Joshua David is Here!

WARNING: If you don't like hearing all the gritty details of birth, please stop reading now. Long story short, our son was born premature. OK, those with inquiring minds may proceed.

So the little guy decided to throw a wrench in all our plans and be born 5.5 weeks early. Here is his story. On Thursday I was up most the night with back pain and cramps. I went to work that morning and unbeknown to me, did a whole shift at the hospital through the first stage of labor. I knew I had some pains, but I didn't think it was that bad. I had a scheduled OB appointment that afternoon at 4pm, so I thought I would just ask about it then. At my appointment they decided to check things out and my doctor told me I was dilated to 4cm and 100% effaced already. She told me to get to the hospital right away. I couldn't even go home to pack a bag. (Ironically, packing a bag was on my to-do list of things to get done this weekend.) They admitted me and put me on drugs to try and stop the contractions. Meanwhile, I called David to pack a bag for me and try to find a ride to get to the hospital, since I had the car. Luckily our property management boss was kind enough to give him a ride.

By that evening it was clear that nothing was going to stop the contractions, so they got a NICU room all ready and broke my water at 11pm. Sometime after that they put me on pitocin to strengthen the contractions. One of our friends came over and with David gave me a blessing. Around 1am (I think, I really lost track of time) they told me it was the point of no return to get an epidural or not. Seeing as how I was already in a lot of pain, they gave me one. He did a great job and it took well with no bad side effects, besides me throwing up when they turned me on my side. Around 3am the hard labor set in and I pushed for an hour to get him out. Josh was born at 4:03am. He was 5 lbs 12 oz and 18 inches long. It was not a very pleasant experience and by the state of Josh's head, not very nice for him either. It took about 30 minutes afterward to get all the stiches in me. The doctor wouldn't tell me how many they put in, but David said he could see that they cut into me and I tore on my own. Thankfully he didn't mention any of this until later. Josh was doing well enough that I got to hold him for a while before going to NICU and then David was with him over there while I recovered enough to get out of bed, which was around 6am. I then went to NICU and got to hold him for a while.

It is now the evening of the 10th and I was able to get about 2 hours of sleep since coming here, so I feel kind of loopy. Josh hasn't been able to feed yet, but they tell me that is common with 34 week babies. He has to learn how and my milk hasn't come in yet. I have a lot of great nurses and doctors to work with, so I am sure he will get the hang of it soon. Normally 34 week babies spend about 2 weeks in the NICU, but since he really isn't having breathing problems so far, we're hopping it will be less. To be able to go home he has to show that he can feed well and gain weight and maintain a proper body temperature in a regular crib.

It has been a whirlwind and crazy two days. Only David and my brother were at the birth because my parents were at a conference in Washington. My poor mother can't belive that she missed his birth! David was the best and most supportive partner I could ask for and did everything right. All the nurses said they were going to take him to help with their other births and tried to get him to change his major from accounting to nursing!

We didn't have everything ready for him (my baby shower is supposed to be tomorrow, but we're bumping it back) and I don't even have all my stuff yet. I am trying not to feel overwhelmed right now, but it is still a little hard to take in. He is so little and tiny and it feels like I could break him! His head is all bruised and he cries whenever his head it touched because he has a very bad headache. His little nose is also all black and blue and squished to one side. His cone head is at least going down. The NICU nurses joked that he was going to loose an inch off his height because it was so pointy.

Well, that is the long story of Joshua David's early arrival to the world. Thank you for all your prayers and support.