Jace Joseph

It's been a long time, but Jace Joseph Quayle is finally here. He was 3 days past his due date of October 29th, which was driving me crazy! He was finally born on Tuesday, November 1, at 8:34 PM. He weighed 8 pounds 5 ounces and was 22 inches long. It's been so fun to take care of him for the past 2 weeks, I love that little guy!

I was bound and determined to go into labor, so on halloween night in between the trick or treaters, I was running up and down the stairs, doing jumping jacks, and whatever else i could think of. Jared was ready to throw something at me because i wouldn't hold still... but it worked! Finally, I woke up with contractions 5 minutes apart. I told Jared that I was having contractions.. to which he responded, "Okay, well I'm going to school". So he left... and i kept contracting... I called my Mom and my sister in law Tressa, who both decided that they thought i was probably in labor. I did what anyone would do... Called my husband and told him to meet me at the hospital. Yup, drove myself to the hospital.  Jared was convinced i was not in labor because it wasn't anything like the movies where the mom is dying to get in to have the baby. They ended up keeping me and the best thing i've ever done was get my epidural early... :)

11 hours later, baby Jace was here. When they broke my water earlier that afternoon, they told me that Jace had "pooped" in my tummy aka there was mechonium in my water. They told me that when this happens, it's possible that the baby could have inhaled it, so they would be taking him right when he was born to be suctioned to make sure there wasn't mechonium in his lungs. So, sure enough, they took him, cleaned him all up and finally handed him to me. I held him for a few seconds, but he was making these sad little grunting sounds, the poor kid couldn't breathe. So they took him again and rushed him to get an xray. They found out he had a pneumo-thorax, or a hole in one of his lungs that was leaking air to his chest cavity. The air was pushing his other lung and heart over, making it really difficult for him to breathe. They ended up having to put a chest tube in him to drain the extra air.The chest tube worked fast, and by the next morning there was barely any air left in his chest cavity. They had to feed him with an IV and keep him on oxygen to help his lung heal. He stayed in the NICU until Friday night. Finally, the told us he was good to go home and I was one happy momma. It was a stressful welcoming to parenthood, but we are so thankful for everyone that took such great care of our little Jace.

Jace is an EXCELLENT baby. He rarely cries, he eats like a champ (after 1 week... he's already gained 5 ounces), and is so cuddly.

ANYWAY.. here are some pictures!