Baby Lucius is Here!

Hello all, we are pleased to announce the birth of our youngest son, Lucius.

After a fairly uneventful induction, he was born just after midnight on May 18th. I could tell right away that he didn’t look the way my other boys had. His coloring was very dark and I didn’t know what was going on but I was grateful they let me hold him right away while they tried to help him breath. They took him back to the corner and gave him an oxygen mask and helped clean out his lungs and handed him back to me so he could nurse and it was so good to hold him but he started turning purple again and they needed to help him some more. At first they thought his lungs may just be underdeveloped, but what we found out later was he had collapsed a lung in his first breaths, despite his lungs (and the rest of him) being fully developed and in great health. It’s not a very common thing to happen, but it’s what happened to Richard when he was born, and now they have matching scars from where a chest tube needed to be put in.

Lucius was in the NICU for seven days. It is its own kind of sadness to have your baby sent by ambulance to a specialized NICU while you’re still recovering, and then to be in the postpartum ward hearing other people’s babies cry all night while you miss your own. We were never worried of serious or long term effects for Lucius, we knew they could fix what was wrong, but it was still so sad and difficult to be separated. And for most of those days we could visit but we couldn’t even hold him due to his chest tube.

But once his lungs were cleared he was completely, perfectly healthy. The hospital let me stay the night in one of the special NICU parent rooms for his last night in the hospital and it was so healing just to be able to be with him again. Since he’s been home he has been an easy baby. Eats, sleeps, snuggles, poops, repeat, repeat, repeat. Big brothers love him so sweetly, although the whole fuss has been a lot for them to handle also. Luckily Richard’s mom was in town for two weeks to watch them while we shuttled back and forth to the hospital. And we had many friends reaching out to help with meals, watching our kids, helping around the house and everything else.

Some photos below that I took in the hospital, they really show how peaceful this little baby boy is: