Our baby boy

It's been a long and eventful week. Tuesday morning at 8:26 am we met our baby boy: Elijah Ruben. He was 7 lbs. 5 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long, and pasty white. The first things I thought when I met him were 1- he's a LOT quieter than Miciah. She came out screaming. He came to us crying. and 2 - he's white like me!

However, he was so white because he didn't have enough blood. So within hours of his birth, he was in the Newborn ICU getting a blood transfusion over the course of the next couple hours after that. As an extension of that complication, he also needed more oxygen. The transfusion didn't fix that, so they thought he might have an infection. They took a culture and started him on antibiotics - which also meant he would be in the NICU for at least 3 days, and maybe up to 7 - 10 days if it came back positive. This was all stressful, but not distressing. We knew all of the "major" things were okay - his lungs, his heart, etc. Of all the things that could go wrong, this wasn't a bad one to have.

So he was recovering in one room and I was recovering in another. It was good incentive to get up and walk, at least to the wheelchair, every couple of hours. In a day they had moved him to the less intensive ICU. He was still on oxygen and getting monitored, but he was doing well. They let me start breastfeeding because they weren't concerned about his breathing anymore. On Thursday early in the day he was off oxygen, and it was nice to see his face not covered in tubes, though they still had one - a tube going down his nose to his stomach through which they were feeding him formula because he wasn't getting much from me before my milk came in.

The nurse over Elijah on Thursday apparently was pretty jumpy and she gave us a pessimistic view of what to expect. She thought he might have an infection because his belly button was red, a sign of a possible infection. In that case, they'd need to start him on all new antibiotics and he'd be in the ICU much longer. His viens also kept blowing (so do mine - they had to stick me 4 times on Tuesday before they could get my IV in), a sign of a possible viral infection. And they were concerned that his blood glucose levels weren't consistently healthy. The nurse that came in to replace her on Thursday night thought she was full of it, though, and we were right back to being optimistic.

Friday morning he was off both of the IVs (he had been off one for a while because his veins were difficult enough that they couldn't get one back in) and basically wasn't being monitored at all. The 72 hour test had come back negative, so he was clear of the infection. His glucose levels were normal and that wasn't a concern. And he was breastfeeding really well once my milk came in Thursday night. The same head nurse was in charge Friday and I was afraid they wouldn't let him come home because the day before she had been talking about him staying for a while. But she came to me and said, "He's proved himself. You can take him home." He was right around 7 lbs. when we took him home (they told us everything in grams, but we found aconversion chart).

So Friday by 4:00 we were all at home and doing well. Only after he came home did we find out that babies that have been on antibiotics are more prone to diaper rash and he has the worst diaper rash I've ever seen. It seems to be getting a little better and he doesn't scream immediately every time he poops, though changing his diaper is still an ordeal. But that seems to be the only complication that we're facing now. Last night he went for 7 1/2 hours between feedings, so we're hopeful that wasn't a fluke.

And that's the news! Here's some pictures for you to enjoy. One's from the day he was born, before the transfusion, so you can see how white he was. And one's from more recently. He's still white, just not like a ghost.

We love you all and thank you for your love, support, concern, thoughts, and prayers.

the Thackers