Taegen Wesley Evertsen

He's finally here! He was born Tuesday April 13 at 12:56pm. Weighing in at 8 lbs 2 ounces 21 inches long. Labor was LONG! around 48 hours total with really bad back labor.
Our original plan was to have a home birth. My consistent contractions started at 1am on monday, my midwife checked me at about 2 pm and I was only at 2 cm, 75% effaced. 4 hours later I was 3 cm, almost 100% effaced, and 4 hours after that...yup you guessed it, 4 cm 100% effaced. By around 5 am I was barely at a 5. (mind you this is after 31hours of labor) Since I wasn't dilating and he wasn't dropping we then decided to go to the hospital. I was really disappointed that I didn't get my home birth (but maybe next time) but it was good that we ended up going to the hospital. Once we got admitted they gave me some pitocin to help my labor get moving which then led to me getting an epidural. 4 hours later Taegen was born after less than 1/2 an hour of pushing.
When my water broke Janae noticed there was meconium in the fluid, which was another reason we decided to go to the hospital. When he was born he had a lot of meconium and amniotic fluild in his nose and throat, he was really floppy with slow reflexes and was having trouble breathing properly which caused him to be really gray instead of pink. We told everybody we wanted immediate skin to skin contact, to breastfeed asap and for the cord to stop pulsating before the clamped and cut it. Well since he was having these difficulties none of these things happened. They gave him to me for a few seconds before they wisked him off. They worked on him in our room for 30-40 minutes. Then NICU nurses then came up and helped out and decided that he needed to be taken downstairs to the NICU "waiting room" (I dont really know what it is called so thats been my name for it). Its a place where they give babies 6 hours without officially being admitted into the NICU to improve their conditions. We were told his lungs weren't opening up all the way and he couldn't keep them open. We then were told we had to wait until 7 o clock for any definate answers. In between that time I got to go down to see him and they let me hold him for a few minutes. Jon got to hold him a little later for a short period too.
At 7 we were informed that he was doing better but not enough to be able to come up with us and that he was going to have to be admitted to the NICU! In the chest X-Ray they did they saw a small tear in his right lung that had leaked out some air. This they said should heal on its own (if it hasn't already) since its so small. It also showed he has hazy lungs. They don;t think its eunomonia since he's not showing any other signs but will have to monitor him closely. They think it's either underdeveloped lungs or he has some sort of infection since his white blood count is really high. he also has some weak white blood cells. Luckily it doesn't look like he has too many of those. They have to have him on a respiratory to help expand his lungs. When they take him off of it, he does OK, but not as good as he needs to be. After a minute he starts grunting and showing signs of labored breathing. He needs to be able to be off the respirator or atleast on a lower dosage before they'll let him start breastfeeding. I will be able to pump and keep them in the fridge for him when he is able to start tho. He also has a tube down his throat to help release some of the air that is being pushed into his stomach from the respirator.
This has all been a pretty traumatic experience. It all seems a little surreal. Almost like it's not my baby and he's a nephew of mine or something. I'm sure this feeling will pass when we get to hold him a little more. They are saying as of now to plan on about 5-7 days of him being here. He could be out as early has two, this would be in the case of a miracle baby though. It all just depends on little Taegen and how long he wants to take. We just love him though and can't wait to be able to take him home.

Jon holding his son for the first time. Taegen with some tubs. This is one of the times they took him off the respirator.

Taegen in his incubator :(