Announcing for the first time....Matthew John DeJong

Been out of town for on and off for a while, but got home from a job this Wednesday night.  Got home about 6pm and thought about going to our small groups dinner at a friends house, but was a bit tired, so crashed at home and had dinner with the family.  After dinner is was time for a bath.  James loves baths and running around nicked....just like his old man.

 

James with his towel

 

 Seriously cannot get any better than this.

 

I got a little tired so I hit the hay around 11pm, but Brenda could not sleep like normal so stayed up till 12.  Right about then, she started to have a few contractions at 5-7 minute intervals, but just let me sleep.  About 3:30am she finally woke me up saying that she was going to call the doctor since the contractions had not stopped, slowed, or decreased.  Doctors orders were to come in.  Fortunately we have friends that are usually up very early and gave them a call.  We dropped James off at 4:30 and were at the hospital about 5:15am.  After getting quickly checked in, they found out Brenda was progressing nicely and we were definitely going to be having a baby.  Brenda hoped to give VBAC a try and thankfully the  doctor on call was on our side.

 

After about a hour and fifteen minutes of pushing bam...done.  There it was, a new boy.  Brenda was a champ and amazed everyone in the room with her pain tolerance and stamina.  Matthew John DeJong was born Thursday at 11:56am weighing in at 9lbs 4oz and 21" long.  And this kid was two weeks early, good thing he did not go full term.  Can you say thank heavens for modern medicine!

Lot of tears from both Mom and myself were had.  There was a med student in the room to help with the delivery (her second delivery and the first one was quite traumatic from what we hear), and even she was tearing up. 

Matthew was not keen on the bright lights, but warmed up quite well.

 

Slight tinge of red hair.  Brenda thought it would be black, but the DeJong bloodline wins out again.

 

So the first year med student was kind of shy, but really got into the whole birth.  She helped pull him out and a couple of times during the pushing she got really excited and yelled out "its coming".

Doctor Reuter on the right was awesome.  After the birth he had some final work to complete and the intern got to help out.  It apparently was a bit too much for her and there was too much blood, because as we (her and I) were watching the doctor she suddenly said" I think I need to sit down".  When I looked up she was very pale and looked about ready to pass out.  She went to sit down and then I grabbed the shoehorn looking tool she was holding to lend the doctor a hand.  A nurse was able to fill in, but it was nice to be  apart of the action for a while.

About about a hour in the room Brenda started to feed him.  Eventually Matthew was having a bit of trouble breathing and had to go get checked out.  After some assessment, it was decided that with his low blood sugar (common with diabetic mothers) and heavy breathing he was going to need a IV which immediate means admittance to NICU.  Having him in the NICU is like having Yao Ming at a midget convention...he is bigger than any two of those babies combined.

 

Bummer for us since that means he is not in your room and may take a while to get discharged. 

 

Super cute.

 

Brenda's parents got here about 7:30pm and then were off to get James so he could sleep in his own bed.  Meanwhile I am at the hospital with Brenda sleeping on a 4' long couch.  Luckily for Brenda the hospital bed got an 1.5' extension on the end of it so she is very comfortable.  I guess very comfortable may be a bit of an overstatement since she did just go through childbirth.

Please note the shirt I am wearing for the delivery.  It is a vet shirt that I reassured the doctor and the student I would be able to help if there was any major issues.  Not that I am a vet or anything, but I have palpated a few cows before.

That kid smells so good.

 

My parents got here today and gave me a chance to get out of he hospital and go to the Bell for some real food.  James also got to come over to the hospital today and see his new brother through the viewing window in the NICU.  Hopefully we get Matthew out of the NICU tomorrow, but with every doctor or shift change the stories change so who really knows.

Here is James hamming it up in the viewing room.  While he was at our friends house he had a spill walking the mail to the house and has quite the bump on his head and scratches on his nose, but that is the way a boy should look.

Well, that is the end....or should I say the beginning.