things are going well. today was jerry’s return to work day…i didn’t know how i’d handle it, but it was ok. my mom came over at about noon and helped me quite a bit. i got a big nap in!!
my sweet little guy is sleeping right now, so i should be too! but i just wanted to work a bit more on his site. i got a new album up on his photo albums. also, i changed the name from preggo pics to belly pics, since i’m going to be adding weekly pics of my belly, to try to motivate me to lose weight!! :rotfl: hope it works!
well, gotta get to bed before sonshine wakes up! lol!
hugs!

just wanted to post that the dr appt went great today! jeremiah’s doctor is thrilled at the weight he’s gained - he’s now up to 7lbs 11oz!! she says i can go to waking him up every four hours at night, as opposed to every two (of course, as always, if he wakes up hungry on his own, i’ll feed him whenever! but last night i had to wake him up for three of his feedings! he would have slept through them otherwise.).
my little man’s umbilical cord fell off the night before his one week birthday! the dr said it looked great today, as well as his circ healing, and said we are good to give him a REAL bath on wednesday! yay! she was so impressed by his progress she said we didn’t need to come back until his one month appt. i’m SOOOOOOOOO happy and thankful!!!!!!
he has been much more awake and alert now, and has slept really well when he should be sleeping. he is eating a lot, and i am pretty sure my good milk has come in, so it should be soon that he will be getting more full.
we are still doing a little bit of supplementing when he still acts hungry after i fed him for a long time. there is no chance of him having nipple confusion because he sucks the bottle hard like it’s my nipple LOL. plus, he LOVES mama’s yummies and doesn’t like the burpies the formula gives him.
i FINALLY have some pics up, because papa FINALLY made me a webalbum script!! go to photos on the sidebar. i am very happy with how it turned out. i will try to have some more up soon, but like i said, give me time.
he is soooo precious and wonderful and i’m so thankful for him!!!! i thank the Lord every minute i’m with him. thanks for all your prayers where he is concerned. they mean SOOOOO much!!!!
love!

Sorry, that it took so long to post. We have been home since aroung 1pm. Jenn was exhausted and needed to take a nap and I have been very busy. Jeremiah is doing fine. He was on IV fluids all night and had 1oz of formula after each feeding. (After the first two times doing the formula supplements, the doctor changed her mind an said not to do it anymore because he was spitting it up. He was getting too much along with the breastfeedings. This made Jenn feel a lot better because it meant that Jeremiah had been eating ok for her.) They drew blood this morning and tested it for his bilirubin and electrolyte levels and he was ok to go home. He went from 7lbs 1oz to 7lbs 9oz overnight and his mouth was moist so dehydration was no longer a concern. We have an appointment with our pediatrian on Monday to check his progress. Hopefully he will have gained a few ounces by then. We have decided to still supplement a bottle feeding here and there since Jenn is so tired and her breasts are very sore from the breast pumping she did at the hospital (which hardly produced anything). We hope to be able to discontinue bottle feeding soon but we know we will have it as an option if we need it.

Anyway, thank you for all your prayers. Jenn may post more details tomorrow but right now, she really needs to get as much sleep as she can (Doctor’s orders).

I am posting because we need prayer support because we are heading back into the hospital tonight with Jeremiah. We went in for his first appointment with his pediatrician and we found out that he lost a pound already. That’s about 13% of his birth weight. They said that it is dangerous for him to lose more than 10% of his birth weight. So we were sent to St. Francis for lab tests. it turns out his biliruben levels were a little high but more importantly his electrolytes were low and he was dehydrated. We need to go to the hospital to have Jeremiah given IV fluids overnight. Jenn and I are a bit nervous and upset and we would appreciate your prayers. Jenn has been an emotional wreck most of the week and really needs all the support she can get. We pray that this will soon pass and that Jeremiah will healthy and safe in our arms.

i have been enjoying my wonderful little miracle, mi-mi (it looks strange written, but that’s what we call him for a nickname…and it really fits him!). by the way, jeremiah wanted to introduce himself - see the previous post!!! i have been living in a hormonal fog as well. anything sends me into torrents of tears. i mean, i thought the pregnancy hormones were bad. the most tear-wringing event has been the circumcision. the time when jerry removed the gauze, you would have thought my best friend just died. i was unconsolable for 15 minutes afterward. every time i change his diaper, i am sent to tears. i hate it when he cries about it because i know i can’t do anything to ease his pain. everything (good or bad) makes me cry, so posting this will be emotional for me!!
i am so thankful jerry was so religious about posting for you guys. i sure have not felt up to writing for awhile, so i’m sure it helped with your sanity. i have been the one checking for updates so i know the frustration!!
i will be posting the birth story sometime in the future, i promise. right now all the details are fuzzy to me, so i’m waiting until after i see the video AND talk to my doula about it (she kept very good track of the times things happened). i can’t promise it will be this week or next, but i do promise it will be up eventually.
i know everyone told me how different it would be once i had him, but i really REALLY can’t believe how i feel now. i mean, when i was pregnant with him, i loved him SOOOOOOOO much, i didn’t think i could love him anymore. but as soon as i held him in my arms (actually, as soon as i saw him come out of me - i had a mirror above me) it was like my heart was outside of my body. i will never be the same. it was the most amazing thing in the entire world, and i would do it a million times again to have him, no matter the pain. he is the most unbelievable creature. perfect and precious in every way. my dream is finally here and i am so in love with him. :loveeyes: words cannot express the amount of love that i feel for him. jerry is just the same way. he was worried about how he would bond with jeremiah, but the moment he saw him, he cried, and he felt the instant connection. he is an awesome papa (as i always said he would be!!) and jeremiah loves him very much. he is the first one who got him to really smile!!
i have really enjoyed reading all your wonderful comments. they mean so much to me!!! my mom actually called me at the hospital to read all the hugs to me. of course i bawled. thank you soooo much!!! it is so wonderful to realize all over again how loved i am and how many people were praying for this baby along with us!! i could also feel your prayers during delivery. though it was hard and painful, there were angels at my side…and not just jerry, my mom and amanda!! :angel:
i realized the contact form wasn’t working before delivery, and jerry still hasn’t had a chance to fix it (imagine that, with a newborn at home! so i made jeremiah an email address! if you’d like to write to him, it’s jermail (sounds like airmail, get it!? lol) at gigowski dot com.
i promise i will get some pics up soon…for now here are a few to hold you off…new family, new gramma and grampa, gramma, aunt nellie, and … sleeping touchdown. i am working on it probably tomorrow. since this is the first time i’ve really been on the computer, i have a lot to do. BUT jeremiah is the most important thing, so please forgive me if i don’t get everything done. i want to only spend about an hour or two a day on the computer (even when jerry is here) because i don’t want time taken away from my precious little man.
i haven’t mentioned how he looks, and men don’t describe things the same way, lol. he is the most beautiful baby in the world. no, really. it was so cool when he was born, because everyone was saying how gorgeous he was, and i was like, so it’s not just me, right? everyone else thinks he’s beautiful too?? i don’t want to be one of those moms who thinks her child is beautiful when he looks ugly! lol! amanda reassured me that he was really really beautiful, and it wasn’t just me. jerry and i just like to hold him and stare at him. he has the most adorable, precious lips, and the deepest, most loving eyes. his ears are tiny, and he has his papa’s cute nose! he has his papa’s legs, feet, toes, fingers and hands. his face is shaped like mine, his lips look like mine and i think his eyes are close to my shape too.
he is doing well feeding. at first, i thought he couldn’t latch right, because it HURT so badly. i thought it wasn’t supposed to hurt. be uncomfortable, i knew was normal, but to hurt i didn’t think was normal. so i kept releasing him from my nipple, then he was frustrated with me. i was very concerned. finally a nurse actually told me sometimes it does hurt the women, and that he had one of the best latches she’d seen in a while (including a good suck which brings about the OUCH factor). so since then, i have been feeding him regularly (about every two hours) and he’s doing great. his length varies though - sometimes he eats for five minutes on each breast, and at the longest time he was on one breast for 40 minutes! i was told after that not to let it go that long - to feed for 10-20 minutes, but i was thinking at the time, he was hungry, so why stop? the only thing that’s wrong now is he will NOT stay awake during feedings. nothing we have tried will keep him awake! he falls asleep almost as soon as he latches. sometimes he will eat throughout his sleep, eating, resting, eating resting, sometimes he never stops sucking, even if he’s sound asleep, and sometimes he loses his latch because he’s asleep. any suggestions? i’ve heard/tried almost everything; bathing him before (this is one i’m going to try in a minute), running a cold wet cloth on his cheek/face/body, fiddling with his feet/toes, rubbing his back/shoulders/head, patting him on the back (which really only makes him more sleepy - he falls back asleep when i burp him too! lol), talking loudly to him, playing loud music. any suggestions??? it may just be something we have to deal with, but i would like for him to sleep better at night and i know less sleeping during feedings would help. so anything you can tell me about it will be great!
ok i can’t remember if there was anything else i was going to write…i will post again if i think of anything.
i love you all!!
big hugs from the new family!
ps don’t forget to check out jeremiah’s growing family photos from the hospital!

I know some of you already know that I was born, but I just wanted to let you know myself that I am here!
I was born on Sunday, Jan. 18, at 8:36 in the morning. I weighed 8lbs 1.5oz and was 21 inches long. I have light blonde hair (all over my body too! and my eyebrows and eyelashes are very light, so you can barely see them.) and dark, gray-blue eyes. Mama says I have her face-shape, eyes, ears, and mouth, and I have Papa’s nose, legs, hands, fingers, feet, and toes! Mama and Papa are sooooo in love with me. They can’t believe how precious I am to them.
My Gramma and Grampa REALLY like me!! Gramma was there to see me born, and Grampa was there soon after. He took 20 Polaroid pictures of me. He is one proud Grampa. Gramma seems to be around a lot, just staring, and kissing, and talking, and smiling at me!!!! She keeps wanting me to burp, and she won’t stop talking about how perfect my lips are. (Grampa makes fun of her about it). Great Grampa thinks I am “just the berries” (whatever that means!?) Tonight at dinner, he said I look too pretty to be a boy-child. Should I be offended!?
My Aunt Nellie, Uncle Josh, Aunt Natalie and Uncle Jay are all crazy about me too! They think I’m pretty special. I don’t know what all the fuss is about, but, hey - I’m not complaining!
My ‘brother’ KC really likes me too. At first he didn’t know what to think of me, but he has accepted me as his little brother now. He likes to give me kisses when Mama and Papa say it’s ok (it tickles!) and he likes to guard me when anyone is holding me. He hates it when I cry, and whines for Mama and Papa to make me feel better. I think we are going to be real pals!
Well, I need to go to bed, but I thought I should introduce myself! Thanks for all the prayers and support!
love,
Jeremiah Gigowski

I forgot to mention yesterday Jeremiah’s hair color and eye color. Jeremiah’s eyes were grey at birth and now they’re more of a grey blue. So maybe he’ll have blue-grey eyes like mama. His hair is very light blond and you can hardly see his eyelashes. His head was kind of elongated from the long time he was in the birth canal but he’s nearly back to normal now. Jenn thinks he has my nose and her lips but I really didn’t see it. That’s about it. I am probably forgetting something that Jenn wanted me to write but I can always post later.

Jeremiah Thomas Gigowski arrived this morning at 8:36am. He is 8lbs 1oz and 21″ long. He is absolutely perfect. We will share all the details later. I need to catch a shower, eat and head back to the hospital to be with Jenn, Jeremiah the rest of our family. Thank you all for your prayers. Will write soon.

I really truly believe this is my last post before we see jeremiah face to face.:) We talked everything over with our dr and he said that Jenn has done remarkably well and that he hasn’t had anybody wait so long with contractions of this intensity. We are going in to the hospital yet again. This time for good. He wants to try and get things going, by rupturing her membranes, breaking her water, etc. Pitocin will be an option if nothing else works. We want to exhaust all available options first. Our dr assured us that he will do everything he can to avoid a c-section but once we get the ball rolling there is no turning back. One way or another we will see Jeremiah soon.

Hopefully Jenn will already be at least 4 cm dilated when we get to the hospital. Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement. It means a lot to us. Our wonderful supporting cast has really helped make this more bearable.

We came home late last night… without Jeremiah. Things are not progressing well. Jenn is having very strong contractions but her cervix is still only 2cm dilated and 80% effaced. She has’t been able to sleep much at all. None of us have. One nurse said that she was in early labor. Another said she was having false contractions. Trust me, there is nothing FALSE about what Jenn is going through. We just keep getting mixed and confusing information from everyone. Jenn declared in our birth plan that she doesn’t want to use pitocin so the nurses say they can’t do anything intil she either allows the use of pitocin or starts having regular contractions so her cervix can dilate. She HAS been having regular contractions. They have been 4-5 minutes apart with few eceptions. The nurse said, “Yeah, but they go away when she relaxes, after walking.” I don’t know what she is talking about. The have never gone away or lighted up. So we’re not sure what to do right now. Just keep us in your prayers.