Josiah Morgan Anderson

Well, our beautiful baby is now eight weeks old, and this is my first blog entry. I promise that updating the blog has been on my to-do list for quite some time. It just happened to be under "feed the baby" and "sleep" so, needless to say, it has not been the priority. Our life has certainly changed, and we can hardly remember our life before the baby. His name (as if you don't already know) is Josiah Morgan Anderson. "Josiah" is Hebrew and means "Fire of the Lord". In the bible, Josiah was one of the greatest kings of Judah who was responsible for sweeping changes and reform because of his great faithfulness to the Lord. We thought this would be a wonderful role model for our Josiah. "Morgan" is a family name that we really loved. We thought it added an über masculine quality to the gentle, artistic sound of his first name (not that I overthink and obsess over anything). We had a boy's name for a long time, but we really didn't have a girl's name picked out until the day before I went into labor. I truly felt that we were having a boy, and the indeciveness over the girl's name only solidified this feeling. I am now going to attempt to sum up the last 8 weeks (even though it would be utterly impossible) with some pictures...

He was born on May 6, 2008 at 10:56 a.m. I began contracting at around 10 p.m. the night before. The contractions began intensifying and started being between 6-9 minutes apart at around 1 a.m. We called Dr. White, and he told us to wait until they were consistently 5 minutes apart then to head up to the hospital. I am amazed at the nature of contractions. Literally, you are in the most pain of your life one minute and the next minute you're fine. Once I spoke with Dr. White, Stephen continued to time the contractions, but we started to get dressed to go to the hospital. It was a very calm situation...nothing like the movies! We loaded the hospital bags (that had been packed for over a month!) and sort of just walked around the house doing random things. Finally, we just sat down in the living room and timed 3 contractions. They were 5-6 minutes apart so we hopped in the car and began our adventure. Once we were in the car, we called my mom and Stephen's parents. We told them we were going to the hospital. We told them to wait until we got there before coming up. I was nervous that it was a false alarm. We arrived at the hospital at around 3:30 a.m. so we had to go through the emergency room. The lady insisted that I be trasported in a wheel chair to the second floor (a lot like the movies!). When we arrived at the birthing center, they took us to room 226. Our first nurse, Polly, told me that I was 3 cm dilated. She was so sweet! She called Dr. White, and he admitted me for delivery. It wasn't long before I had my epidural. Soon after Dr. White broke my water and ordered pitocin. I was very comfortable for a while. By this time, our parents had arrived. At 7 a.m. Polly's shift was over so we were introduced to our new nurse, Suzy. In addition, my cousin, Amanda, had arrived. She is a labor and delivery nurse so she was able to assist in the whole process. Everyone in the room referred to me as being in "my happy place". I was actually giddy. I was in "my happy place" until around 9 a.m. when I started feeling the contractions that I had been looking at on the monitor. Wow. That's all I can really say about those contractions. Wow. The pain continued to intensify. At around 10 a.m. I began to push. Stephen was beyond excited about the whole process. In fact, he recalls actually nudging Dr. White out of the way in his attempt to see everything! He was looping "Oh Praise Him" by the David Crowder Band on the iPod so that it would be playing the moment the baby was born. Now when we hear that song, we actually weep! Josiah came into this world about an hour later. He weighed 8 lbs. 12 oz. and was 22 inches long. He was gorgeous! Stephen and I cried. It was the most beautiful experience. Praise the Lord!

He was very alert the moment he came into this world! He looked all around during his initial assessment and has continued to look around since! He had some bruising on his head, but it went away very quickly. His Apgar score was 9. He was a bit blue when he came out, but other than that everything was perfect! Hallelujah!

He met LOTS of people within the first few minutes of life! It was so much fun! Shortly thereafter, we moved to room 220 where we settled in for the next few days. Our postpartum nurses were Sheila and Christina (during the day) and Michelle (in the evenings). They were all so wonderful!

During the second day at the hospital, one of our pediatricians, Dr. Luke, told us that he appeared to be jaundice. After a bilirubin level check confirmed this, we had to begin his therapy. Because of the jaundice, he had to spend the rest of his stay in the hospital "under the lights". I was very upset(yes, I cried), but they assured me that it was quite common and that everything would be fine. It was awful not being able to hold him. However, Stephen said that it was okay because he was just getting his super powers!

We came home on Thursday. We got home around 6 p.m. All of Josiah's cousins were eagerly waiting to meet and hold him. These pictures include Jaden, Saige, Conlin, and Chase.

While we were home the first few days he had to continue light therapy with a bilibed. It was utterly bizarre seeing him on this, but it only took him a few days to get healthy! The first week back home we made two trips to the pediatrician's office and another trip to the hospital for more bloodwork. His poor little heel had numerous stick marks, but he was a trooper!