Meet Jonas Jorge Avesani

If you've been keeping up with my blog, you've read how I was admitted to the hospital last week with pre-term labor.  I am so happy to announce that our second baby boy was born on Tuesday, September 28 at 11:24 am.  His name is Jonas Jorge Avesani... but you can call him JJ if you want.

The last time I posted, I was in a state of limbo.  The doctors didn't really know what plan of action to take and we were just waiting for my body to give us a sign as to what we should do.  Well, it did.  On Tuesday morning, after being off all meds for 24 hours, I awoke to a sharp pain, gush of blood and the onset of contractions.  These were the same exact symptoms I'd had when I was admitted to the hospital the Tuesday before.

The doctor came in to check me, and I was still at 1cm dilated. He was a bit concerned by my bleeding because it hadn't stopped and we still had not determined it's place of origin.  The contractions were not strong enough to even bother me, but I knew I was having them.  He ordered blood work to see what the results would be for my hemoglobin and other levels.  Within a half hour, the nurse arrived and said "Alright, let's go have a baby".  That's it.  No other explanations.  One minute we were undecided, the next I was being taken to the operating room.  I was still going to need a c-section because he was completely breeched.

They prepped me for surgery, talked over procedure with the anesthesiologist, and we were given paper scrubs to wear.

I know I look cool, calm and collected, but do not be fooled... I was nervous!  I've never had any kind of surgery before.  

When I was taken in to the OR, I was immediately given the spinal tap and started to feel the effects right away.  Before I knew it, I was numb up to my chest and my hands and fingers were tingly.  They put up a sheet in front of my face, so I couldn't see the gore.  It made me anxious not being able to see what was going on, but I'm sure they have their reasons.  I felt absolutely NO pain, but I did feel a lot of pressure, pulling and pushing.  About 10 minutes after laying down, I heard the cry of my beautiful darling. 

Being able to hear him cry was such an incredible relief.  As you may have read before, Marco did not cry when he was born... he only whimpered.  This was a sure sign to us that something was wrong.  When we heard Jonas wailing, we were so happy and knew that he was going to be a strong and healthy premie.  

They had a team of NICU doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists on hand to evaluate Jonas' condition right away.  They cleaned him up, showed him to me and took him off to the NICU.  This is one of the hardest parts about having a premie... you don't get to hold and love on him right at birth.  As a mother, your body cries out to hold your baby, but you can't. 

After they completed cleaning out my placenta and performing a tubal, they stitched me up and stapled me shut.  Then, I found out what happened.  Remember that up until this point I didn't know WHY they had all of a sudden wanted the baby out.  The doctor told me that I had a huge blood clot on the back side of the placenta.  This is why the ultra sounds couldn't pick it up.  They showed me my placenta (I saw Marco's too), and the front of it was a beautiful meaty red.  The back side was slimy and black... the clot was covering most of the back.  According to the doctor, it was only a matter of a day or so, and my placenta could have detached, causing hemorrhaging and possibly death of the baby and myself.  This is called a Placental Abruption.  He said that I would have experienced a lot of pain, followed by a pint of blood spilling out onto the floor.  At that point it would have been an emergency situation and the end result could have been devastating.  

Jonas was 3.7 pounds and 15 3/4 inches long at birth.  He was placed in the NICU and given the c-pap, which is a mask that blows air into the nose to help encourage breathing.  He was on the c-pap for less than 24 hours!  He's had to be on light therapy for the past two days because he is slightly jaundiced, but this is expected with premies.  Basically, the biggest concern is his feedings.  Right now he's being fed through a tube that goes down his nose, throat and into his belly.  He started off at a very low amount of breast milk (4 ml), and will increase gradually till he's at 1 oz (30 ml).  Today he was at 7, so we're working on it.  Once he's taking the full ounce every 3 hours, they will pull out the tube and try to bottle feed.  Premies typically do not know how to coordinate suck-swallow-breathe, so it may take a while.  Once he's able to bottle feed, they will call me in to breast feed.  He can go home once they are certain that he can breast or bottle feed for all of his feedings successfully.  This seems like a cinch, but could actually take weeks to master.  They have told us that most babies go home close to their due dates... that would be in 9 weeks.  Our babies are little miracles, and I know it'll be sooner than that. 

I am so amazed by God's power and control in our lives.  He is always one step ahead!  He always manages to blow us away with the way He takes control of our lives and releases all stress and burden.  I am so comforted by His love and power. I know that BOTH of my babies are living miracles and that his hand is always holding onto them.  

Jonas

Mauricio is demonstrating how large his head is, between his middle finger and thumb.  His head is about the size of an orange.

Don't tell me I look tired... this was 6 hours after being sliced!