Happenings of the Hong Household: He's Here! Joshua's Birth Day

Wow, it's hard to believe it has already been a week since little Joshua was born. On the other hand, in some ways it already seems he's been with our family forever now. I expected more "transition" from this week -- more challenges to adjusting to having 3 children at home, some meltdowns or jealousy on the part of the big kids, etc. Truly, it's been a great week. I didn't get a lot of sleep, and the kids have had their moments. But over all Jonathan and Abby have met Joshua's arrival with unbridled enthusiasm and affection, and Joshua has been a complete joy.

Joshua Soohyun Hong was born at 12:29 AM on Monday morning, January 14th, 2013, our 7-year anniversary.

The two nights prior to his birth, I was awake with contractions for a number of hours at night, and early Sunday morning there was a while when I thought we might be headed into the hospital in labor. By 5am things had died down again and we settled in for another day of family life and waiting for baby. I took a long walk in the morning, and then we enjoyed our morning at church and responded to questions of, "No baby yet?" about 50 times before lunch. My Mom had arrived the Monday prior and the kids had enjoyed lots of fun time and outings with her during the week. By dinner I realized the contractions were stronger and we'd likely be going in to the hospital that night, but I was able to participate in the bedtime routine, sing lullabies, read Dr. Dolittle (their lights-out favorite right now), and kiss Jonathan and Abby "good night" before calling the midwife. A walk around the block with David in the freezing cold made it clear we should head on in to the med center with contractions 4-8 minutes apart. We left a card for the kids to open in the morning announcing we'd gone to the hospital to meet their baby brother, thanked my wonderful Mom for being there, took a few minutes to pray together, then headed out!

Thankfully, we got to the hospital earlier in labor than we had with Abby and were able to answer the nurse's questions answered and get settled in before things got more intense. We were blessed to labor again with our midwife Theadorah, who is one of the most calming and maternal people you'd ever meet. She was very encouraging when I found myself discouraged at 4cm that we must still have so long to go, and shortly it was 5 1/2 cm, then not but a half an hour later Joshua was on his way.

There was a terrifying moment at the end when it turned out that Joshua's umbilical cord was wrapped not just around his neck but also around his arm and elbow, which was emerging just after his head (rather than his shoulders). As this prolonged the last pushes after his head had emerged, I became very concerned that he was in some way or another "stuck" and that we'd shortly be in danger. I was unaware of his complex presentation and just knew that things weren't going as they had with the other two kids, but Theadorah was patient in letting him continue to turn in such away he could be fully birthed without pulling excessively on his neck and shoulders. After a few more contractions I had my son safely in my arms.

Joshua let out a few solid cries and then settled down pretty quietly for a while, eventually grunting a bit in a way that sometimes means breathing problems for newborn babies. It took some effort to get him crying hard and strong, and I quietly borrowed a stethoscope to listen to his lungs and reassure myself that he didn't have retained fluid causing him to grunt with his breathing, while trying not to draw the attention of the baby nurse to my concern. I certainly didn't want anyone calling the neonatologists in yet. After about half an hour, he took to nursing and immediately began breathing more comfortably, faring perfectly thereafter. I was relieved to see my little son lose the blue hue, "pink up," and curl up contentedly on my chest.

By 3am the three of us were settled down to sleep for a while, Joshua just as tuckered-out from his birth day as the two of us were!

Once we were up a few hours later, I dressed him in some "Little Brother" PJ's in anticipation of his siblings' visit.

Our nurse, Rouba, was wonderfully sweet. She has an 18 month old son herself and was delighted to meet Jonathan and Abby as they came to meet their baby brother later that morning. Joshua's pediatrician, Dr. Janet Pate, also visited early that morning. After examining him and learning we had named him Joshua, she placed a hand on him and blessed him in the words of Joshua 1:9, saying, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." We were touched to add her prayers to our own that our son would grow up in the courage and comfort of the Lord.

Joshua was pretty quiet for most of his birth day, sleeping most of the day.

He enjoyed being held but also slept quietly on the bed at times, and was for the most part too sleepy to even be interested in feeding for most of the morning.

First sleepy baby yawns!

Soon Nonnie arrived with Jonathan and Abby.

I cannot understate how tickled these two were to meet their long-anticipated baby brother.

Joshua was met with loads of kisses.

There were coos of, "He's so sweet!" and "He's so little!" in addition to numerous more humorous assessments.

After generally admiring his brother and kissing on him a bit, Jonathan declared, "He has hair! He's not a dinosaur. Dinosaurs don't have hair, and they have short arms. Joshua has long arms." Dinosaurs are never far from Jonathan's mind these days.

Abby was truly tickled to hold her brother. She couldn't quit smiling and giggling.

Though I'd tried to mention it in advance, the kids were a bit confused that my tummy wasn't entirely gone now that Joshua had been born. After I explained that God had made a soft place in my tummy for Joshua to sleep and grow before he was born and that it would be a while before the soft place went away, Abby asked, "Baby Joshua going back to sleep in your tummy tonight?" Nope! There's no going back!

Nonnie got a turn holding Baby Joshua as well, and then she and the kids headed off to their music class. Later that afternoon, they decorated cupcakes in anticipation of Joshua's welcome-home party the next day.

Joshua, David, and I spent a very pleasant quiet day together, simply enjoying holding our new son and being together. That night they brought us a relatively fancy celebration dinner (as fancy as hospital food gets!), complete with chocolate cake. Yum.

The next morning we were relieved to learn that Joshua's bilirubin was low enough to allow us to go home without any treatment for jaundice. David and I have different blood types, and this resulted in jaundice for both Abby and Jonathan, requiring a week with a phototherapy blanket for Abigail. We've been praying about this for weeks in advance and were so grateful that it turned out not only to be safe then, but quite low on his follow-up labs two days later.

Tuesday morning we brought our son home, where he was again greeted with great enthusiasm by his big brother and sister.

They couldn't wait for him to get out of the car seat!

The kids were eager to exchange gifts with Joshua. They'd each bought him some toys to hang from his car seat. They unwrapped the presents for him and attached the new toys.

Then they got to open the presents from Joshua -- a pink and green tool set for Abby, and a dinosaur / truck transformer for Jonathan. Seems their baby brother made just the right choices. They were delighted!