it's about time....

i know, i know. i finally figured it out (i think.) or not. i did the exact same thing with both pictures and ended up with 2 different sizes. i'll try to fix it.

these were taken a few weeks ago. i need a few more recent close ups.

i'm trying to type and hold a tired baby at the same time. more later.

enjoy!

almost 4 weeks old

sorry it's been so long since i've gotten an update up. this dial up connection at home gives me ulcers. :)

liam is doing well - his favorite activities are eating and sleeping (we just need to convince him to sleep when WE say he should. ) :)

he survived his first flyball tournament with flying colors - sleeping through the barking dogs and meeting LOTS of new aunts and uncles. :)

we've had a shower at the firehouse and a shower at aunt lynn's house. we also went to liam's friend landon's shower. landon was adopted through the same agency as liam (that's how we found our agency was from our friend richelle.) landon is only 3 mo. older than liam, so he already has a good friend.

we have another shower that my parents are giving this coming sunday. his baptism is scheduled for july 22nd. if anyone would like to attend, please give us a call!

i will work on resizing some pictures soon! (have i mentioned how much i hate microsoft vista?)

home!!

well, liam progressed well in the NICU and all his test results came back fine (including his hearing screening.) :) tues. night we were allowed to stay in a regular hospital room with him and be his primary caregivers - but the nurses were right across the hall if we needed anything.

wed. morning we had our court hearing - all went well. his birthparents went first and bill and i sat outside with their boys and then we went in and testified. we had to do the whole - raise your right hand and sit on the witness stand, which i wasn't expecting. later that morning he was circumsized and after that was all done and followed up, we went home!!

liam has had a constand stream of visitors and has behaved himself quite well. he got a beautiful cradle made by his grandpa ken. 2 of his great grandma's have come to visit and the other called today to check on him. he had his first flyball practice yesterday and did just fine - sleeping like all good flyball players do. :)

liffey and lincoln LOVE liam. i was worried about lincoln, since he is so sensitive, but both dogs can't give him enough kisses and both have tried to climb into carseats, cribs, bouncers, etc. :)

liam had his first ped. appt. on friday and did well - no major problems and he's 50%ile or so for just about everything!

thank you to everyone for all the well wishes, especially all my IVFC friends, my pity party friends and my friends here in st. louis for all the support, help and gifts (hadley - lincoln is trying to find your cats in the box of clothes from gavin and george!) :)

a beautiful baby boy....

we managed to get a picture of him into our email (don't ask.) :) this is a picture of him from sunday - probably when we were holding him for the first time. you can see his canula to help him breath and his hand wrapped up from the IV (which later got changed to a PIC line.) he loves to be held, and he loves to sit up and look around. we are off to the hospital later this morning. bill's cousin tyler is going to come meet the newest family member (since tyler lives a half of a block away from the hospital!)

oh, and he moved to his "big boy bed" last night, with no breathing support! his O2 levels were almost better than with the support. :) (he HATED that thing!)

latest liam update

can't remember where i last left off, but yesterday liam was extubated and did well on room air with a nasal canula. he had some inspiratory stridor (it sounded like he was snoring when he breathed in) and he got some steroids for that because they figured it was from the trauma of being intubated. that is mostly resolved now. we got to hold him for the first time yesterday. he seemed to enjoy it and looked at us with his big dark eyes. the nasal canula was removed this evening and he was doing great - some O2 readings even higher than before! he HATES all that stuff on him.

the infection cultures that were started at the first hospital weren't showing any growth. he had a spinal tap today to test for meningitis and the initial test results are good. he will be getting his hearing screening sometime soon (i've already spoken to the audiologist.) :)

we got to feed him today and he is learning to be a little trooper! he got his first bath and also got to finally wear some clothes. he looked very handsome in his red, white and blue outfit in honor of memorial day.

my parents visited yesterday and bill's parents visited today. and yes, there was lots of crying. :) we will find out tomorrow if we can get a wed. court date to finalize the termination of parental rights. his birth parents are signing their forms tomorrow, but it is still revocable until the judge signs it.

we're taking lots of pictures but have a hard time posting them from here without a compact flash drive here. bill emailed a picture to aunt lynn, so bug her for it. :) i hear that between paul, lynn, the kids, paula and her mom, our house is quite the sight to see right now.

thank you everyone. i need to get some sleep now. :)

welcome to the world

sorry not much time. we are at the ronald mcdonald house.

liam joseph was born after less than 4 hrs of labor yesterday - weighing 8lbs 2 oz, 19 inches long. he required O2 and was doing well with sat. levels, but he was breathing rather quickly, so he was transferred to a NICU at a bigger hospital. he is doing well here - already last night he was on room air through his intubation tube. there are 3 main causes for his problem, but they think (or did last night) that his lungs are just a big more premature than he is.

we are off to the hospital to spend the day with him again. his birthparents are making the trip today to see him one more time since they didn't get to say goodbye properly when the ambulance came to transport him.

jenna's website

our friends beth and dwayne added their story to jenna's website. i'm going there next to check it out.

i got jenna's book in the mail yesterday. i am very excited to read it. i'm sure she did an excellent job.

and just for fun, liffey's flyball friends marvin, silk and cassie joined liffey and lincoln as dogster pup pals. :)

as for adoption news, nothing really new yet. our s/w submitted the birthplan to the hospital, but i'm not so sure the hospital is excited or comfortable with an adoption. we'll all do the best we can.