Officially a Father!

officially a father?
You still not claiming those other kids yet?


Just kidding, one of those happy days for me.

Congratulations!

Congrats. Best thing in my life I hope it is in yours too.

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks guys! To say I'm thrilled he's here is an understatement! Can't wait for him to go home with us! He still has to gain some more weight and exhibit the ability to be bottle/breast fed, which I'm sure will come soon. He's so little right now! Probably makes me more protective over him than anything else.

The wife is slowly improving, but she still has a long haul.

Congrats man! My daughter was in the NICU for several weeks. Those people know what they're doing!! Its hard on the parents but good for the little one. Soon when you take him home will be a momentous day indeed......

congrats good man.

Thank you again guys!

My wife told me that the doctor had informed us that he has a heart murmur, but wasn't displaying any concerning symptoms. Naturally, that makes me feel very uneasy. They're running some tests on him today. I know people live with heart murmurs all the time and are perfectly healthy, but it's hard enough having to leaving him in the NICU and now learning that he has a heart murmur.

It was hard enough concentrating on my work - now it's really hard to concentrate!

my newest niece is in NICU right now as well.

it is very rare that a pregnancy goes perfect.

when my daughter was born, we were right around the due date and was at a hospital radiology dept for an ultrasound to monitor the babies progress and whether she had passed the fibroids. we were told to immediately rush over to another hospital's maternity ward, something about low embiotic fluid etc .. after some very tense moments and emergency c section, my daughter was born and is a happy healthy 2 1/2 year old.

hang in there skinsguy. my advice is to stay positive and try to maintain a consistent level of calm. NICU has amazing doctors and these lil itty bitty babies are resilient.

my newest niece is in NICU right now as well.

it is very rare that a pregnancy goes perfect.

when my daughter was born, we were right around the due date and was at a hospital radiology dept for an ultrasound to monitor the babies progress and whether she had passed the fibroids. we were told to immediately rush over to another hospital's maternity ward, something about low embiotic fluid etc .. after some very tense moments and emergency c section, my daughter was born and is a happy healthy 2 1/2 year old.

hang in there skinsguy. my advice is to stay positive and try to maintain a consistent level of calm. NICU has amazing doctors and these lil itty bitty babies are resilient.

Over the mountain: Thanks so much for your words of encouragement. I'm trying to remain as positive as I can be. For the most part, I have, but hearing things like "heart murmur" scares me to death! I read up on it and it sounds like it's really common in preemies, but it's also much more serious in preemies than full term newborns. Which, of course, scares me to death. Medicine is usually the treatment with worst case scenario being surgery. It's a condition called PDA. Then again, he hasn't displayed any symptoms of labored breathing (except when he first came out which is almost always the case with preemies) nor elevated blood pressure or heart rate, so I'm hoping it's simply just an innocent murmur, which goes away as the kid ages.

But you're absolutely right...it's almost a rarity for any pregnancy to ever go completely smooth.

congrats!