2 Week Check-Up

Jake had his two week appointment yesterday with Dr. Jeremy. Jeremy went to medical school with Mark and joined us here in Greenwood for residency (along with Dr. Danny). Jacob behaved perfectly and so far has not developed a fear of doctors or doctors' offices, yet. He did not cry at all for Dr. Jeremy:-) They gave him an adorable little patient gown to wear after we stripped him down to be weighed. Here are some pictures.

Jake looking tiny in his patient gown

Waiting for Dr. Jeremy in daddy's arms

Daddy loving on Jake:-)

Dr. Jeremy examining Jacob

He weighed 8 lbs 12 oz, which is fantastic! The goal was for him to be at or above his birth weight by the two week appointment. This lets the doctors know that breastfeeding is going well. He scored in the 50th percentile for weight and head circumference and in the 90th percentile for his height (21 3/4 inches now). It's hard to believe he's grown 1/2 an inch in two weeks! We are not expecting him to stay on the 90th percentile curve for height for very long... after all, his parents aren't that tall!

Jake's First Week

Jake had lots of visitors during his first week. Beth's mom, Nana, was here until last Wednesday and she was a huge help. She cooked and cleaned for us and offered her breastfeeding expertise. Mark's parents arrived on Wednesday evening after making it back safely from Boston where Grandpa ran the Boston marathon. They stayed until Sunday and loved on Jacob all day! I don't think he's slept somewhere other than someone's arms except during the night! Needless to say, all the grandparents are quite taken with our little man... he's definitely a keeper:-) He has been sleeping and eating well, and he is a very good baby so far. He's very laid-back and content and makes the sweetest faces and little noises. We are so thankful that we have family who were excited and able to come visit and help us with this transition.

Here are a few of our favorite pictures from this past week.

Jake enjoys trips in the car.

Jake also has fun with tummy time.  He is already showing a lot of strength in his back and his neck, lifting up his head to turn from side to side. 

After giving Jake his first bath Daddy had fun with his hooded towel. We call this Jake's "Pharaoh" look.

Jacob likes Mommy's kisses and always wants more.

Grandma was very excited to meet her first grandchild.

Grandpa was excited too, and thought Jake would make a good Boston marathon runner someday (maybe when his legs get a little longer).

We took Jake for a walk at a nearby park (shortened because it was about 87 degrees outside) and took the opportunity for another family photo.

Jake was VERY excited to be at the park. He is looking forward to getting on the big kid swings. (Our very crafty friend Aubrey made this cute onesie with a J for Jacob)

First Doctor Visit

Jake had his first visit with Dr. Danny on Monday for a weight checkup and a check on his jaundice. He had a bit of jaundice on Saturday but in the good light at the office we could see it had all cleared up. His weight was down a little but doing okay.

Danny and I met at the first day of medical school orientation and have been great friends ever since. We were in alphabetical order (Danny Pike) and were partners for gross anatomy as well. He made the move to Greenwood along with another mutual friend from UofL (Jeremy Wilson) to do residency in this awesome environment. Being close throughout the past 9 months has kept Danny almost as excited as us, and he was of course glad to take on a brand new patient. 

Welcome to the world, Jacob

We invested in a video camera just a couple weeks ago, and I think I've finally figured out how to get everything working correctly and this video uploaded. If it works well there will be more on the way. Here's a guided introduction to Jacob by his beautiful new mother. Hopefully it won't take too long for you to download.

Red-headed Houdini

After feedings Jacob tends to have about 20-30 minutes of happy awake time, just looking around and enjoying life. Then he goes into a good breastmilk coma and takes a nice nap (like a good Puckett nap after Thanksgiving dinner).  This afternoon we laid him down for a nap in the crib snuggled up in a sleeper gown, swaddled in a blanket, lying safely on his back. Beth walked in the room to find him rolled over on his right side with his left arm not only pulled out of the blanket but completely out of the gown as well! Needless to say, we were quite amused and impressed with our little man's strength. He's even trying to raise his head up a good bit, too!

Happy awake time

We'll call that "muscle" in his arm

Welcome home Jacob!

We left the hospital on a beautiful sunny South Carolina day. Tom and Sarah were a great help in getting Jake home safely with our bags, and strapping him into his carseat for the first time.

After a feeding and diaper change Jake took a break in his bouncer, snuggled up with his first UofL Cardinal blankie. Makin' daddy proud!

Photos and visitors

Here's Jake a little more awake for the camera

Another family photo 

Jake also enjoyed a well-planned visit from Uncle Tom and Aunt Sarah

(The truth is, we planned this visit weeks ago and they were very excited to get the phone call on their way that they would meet Jake when they arrived. Tom says that if he hadn't come yet, he was going to walk him out of Beth so they could meet during their visit.)

Nana also made her way down later that evening. 

Jacob of course looks forward to meeting his yet-to-be-named other grandparents when Grandpa gets done running the Boston Marathon on Monday.  

Dad, Jake says "Run fast and I can't wait to meet you and Grandma on Wednesday!"

More pictures

Here's a comparison of Jacob next to Mark as a baby...

And now, the rest of the story...

Many have asked how Beth's labor went. Here's how everything happened.

At about 2 AM Thursday morning she woke up having contractions about every 45 minutes. She had been having contractions irregularly for a few days, but they weren't even painful so we didn't think they were doing much. She was able to sleep through some of the contractions between 3 and 5 AM because they really weren't that painful, just much more noticeable. They gradually increased to about every 30 minutes but stayed mild.

She really was expecting this to go on for a long time, as we have both seen women have infrequent contractions for many hours, even days, before their true labor really began. So when it was time for me to go to work, we kept to the plan. We had decided beforehand that if she was having contractions every 5 minutes for about an hour (or if her water broke) that she would call me to come on home. I went on in to work at 7, after Beth told me "I think we're going to the hospital later today."

She proceeded to shower, shave her legs, and blow dry her hair through the 30 minute contractions.  Then at about 9 AM her contractions suddenly changed. They didn't gradually get more frequent or forceful, just like a switch changed to very painful contractions every 5 minutes.  We've both watched women go through false labor before, so she "calmly" worked on changing positions, moving around constantly. 30 minutes into these Beth was convinced it was the real deal. When she got close to an hour she called me, but the call didn't come through (I was seeing patients at the Health Department). I stepped out of the exam room and then my phone buzzed with a voicemail. I ran to listen and heard "I've been having contractions about every 3-5 minutes for an hour now...I think you need to come home." Of course I ran back to the workroom, handed off my pager (I had warned the residents I'm working with right now that this would probably happen today) and drove home as fast as I could.

We labored at home for about another hour. We tried moving in all different positions, but she obviously couldn't get comfortable.  Eventually we figured out that a cold, wet washcloth would help her cool off and feel a little better. When we hit 11:00, we knew it was time to go on into the hospital.  Clearly, Beth didn't want to restrict her body to one position, sitting in the car, but fortunately we only live about 10 minutes away. She was focused on one thing - these contractions better be doing something good, dilating her cervix or else she might go for the epidural after all. 

We made it to the hospital and got her in the door to a wheelchair. The folks at the desk were trying to move her on quickly, but there wasn't anybody available to take her upstairs.  Of course, being a doctor at that hospital has its advantages, so I took her myself. We took the shortcut through the emergency room, where we got some wide-eyed glances.  I had grabbed our hospital bags (a small suitcase with clothes, a backpack with the cameras, and the computer bag to send pictures), so I was laden down and pulling the suitcase with one hand, pushing the wheelchair with another. When we pulled up to the desk at the labor and delivery unit, they looked at Beth and knew that she needed to go on to a regular room to deliver, not just the triage room.

After getting her hooked up to the monitor and paperwork started, the nurses went ahead and checked her cervix and she was dilated to 7-8 cm. This greatly relieved Beth, knowing that if she made it this far she could go all the way. That was about 11:30. She started pushing not quite an hour later, and after only pushing for 29 minutes Jacob came. We had discussed Beth's goals of going without any pain medicine with her doctors and they were wonderfully supportive. We had also talked about letting me catch, and I had the amazing privilege of delivering my own son. 

Jacob perked up and started crying quickly and got to warm up on Beth's chest while she was still in the bed.  

And that is the rest of the story of how Jacob came.

Jacob Daniel is here!

Jacob Daniel Puckett

4/16/09 @ 12:51 PM

8 lbs, 8 oz

21 1/4 inches

Tornadoes in Greenwood

While Beth and I were away in Columbia for my boards, there was some excitement back in Greenwood.  We returned to find huge trees fallen (uprooted, really) over by the hospital and my office. It turns out there were a few tornadoes in Greenwood and other nearby towns.  We haven't heard of any injuries thankfully, but there was plenty of other damage. One of my co-workers was actually stranded because her power was out and she couldn't get her car out of the garage!   Fortunately there aren't any big trees near where we park in our apartment complex.  Here's some pictures of the damage.

The hospital is the tall building in the background.

38 1/2 weeks

Praise the Lord!

Well, we made it! Mark finished step three of his boards today in Columbia, SC and Jacob did not arrive during his testing. Thank you to all who prayed specifically for me not to go into labor while Mark was in his test. The Lord is good! Now we are ready for him to come whenever he chooses! It's getting so close!

38 weeks

Go Cards!

Well, after the disappointing loss by the men's basketball team against Michigan State in the Elite Eight, we turned our attention to the women's team. They beat number one seed Maryland by seventeen points last Monday night in the Elite Eight! Last night they played an amazing second half and beat Oklahoma 61-59 in the Final Four to earn a spot in the NCAA championship game. They are playing in their first national championship tomorrow night at 8:30pm against the undefeated UConn team. In addition to this, senior forward All-American Angel McCoughtry is one of 15 collegiate players invited to the WNBA Draft on Thursday, April 9th! Good luck Lady Cards! Be sure to tune in for the game on ESPN.

Finally!

Well, after over two weeks of little (maybe five minutes tops) to no internet access, we have the internet today. Hopefully we will stay connected long enough for us to get caught up on our posts. Lots of fun things have happened over the past two weeks!

Another Visit from Nana

My mom came down on Thursday afternoon and left today after church. She wanted to come one last time for a visit with me before Jacob arrives. We had a fun time visiting and hanging out. She even came to yoga with me- now that's love! Yesterday we went into Greenville to Babies 'R Us to get a few remaining necessities and to enjoy some Thai cuisine for lunch. Other than me freezing her out with my need for excessive air conditioning, I think she enjoyed her visit. Thanks for coming, mom. See you in a few weeks when Jake makes his appearance! 

New Toy for Mark

After weeks of extensive research and reading countless reviews, Mark finally decided on a video camera for us to purchase. His new toy came today, and I know he can't wait to play with it and practice using it before Jake's arrival. We want to be able to post videos of Jacob doing all sorts of cute things to share with all of you- now we can! Thank you, Mark, for all of your hard work in picking out the best video camera for our needs and finding the best deal!

Disgusting Pollen!

Everything here in Greenwood, SC is covered with a thick yellow film- disgusting pollen! You can see your footprints in the coating on the pavement and the cars all look yellow. It is positively gross! Automotive shops are even advertising $5 pollen washes! I am thankful for the pollen because the flowers and trees are so beautiful, but that does not mean I like it. We usually leave the windows open in the spring with the fans on and wait until it gets really hot to turn the air conditioning on, but not this year. I had just dusted and within an hour the table in front of the window had a yellow coating on it- gross! It was decided then and there that we were turning on the air and closing all the windows. We even take our shoes off and leave them on a beach towel at the front door so we won't track pollen all over the house! It's that bad- the shoes are completely yellow on the bottoms! Our little balcony is covered, too. There's no sense in cleaning it yet because, according to everyone down here, it will only get worse! Luckily our allergies haven't acted up too badly. So, while we love South Carolina, we are so glad Kentucky doesn't turn yellow in the springtime!