Baby Jedidiah

What a crazy couple of weeks... On November 16th at 4:00am I was taken off of my magnesium drip to stop pre-term labor. I was still feeling about 4 contractions an hour, they were not very painful at all. Over night from the 16th to the 17th the baby had a few decels or a decrease in the heart rate that was concerning to the doctors. They decided at 7:00 on November 17th to induce labor. After all of that waiting, our day had finally come. I was so ready to meet our child.

Dr Mason came in at 7:30 to break my water. When he broke my water, I was already dilated to a 6, 100% effaced. They immediately hung the pitocin drip which would help labor progress. Within minutes, I began feeling the contractions more severely. One of my anesthesia friends was in a c-section and would be a full hour and a half before I would get the epidural. Thank goodness for epidurals! My nurse checked me after the epidural and I was already a 9 1/2 and 100%!!! My body was ready to have this baby! I "labored down" for another hour or more and started pushing at 11:30. Jesse was rooting for me to have the baby at 12:00pm, but I ended up pushing for 45 minutes and at 12:16 our sweet little boy was born. He was healthy, screamed right away and required no assistance despite being only 36 weeks along.

Jesse and I looked at him and pondered what we would call this precious gift of ours. It took about 15 minutes before we figured it out... and finally we arrived on Jedidiah Jesse Penner. Jedidiah means "Beloved of the Lord" which is a huge part of why we chose it. We felt like throughout our entire situation, Jed was always covered by God's love and provision.

We took Jed home with us less then 24 hours later... I was SOOOO ready to be out of the hospital. The following day we took him to the pediatrician to have his first check up and bilirubin test (which measures for Jaundice). His bilirubin level came back a bit high, but she was not concerned yet. We came back on Monday, where the level was higher and again on Tuesday. He had lost 12 ounces since birth and had a bilirubin level of 20.9, which required him to go to Children's Hospital.

I was truly devastated. I knew in my heart that our son would be fine, however, I did not want to go back to the hospital, especially over Thanksgiving. It was so hard to look at Jed in his isolette when they covered his precious and beautiful eyes. I couldn't see his facial expressions... the ones that I had fallen so deeply in love with. I spent the first couple of hours crying over his isoleete. More then anything, I felt like I couldn't provide for Jed, I had to do everything through holes... feed him, change him... it was so hard.

We were told that we would not go home until Thursday morning. I was so disappointed because we heard a few different stories as to when we would be able to go home. At 9:30 a different doctor came in to visit us. She said everything looked great and that we could go home!!! God is so faithful. It seems like something so small, however, it was such a huge victory for our family. We were home by 1130 and we all slept well in our own beds.

This Thanksgiving brings such a different meaning of thanks. We have so much to be thankful for including great friends and family who have been our prayer warriors for the last month and a half while I have been in the hospital. We have had countless visitors, meals, gifts, text messages, and prayers come our way. This situation would have been so much more difficult without everyone. For that, thankyou!

Epidural in... yeah!

My first moments with baby Jed.

Our little thug loving life in the beanie!

Proud daddy!

The grandmas getting a first peek at their new grandson!

Baby's first bath without his cord on Thanksgiving day!!!

After singing Great Grandpa happy birthday!

Our new family!!!

Great Grandma is wearing an apron with all her grandbabies and now great grandbabies on it! She brought it especially to add Jedidiah's name on it! How sweet!

And these are the two people I am the most thankful for. This is what I woke up to on Thanksgiving day. Jed was sleeping on his daddy's chest... and daddy was sleeping also. Doesn't get much sweeter than that!