What's in a Name?

One of the first things I asked my mom after telling her about Jenifer being pregnant was what she wanted to be called. I told her I was gonna teach the new arrival to call them Granny and Pappy just to tease her. This question is something that she took to heart and put a lot of thought into. I can understand why... after all, despite my teasing, my mom doesn't look like a granny or a grandma. Ray and Faye (Jenifer's parents) already have lots of grandchildren. We need to find out from Shannon (their oldest) what their grandchildren call them. I am not sure who came up with the idea... but the names that Mom has settled on are Nanalaine and Papa. We'll just have to see how long it will take Joey to be able to say that.
Nanalaine and Papa left yesterday to fly back to Atlanta. Mom has been here since the day Joey was born. I know it was hard for them to leave. They came at a moment's notice and stayed to help us take care of all the things that we needed help with since Joey came early. We have very much enjoyed their help and company. I hope that they will come visit Joey a lot. Thank you Mom and Dad, We love you.
With just the three of us here we will focus on getting our routine figured out and enjoying our together time before I go back to work on Thursday night. Joey is a complete angel so far. Our biggest challenges have been dealing with the hiccups after feeding, and his talent for holding his bladder until right after the diaper is removed. That last one is more comedy than challenge. We have some of those Pee Pee Tee Pee things... but he wiggles so much it is pretty difficult to keep it in place until he is done.
Right now he is sleeping on his tired mommy's chest next to me on the love seat.
Life is good!

P.S. I changed the spelling to Nanalaine at Mom's request.

Thursday was a big day.

Yesterday was Joey's first Pediatric appointment. The doctor said he is doing very well and that we haven't broken him yet. While she was examining him his cord fell off. I asked her if he is gonna have an inny or and outty bellybutton but she said it's still to early to know. She said if she was guessing by the looks of it she would guess inny. The Doctor also told us that they recommend that we not let lots of people around him for the first 6 weeks. Especially since it's flu season. Jenifer and I will be going to get our flu shots on Saturday. The other advice was to make everyone wash with soap and water and use lots of hand sanitizer before touching him. They even gave us a neat little stop sign to hang on his carrier that says to wash up before touching him. It may be overprotective on my part... but I am taking bids on having a bubble built around his room until after flu season.
My dad came back yesterday. He happened to be delivering a truck for a store in Bradenton FL. Mom went to meet him at the drop off to give him a ride back here. The two of them will be here until some time tomorrow. It has been very nice having them around so much. I love seeing how excited they get over Joey. It is clear that he will never have a shortage of attention.
Jenifer's glider came in yesterday as well. I was very pleased that it arrived so quickly. Dad and I went to pick it up at the Babies R Us in Brandon last night. I was also very happy that it was so easy to put together. All I had to do was hand Dad the screwdriver. I think today I will take some more pictures of the Jungle. Joey's room has changed quite a bit since he arrived. I am sure that I will have some more pictures of Joey to upload later today too. Until then...
Y'all take care and keep in touch.

Happy Birthday Mommy!!!

Today is Jenifer's Birthday. The best Birthday present by far is that Joey is finally home. He was released to our care from the NICU Yesterday around 2pm. Both Mom and son are doing very well. I want to express my gratitude to the Doctors ,Nurses and PCA's who took such good care of Jenifer and Joey. Nurses are amazing people. If you know a Nurse... please give them a hug from me.

Jenifer and I are quickly learning all of the demands of caring for someone who completely relies on us. Changing diapers, feeding, keeping up with the laundry and dishes... these things are all about learning a routine. Sleep comes last and in very short spurts, but we are so very happy that it doesn't matter.

I've included my favorite picture from today.

Like Father Like Son.You might notice that I have changed a few things. I have deleted the links in the individual posts to the Photobucket account. I have placed a link to the pictures in the column to the right instead. I have also re-arranged the photos some. It seems that in my hast to post photos for all my friends and family to see, that I just deleted the blurry ones and uploaded everything else. I found when I went to upload this morning's pictures that some of the photos had been removed by Photobucket for nudity... I think someone reported them. I can't imagine that Photobucket staff can review each of the millions of pictures that are uploaded there. It never even occurred to me to think of the pictures of my brand new son as being offensive or inappropriate. I guess I won't make that mistake again. Rules are Rules.

If you go to the picture link you will also see that I have created an album where I can post a daily picture of Joey. I have been informed by his Aunt Christie that I am not to miss a day of taking pictures or I will be in big trouble.
I also want to thank my brother in law Maurice. With the way that all of this happened, we didn't have much time to take care of some things that needed to be done. Maurice assisted us in getting pictures of Joey into the hands of Jenifer's parents. It was a very nice thing to do for us.

I am sure that I have much more to to write about, but Jenifer has just handed Joey to me and I have totally lost interest in blogging for the moment.
Later!

Happy Mommy!

How's this for a picture of a happy mom? Jenifer was released from the hospital yesterday as expected. She is doing very well. I only wish she would act like someone who just had surgery and take it easy. She is so focused on getting back to spend time with Joey that she forgets she needs to rest until her body reminds her. Joey is doing well too.He has some jaundice and the nurses said that they need to see his bilirubin levels stay low when he comes out of the photo-therapy light. They are also monitoring him for reflux which causes him to spit up some of his formula after eating. He has been switched to a formula with rice cereal mixed in and this seems to help greatly. Once these things have been resolved and he shows a weight gain he will be released to come home with us. I don't know when this will happen yet but the hospital staff all seem to think that some time this week is a safe bet. It will most likely not be on Monday as we had hoped.
Christie arrived yesterday to see her handsome young nephew. I have uploaded the few pictures that I took yesterday to the photobucket... but between my parents and my sister there are tons more that I don't have yet to upload. My Dad has even used this new arrival as an excellent excuse to finally get that SLR camera he has been wanting. Christie and Mom and Dad are having fun visiting Joey when they can and helping to organize and find places for all the baby stuff we have so that Joey's Jungle will be ready for him when he does come home. Jenifer and I are very grateful for their help.
Thanks again to everyone for the well wishes and congratulations. I will keep you posted on our progress.

More Pictures!

Hello everyone. The hospital doesn't have WiFi access or very good cell phone reception for that matter... so I am doing these updates each day when I come home to shower and get ready for another night at the hospital. The Doctor tells us that Jen will be released tomorrow after lunch. She is doing very well. Joey is still in the NICU for monitoring. He is doing very well and we expect them to release him to come home at the very latest on Monday. Thank you all for the flowers and the well wishes. We are truely blessed to have such great friends and family. I will keep you posted and keep posting pics so stay tuned!

Baby Joey Announcement!!!

Joseph Warren Sims (Joey) was born by C-Section to Jamie and Jenifer Sims at 1:21pm on October 1st. Despite being 34 days early Joey weighed in at 6lbs 1oz and was 19 1/4 inches long. Both Mother and Baby are doing well. Due to the early delivery and C-Section they will be in the hospital for a few more days yet. I am sure we will have much more to blog about this experience soon... but I wanted to go ahead and get these pics out there for everyone to see. I realize I haven't posted pics of Jenifer holding Joey yet... but I will soon. So far those are on her phone and I haven't downloaded them yet.