He's Here!

I'm going to make this short and sweet since we are at the hospital still and there are other things I should be doing! Also, please excuse my rambling, unorganized thoughts.  We all know how much sleep new mom's get in the hospital. 

Brady Henry was born at 12:29 on Friday, August 12. He was 6 pounds, 12 ounces and was 18 inches long, with a head full of black hair! I got to see him for a quick second and he was taken away and then brought to the NICO because he was having trouble breathing on his own.  I went to recovery after my C-section and was there until about 1:45, when I promptly started asking if I could see him.  First, they were running tons of tests on him, so I couldn't go down there.  Then, the NICU is closed(to visitors) from 3-4 PM everyday for a shift/staff change.  Next thing we know it's 4:45 and they still haven't come to get me.  Jeremy, his mother, and my parents have already been down there at this point (while I was in recovery), so they have all seen him.  Jeremy can tell I'm getting upset, so he asks someone again.  Now they are doing bloodwork and putting IV's in him, so I had to keep waiting.  I understand that they didn't want me to see this part because I'm sure my baby wasn't very happy :(  So, at this point I was crying.  I just wanted to see and hold my baby.  This wasn't the way that I had thought my day would go.  Jennifer (Jeremy's sister) didn't even get to see him at all, nor did Jeremy's grandma because only parents and grandparents are allowed in the NICU, so they were leaving to head home at this point.  I think everyone was a little nervous/scared/upset.  We finally got there at about 6:45 and I cried even more when I saw him.  An IV in his arm, oxygen, a feeding tube in his mouth and about 6 other monitors attached to his body, inculding blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature.  It was terrible to see.  We were then told that he wasn't stable enough to even be held.  It honestly felt like a new Mom's worst nightmare.  I know that so many other babies are worse off, so I don't want to complain but it was truly awful.  Let's see, he was breathing rapidly, so I was told that breastfeeding was off limits due to the fact that if he was working so hard to breathe, it was likely that he would aspirate breast milk into his lungs.  We were also told that he aspirated some amniotic fluid into his lungs and was being started on 2 courses of antibiotics in order to try to prevent pnuemonia.  Then we were told that he would most definetely not be coming home with us when we were discharged.  I am probaby forgetting other things that were said, but I was kind of numb by this point in the evening.  I really was going to have to go back to my room, without my baby.  I was going to have to leave the hospital and go home without him, ugh.  He is stable at this point and everything is going to be ok, but it's just really hard to have a baby in the NICU.  I will post again as soon as I can to update you all on his progress.  Here are a few pictures of our little guy.