that she might be having trouble breathing. this lead us on a journey that resulted in aspirations to become ENTs. looking up her nose, we discovered Jackie had some giant boogies. now, this may not be the most glamorous image, and surely not one that you'd expect from a gushing father telling the world about his precious little butterball. but it is the post of a concerned father posting the very real and daily goings-on of a baby.

at first, cindy decided to extract said boogie w/ the squeezie-bulb thing they gave us at the hospital (you know - the turkey baster they use to suck junk out of the baby's nose and mouth when they're born). unfortunately, it just lodged the boogie a little better in Jackie's nose. a tenacious little crusty it was. we recognized at that point that best course of action would be to let the child blow that nugget out all on her own.

it took nearly 2 days, but our patience was rewarded yesterday evening as i was preparing to take Jackie on a walk. she was all bundled up in her quilted kimono outfit (thanks Grandma!), hat, mittens, and warm fleece blanket, strapped into her car seat (in turn attached to the bugaboo). i was about to put her pacifier back into her mouth (she spit it out) when i noticed this huge dark thing on her cheek. what what what?! it was the elusive boogie! i didn't hear the sneeze, but i saw the evidence - i heard it, too, as the snorts disappeared. we then proceeded to have a lovely walk about the neighborhood.

Baby Belly at Capacity

so Jackie's going through another growth spurt. there's no way to be absolutely sure till she gets measured and weighed again, but we're 99% positive. how do we know? she's been eating every 2 hours or so for the last 2 days - even at night. she's gotten to the point where she can sleep 5 hours a stretch at night, so every 2 hours is a noticeable change. her behavior at this point is: eat, sleep, cry for food.

so it made us giggle when she cried for food this morning while she was eating. she burped up some food while she was eating. presently, she's lying on a pillow on mommy's lap, looking up at us - saying 'what you typing dad?'. well, baby, I'm saying that you are moving beyond piglette stage to full-on pig status. but we still love you.

in other Jackie news, her eyes are turning blue, she's starting to coo, we're getting the occasional smile (which is the absolute best thing in the world - it can make your anger at rocking her to sleep for and hour and a half at 4am melt away), she grunts and snorts, and it looks like her hair is getting a bit reddish!!! as my friend Liz noted in a gchat conversation this week, she is my doppelganger. we are actively looking for physical resemblance to mommy, but are sure that it will come in her personality.

Jacqueline Lee

So if we haven't been in touch and you've been keeping updated on our progress by reading this blog, then you ought to know that by now, something big ought to have happened.  and it did - a month ago!  Jacqueline Lee Grossman was born on November 6, 2007 at 6:44p.  She weighed in at 7lbs 8.3oz, and measure 20 in. long.  Cindy was induced at 8am that morning, but labor didn't really kick in until about 10a.  It was a relatively short labor as they go, and fairly easy (epidural).  Everyone came out healthy and great, and we were ecstatic to have our little Chicklet here in person (except now she also goes by Jackie).

Brief synopsis of everything since the birth:  in an attempt to fully emulate her father, Jackie came out w/ my puffy froggy eyes (as my mother called them when I was born) and then proceeded to come down w/ a lovely case of 'the jaundice'.  thankfully, technology has progressed by leaps and bounds in the nearly 30 years since i was born, and the therapy lights can now be brought to your very own home!  very cool - fiber optics were threaded through a gauze blanket that we wrapped around Jackie, and it was hooked up to a light in an attached casing.  we had her wrapped in that for about 2 days, and she was as good as new (which for her meant setting the clock back 5 days).  poor Jackie had blood tests every day though, so her heels were a bit sore for a few days.

Once we got past that, we had the 1 week, 2 week, and 4 week checkups, and I am completely blown away by how fast babies grow.  Of course, I thought at first that my daughter was extra special - which she is - but this growth is actually quite typical.  She lost a bit of weight in the first week, which is normal, as it took Cindy's milk a few days to come in and start regular and sufficient production.  By week 2, though, Jackie had surpassed her birth weight by a few ounces, and by week 4 had grown to 9lb 4oz - that's nearly 2 lbs in 4 weeks!  Sure, I can pack on 2 lbs in a lot less time than that, but considering that it was about 25% of her entire weight...  Even more amazing to me than the weight gain was actually the growth spurt.  She grew 1.5 inches in 3 weeks!  Crazy.

And who's gotten to see little Chicklet?  First and foremost, Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Lauren (my parents and sister) and Grandmommy and Grandaddy (Cindy's parents) all came in immediately.  Grandmommy and Grandaddy actually came in Tuesday morning when Cindy was induced, and they stayed w/ us through most of the labor - which had been progressing quite slowly.  Cindy was induced at 8am and was only 3cm dilated by 3pm.  We were sure that there was a long night ahead of us, so Linda and Dwight went back to our house to let the dog out and to get some dinner.  By 5:30pm Cindy was 8cm dilated, so I called them up to advise them to make their trip short.  30 min later Cindy was fully dilated and the nurse (Nadia, who was awesome - she was actually a physician in her homeland of Afghanistan but hasn't had the time to take her boards in America) told us it was time to push.  Say what?  We thought the baby was going to be born late at night or early in the morning, but 30 minutes after the pushing started, out popped Chicklet!  I insisted that I was not going to watch the actual birth, but at the last moment my curiosity got the best of me and I'm glad it did - it was so cool!  I cut the cord, and Jackie was placed on Cindy's chest for some immediate bonding.  Cindy was absolutely stunned - it was incredible to watch the two of them.  I then stayed w/ Jackie as she was cleaned up, and then it was back to Mommy.

We stayed in the hospital for 2 days after the birth, and the hospital was great.  St. David's Northwest Medical Center has an amazing birthing center.  We had our own labor/delivery room, which is where we checked in and spent all of our time until after the birth.  Hardwood floors, tv w/ cable, private room and bathroom, and a pullout sofa/bed for me.  After the birth we were switched to an equally comfortable, though smaller, Recovery Room, which is where we stayed until we checked out.  I highly recommend this hospital if anyone is set to deliver in Austin.  Nadia even stopped in to check in on us in the Recovery Room (she was a labor/delivery nurse), which made us like her even more.   We brought the nurses homemade cupcakes to show our gratitude about a week later.

And so now we've just been spending time w/ our rapidly plumpifying butterball of love.  Cindy is on 2 months of maternity leave, and I took 2 weeks off to stay at home.  Getting back into the swing of work was hard, but Jackie's gotten the hang of generally sleeping well, getting up only to eat and poop.  Occasionally she'll have a fussy night (like 3 nights ago when I had a cold and wouldn't take her, and so Cindy didn't get much sleep at all that night), but generally she's pretty good.  As a matter of fact, I wrote most of this during her current nap, which appears to be ending, so this is where the post shall end.