Introducing Jack Calder, born 10/23/06, 8 pounds 10 ounces
Jack had a rough entry into the world, as his Mom pushed for 4 1/2 hours with no luck in getting him out. He was stuck in her pelvis, unable to make the turn around her tailbone, and had to be pulled out by forceps, breaking his Mom's tailbone in the process. He came out limp and not breathing, and his APGAR score was only 1 at both 1 min and 5 min after birth. He was intubated immediately after delivery, which actually ended up causing one of his lungs to tear, and also given chest compressions to try to get his heart rate up. After five minutes of not breathing on his own and having a very weak pulse, his was given epinephrine, after which his heart rate went up and he finally started to breathe. He was immediately taken away to the neonatal intensive care unit where his IV, feeding tube, oxygen cannula, chest monitors and stomach lines were put in, and we weren't even able to see him for the first time until a couple of hours after he was born. It was obviously a very scary period of time, I don't think anybody expects to see your newborn on a table with a breathing tube down his throat and receiving CPR, only to have him taken away from you. We called our parents to tell them they were now grandparents not even knowing what he weighed or how long he was, or even what he looked like.
Jack ended up spending ten days in intensive care. We weren't able to hold him until two days after he was born, and our first feedings were just to add milk to a syringe and let it run through his feeding tube up his nose and into his stomach. His lung fully healed after three days, but his oxygen cannula stayed in for his entire stay, as did his IV for his antibiotics. It was quite a challenge to feed him and hold him and change him during his stay, one of us would handle the baby, while the other would handle all of his wires and cords. I don't think we really felt like we were parents during the first couple of days, but the care he received that we couldn't provide was excellent. We ended up staying in a hotel inside of the hospital for his entire stay, and his nurses would call us whenever he would wake up during the night so we could make the trek to his room to feed him and change him.
Jack has been home now for five days and things couldn't be going any better. He's your normal newborn baby with a huge appetite, thinks nighttime is daytime, and brings us both so much joy. Even though he didn't have the ideal start to life, we are so thankful that he received such great care at a wonderful hospital, and was able to make it home with us eventually happy and healthy and no worse for the wear.
One other thing that was pretty cool at the time- we found out that my wife was pregnant just two days after the Steelers won the Super Bowl. It was definitely a week I will never forget!
