Week 4 - I slept through week 3.

More pictures of week 2

Me at week 2

I keep looking for the snowdrift I had to walk both ways uphill through to school.

Wow ... that's small.

I miss the cute little hats nurses used to wear.

Many years ago I also started out in the intensive care at the same hospital my son is in but at half his weight. Picture from my scrapbook now digitized.

Close up of Austin with eyes open

Transfer from the incubator

Easy Money

I'll give you even odds that my mother reaches for the Kleenex the moment she sees this picture ... and then she'll send it to everyone she knows. :-)

  

Family Resemblance

He has the same glare off his forehead as his Uncle Bryce.

  

Open Eyes

I got to hold my son for the first time today and actually could see his face withou masks and oxygen tubes. There is nothing more sacred than the promises made when you first hold your child in your arms.

  

Video of Austin streaming from YouTube.com

Video Clip of Austin from Google Video

 
Close up of baby. 

Venice Beach

 

To address the issue of jaundice they put babies under the lights just like the chickens in Safeway. Except he gets special sunglasses to protect his eyes. The tube is to let air out of his stomach. It's not Venice Beach but it's home. :-) 

  

Close up of toes. The cuff on the right foot measures blood pressure. The tape on the other foot is for a bandaid from being poked. It is hard to feel like a good parent when the baby is yelling because they are poking him. It is for his own good but it doesn't make it easy.

Small improvements

My son has the ventilator tube out of his lungs and is breathing regular air inside this incubator. At the present time even the nose prongs with the supplemental O2 have come out. He is straining to breathe a bit but still managing. They are watching very carefully. Small steps forward. There are lots of fluids coming in and some coming out indicating that all respiratory and digestive systems are beginning to function as they should. He's starting to get regular feeds through the IV to start up his little system. It is hard to sit here and know he is in a small warm box across town with a nurse 24 hours a day instead of his parents.

On a lighter note funny things recently pregnant women say:

1. I can see my feet!
2. Look, I'm lying on my stomach.
3. Look, I'm lying on my back.
4. I'm having a glass of wine!

Gratitutous shot of my nephews Daniel (left) and Thomas (right).

Beautiful wife on day 2 ready to go home.

Renee's hand with baby.

Birth plus five minutes comparing my hand to his.

Entering the high oxygen environment on day one.

Under the heat lamps.

Austin being weighed shortly after birth.

Austin Roger - 5 lbs 14 oz - at birth plus 5 minutes - He came a couple weeks early and will be hanging out in an incubator for the next couple days while his lungs catch up with the rest of him. My amazing wife is doing well after a unexpectly quick delivery. We went in for an appointment yesterday at noon, the doctor looked at the numbers and said I'm admitting you. I was a little surprised. Austin was born just before 9 this morning.

060706 - Pulling the car seat from daycare to the car.

060701 - Malt stop on Canada Day.

060625 - Looking up books at the library.

060617 - On the teeter totter

060612 - Riding bikes at Papas

060610 - Going for a haircut.

060606 - Those paraparazzi are relentless.

060606 - Reading and eating with big doll.

060526 - Uncle Bryce playing with his brother's phone.

060526 - Felicity with Uncle Bryce

060522 - at the Best Western in Osooyos on our way to Castlegar.

060520 - A state of grace rarely achieved. I have to give kudos to my wife for one of the most innovative ways of getting Felicity to leaver her pony tails in. She put them in, put butterfly barettes on and told our daughter that the butterflies would fly away if she touched them. Worked like a charm.

060520 - A girl needs the right bags to carry all the Gucci shoes.

060520 - Driving the car.

060518 - Out on the town

060515 - On the slide

060515 - Fun, fun, fun.

060515 - Summer time fun

060513 - Removing her from the bike took three burly men and the promise of three Smarties (tm) to be named later.

060513 - How she conceptualizes her world.

060507 - checking out the playground at my old elementary school.

060507 - Yet another example of why I'm not cut out for politics. It reminds me of how the editorial cartoonists always used to portray Shelia Copps.

060507 - A fine example of how giving personal publishing tools to the masses will increase the level and coherence of democratic debate.