GRAHAM is here!

Graham is here! He was born April 24, 2007 at 8:37 pm. He weighed 6 lbs. 10 oz. and was 20 inches long.

I was supposed to go to the hospital that night anyways to induce, but I started having contractions early Tuesday morning around 2:30 am. We had an appointment that morning and Dr. Broome went ahead and sent us to the hospital to be monitored since I was having contractions. I still had not dilated yet. About 1 they decided to go ahead and get the process started.

Around 8 that evening I still had not progressed and for other reasons they decided to do a c-section. Everything moved fast from there and little Graham was born at 8:37 pm. I was only able to see him for a second before they had Raymond take him to the nursery with oxygen. I am not sure how long he was in the nursery before they took him to NICU. I was still in recovery when a nurse and Raymond came to explain to me what was going on.

When he came out they said that he took a big gulp of air that caused his lungs to partially collapse and force the air out around his lungs. The name for this is Bilateral Pneumothorax. One side was worse than the other and they said that they would need to drain the air out and he was on 100% oxygen. They were able to get the air out of his chest from one side with a needle. The other option was to put tubes in to get the air out. I am thankful that the needle worked. The other side healed by being placed under the oxygen. Eventually they decreased his oxygen every hour until he was on room air.

After his feeding tube was taken out Raymond and I were able to go and feed him. Raymond became the pro on changing diapers, feeding, and burping. The nurses were wonderful and taught us a lot. Raymond feed him a couple of times before I was able to get down to him. The reason he had to stay in NICU the last day or so was because the nursery would not do antibiotics. Even though Graham was put in NICU, we are so thankful that he was only in there for a couple of days. You look at some of the other babies that are half his size and hooked up to way more equipment than he was and are thankful. We were able to take him home with us Friday afternoon! I just want to say how special those ladies are in NICU that take care of the smallest little babies with so many problems. They are wonderful people.

Raymond also got Graham hooked up with some Tech sheets and a blanket as you can see in the picture above.

Graham has been home with us a week now and I can't believe it. Raymond is such a good Daddy. He has had a lot to deal with through finals and graduation coming this next Saturday. I will post as often as I can. We have a dr. appointment on Monday the 7th. I can't wait to see how much he weighs!