Jack's first video

Here's Jack's first day video!

I'm trying to workout how best to do video so bear with me on it! It's really big but I've not got much time to work it out today. I'll get some pictures up soon, we have a digital stack of them.

Generosity

I just caught myself watching William Shatner talking about his selling his kidney stone on Oprah. This is probably a better way to spend my time.

People are still being kind to us. Heather's sister Heidi came over on the weekend with a bunch of goodies from the taste food conference she attended earlier in the week (no pictures because we ate most of it on the spot).

Heather's mum and dad are here, Gary also cooked up a feast last night and are able to hang out for a day to get to know their grandson.
Our neighbor Richard came over on Saturday and and asked if we had any special dietary requirements, then came over the next day with the rest of his family (Mary, Jen & Matt (who, coincidently, I work with at BSSP)). They arrived with a roast chicken, salad, bread, chili and all the fixings pictured here. Thanks loads chaps.





Heidi gave me a few pointers on how to use the camera, apparently we can get better pictures than the camera on my cell phone! My dad's a great photographer, I'm sure he's embarrassed I've not inherited his skills.

I rather obviously tried out the camera on both this posting and on Jack. Here are some more shots of the stinkbag and another incidental of life with a newborn.

Out of the hospital and back home

We're out!

Our last day in the hospital was the 17th. we stuck jack into his going home outfit, Heather into something other than a hospital gown and we ran out as fast as possible. The car ride home was easy, he slept during most of it.

We went for our first pediatrician visit on the 18th, his jaundice is getting loads better. He'd lost about 8 ounces which is totally normal. Everything else checked out OK.

Gus and Lola have been terrific with him. Lola has taken to sleeping in his room and Gus is surprisingly dainty around Jack. Heather and I have both called Jack Gus a couple of times but I'm sure neither of them care (Lola might though).

Here are some pictures, from us getting ready to leave Hospital until a 3am diaper change on the first night / morning. I'm going to see if i can get some video up, need to workout the flipping flip camera we just got. If anyone has tips on editing flip video using something other than the flip software please post em here!

Final night at the hospital

We have one more night at CPMC in San Francisco, then it's back over the bridge to San Rafael. The hospital treated us us a nice meal, we put Jack into the nursery while we ate and talked about future plans. A really nice night. Doug and Julie visited, and I learned a new technique to calm him down which I'm all chuffed about. Doug and Julie are expecting their first child, a girl, on August 29th.

This afternoon I left the hospital for the first time since Saturday (when I got the car out of jail). I didn't do anything productive, just to the bottle shop to sneak in a big Belgian beer for dinner :). Here some more pictures from today. Tomorrow he gets to meet Gus and Lola, I'll try to workout how to get video uploaded for that.

Picasa Album

I've just discovered that these pictures are automatically uploaded to a Picasa album. Check out http://picasaweb.google.com/mark.ruder/MarkHevAndJack

Wednesday AM (updated)

Jack and Heather are sleeping so I pulled some pictures together for a post. Most of these are from yesterday, some were taken by Heidi and Wayne. The last one is 2 minutes before he was born.

The blue and red headphones are from a hearing test this morning.

I upgraded a few pictures and saved this post again at 11:35am

Tuesday - Jack day 3

We had paternity issues today. Janelle is a medical technologist so knows a bit about blood. After I explained I''m B positive, she explained that I can't be the father! After a phone call to England we got it all worked out (for future reference I'm actually A negative!)

Jack found his voice last night proving the 2nd night is harder than the 1st. He went from extremely contented to miserable screamer in seconds just as I got comfortable in the cot. We were up most of the night, I did get some sleep and Heather maybe got 2 hours. We will work this science project out!

Today Jack had his manhood messed with; his foreskin was removed. This is a common procedure in the states with 50% of babies having it removed for hygiene reasons. He handled it really well, It bothered me more than him. When he came back it seemed he wasn't bothered at all.

We had a lot of visitors today; Stacey, Kenneth, Janelle. Gary (Hev's parents), Heidi (sister), Wayne, Rebecca, Josh, Sarah, Cristy and Chris. we are forever indebted to all these guys who have helped out during this time, especially with our two dogs. I'll get them on here later in the week.

I'll get more pictures up soon, Jack is being, well, a baby.

Monday - Jack day 2

Day 1 is done! We are learning all his new ways and pesky traits. We are dealing with crap, crying, swaddling, feeding (and that's just me, hah hah).

Heather is recovering great, but isn't quite in the mood for pictures. I, like all fathers before me, have an extreme respect for the mpother of my child. Jack is behaving, doing the stuff I'm told these little monsters are supposed to do. Currently the poor little blighter is lumbered with me for everything but feeding as ma is still pretty much bed bound (but walking a bit today! ).

My baby duties include:

wrapping him up as tight as possible
checking for poop or wizz
handing to mum for food
burping
checking for poop or wizz
visits to the nursery for various tests
various moments of love (see pic)
repeat






Here are a few more pictures.

1) The donation plaque for our labor, delivery and recovery room. "Donated by the Beavers". Classic.

2) the view from our new room on the 4th floor. It's taken from my camera phone yesterday, a little cloudy but you might be able to make out the Transamerica and B of A buildings (but probably not).

3) This is me waiting to go into the delievery (operation) room, right before the colonel showed up (see previous post).

4) Today's day board. I'l keep doing these until we leave. Mabel is quite an artist eh?

5) Jack Day 2! just like Jack day 1 but froma camera phone instead of a superb camera!

I promise pictures of Heather tomorrow to prove it's actually her child (not like you couldn't tell already eh?).