March 3, 2007 11:58 AM
9 lbs 4.7 oz.
21 in.
Jimmy is really being a great big brother. He loves his baby brother and often asks to hold him or help bathe him. Here he feeds Billy.
Billy's cord stump fell off today, so he got to have his first real bath. He didn't know quite what to make of it. Jimmy helped out as well. Nice clean baby!
Jeff's parents left on Sunday after being with us since Thursday. We had a nice visit. Billy is becoming more alert every day, and he is eating constantly. He looks around and stares at us for a long time. He's been observed to turn his head to look at someone. He had lost about a pound at his first checkup last Tuesday, but he's certainly gaining it back. My mom says she thinks he's grown just since they've arrived. Jimmy loves his little brother. He loves to hold him and stroke his hair and give him kisses on the head. Billy doesn't quite know what to make of it.
Grandma, Grandpa, Jimmy, and Jeff went to the Happy Hollow Zoo in San Jose on Saturday. Jimmy is apparently just a bit too young still to fully appreciate it. He was enthralled with everything but the animals-- climbing on rocks, pulling on ropes, playing in the water. We'll try again next year.
Billy continues to do well. We're getting to know each other. Claire is recuperating nicely. Below, Jimmy and Billy take a nap together.
Billy came home today!
Both he and Claire checked out 100% so they let us go. We almost had to stay an extra day just because the machine that checks Billy for jaundice was broken, but they managed to fix it in time to let us go. In any event, it was obvious that he wasn't jaundiced.
Jimmy finally got to meet his little brother. He really likes him, although so far it almost seems that Jimmy looks on Billy as some kind of pet we've brought home. It remains to be seen how Jimmy will react to no longer being the sole focus of our attention, but knowing Jimmy I think he'll do all right. He likes to go up to Billy and stroke his hair gently and kiss him on the head. I think they're going to eventually be inseparable.
Billy's thoughts on the whole coming home thing, as well as his opinions on life outside the womb, are currently unknown. I suspect his thoughts run something along the lines of "What the hell is this? This is weird! Put me back in!", but please consider his extreme youth and forgive him. He'll get used to it.
Claire is doing fine. She's going through the usual stuff a new mom goes through but she'll do fine. I'm adjusting also. It really helps to have my in-laws here to relieve us as times. It really makes a difference to have a supportive family. My parents are probably coming on Thursday after Mike & Pam leave, so we'll have some company and help for a few days more.
Here's some more pictures, first from my phone and then from my camera.
Here are the pictures taken on his first day of life.
Billy entered the world astonishingly quickly. With Jimmy, Claire was in the hospital for a day and a half before she ever entered active labor (she was induced due to Jimmy's size) and the labor took a full day, plus she had complications after delivery so that we were in the hospital for two more days, for a total of five days.
With Billy, she went into labor at 2 AM on the 3rd, but elected not to wake me until 8 AM. She called her parents at 4 AM and they left Willits for San Jose at 6 AM. They arrived at around 9 and we arrived at the hospital at 11, leaving my father-in-law Mike at home with Jimmy. My mother-in-law Pam came with us. Billy was born at 11:58 AM. It happened so fast that I didn't even have my camera ready-- the battery was plugged into the wall in the hospital room to charge, and I was just calling some people on my phone to tell them that we were in the hospital when the attending nurse said that the baby was being born now. I just had time to rush over to the wall, grab the camera battery, and install it before Billy was born. I did not, however, have time to ensure that the camera was set correctly, and as a result of its travel in my pocket ended up set in such a manner that the first pictures are blurred. In any event, those first pictures are rather graphic so I won't be putting them here.
Billy's full name is intended to evoke, but not imitate, the name of my late beloved grandfather, George Williams McChesney. Claire and I both wanted to give our baby a name that had not been used within living memory in either of our families. My grandfather was a strong influence in my life and I wanted to honor his memory in some way. William we chose because there are no William's in either of our families, and the fact that it is similar to my grandfather's middle name is a happy coincidence. It's also a fact that Claire's late Aunt Bill (Billie Jean Sutter) was born on March 2 and would have been 92 yesterday, and the similarity in their first names is also acknowledged without being copied.
Also unlike Jimmy's birth, there were no complications at all. He was delivered by the same nurse midwife who delivered Jimmy and the same nurse assisted. It was almost like a family reunion. Unlike last time, Claire is up and walking around (more or less) and will not require a blood transfusion. I'm almost wondering if I missed something, it went so fast. The doctor who later examined him said that he was absolutely perfect from head to toe. He doesn't even have the squashed head typical of babies born naturally (and yes, Claire did it 100% naturally with no drugs at all - until afterwards. Hooray for Claire!).
I will make my best effort to update this page regularly during the next few weeks, so keep checking back here. And yes, I admit that I haven't updated Jimmy's site since mid-2005. Web pages are a chore to me- the exciting thing about web design for me is making it work in the first place and everything after that is merely window dressing.
Click on the thumbnails to view the full-size image.
