Happy Birthday James!

(This post was written just after midnight, so it is technically Saturday but still Friday in my mind).

Today has been one of the most wonderful, busy, and emotion-packed, days of my life.

It all started when Marcus and I arrived at the hospital this morning at 5:30 am. I was as excited as can be on the car ride but a little nervous as well. We came in and did our paperwork, got hooked up to monitors, and watched some of the morning news. Soon our nurse came in and started my IV, did my blood work, and began prepping me for surgery. Let me just say, this is the point it all hit me...and I became SO nervous I could not stop shaking. I cannot pinpoint exactly what I was nervous about...I just was. When she put my IV in I had total flashbacks of how awful I felt the day and days following Connor's birth and I became seriously scared when I realized I could do nothing but follow through with the events the morning had in store for me.

I had the same anesthesiologist I had with Connor and I think he is a miracle man. I did not feel the epidural go in at all. Soon I was as numb as I thought I could be (until later when he gave me a hard dose of something that REALLY made me numb). He wrapped the upper half of me, including my head, in super warm blankets and gave me warm IV's. As funny as it sounds it made the c-section so much more pleasant and super comfortable.

The surgery started right on time and I am not joking when I say I did not feel a thing. Everybody kept warning me that I would feel pressure, movement, and touching, but they were wrong. I felt absolutely nothing at all.

James Douglas (after my maternal grandfather) Poole was born at 7:49 a.m., weighed 7 lbs. 7 oz., and was 18.5 in. tall. Unfortunately our little guy swallowed an awful lot of fluid and had to be taken to the NICU. As the day progresed we found out more information about James' condition and learned that even though he was born at 39 weeks his lungs were basically 3 weeks premature. He was formally admitted to the NICU this afternoon and he will be there until his lungs are nice and strong and he is eating from a bottle (right now he is on IV's only). He should be just fine. He just needs a little more time.

Marcus has been able to spend quite a bit of time by our little guy's side today and James has been visited by a few of our family members. Until just now I had only seen my little boy right after his birth for a few seconds and then in NICU for two minutes or so. Tonight I was finally able to get up and move around without getting light-headed, dizzy, or sick so I was able to go to the NICU to hold my little boy and spend some time with him. I could have sat there and rocked him all night, but I knew it was time to get some sleep and I will for sure be back down there in the morning. Marcus got to change James' second dirty diaper while we were there...Hooray for Diaper Dad!

Anyway, today has turned out to be absolutely wonderful, there's no feeling in the world that compares to the birth of your baby. Connor came to visit us at the hospital but has not met his little brother yet. We look forward to letting them see each other for the first time in the next couple of days when he comes back from his vacation to Grandma Osmond's house. I love both of my sons so much it's undescribable. I look forward to these next several days watching the growth and progress of our James. Hopefully his health will keep moving in the right direction and he will be able to come home with us soon.