In my last post, I promised some of S's pictures from his camera. I just looked at them, at least the ones from Christmas Day. I'll have to keep looking - those are all of shoes, or are blurry, dark, or have fingers over the lens. I'll find some better ones soon. In the meantime, the next big event in our lives was...
Baby J arrived! He was 11 days early, and arrived on New Year's Eve. We were happy to have him arrive early, and not just for the tax break. A week earlier, my doctors found an area of concern on the baby's heart - a growth inside the right ventricle. So I went from a normal pregnancy to needing weekly ultrasounds, twice weekly non stress tests, a tour of the NICU and a meeting with a neonatologist. It was a shock and worry, especially finding out on Christmas Eve, and trying to get all these things scheduled amidst the holidays. Luckily baby J arrived, and so I avoided many of these extra tests.
The doctors weren't exactly sure what was wrong, and so they prepared us for a range of outcomes from baby just needing some extra tests in the NICU after birth all the way to baby riding an ambulance to Children's. Their best guess was towards the minor end of the scale, since the baby's heart was working well, despite the growth.
After he was born, baby J and Dad went up to the NICU for the tests, and after about 5 hours were released from the NICU, with a clean bill of health. So far everything is fine, we have one more follow up test next week to double check. And we've had a good first month. He is a good baby, and S and G are mostly enjoying being big siblings. Here are some of the first pictures of our new little guy.
Baby and me right after birth. He came quickly enough that I didn't change into a hospital gown until after he was born.
Happy dad and baby, headed upstairs for tests.
In the NICU, having the EKG. Check out all those wires.
Contented baby post Echo and EKG, waiting for the cardiologist and neonatologist to agree that he could come back downstairs to room with mom.
Finally having a first bath at 10pm, five hours after birth. And he was blissed out in the tub. We didn't take many pictures of us holding him after his bath - we were happy to all be back together, and start figuring out a name for this little guy.
5 comments:
What a great bath picture of baby J.
Oh, I am SO glad that baby J's trip to the NICU only lasted 5 hours! You all look so great in those pictures! What a beautiful baby.
I love reading about this. He is such a sweet little baby. All those wires! And look at you right after birth--you look amazing :)
Congrats on your new little one! He is darling! I am so glad that all is well so far on his heart. We have one son that was born with heart defects and needed surgeries/hospital stays after he was born, so we can totally empathize with some of the feelings you might have gone through. Hope all is well
I can't believe I never knew any of this. I'm so glad the visit was short and had a good ending! We need to do lunch sometime so we can catch up on life!!!
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