Rocking the Diapers

Everything is "coming out okay" for our little Jacob as I have already changed three diapers today with a nurse changing the fourth...and my mom may have changed a fifth. Today has been nice and relaxing for both Jen and myself. She has continued to progress well and has eaten among other things part of a turkey Subway sandwich and some Pad See Iew (0 stars). My mom came out to say hello and get some baby time and a couple of Jen's coworkers and friends joined the party supplying us with the Thai food and some beverages if we feel so inclined (oh and some flowers as well...these guys were thorough).

Other than having a happy, healthy baby, a quickly recovering mother and wife and a fatigued but incredibly happy husband and dad there is not much else to report. I'm sure tonight will offer some more challenges and we will be sure to log those for everyone's enjoyment. Here are some more pics for your enjoyment...

The Morning is Finally Arriving

It is almost the end of our first night with little Jake and we are still holding in there. Jen and I each were able to steal about two and half hours of sleep over the course of the night which is less than I expected to get (lord knows why) and I'm sure about as much as Jen thought she would be getting. Our boy has some good lungs and can let out a decent cry, but overall I can't really say that he spent a whole lot of time crying last night...but that could have been because one or the other of us had him in our arms for the entire evening. :)

Jen is progressing fairly well, but she has had the displeasure of dealing with the side effect of vomiting. She has had the chance to get up out of bed a couple of times and even took a quick walk from one end of the room and back to her bed. The sciatica that caused her to contact the doc and push up the delivery date has disappeared with the arrival of our baby (he is no longer setting up camp on her spine).

I managed to change my first diaper this morning (a changing that followed closely on a changing from the nurse...our boy has been eating). Just like me, he has settled down once he has a clean set of undies and is tightly wrapped in some warm baby blankets. :)

We will fire up so more pics later this AM, but for now we are going to refocus on Jacob and see if we can't steal a few more zzzz's before today's group of visitors arrive.

Jacob Opens to a Full House

Even though the baby came 6 days early, it didn't mean that he was going to enter the world with just mommy and daddy. Our wonderful godmother, Jackie Wilburn, batted in the clean up spot by joining Jen in the operating room while they did all of the icky needle and prep stuff (I am a large, large baby when it comes to needles), but I came swooping in behind the curtain to offer Jen what support I could. Jackie acted as the documentarian as she took footage of stuff none of us will probably ever watch again, but we completely appreciated the effort. :)


The time between when they rolled Jen towards the OR to when she was getting rolled to our room was less than an hour. For me it seemed pretty painless but Jen made it all look easy when I know that it wasn't. Once we reached the room we had the full squad awaiting our arrival. For my side of the family this is our first grand-baby (we inherited the beautiful Alyssa at 3) so my side came out in force. For Jen's family this is the first grand-son so they also came out to offer their support.


In any case, I am having trouble finding the words right now due to excitement, fatigue and amazement so I will leave you with some more pics...

Say Hello to Jacob Ryan Grothkopp!!

Stats --

Born on: October 4th, 2007
Born at: 5:19 PM PST
Tipping the scales at: 8 lbs 9 ozs
Standing tall at: 20.5"

Getting Ready to Head to the Hospital!

I got the call from Jen at 11:40 AM that she was heading to the hospital and got the green light to have the baby early. After bombing through town in a taxi and then cruising the rest of the way home as fast as I could (within the speed limit) I made a pit stop at Bartell Drugs to get a new 8mm tape and then headed home to find Jen getting the house ready for departure. Many boring cleaning activities followed and we are in the final few moments before heading to the hospital for a few days.

More to come from inside the hospital...

T-minus 8 days....and counting

It was many months ago that I set up this blog as a place to keep people apprised of our babies progress. Well, there is not much to report as we muscle through the weeks attending various doctor appointments and one thrilling baby class (I added excitement with my inability to handle seeing an epidural on TV).

However, we are in the stretch run and the baby could literally come any day now. Jen and I each have our guesses for the baby's weight and length but are interested to hear what everyone else thinks...so, jump to the message down below and comment on little "baby g"'s girth at birth!

A secondary guessing game, if people are so inclined, can be for the baby name (something that has been under tight wraps for the past 4 months). For anyone out there brave enough to wager a guess, the comment section is all yours....

The Due Date and Guess the Weight

I figure that I should put the due date up here so that everyone knows when the first American pope is going to be born. Since I couldn't live up to the prediction my grandma made many years ago, I figure this little one can pick up the banner that I dropped when I stole that kids fruit wrap in first grade.

The due date is October 10, 2007...exactly 31 years and 364 days after my birthday. I say we just put it off a day so that there are two double birthdays in the family (Jen and Scotty, me and the baby).

I would also like to open up the un-official voting for the weight of the baby. You can enter your vote by commenting on this blog entry. As you are pondering the weight keep the following things in mind:

- I am of Croatian and German descent, a hearty, big-baby folk
- I currently stand 6'6" tall and tip the scales at just over 250
- My head is large
- As a baby I weighed just a few ticks over 7 lbs
- Jen stands at a beautiful 5'10" tall
- She weighed in at 9 lbs 9 oz

So, get your algorithms tuned, grab the abacus, tap your calculator and look to the stars. The person who guesses closest without going over...okay fine, we won't do it Price is Right style...whoever is closest will get to share a beverage with our wonderful new mom and partake in a portion of the hospital food we will be subsisting on for three days. Beat that Deal or No Deal....

Let the guessing begin...