Finally, a post about Gabe

So here is our little guy. His official name is Gabriel Seth Potter. However we will most likely call him Gabe. He entered the world on March 18 at about 2:23 PM. He was born at 37 weeks 2 days. A solid 8-10 later than the older children. He weighed 6 lbs 9 oz and was 20 inches long. His good weight and later stage of development did not stop him from having a rough first week. His lungs had not developed to the correct stage and he was not breathing properly. At first the doctor thought he was just not expanding his lungs enough to get the oxygen, but further testing showed he was not producing serfactant (sp) enough to trade out the oxygen for the carbon dioxide, he was getting too high levels of the bad stuff built up. Anyways, after various breathing aparatus, including full ventilation, his lungs kicked in and he can breathe just fine.

It was a stressfull week for all of us. Gabe couldn't be released from the hospital, even after he could breathe, until he could then eat and breathe succesfully. That was a problem as the criteria was really strict. He had to eat 37 ml of milk and he had to do it in 15 minutes every 2 hours. If he did not drink the milk it was then force fed through a feeding tube. That would be a "failed" feeding. Very frustrating for us as he began to fail feedings because he was sleeping. However we had a great doctor who listened to our concerns. He accepted Nathans proposal that he be allowed to eat on demand. As long as he woke up every 2-3 hours on his own, and absolutely didn't go over 4 hours, and he drank a certain amount within 24 hours, he would pass the eating test. He ofcourse did fine. Once he was allowed to eat when he was hungry, he woke up every 3 hours and ate more than he previously had. So it all worked out and he can home on his one week birthday.

He is proving to be a good little baby. He wakes almost like clock work every 3 hours and eats. He fusses only when he is hungy has a messy diaper or is working out gas. The kids are absolutely in love with him. They think he is the greatest thing ever. Hannah would hold him all the time if I let her. Ethan adores his cute face, hands and feet. Both of the kids wanted to see his feet right away. Hannah just says "He's so cute" about 50 -100 times a day. Nate has all but banned her from saying it in his presence.

Any way, as I type the little one is making himself known. He is awake now so I guess this post is long enough.