Hitting our stride...

Another week and time for some updates. Olin is 1 month and 1 day old today!

Jyoti's been taking the night shift every night now, allowing me to get back into work this week. (Looks like the blog updates will only come weekly now) Olin and mom are doing better every day and have gotten back into their nursing routine with no problem, allowing dad to get up to 5 hours of sleep some night! (Unfortunately I can't say the same for Jyoti)

Olin reached 5lbs 1 ounce at this week's doctor visit! Another milestone. The big hurdle is apparently 7 lbs, beyond which her (and our) routine may change again (e.g. allowing longer sleeping periods, etc), and we can start to switch from keeping her world small to expanding it!

Olin's personality is definitely starting to come through already. She's a baby girl who knows what she wants (that's good and bad news). We barely need the baby monitor anymore; she makes it very clear to everyone (including bhones, and probably our neighbors) when she'd like to get up and eat.

A watchful companion

Bhones has been sure to keep one eye on our new guest at all times.

A busy week

Olin passed several milestone's this week... She got an "A+" from her pediatrician after her first visit on tuesday, and jumped up to 4lbs 9 ounces! The little piggy is growing fast thanks to some TLC from her momma.

The little piggy's piggy bank (thanks Stac!).
Time to start saving.

She's official now. Think her government checks will clear in 2074?

Back home with Olin, showing her around her new home...

All settled in

After a few introductions, Olin is settled in to her new home. Bhones has begun to accept her new role as family dog.

Home in the Jones crib

After 19 days in the NICU, Olin has finally made it home and spends her first night in the Jones family crib. This crib has been passed around in my family for a long time. My father and I both used it, and now its Olin's turn.

Going home!

With the OK from the Dr. , we're more than ready to finally

all go home. Looks like "Team Bhones" may have just graduated to the Jones family.

Baby Vortex

Maybe its just the lack of sleep and the fact that I've been staring at this view for half the night, but I think I may have discovered yet another beautiful example of a vortex in nature.

OMG...

...this is exhausting. After our first "practice" night with Olin here in the ICU, we promptly kicked her out of our room in the morning so we could sleep. Fortunately there are nurses on the other side of our door.

Being so young, not all the "bits n' pieces" are working perfectly yet. The valve/muscle that keeps her food down is not 100% yet, so she spits up alot and cannot be laid down flat- uncomfortable for anyone, but worse for someone who can't sit up on their own. We have to keep her inclined when she sleeps . It also results in a lot of excessive monitoring and holding by concerned parents throughout the night!

Looks like tomorrow she'll be coming home with us! Without nurses on the other side of our door, no more kicking her out when we get tired...

Live and unplugged...

Baby Olin goes live and unplugged this evening as a "trial run" with her parents.

We'll spend 2 evenings with her off the monitors in a parent room inside the ICU starting this evening. If all goes well (ie mom, dad, and Olin stay healthy), she may go home as early as sunday!
(This hospital has fantastic staff and facilities.)

stay tuned...

A new milestone!

Thanks to around the clock milk from her mama,
this little girl has reached 4 lbs. today.


Rumors have it she may get released early for good behavior...

Time for a survey

Okay, to try and promote more comments and participation, we're going to have a little survey.

We've heard mixed comments from the nurses, so we'd like your feedback.

Do you think Olin more closely resembles:

A) Jyoti

B) Jason

C) that strange little creature from the Benjamin Button movie, or

D) that guy that cleans our pool


...click on comments button below

Grandma Jones pays a visit

Olin uses an old Jedi mind trick to convince grandmother she needs to keep holding her all afternoon.

Rub' a dub dub

Little Olin in the tub!
She didn't seem to appreciate her first bath...

However, no complaints here. What little girl doesn't love getting her hair done?

Visit from grandma

Diane came out for a quick visit to meet her granddaughter and give us a hand around the house (dog sitting, meals, cleaning!) Thank you!

Grandma Jones is up next, arriving tomorrow morning.

Happy 4th of July from Olin!

Genius baby

Apparently, Olin is a genius. Here she is generating a train of ultrashort pulses using only her mind, while Jason tries to explain Fourier decomposition to Jyoti.

Big girl now

After over a week, Olin is moving to her big girl room (still in the NICU). No more jaundice, so her photo therapy lights have been removed -Olin wanted less bilirubin and more belly-rubin'. They have also removed her feeding tube, so its either Jyoti or the bottle for feeding- we are entering a new phase of this experiment. No more temperature controlled housing either, she'll have to control her own body temp now, so she's finally wearing clothes. She's looking less like a "strange little creature" and more and more like a baby. Doc says there are 3 things Olin needs to do before coming home: 1) maintain her own body temp, 2) feed without the tube for 2-3 days, 3) weigh at least 4 lbs. 8 ounces. Looks like she's already got 2 of the 3, but it will be over a week before she puts on enough weight.

Tired parents

After over a week in her hospital room, Jyoti is finally moving out. (of course, she's moving in to another room in the NICU to be closer to Olin for feeding, but she'll be coming home from time to time. The room in the NICU is on a day by day basis)

A Little Explanation of Olin Nikhila

(Contributed to the Blog by Olin’s mama, Jyoti B. Jones)

When we announced our pregnancy news to Jason’s parents, we decided to have a little fun with it.

Jason’s mom, Ginger, hails from a long line of Norwegians. I am half Indian and my mother’s half is a mix that largely includes Swedish. Jason had a lot of fun on Skype telling his mom that we found out over Thanksgiving that “Jyoti has a little Norwegian in her”. “No, Mom, I don’t think you get it. Jyoti has a little Norwegian IN her. A LlTTLE NORWEGIAN IN HER. (repeat about four times) We watched as Ginger’s face turned from uninterested, to slowly comprehending it, to all out shouting and crying for joy! And that is how the “Little Norwegian” got her first nickname.

Based on her nickname, we started looking up Norwegian names and found one we loved that has true sentimental value for us. Jason’s Norwegian grandfather and great grandfather were named Olaf and Ole. Olin is a female variant of these names and appropriately means, “of the ancestors”.

Nikhila is a Gujarati (Indian) name that also has sentimental meaning. It is the female version of the name Jyoti would have been given if she were a boy and the name of a character in a favorite novel of ours. And fittingly, it means “complete”.

An aside from the father:
A quick web search will reveal Olin is more often used for males but sometimes females. Olin's mom of course is always thorough, and contacted several Norwegians in Norway to confirm the feminine use of the name. Apparently it was a very popular name from around 1880 to 1920. A century later, its making a comeback!