Baby Brock

 Welcome Brock Jason!

We are excited to say that our little baby was born on August 15.  He entered this life a little earlier than we had planned.  I was only 35 weeks, so we expected him to stay put inside of me for at least another 1-3 weeks; he had other plans.  He weighed 5 lbs. 10 oz. and was 17 1/2 inches.

Since he was so early, he has had a little bit of a rough start. 

Day 1- After about 15 hours of labor (very atypical for me, since my longest labor was 3 hours), Brock was born, but was really struggling to breathe.  The doctors tried to just give him oxygen, but his little body was so tired, so they finally had to put him on a ventilator.  Then because they needed to draw some of his blood to check for infection, but couldn't get enough blood anywhere, they finally ended up putting an IV straight into his bellybutton.  Because of the ventilator and IV we weren't able to hold him. :(

He's a little fighter, he was constantly pulling at the tubes in his mouth and the patches on his chest.

Day 2- Brock was able to be weaned off of the ventilator and put on just the oxygen in his nose. The IV in his bellybutton was also taken out.  That meant that last night at about 7:00 we were finally able to hold him.  It was a very fun time being able to hold our baby!

Day 3- I forgot to take the camera into the NICU with us. :(  Today has been a day full of mixed emotions.  I was discharged from the hospital, but my baby had to stay.  I've never had to do that before.  It's Halle's birthday, and I feel torn between spending time with her and the other kids at home and being with Brock at the hospital.  A bright spot though, right before we left the hospital this afternoon Brock was finally able to drink milk out of a bottle, we were so proud of him.  Hopefully, this will continue... it's one more step towards coming home.  Keep up the good work baby boy!