Clark Jeffrey

Whoa...what a crazy eight days it has been.  Clark Jeffrey Pakula made his arrival much earlier than anticipated!  My water broke in bed on Tuesday night (8/12/14) at 11pm.  We woke Sloane up and drove to the hospital.  I did not start having contractions until we were in the car and they did not hurt.  I was checked at 12:30am and was only 3.5cm dilated.  The next few hours are blurry, but I think I decided to get the epidural around 3am (I was around 6cm at that point).  Once the drugs kicked in, the nurse dimmed the lights in the room so Jake and I could "rest" for a few hours.  At 6am I was 10cm and ready to push.  Since I was only 36 weeks 1 day, a NICU team was in the delivery room to grab the baby as soon as he came out to check him.   Delivery was MUCH easier compared to Sloane.  I think I pushed 4 or 5 times (at this point I had been awake for over 24 hours so my memory isn't the best).  I was very scared that he would have a hard time breathing since the lungs finish developing around 36 weeks.  The moment he came out, the NICU doctors took him, but kept saying everything was fine.  After a few minutes of cleaning him off and weighing him (4 lbs 3 oz and 18 inches), I was able to hold him. 

Welcome to world, Clark Jeffrey Pakula - born at 6:31am on August 13, 2014....

 After 30 minutes, the doctors wanted to take him the NICU to get hooked up to monitors to ensure everything was okay.  Jill and Jeff had just arrived with Sloane, so Jake took everyone to the NICU while I rested...

 He was only in the NICU because he was born early and was so tiny.  Everything was working just fine - heart, lungs, etc.  Teeny tiny babies have a hard time holding their temperature since they don't have any fat.  After a day in the heated incubator, he was moved to an open-air bassinet to see if he could stay warm on his own.  He did great!!!

I was discharged from the hospital on Friday.  Coming home from giving birth without your baby is a very weird feeling.  Thankfully, the nurse taking care of Clark Friday night was AMAZING.  She was the best nurse we had the entire time so I was not nervous about leaving him (although I stayed until 11pm and was back at 7:45am).   Saturday morning the doctors told us he was ready to come home!  We were so excited but thought he was going to stay longer, so we didn't have all of his stuff with us.  Thankfully the nurses let us take a blanket home and loaded us up with premie diapers and bottles so we didn't have to go shopping.  By 11am, Clark was loaded in his car seat and we were on our way home!

I have TONS more pictures from the hospital... Stay tuned :)