Drake's Arrival

On Monday, April 13th, 2015 the Christensen's welcomed the newest member to our family.

 Drake Karl Christensen.  

I was scheduled to be induced that day but Drake decided he wanted to come on his own.  He arrived at 4:01 am (two hours before I was scheduled to come in for my inducement).  He weight 7 lbs 6 oz and was 19 inches long. 

 The delivery went well, however shortly after he was born the doctor and nurses could see that he was struggling to breath. They let me hold him for a quick minute so I could see him but then rushed him back to help get him the oxygen he needed.

 They placed him under a ventilator to see if that would help.  Karl thought Drake looked like a bubble boy in the ventilator.

When that wasn't doing enough, they rushed him into NICU to get him hooked to some IVs and an oxygen tube.  They ran some test and found that he had fluid in his lungs which was making it difficult to breath.  He was only taking short little quick breaths.  Normal breathing for a baby is under/around 60 breaths per minute and Drakes was spiking at 120 breaths per minute. It seemed like every time we saw him he was hooked up to some new tube or had a new monitor on him. 

This was Drake's set up in the NICU

Drake hated having the IV in his hand and pulled it out.  They ended up having to put it in his head but he managed to keep pulling that out too.  The poor kid had four pokes to the head, and three pokes in the hands/wrist when all was said and done from not being able to get the IV in, and having the IV moved a few times. 

 While In the NICU he tested high in his Bilirubin count so they put him under the lights to help get rid of the Jaundice.

Holding Daddy's hand for support.

The heat from the lamps and the lights started to take a toll on his skin.  His poor feet were so cracked and dry.

 Since he was hooked up to everything I wasn't able to hold him for the first little while.  However, on Tuesday night, one of the nurses must have taken pity on me and I was able to hold my baby.

Drake was lookin' pretty cool in his shades while enjoying a beverage

 On Wednesday Daddy got to hold him for the first time. Karl was great through the whole thing.  He stayed by Drakes side for most of the stay.

 It was hard having to leave my baby behind when I was discharged from the hospital but the doctors were optimistic and we knew his stay wouldn't be much longer.

I'm so grateful to modern medicine and for the caring hospital staff who watched him nonstop during his stay.  The nurses couldn't get enough of him and his crazy hair, he also became known as the NICU "heavy weight" since many of the other babies there were preterm.  On Thursday we received the best news, Drake was cleared to come home.