Jake's arrival

It is kinda crazy that my last post said that I had been having contractions all day... well the contractions got worse and closer together shortly after that post and so I called my dr. to let her know what was going on around 9:45pm. The contractions were around 8 minutes apart. She suggested getting everything together and going to the hospital. They would evaluate me and then decide if we need to move the c-section up. I had just washed my face and put my pajamas on so I quickly went to change and pack up any final items. I really could not believe that we were heading to the hospital. We left the house by around 10:15 and arrived at the hospital a little before 11pm. The hospital was very empty considering this is the baby factory. They said it was a slow day and so we were one of the only ones in the csection delivery area. The nurse checked me and I was already at 4 centimeters.... hense the bad pains I was having. They put me on monitors and she said things were about to get hectic. They talked to my dr. and said the csection would be moved to 1am. They did not want me to go into full labor so they needed to move up the surgery. So at that point they were taking blood and having me quickly fill out forms..... the anestheiologist was called in to start the epidural.... awww relief. This was about 12:30am... we had called our parents to let them know the new plan. My brother/sister stayed home with Luke and my parents and Jody's parents were in the waiting room. I even got to see my mom/dad before we left for the OR.

With Luke I never had any contractions and he was a week late. Jake had his own plan and arrived at 1:15am via csection. The surgery went well and Jake was a healthy baby boy weighing 7lbs 14oz and 20 inches long. It was so surreal that he was here and that we would now have 2 little boys. We were overjoyed and so thankful that he was healthy. (Many of you know that with Luke he was taken from the OR to the transition nursery/ICU due to breathing problems). This was such a different experience. Jake was in the recovery room with me and I was able to start nursing him right away. It was so special to have that time to hold him. It surely made the time pass much faster than with Luke. After about 90 minutes we were able to leave the recovery room and go to our hospital room. At around 3am we were in our room (room 682) and our parents were able to meet Jake for the first time. He has very similar characteristics to Luke... same lips, nose...From what we can tell he has more hair than Luke did at that time. He makes the funniest face where he furrows his brow.

My recovery was much smoother this time as well. I was off the epidural pump after 1 day and able to move around and take a shower by the 2nd day. We put Jake in the nursery at night and they would bring him to us for feedings. This helped us to get some sleep and not just watch him and listen for his little noises at night. No matter how early we tried to go to sleep at night it never failed that it would be midnight... the nurses coming to check on us... give medications... take temperatures.. etc. We decided to extend our stay until Friday just so that I could rest one more day. I knew once I came home I would be doing a lot more than just lying around in bed so I thought it would be better to take that one more day. Plus Thursday was so rainy and cold.

Luke was so adorable when he came to the hospital to meet his brother. My mom/dad were taking care of Luke at our house. He came in his " I am the big brother" shirt and he was able to meet Jake... when he says his name it sounds more like "cake". He got a new cold and started running a fever on Tuesday. My mom took him to the dr. and they said it must be a virus. He did not come to the hospital room for a day or two so that we would not spread his germs. I was able to go downstairs and spend some time with him. It was so hard being apart from him and not kissing him good night. I really have not spent much time apart from Luke so it made it even harder. Plus now I could not pick him up or hold him. He did climb in the bed with me several times and that was super special.

Friday, January 22nd came and we were ready to go home. We told the nurses we planned to leave by around 11 or 12. The nurse came in around 10am to check my vitals and also Jake's. I was sitting on the bed and she was listening to Jake in the isolete. She was checking him much longer than other nurses had and I tried to excuse it as her being a more thorough nurse. Well about 30 minutes later she came back to our room and said she thought she heard a heart murmur but she is not the best at heart murmurs so she wanted the anchor nurse to listen. I lost it.... how could this be happening... we were going home and everything was going so well. She came back and said the anchor nurse heard it as well and they were calling our pediatrician to get advise. The pediatrician asked that the neonatologist listen and evaluate him. This meant he had to go to the transition nursery where Luke had spent so much time.... my tears were really flowing now. They tried to encourage us by saying this did not mean that he was not going home with us. So I finished getting ready and waited for my mom and Luke to arrive. Jody went down to the transition nursery to be with Jake. Once my mom arrived we went to the nursery as well. Looking through the glass brough back such memories of Luke being in there and now I was really sobbing. One of the nurses came out and said that we could come in. I went in and explained why we were so upset... one from previous experiences and the other that we were planning to go home today. The neonatoligist evaluated Jake and said he did hear the murmur and they would have the cardiologist come and do an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart)..... This took about 3 hours. The waiting game is never fun especially when it is your newborn. I never want anyone to be sick, etc. but seeing the other babies in the nursery and knowing you are not the only one in this situation is reassuring. Fast forward several hours we met with the cardiologist. He let us know that Jake has what is called a VSD... Ventrical Septal Defect..basically one of the valves did not close properly during his development. After reading more about this it can happen as early as 8 weeks during pregnancy. They said it is a very small hole in the muscular part of the valve which is a good thing. These are usually not found for several weeks and we are now thankful that if he had to have this that they found it at the hospital. If they would have found it at his first dr. appt then we would have had to make the cardiologist appt and the worrying etc. would have been intense waiting on that. There is a good chance it can close on its own. That is of course what we are praying for and we ask for your prayers as well. We are to follow up with the cardiologist on February 15th. We will be sure to keep you updated on additional details.... They said that they felt Jake was fine to go home and just to monitor him for any weight loss, and trouble feeding which can be symptoms. They then had to bring Jake back to our nursery on our floor and he had to be checked back in. We went back to our room to finish packing and we were leaving the hospital by around 6:00pm... on a Friday night. We arrived home around 6:45 with our 2 little boys.. Now reality hits and we are officially a family of 4.