Jeff's 1st Week!

Hooray! The wait is finally ending! Jeffrey is coming home this week, if not in a few days! Tonight he ripped his feeding tube out, and the doctor let him keep it out so now there is no feeding tube! Jeff has been doing really well today of eating his whole bottle on his own, so as long as he gains weight the next couple of days, homeward bound he is!

Here are his photos of his first week in the NICU. I wanted to document the first week of his life in photos so here are just a few of them! Tomorrow I will post the second week!

Jeffrey James Hughes on his birth day, March 7, 2010. Born five weeks early.

1 day old. He was put on the ventilator because he was not breathing well enough on his own. The gold heart helps regulate his body temperature. My niece Olive saw this picture and called the golden heart his valentine. :)

2 days old. They have him "surfing." Inside the burp cloth underneath him is a gel cool pack that helps him not get too hot under the heated light that is above him.

3 days old. The first time I see his eyes open! The third day was a big one; I got to really hold him for the first time, we got our first family portrait, and Jeff had jaundice so he had to be under special lighting to get rid of the jaundice.

4 days old. No new news, so we just played a little bit with him.

5 days old. Dad finally gets to hold his son for the first time and the ventilator is removed! A feeding tube is added in through his nose to his stomach to finally begin to eat food! Previously nutrients were just added through his IV.

6 days old. Enjoying life breathing without any assistance! He kept pulling his breathing tube that just stuck in his nose. You can see it there in front of his face. the orange tube is his feeding tube.

1 week old! Ten minutes before we got to the hospital his IV went bad. Instead of his IV putting liquids into his bloodstream, it was leaking into his arm, resulting with severe swelling from his elbow to fingertips. They had to prick holes in the back of his hand to manually drain liquid from his arm. It was sad, but he was tough and didn't complain at all except when they were pushing the liquid out of his arm.
Jeff after the horrible ordeal. He slept pretty much the rest of the day.