Welcome Joseph Pierce Worzala!

We are thrilled to welcome Joseph Pierce Worzala to the world!  Joey joined us at 4:23am on April 25, 2010, weighing 6lbs, 15oz, and measuring 20.5inches.   He's got a ton of dark hair, and big feet!

On Friday night after the wedding, with Melanie staying with Gigi & Poppy, Jeff & I headed to the hospital around 3am.  My contractions were averaging about 3 minutes apart, and were painful.  After being monitored at the hospital - with no dilation - for a few hours, we arrived back home around 8am with the instructions that I needed to be in "more" pain for the contractions to be productive.  My parents brought Mel home around noon, and we were able to play with her & Molly for most of the day, before I called the doc back around 5pm and reported I was REALLY not comfortable, and didn't think I could make it through the night.

We arrived back at the hospital about 6pm, and found that I was STILL not dilated.  Dr. Mernitz put me on Percocet, broke my water, and we sat back to find out what would happen.  Throughout the night, my body finally started complying, and I started dilating.  My checks went from 0 to 2 to 4 to 7 - and then very quickly to 10!  I had the epidural at some point (it's all blurry now)....and then got an adjustment to it after I reached 10.  Somewhere around 5-7cm, the baby's heartrate was a little slower than we wanted, so they added some fluid and put me on oxygen to give him some added support.  Once I reached 10cm, the doctor held on for about an hour, since I had pushed so long with Mel (2.5 hours!) and he didn't want the baby to go through any undue stress. .

We started pushing just before 4am, and "baby Joey" entered our world at 4:23am!  His APGAR was 9/8, and within about a half an hour, the nurse decided that his breathing was more labored than she wanted to see, so she had a NICU doctor come down to take a look at him.  We got to hold him and feed him, and then they took him to the nursery and I transferred rooms.  Melanie arrived around 11am with Gigi & Poppy, who had stayed the night at the house Saturday night.  Mel had been VERY excited when her daddy showed her photos of Baby Joey Saturday morning at breakfast, and she was excited - and scared - to meet him through the nursery glass. 

Based on Joey's breathing, they did some blood work and a chest X-ray, and the x-ray determined he has a collapsed lung.  This sounds scarier than it is, according to the NICU doctor.  What it means is that with his first cry/breath, he took in too much oxygen, and got too much air in his little body (of course, I'm modifying the story, and details could get lost in the translation).  The cure for this is to put him on oxygen for about 4 hours and monitor him closely.  The doctor said this is VERY common, and that once he's "fixed," he will not have any lingering effects of this collapsed lung.  No increased chances of illness, or anything else.  He was very positive about everything.  He said that Joey would be back in the "regular" nursery by Monday morning.

Then came the results of the blood work mentioned above.  The chances of infection that were detected were "just over" the line where they would be concerned, so they also decided to start Joey on antibiotics.  These are 48-hour antibiotics, and will keep him in the NICU for that amount of time.  Again, the doc was very upbeat about this turn of events, and assures us that this will all be a footnote in the baby book after we're done! 

At last check, Joey's oxygen mask had been removed, his follow-up chest x-ray showed just a touch of the air left, which should clear up by tomorrow, and he's still on the antibiotics.  Since he's no longer on oxygen, we are allowed to hold him.  He's allowed visitors (over the age of 14), as long as they're accompanied by Jeff or me.  Each of the grandparents have visited him, and everyone agrees he's pretty perfect!  He's eaten three times - and increased his formula intake from 1/2oz to 2/3oz to a full ounce.  Not so shabby!!

We ask for your prayers for Joe as he continues to heal and make his way out of NICU.  We have faith that he will be safely at home being tormented by his big sister in no time.  In the meantime, we are trying to get our own rest, and enjoy the help that all of the grandparents are providing!  My parents just got off of their 48-hour Melanie watch, and now Jeff's parents are at our house (with Jeff) for the evening.  They plan to stay through the week, which will be nice as we juggle keeping Melanie on schedule and keeping Joey healthy!