Welcoming Joseph Cooper Beck

So on Friday, July 6, I dropped Clara off at my sister's (for what I thought would be an hour) while I headed to my 34 week doctor appointment.

As soon as the nurse took my blood pressure (twice,) the Dr came in and told me to head to the hospital immediately for a non-stress test.  I was thinking that they would just do the non-stress test and send me home on best rest for the duration of my pregnancy.  About an hour after arriving, the nurse came in and told me to get Jeremy there ASAP because I would most likely be having the baby that night.

Jeremy arrived just before the Dr did.  My blood pressure was so high that the baby needed to come ASAP.  The doctor told me that they could induce me, but sine I was only 34 weeks, it rarely works.  My blood pressure was high enough that I was at a very real danger of having seizures (or a stroke.)  So he highly recommended a c-section so that I could get the baby out quickly.

Joseph Cooper Beck was born at 5:25 pm on July 6th.  He weighed 4 lbs 5 oz and was 15.5 inches long.  They were able to put him next to me before they took him to the level 2 nursery.  (American Fork Hospital's version of NICU.)

Jeremy got to go with him and take pictures for me.

By 9 pm that night, the Pediatrician at AF Hospital decided that Joe needed to be transported to an actual NICU unit.  So they let Jeremy and I go in and hold him while they waited for the transport team to come and get our little Joseph.

They brought him into my room just before he left the hospital so I could see him one last time.  Here he is already to go for a ride in an ambulance.

While I was in the hospital, Jeremy would go over to see Joe and get lots of pictures for me. I also got to see my sweet Clara every day too.

Clara gets to go see Joseph on weekends, so the Sunday after he was born, Jeremy took Clara to go meet her brother.  I was sorry I wasn't there to see it, but Jeremy told me how sweet she was to him.

I especially loved that we were able to do face time, so I could see Joseph every time Jeremy went to see him!

Joseph was on a ventalator for only 1 day. He was then put on a C-Pap machine for another 2 days, but has since been able to breathe on his own. He is doing great for how premature he was. It seems as though he progressed far better than I did!

My blood pressure wouldn't go down, so I got to stay in the hospital for nearly a week.  I was finally released Thursday July 12, and I had been in there since the Friday before.  I almost didn't get to go home on Thursday either, but I pleaded with the Dr.  And finally at 5 pm Thursday night, he said I could go home with lots of meds!

As soon as I was released, I went to see my baby! I was able to spend about an hour with him before we had to leave.  (I had to make it to the pharmacy before it closed to get my blood pressure meds.)  But lucky for me, they moved him from NICU A to NICU B.  Which meant I got to actually hold him!  All anyone else got to do before that was touch him.

Joseph has since been upgraded to the NICU overflow area.  He's down to just learning how to eat orally (rather than being fed through a feeding tube.)  As soon as he can get that down, he'll be released.  But the pediatrician said that they usually don't learn that until 37 weeks, which is over a week away for us.  But here's to hoping for a quick learner!

And since today is Saturday, Clara got to go see her baby brother again.  She was so excited to wear her Big Sister T-shirt.  And we finally got our first family picture!