What we're up to

Staring at Daddy and "Look how BIG!"


Bella wants to give me a bath and my first hair wash.

Don't I look cute in teal? Bye Bubbie. I'll miss you!

Hanging with Aunt Becky. My first time in my swing.

Kelsey loves being at home and doing all the typical newborn activities: eating, sleeping, pooping, eating, sitting in her bouncer, eating, swinging, tummy time, and eating. We're loving every second of having her home even the 4 am feedings. Did I mention she likes to eat? We had her first official pediatrician appt on tues 5/26 (minus the daily checks in the hospital) and the Doc said, " she's doing great!" It's what we were waiting to hear! She weighed in at 7lbs, 7.5 oz and was at the 40th percentile. Her length as predicted shrunk to 20" and came in at the 25th percentile (well, not her length more like her head came back to normal shape).

5/28/09 I love my bouncer! (Thanks Aunt Colleen, Uncle Kevin, Kyle and Meghan!)

5/29/09 I love my mat! Look what I can do!!! Thanks, Holly and Jake!

Kelsey also loved spending time with Bubbie and meeting "Aunt "Becky, my first cousin. They had a great time and Becky kept saying she was a noise machine......probably why Adam and I are having a hard time sleeping as Kelsey hums and sings while eating, awake and sleeping....it's adorable! She must know her mommy is a speech path to make so many cooing sounds :)

HOME SWEET HOME, finally!

Our first family photos after the tubes and monitors were removed. Kelsey wanted to leave the hospital in style in her first dress.


Dad realizing how heavy a 7 lb. baby is while Kelsey was impressed by the artistic skills.


Kelsey's first meeting with Bella and Mocha...both had been anxiously awaiting her arrival.


Hey, check out the gun show!!

It was a long haul, but on Thursday, May 21st 2009 our final trip to the hospital was finally here. While we know that the 10 day extended stay in the NICU was necessary and gave Kelsey the medicine she needed to fight the infection, we were over the moon to finally be able to unplug her from the machines and bring her home. It was the happiest we have been and needless to say were a little overanxious as I'm sure the nurses and doctors will corroborate. We were more than ready to start the typical parenting journey of sleepless nights, multiple feedings, endless laundry etc...... let the adventure begin!

Horrible News, the Special Care Nursery & Kelsey’s Extended Stay

First Visit in NICU and Kelsey's visit to our room


Papa Wayne, Elise's dad, surprised her by visiting from FL and Kelsey's first bottle

Aunt Diane and Uncle Gary visit (5/16) and our sunning beauty

We enjoyed the remainder of Monday in our room, taking LOTS of pictures with Kelsey. As a precaution, Kelsey was taken to the nursery at 5 PM to take a follow-up blood test. It was around 8 PM when two new doctors knocked on our door. Both named Dr. McKinney, one was the hospital pediatrician who specializes in infectious diseases; the other was a private pediatrician who was filling in for our personal pediatrician who happened to be on vacation in Israel. In short, the doctors explained to us that Kelsey’s precautionary blood test taken immediately after delivery showed elevated white blood cells (which was common after long labors). Unfortunately, the results of the 5 PM blood test were worse than the initial test, prompting the doctors to suggest additional testing and the start of antibiotics. The tests included an LP (lumber puncture – aka spinal tap) and blood cultures. We would know more within 12 hours, but Kelsey would have to spend the night and a minimum of 2 days in the Special Care Nursery (NICU) with an IV of fluids and antibiotics. It was very hard for us to believe because since she was born, Kelsey was acting completely normal with no indication of any kind of sickness. After the LP procedure, Elise and I finally got to sit with Kelsey in the Special Care Nursery. The first time we saw her with an IV coming out of her hand and hooked up to monitors was heartbreaking.

On Tuesday morning, one of the Dr. McKinney’s came into our room to inform us that signs of a bacterial infection were present in her spinal fluid and that she would need to remain in the hospital for anywhere from 7-21 days. The determination on time would be made based on the results of several cultures taken during Monday night’s tests. If there was no growth in cultures within 48 hours, there was an 80-90% chance she would only need to spend 7-10 additional days in the hospital. If she went 72 hours with no cultures, her stay would be limited to the 7-10 days. If there was growth, Kelsey would spend a minimum of two additional weeks in the hospital. FORTUNATELY, there were no growths and the timeline was set for 10 days.

On Wednesday afternoon, we had a few hours of relief from monitors and IVs where Kelsey got to visit our hospital room without nurses hovering by offering unsolicited advice and for a few moments felt like actual parents, thanks to the one person at Mo Bap that we’ll have fond memories of, Diana, the nurse coordinator of prenatal education and former lactation specialist. Begrudgingly, we had to watch her wheeled away yet again to receive her meds.

During this tumultuous time, Elise was nursing her every couple hours and battling getting discharged from the hospital and having to leave without our little girl. In a word, it was hell. By far the hardest thing we’ve ever had to do. We got to spend one extra night in “Self care” where we got to stay without nursing services, and kept trying to extend that but were finally kicked out at 5pm on Thursday. Elise refused to go home that first night, so we stayed in a nearby hotel. It made it a little easier for her knowing that her milk supply was in and that Kelsey would not have to have any formula. We both visited Kelsey as often as they would let us staying into the wee hours of the night only to return early in the morning to start the routine over again. We watched Kelsey grow and gain weight to 7 lbs 4 oz (up 6 oz from birth- she never lost weight like most newborns), act like a typical newborn and saw her through many heel sticks, blood draws and 3 IV sites, one of which was in her head. We eventually settled into a hellacious routine taking turns sitting with her and feeding her. Thanks to Elise’s mom, Sharry, for sitting with Kelsey and for taking care of the house and kids (Mocha and Bella) so that we could be away as often as we were. From here on, we just muddled through doing the best we could and waiting for Thursday, May 21 the day we finally got to bring our daughter home!

Kelsey Brooke's Arrival

This is Adam - This post is LONG, but since lots of people have been asking about details, this is the easiest way to deliver. I apologize for the lack of updates over the past two weeks. As you know, it's been rough with limited time and nearly no web access. The following posts will hopefully give you a brief overview of the best and worst week of our lives. While the story has its highs and lows, it has a great happy ending!!

To begin, I'd like to remind you of our intention to have a natural childbirth. Given Elise's experience working with young kids as a Speech Language Pathologist, we both felt that we should make any attempt to "minimize" interventions during labor and delivery. We were both in strong agreement that any plans for a natural childbirth would be superseded if it was in the best interest of the baby or Elise's health. We certainly wouldn't criticize anyone who felt otherwise, and ironically, we had many people react with "are you guys crazy?"

That being said, let's go back to Friday, May 8th. Elise's 31st Birthday! (Please note - since the time Elise told me she was pregnant last September, she mentioned how she would prefer to not have a baby on her birthday). Well, we had handled weeks 37-39 with some restlessness but with relative ease. As Elise was further and further along, we had implemented all of the "old wives tales" methods on how to naturally accelerate labor. For Elise's birthday, we went out to a great dinner followed by one of the best dessert places in town. We got home between 9-10 PM. Elise had felt some "pressure" earlier in the evening, but given the amount of food we ate, this wasn't much of a surprise. In addition, I had been trained to believe that every time Elise said she had "pressure," it usually could be attributed to a full stomach or the baby sitting on her bladder! Shortly after I fell asleep at around 11PM, Elise began having some contractions. As I lay soundless in bed, she stayed awake watching television until she woke me at about 1:40 AM. We sat up and discussed the irony of how her labor apparently started just minutes before her doctor would be off for the weekend and how we would probably be dealing with the only OB-GYN in the practice we had not met over the past nine months - Dr. Weinstein (how bad could he be?). We repacked our suitcases, watched some more television and fell back asleep off and on for the next several hours.

On Saturday we realized Elise was definitely in the early stage of labor, we went for a walk as a means for distraction, but also hoping that it might speed things up. We set-up the Pack 'n Plays and did some last-minute cleaning to take her mind of things. As the day went on, Elise's contractions increased in intensity and we called the "on-call" doctor who advised us to hang out as long we could at home given our intention for a natural labor & delivery. The pain was requiring her to focus on each one and in many instances; she needed some help to get through them. All the while, we couldn't be certain whether or not her water broke as it very rarely happens like you see it in the movies - a mad gush of raging waters in the middle of a sidewalk as if someone had thrown a water balloon from above - didn't happen. By the time the clock hit 11 PM, we started making final preparations to drive to the hospital. After a 20 minute drive, we arrived at Missouri Baptist Medical Center at about 11:45 PM. The place was "weekend evening" quiet and we were greeted by a cheerful older woman at the Labor & Delivery reception desk. Elise was in pain, and this woman was trying hard to lighten the mood by cracking jokes. It got to the point that I had no choice but to turn my a$$hole switch on and "encouraged" her to stop yapping and get Elise into a room. Elise's contractions were sporadic, but ranging from two to eight minutes apart.

After a few minutes in room LD7, we were greeted by a fairly large nurse named Chris who reminded me of a mix between Roseanne Barr and the woman from the Drew Carey Show. She was very nice and had given us the impression she had been doing this for a long time. She immediately hooked up Elise to telemetry to track both the baby's heartbeat and Elise's contractions. Over the course of about four hours, Chris and the "house" doctor performed some standard exams on Elise to determine how far along she was only to tell us that she had no dilation. As a result of the lack of progress, they sent us home at about 4 AM on Sunday (Mother's Day) and gave Elise a sleeping pill to help her deal with her significant sleep deprivation. We returned home at about 4:30 AM and laid down hoping that when we woke up after several hours, Elise would have made some progress and be more rested in preparation for things to come. Unfortunately the sleeping pill did nothing for pain and after the initial hour of sleep, Elise couldn't put together more than 15 minutes of rest without the contractions kicking in. From my perspective, Elise was struggling - she was walking the line between pain and suffering - and regardless of books and classes, I could do nothing for her. It was heartbreaking.

By 11 AM, we had made the determination that there was nothing more that could be done at home in pain; regardless of whatever progress she had made, we needed to go to the hospital. At noon, we arrived at the same reception desk where nearly 12 hours earlier the comedian sat cracking jokes. Fortunately this time, the desk remained empty and we proceed directly to the nurse's station. After about an hour in triage, it was determined that Elise was about 2.5 cm dilated. While we were happy she made some progress, we didn't need to hear the damn number to tell us she was in labor. Given the amount of pain she had been in, we were both hoping that she was further along. Following triage, they moved Elise to LD4 - where we would stay for the next 20 hours or so.

Immediately following her arrival in LD4, Elise tried different positions to alleviate pain with no success. There was a point where she actually ripped off the telemetry units and jumped into the shower. About two minutes later the nurse comes in ready to kill Elise - not the way to get started with a nurse we'd be dealing with for the next several hours. I did my best to negotiate a truce and as a result of my people skills, Dawn turned out to be one of our favorite nurses. It was just prior to 3 PM that Dr. Weinstein had arrived and performed an examination and ultrasound. He made the determination that Elise’s water probably broke around noon, and there was the slight presence of meconium in the amniotic fluid. Meconium is essentially a bowel movement which is a sign of some sort of stress to the baby (not distress, but something to pay attention to). By now, it became apparent that Elise had crossed the line of pain and was now clearly suffering. As a result, we discussed options with the doctor and nurses and decided to get an epidural. After 40 hours of labor without any intervention, I believe this was one of the best decisions she could make. Shortly after, the pain of the contractions began to subside. Unfortunately, all of the previous pain had she had been feeling had not signaled any additional progress as Elise was still lingering around 2.5 cm. I should also mention that just prior to the epidural, Elise’s mom Sharry arrived from Florida. Her timing ended up being perfect despite us thinking that the baby would have been delivered hours prior to her arrival.

With the pain having turned into pressure, Elise was able to relax and take brief naps over the next several hours. After a couple of hours it was determined that she was still not making enough progress, so they decided to administer Oxytocin to help make her contractions "more productive." It was around this time that we were told that the baby was in good position, but that its head was slightly tilted causing Elise’s slow dilation. After three increases to her dosage of Oxytocin, by 8 PM Elise had dilated to 4 cm. Now that the weekend was nearly over, Elise’s original doctor was back on the case and calling the shots. While Dr. Weinstein had been helpful, Elise and I were happy to be back with Dr. Smith. Over the next couple of hours, Elise developed a low fever which was quickly handled by antibiotics and Tylenol. After attempting different positions (albeit limited positions given the epidural) and aided by pillows and leg placement, Elise progressed to 5 cm. Despite her request, we convinced Dr. Smith to hold off on the placement of an internal pressure monitor since Elise was making progress. She slept for a couple of hours and by around 4:30 AM, the nurses told us that Elise had dilated between 9-9.5 cm!! Elise decided to rest for a couple of hours before the pushing began which allowed her to fully dilate to 10 cm.

At around 6:30 AM, Elise worked with the nurse to position herself for pushing. Sharry and I organized our stuff in the room, and I set up our cameras to capture the special moments. (At the suggestion of a co-worker, I set up our video camera in a G-rated location behind Elise’s shoulder. Although it didn’t catch visuals from the action, it did record audio from the moments prior to and just following delivery including the first shots of Kelsey.) At this time, the nurse was in contact with Dr. Smith and helping Elise make her initial attempts at pushing. It was shortly after that I caught my first glimpse of the baby’s head and her curly dark hair! With every push, we caught a better glimpse of the baby’s head – only for her to disappear when the pushing was over. Elise was pushing at the height of each contraction and after a little over an hour, the baby began to “crown” and the nurse called Dr. Smith to the hospital. About twenty minutes later, the doctor arrived and shortly after the room began to fill with people. The earlier signs of meconium in the amniotic fluid along with Elise’s fever had required the presence of a pediatrician and special care nurses to be on hand during delivery as a precautionary measure.

The rest of the delivery happened pretty fast. Elise was directed to push every two minutes or so. We kicked Sharry out of the room, and Elise asked the Dr. how many more contractions before the baby would arrive. The doctor replied with, “about five” and Elise responded with, “how about one?” Turns out, Elise was right. After over 58 hours of labor, the baby’s head came out first in the face-up position (also called sunny-side up – the cause for Elise’s intense back pain), and then her tiny body. At 8:40 AM, Kelsey Brooke Jacobs made her debut. Her first order of business was to spit out all of the amniotic fluid and scream, followed immediately by pooping on mom. I cut the umbilical cord and after spending some time on Elise’s chest, Kelsey was brought to a warming table where she was weighed and measured. As a precautionary measure, the pediatrician took a blood sample – but she was awake and alert the entire time. She weighed in at 6 lbs. 14 oz. at a length of 21 inches. She had an ENORMOUS cone head. As one nurse joked, “She’ll probably lose an inch or two in length when that head gets back to normal.”

While I was following Kelsey to the warming table, the doctor remained with Elise for delivery of the placenta. After her first meal courtesy of Mommy, the nurses gave Kelsey her first bath, made ink footprints and administered all of the standard medicines, etc. We were about to move into a normal room, when Elise decided to pass out for a minute – crazy. Here I am thinking my wife is having some massive medical issue and the nurse is simply smiling and wiping her head with a cold towel. Anyway, Elise “woke up” and we moved to room 371 where we spent the rest of the day resting as a family allowing Elise and I to get to know our new beautiful daughter Kelsey!

So far, So fast....and it's just the beginning

Some attempts at artsy 39 week belly photography....

At my last dr's appt, I had an ultrasound and the baby is doing fantastic weighing in at 6lbs 10oz with a 15% variance. Adam and I are doing great, just excited to get the show on the road now that we're over 39 1/2 weeks. It's hard to believe that we could go into labor, finally meet Baby J and be parents at any time. It's been a very interesting ride with a lot more pregnancy bumps than either Adam or I expected, but I have a feeling that when we see two tiny eyes looking up at us and we finally get to see and hold our baby it will all be worth it in a way neither of us can comprehend until it happens. We can't wait!!! Excitement, nervousness, curiosity, wonderment all cross our minds constantly. The entire process is incredibly amazing and inconceivable at times and we haven't even got to the labor/delivery part. We've received so many emails, texts, calls and notes from many of you with your well wishes. It's so heart warming to know how much everyone is thinking about us at this time. We can't tell you what it means to us. We and Baby J are very lucky indeed!! While the waiting isn't the easiest now that I'm officially on maternity leave, hopefully very soon we'll be holding our baby and sharing him/her with you......amazing!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

My coworker, Joanna and I at our joint awesome work baby shower and some of the kids feeling the baby on the playground.

As you know, I work in what in MO is called an early childhood center..... basically a pre-k program as a Speech Language Pathologist. So I work with children ages 3-5 with autism, severe disabilities, articulation disorders (difficulty saying sounds correctly), stuttering and more. Since I'm in a school I have access to and see lots of "typical" kids as well in the hallways and randomly throughout the day. I love kids and I love what I do. Here's a few of my favorite baby related stories to tell you why:

1. Since I've been showing the kids love to point to my belly and say things like, "You have a baby in your belly." I usually confirm their statement and say, "You're right. I do have a baby in my belly." That's usually the end of it. However, one day a class was lining up after lunch and after the usual comments, one bright little boy looked at me and asked seriously, "How you going to get it out?" I smiled and answered, " You're going to have to ask your mommy that question. Ask her how you came out." He looked at me for a moment and gave me a decisive nod indicating he certainly would. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in his kitchen that night. I retold the story to a coworker and she said, "at least he didn't ask you how it got in there." Now that would have been interesting!

2. One of my 3 year olds looked at me and asked me, "you still got that baby in your tummy?" I said, "Yes, I do." He responded, "Open your mouth" and proceeded to open his to show me how. I asked him why and said, "I want to see your baby." It was adorable.

3. I see a 5 year old boy with Autism who communicates around a 2-3 year old level and who is usually not very perceptive about anything outside of his world. At this point, I am 8 months pregnant and huge and sit in preschool chairs constantly. So today, I attempted to get up out of the preschool chair and while doing so held my belly and rose slowly. Now this 5 yr old who I treat looked at me and said, "You ok?" It was unbelievably precious and a great day for him!

4. I see a group of 3 kiddos who are either receiving therapy for stuttering or for articulation (difficulty making sounds appropriately). Today, one of the little boys asked me, "Why is that baby still in your tummy?" I responded with, "Because the baby isn't ready to come out." He asked, "Who's going to get him out?" I answered, "The doctor and I will do it." He followed with, "Who's going to drive you to the doctor?" And my resonse was, "My husband." He gave me a puzzled look like he didn't understand what a husband was, so I added, "the daddy. The baby's daddy." He looked at me and pointing to the other little boy next to me asked, "Why can't he be the daddy?" I couldn't help smiling amidst these very serious questions and answered, "He's not old enough to be a daddy." To which boy #2, said strongly, "But I'm five!" I couldn't stop myself from laughing......Kids really do say the darndest things!

5. Prior to moving to St. Louis, I treated in spanish fairly frequently, but since moving here the spanish speaking population is significantly less than Atlanta. Recently, however, I started treating a little 3 year old spanish speaking girl who is precocious as all get out and since my spanish has significantly decreased since moving here with my lack of use not to mention her speech delays, sometimes I don't have any idea what she's saying. Today, however, she was saying good bye to me in front of her dad. She ran back to give me a hug and then immediately went to kiss my belly. As she was walking away I heard her telling her dad in spanish, "there's a baby in her tummy." It was too cute! Since that day, everytime she says good bye to me, she gives me a hug and kisses my belly. Just precious.

6. One day on the playground, there was a group of preschoolers asking me why I hadn't had the baby yet. And I said, "it's up to the baby when he/she comes." The little girl looked at me and said, " you should tell the baby to hurry up." I was thinking I wish I could, but instead said, "When I do have the baby, you won't see me anymore because I'll have to go to the hospital and then stay home to take care of the baby." One of the little boys in a room I work in said, "But you can bring the baby here to meet me." Then, another girl looked up at me and said, "You should call my mom." I responded with, "What should I say to her?" She answered," You can ask her to babysit. She babysits a lot!"

7. My last week of work, the kids repeatedly asked me, "you STILL have that baby in your tummy?" Evidently, they're as ready as I am to meet our little one. I told them that maybe they could help get the baby out by talking to it. So on my last day of work, when I walked down the hall all I heard was. "Come out baby!!" in a chorus of 4 and 5 year old voices. I'll miss those voices, but it sure feels nice to be done with the school year :)