Day One

Dear Emmett,

Today, you were born at 7:50 a.m. You came to us about 10 weeks early because your mom had a condition called preeclampsia. We were both scared and overjoyed to meet you. You were born cesarean section, which means the doctor cut open your mom's womb and pulled you out into the world. The doctor held you up for us to see you and then you were quickly whisked away to be treated.

Because you were born so early, you will have to spend several weeks in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) where you will be well taken care of by specially trained medical staff all day long. The NICU doctors were in the delivery room and started taking care of you immediately. Your mom was getting stitched back up and I waited with her to see you one last time in the delivery room before you were transferred to the NICU. The doctors brought you over to us all bundled up in a blanket. You were so tiny!

An hour or so later, I was able to come up to see you in your new hospital room. You were cozy in your incubator and hooked up to a lot of monitors that measured your heart rate, respiration, levels of oxygen and CO₂ in your blood and you had an IV through which you are fed sugar water (glucose) for now. You were also hooked up to a CPAP (continuous positive air pressure) machine, which helps you get more oxygen in your lungs. One of your doctors told me that you have HMD (Hyaline membrane disease) which basically means your lungs are not fully developed. Because of that, you're breathing faster than you should be.

I took a few photos of you to show to your mom because she cannot come to see you just yet. She has to spend 24 hours getting a special medicine (magnesium sulfate) and lying in bed. She is anxious to meet you and give you your name.

Later in the day, I came back to see you and your nurses had taken you off the CPAP machine. I got to see your cute little face and all the dark hair on your head! You were super cute all curled up on your tummy. I snapped a few more photos and some video since you were moving around. The nurse let me change your diaper for the first time, I'm sure the novelty will wear off! I also gave you a little sugar water in your mouth while the nurse tested your blood sugar.

I said goodbye and promised to bring mom back tomorrow morning.

Love,
Your Dad, Jason

P.S. - Today was Super Bowl Sunday. The Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 in Super Bowl XLV. A little bit of trivia for when you get older.