Julian is One

From Jules' First Birthday

Jules made it to one. In 365 days his weight has increased 11x, he went from four tubes to one and from living in a clear plastic box to living in a fancy black cage. He crawls (in fact he stepped into the dishwasher today), he gurgles and gets happy and sad and mad. We couldn't have made it this far without all of your help.

Here's what I wrote 1 year ago (on 15 Oct)

Dear Friends and Family.

Jules arrived on Friday October 10th at 4:35pm, about two and half months early at 29 weeks and 3 days. He weighed about 1.5 pounds (1 lb 8.8 ounces) -- his head is about the size of a fist and his legs and arms are about the width of a chapstick. Our doctors made the decision to deliver him after weighing various factors, including a very small baby ("severe IUGR"), preeclampsia, and substantial decelerations in his heart rate. After making the decision, they delivered Julian by urgent cesarean section and then quickly transferred him to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where he'll hang out until he's ready to come home.

Julian derives from youthful in Latin.

Jules is a fighter and is making slow, steady, "expected" progress for a micro-preemie. Over the next two months he'll start by taking his first steps to breathing on his own, eating breastmilk/formula and eventually over a long, bumpy path to coming home. The overwhelming, vast majority (95%+) of kids like Jules survive and about three quarters of them catch-up to "term" babies after a few years.

We are proud to be parents again but terrified and exhausted. And of course, Gigi is very excited to be a big sister. We're so happy to receive your messages, prayers, phone calls, emails but we're not quite sure how to feel about gifts right now.

You can continue to follow Jules' progress and see pictures at http://babysilver2.blogspot.com. Some of these pictures can be a little scary and may not be for everybody.

Happy New Year & Love,

Scott, Joy, big-sister-Gigi

P.S. The Brit Milah will be postponed until medically and spiritually appropriate.