Update on Washington's Prison Sentence

Washington's prison sentence is projected to be a few weeks long but already he's served more than 8 days in the slammer. (It's gone by fast but doesn't go by fast enough!) He's doing much better and is figuring out the daily routine of meals, isolation time in his straight jacket, and workout sessions.

The workout sessions include extracting 1 ounce of milk from a bottle held between his lips over the course of 1 hour. He completed this workout twice in the last 2 days! (Take that Jillian!) As a reminder, he needs to  eat 8 times in row from his mouth before he's released.

He takes about 6 hours to recover from his workouts. They are brutal on his body. During the meals that are missed during the recovery hours he has the wardens put food directly into his stomach through his feeding tube. However, his parents are still happy he is progressing and starting to take food through his mouth.

They are told Washington is back up to his initial birth weight after having lost 3 ounces figuring out the hierarchy among the prisoners on Cell Block 7. In fact, many of his cell mates have gone home. They bulked up enough and displayed to the wardens the necessary behavior to gain parole. So, he's now senior prisoner on his block.

The prisoners on the other blocks call him One Eye Washington. He doesn't waste his calories opening up both eyes. It gives him some edginess.  Don't mess with this little guy!

Also, seniority brought him a new bed without heat lamps and the first pick of the cleaned blankets.  Whoever said "position" doesn't count for anything, didn't serve time in a maximum security NICU!

First public video of little Washington. Remember where you when viewing this! You'll be telling people later in life... :)

Washington John Salmon Arrives 6 Weeks Early!

Washington was so excited to be here for John's defense, he rushed into this world on April 19th, 6:36pm at the new Salmon Family feather weight record of 3 pounds and 9 ounces.  Anya was 6 lbs 11 oz, Austria was 5 pounds 15 oz, and Olympia was 5 lbs 6 oz. (If this rate continues, Lindy could someday be able to deliver a baby that weighs nothing!)

Washington also brings up the rear in height (okay, length) at 15.75 inches. All the other girls were above 17 inches but they in turn came out shorter and shorter. (Side note: for two out of four children the nurse didn't know how to read the tape measure, and the official record is incorrect...What's more, one of them was off by an inch for the head measurement... Curse those confusing and equally spaced tick marks!)

It took a while to finally decide on his name as John wanted to name him "Bane" with pictures like this taken during the first hour of his life. (But Lindy hasn't seen that movie so she didn't know what John was talking about...Yes, almost as surprising as the weekend Washington chose to begin his new life!)

He did lose the mask about 12 hours later, so it was probably good they didn't stick with Bane after all. That would have been odd, eh? Bane without a mask?

Here is Lindy holding Washington for the first time, just a few hours before his 24 hour mark. He really is just a little boy...

Here is Washington with his feeding tube in his mouth. He's trying to pull it out in this picture but it goes all the way down to his stomach so he gave up after the first centimeter. 

After multiple attempts on removing the tube, the nurses decided to place it down his nose, tape it in place with teddy bear stickers (insulting?) and put his arms in a straight jacket of swaddles to keep him from working on his task. Washington was not pleased.

His sisters saw him for the first time through the glass darkly from 30 feet away:

Austria said, "Oh, he's so cute!" Anya said "We can't see him at all." They were both right. (Washington is in that little bed on the other side of the room.)

They asked that he be moved to a different "cell" (the hospital calls them pods) beside the window so his sisters could see him much better. Thankfully the warden responded positively.

The next day we were able to take some more pictures much closer.

The person on guard duty at the time even held up Washington for the first picture which includes parts of all four children (Side note: The photographer was on some serious drugs at this time. Seriously.):

Anyway, tonight Washington was transported to cell block 7 (the hospital calls it the 7th floor) and there aren't any windows there so the girls might not see him for a few weeks while he's behind bars.

No early parole for this guy. He has to be able to sustain his own life eating prison food through his mouth at least 8 times in a row (over a 24 hour period) and put on some weight while working out at the gym.

Updates to follow...

Thanks for all your prayers, thoughts, and support in various ways!

100 + ?

Moving week is underway.  I have to admit that the box count can only be estimated at 100 and we still have a few boxes to go.  Fortunately the highest guess was 90, so we have a clear winner (and maybe too much stuff :).