Introducing Isaac Jayden!

Papa & the kids stopped by before we headed to the hospital. The boys were enthralled with Word World. Although Hudson had a hard time deciding if he should look at the camera and say "CHEESE!" or watch the TV! :)

And he's here!!! Isaac was born at 2:02 pm weighing 8 lbs. 1.5 oz, measuring 20 1/2" long, with a 14 1/4" head!!! I really thought he was going to beat out Jacob for weight (I'm pretty sure he did for head size!), but Jacob had almost a pound on him. He has quite a bit of dark hair. And he cried big time-before he was even out! He was definitely the loudest of my three kids. Anna & Jacob didn't hardly make a peep.

He did great at first, but after about 10 minutes, he started retracting and taking shallow, rapid breaths. They put a pulse-ox monitor on him and his O2 stats were a little low. It's fairly common with c-section babies because they don't have the benefit of going through the birth canal and getting all that fluid squeezed out of their lungs.

They called NICU into the recovery room and after over an hour of him not improving, they decided to take him to NICU for observation (and ended up admitting him). His O2 would drop to the low-mid 80s, but as soon as he cried or they gave him oxygen, it would go right back up to upper 90s-100.

I didn't get to hold him very much-between cleaning him up, monitoring his pulse-ox, and then the NICU observing him. I knew he would be fine, but it was really, really hard not to be able to hold him and then to have him wheeled away where I knew I wouldn't be able to hold him...that was really tough.

But, it gave me plenty of motivation to get up and get moving a lot sooner than I ever did the other 2 times! By 10pm I had everything unhooked and was ready to try walking. To my surprise, it wasn't bad at all! So they took me down to the NICU to visit Isaac. He already had his oxygen helmet off and the nurse said he was doing great. I spent about an hour with him. He loves his pacifier (Jacob refused one, so I wasn't sure what he would do!), but he can't keep it in his mouth. :) He swallowed some amniotic fluid as well, so they put a tube down to his tummy to suck it out. Aaron & I went to see him this morning before shift change and the nurse said his breathing is better (he was breathing too rapidly) and they did another chest x-ray and bloodwork. We should know the results of those by lunch. I'm praying he gets out of there today, but we'll just have to wait and see.

8 pounds 1.5 ounces!

Look at those feet!!!!

As I've mentioned before, we've had a terrible time coming up with a name! For whatever reason, Aaron and I could NOT agree. I had a favorite (Isaac Lee) and he had a favorite (Jayden). After things settled down, we finally agreed on a compromise! I have to say, though...almost every doctor and nurse said "He looks like an Isaac" :)
Please continue to pray that Isaac keeps improving so he can move out of NICU. And pray for the rest of us, too. Anna isn't allowed into NICU to see him and she's pretty disappointed that she can't hold him yet. Jacob really doesn't get what's going on, especially since he hasn't seen the baby (except for pictures)! I'm feeling really good, so pray for my recovery to go as quickly & smoothly as it has so far. Also, pray for Jamie & Cassie...they're just a few doors down from us!