HE"S HERE!!!!!!

Yeah! We had our Baby Boy!

Introducing Pierson Lawrence Don DeGracie!



Originally due June 10th, surprised us at 3:00 am on Friday, May 16th when he decided today was the day. Darren can attest that I was in such denial that this was happening. I literally pulled out the pregnancy book to look up "signs of labor" just to make sure. It took me less than 15 minutes to realize the pain was bad enough to be labor so we decided to go to the hospital. I had called my sister to come sleep with the boys and called my mom to let her know he was coming. She was shocked. On Wednesday, I was told that I had a good 2 weeks before we would see any action and I had prepared to "get ready" by then. I didn't have a bag packed, didn't have anything for the baby to come home in, etc... We just got in the car and sped 90 MPH to the hospital, NOT conveniently located 20 minutes away. By the time we got there - I was dialated to a 5 and was told I had about 5 hours to go. By 10:00 am, they said it would be soon and that they would like to try a "practice" push. It took one push for the nurse to realize he was already on his way out. Within minutes of rushing off to find the doctor and 3 pushes later - HE ARRIVED.

He was born at 10:30 am (exactly) on Friday, May 16th. Weighed 5lbs, 7 ounces and measured 17 inches long. He was quite small and 4 weeks early so he had a couple of troubles at the beginning but he has overcome them. He had fluid in his lungs and needed an xray but it turned out to be okay. He had low blood sugar, low temperature, low oxygen and several other small things normal to small, early babies. We didn't get to see him much on his first day due to precautions and testing but we were glad he was being taken care of. They put an IV in his poor little head to give him antibiotics and to feed him if needed but thankfully he didn't end up in the Newborn ICU which was the plan. Today he weighs 5 lbs, 3 ounces and prefers sleeping to eating. His pediatrician has labeled him "Happy To Starve", rather than "Lives To Eat" (like his dad). We have to wake him every 2 hours to eat, which kills me because he looks so peaceful. He is such a sweet little baby and rarely cries, just squacks.

Here are a couple of pictures of my sweet baby (professional photographer needed). There will be better ones to come as I realized, due to his low temperature, that he was covered up from head to toe so he is hard to see in some of these. We will strip him of his bedding so you can get a good look of this little guy.