Jake Reece Looper

Most of you have already heard by now that Jake Reece Looper made his appearance on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at 9:23 p.m., but I'm going to fill you in on the details. I've been getting messages and well-wishes wanting to know what happened and how he is, so here you go.

I went to the doctor on Wednesday for an ultrasound at the specialist's office. It was a routine BPP (biophysical profile) where they look for certain reflexes and monitor certain things to make sure that baby is not in distress. One of the things they look for is breathing. Babies start to breath in utero pretty early, and by 34 weeks - where I was - they breath pretty consistently. Jake had 30 minutes to breath for 30 seconds, and he didn't do it. I laid on the table while the technician looked, and he never did it. Some of you may remember that is what got Abby a quick pass to the real world. She didn't breath either and was born that night.

That was my first clue that we might have a close-to-Christmas baby.

After that, the doctor put me on the stress-test monitor to watch his heart rate. Jake was non-reactive, another bad sign meaning he wasn't moving much, and somewhere along the line I had a contraction. I'd apparently been having contractions and didn't know it because I never had that experience with Abby. In the midst of my contraction, Jake's heartrate dropped. The doctor wasn't pleased. That was the thing that sent us to the hospital.

I was going to do a contraction stress test (sounds lovely, huh?) and it's exactly what it sounds like; the doctors induce contractions - not labor contractions they say, but I'm not convinced - and watch the baby's heartrate.

We didn't get to that point either because in the hospital room, without any impetus at all, Jake's heartrate plummeted into the 50s and stayed there for quite a while. His normal rate was in the 140s.

Then my doctor said, "enough." I was wheeled up to the OR and Jake came as soon as everything was in order.

He weighed 3lbs 12.7oz, was 16 1/2 inches long, and came out screaming!

He's in the NICU of course, but he's doing well. We're waiting on him to wake up enough to start eating consistently and then we'll be in good shape.

He has to do three things before he can come home: he has to breath on his own without any respitory distress; he has to eat enough on his own to ensure that he'll gain wieght when we come home, and he has to maintain his body temperature in the open air with just "baby clothes" on.

He's got the breathing and I don't think the temperature is going to be a problem, but the eating is the thing.

Please pray that he eats well for us and soon.

I'll post more pictures later.