And Baby Makes Four

On September 4, 2012 we became a family of four at 12:33 pm.

On the way to the hospital.

 

Waiting anxiously to meet our little guy.

James makes his arrival weighing in at 8 pounds 1 ounce and 21 inches long.  Before he was even an hour old, he was holding his head up and turning it from side to side.  I can tell that he is going to be a big strong boy!

 

 

 How sweet is that face?

Big Sister Emma holds James for the first time.  She was so sweet and gentle with him.

 

Shortly after those pictures were taken, they had to take James to the NICU.  He was delivered via C-Section and it is common for babies to have some additional fluid in their lungs when delivered this way.  Most of the time, babies are able to cry hard enough to get rid of that extra fluid which allows their breathing to slow down and regulate.  However, James wasn't able to do this.  Babies should take below 60 breaths per minute but James was taking over 80 per minute.  We were extremely glad that Emma was able to see, hold and kiss him before they took him to the NICU because they don't allow children under 14 in the unit.

Around the same time that they were monitoring James for his breathing, I suddenly became very hot and felt faint.  My blood pressure dropped to 60/34 and before I knew it, there were four nurses, my doctor and an anesthesiologist at my side.  They gave me an additional IV of fluid, took my blood, gave me a shot and started pushing on my abdomen very hard because it turned out that my uterus wasn't contracting back down and was filling with blood.  This was about an hour and a half after I had James so of course by this time, my epidural had worn off and I was in so much pain.  Thankfully once this episode was over, I was back to normal and had no further trouble.

James in the NICU with a feeding tube.  So pitiful and sad but he was such a trooper!

Proud Daddy

Emma drew James two pictures for his crib in the NICU.  It made her feel a little closer to him to know that her pictures were with him cheering him up.

Meanwhile during our stay in the hospital, Nana took care of Emma back at home.  Emma had a great time and I think it was good that she was able to get some one on one attention from Nana before the baby came home.

In the early hours of Friday morning, they took the feeding tube out because his breathing was getting better.  He wasn't out of the woods yet though...not until he was able to have his breathing below 60 breaths per minute for 12 - 24 hours.  By the end of the day on Friday, he was cleared of the breathing issue and they allowed me to feed him a bottle.

Although the breathing was under control now, another issue had risen.  They did not think he was digesting his food properly because during the time he had the feeding tube in, they were able to see that most of what they gave him was never digested.  This caused further concern because they were afraid it was linked to galactosemia (condition in which the body lacks the enzyme to break down galactose).  Emma had this condition for the first year of her life.  She did not have the severe version and therefore, grew out of it once she turned one.  She was unable to have regular milk or breast milk up until that time so she was strictly on soy for the first year.  The test takes one to two weeks to get back so at this point in the NICU, we had to assume James had the condition and were only allowed to give him my colostrum until my milk came in.  They fed it to him through the feeding tube.  Once my milk came in on day 3, I pumped and froze the milk in anticipation of his results.

On Saturday, I was discharged from the hospital but James had to stay.  Josh and I went to visit James in the NICU as often as possible.  We always planned our visits around his feeding times so that we could be the ones to feed him.

 

 

On Monday, James was given the green light to come home!  Emma was over the moon excited to see her baby brother again.

 

Finally at home where he belongs.

 Big Sister feeding James for the first time.

My parents came into town late Thursday night.  They spoiled Emma with chocolate chip pancakes and bacon one morning.  She loved the special attention from Mimi and Papa.

My little princess.

His first outing.

 

Nala was jealous and had to crawl up in my lap with James.

 

Peacefully sleeping.

James, we love you and praise God that you are a happy and healthy baby!