Jonah Oliver Edward Meyer

well...to make a long story short, (ok it might be kind of long :)
Vital stats:
6 pounds 2 ounces
20 inches long
1/7/09 11:11 am

the story:On Tuesday, I went to Dr. Jordan and my eye was bleeding alot...much worse than it had been. So, after taking photos and talking about things...risks etc, we decided that it was very important to get my eye treated, therefore have the baby asap.

He called Dr. Mickelson while we were in the room and they decided with our input that we would have the baby on Wednesday. So I went home and cleaned and got everything ready...thank goodness I had all of that nesting done the week before!

So we got to the hospital at 8:30 (my c section was scheduled at 10:30). Got all set for stuff (IV, etc). Went down to the OR, had my spinal block, and Dean came in after I was draped and prepped. Dr. Mickelson came in and started in right away. It took a little bit and pretty soon Jonah was born. His actual time of birth was 11:11 on 1/7. Because he was only 36 weeks the NICU team was there. His apgar scores were 5 and 8. He had some respiratory distress right away, and they brought him to the NICU. He was on Nasal CPAP for about 30 hours, but looking tough for a good chunk of that time. The doctors were really hoping that he would turn around. His chest x-ray was looking better and his blood gas was also hanging in there, but the little guy just had been working too hard for too long.

He was very "touchy"...when he gets mad, he is really mad and then gets himself so worked up that he drops his sats. After working that hard for so long he just wasn't recovering from these little spells as well. Last night he had a spell in front of the nurse practitioner and she decided to intubate him so that he could rest. They also gave him 2 doses of surfactant into his lungs to help keep them opened up. (surfactant is a substance that babies have in their lungs to help reduce the surface tension of the "air sacs" to help keep them open...to help reduce his work of breathing). It seemed to really help him. He still has those spells, and really doesn't like it when people are touching/rubbing him. But he seems to be hanging in there.

The doctors and staff in the NICU have been AMAZING! They are really great at giving us information, and actually treat Jonah like he was their own. It will be sad to leave him tomorrow when I get discharged from the hospital, but I know that he is in the very best place that he could be. Hopefully they will be able to get the tube out tomorrow too! I do appreciate that we can see his little face now that he got the mask/straps off and just has a little tape on there. Most people that see him say he looks like me, but he has some of Dean's traits too.

He for sure has Dean's toes, and big hands! :) But maybe my feisty attitude. :)
I never knew I could love someone so much! I will try to keep everyone updated, but imagine it will be tough as I want to be with him as much as I can! :)

We picked his name together. I liked Jonah the best, Dean liked Oliver, and we had agreed that Edward would be the middle name because it is Dean's middle name and a family name on his side. So, rather than duke it out, we used Jonah as the 1st name and Oliver as a second middle name. (our first parenting compromise!)

Thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers...it means alot to us!