The Jones Family

Despite Auntie Lori's hilarious recommendation of Xavier Ray Jones (X. Ray Jones), it is with great joy that we welcome Peter Everett Jones into our family. Peter is for Susan's maiden name, Peterson. And my father Everett is a pretty great guy I'd like my children to be like. Together, it's Peter Everett Jones. :-)

And now, a bit of the birth story.

The plan this time around was to have a midwife attended hospital birth in the Alternative Birthing Center (ABC rooms) at West Suburban Hospital. Baby2 was to be born in the waterbirth tub naturally.

Then, on Feburary 5th, we went to the midwifery appointment, and as she's listening to the heartbeat, Susan and I can also hear that the baby's heart seems to skip a beat every now and again. Then, Susan was hooked up to the fetal monitor for about 20 minutes while they ran the tape strip, which seemed to indicate some arrhythmia in the heartbeat. She sent us straight to the hospital for an ultrasound and non-stress test. Everything seemed to check out okay at the hospital, but the nurse could still hear the arrhythmia in the heartbeat.

On Tuesday, February 10th, we had a fetal echocardiogram, to check the chambers of the baby's heart. The fetal cardiologist told us that there still was some arrhythmia, but that it was isolated to the top chamber of the heart. As long as the heartbeat wasn't sustained at 200 beats per minute, Susan could still proceed with the planned waterbirth in the ABC rooms and did not require constant fetal monitoring. Yeah!

On Thursday, February 12th, we went to the midwife again for the weekly prenatal. The appointment was the last one of the day at 6:30, and since they were busy she wasn't seen until about 7:30. The midwife put us at ease and explained the results of the echocardiogram again, and we thought things were going great. We asked how we would know if this special condition had occurred, and she explained that when the heart is beating so fast it is very hard to find the beat.

Then, she listened to the heartbeat. We've heard the heartbeat quite a few times now, and are accustomed to hearing a pretty rhythmic sound. The week prior, it was like an occasional heartbeat was skipped, important, but not too big of a deal, right? This time, the heartbeat was very slow and very irregular. Today she explained to us that what was going on was that the heart rate dropped dramatically. Then, as if to compensate, the heart rate skyrocketed to over 205 beats per minute. Talk about scary, but back to the story...

By 8:15, we were on our way from the midwife's office straight to the hospital once again. It took a few minutes of waiting in the hospital before they settled us into a room. Well, settled might be putting it strongly. We forgot the medical records in the car, so I had to walk back to the car to get them while Susan changed into a robe. By the time I came back the midwife had seen enough of the monitoring that she needed to call the doctor who backs them up to see what to do next. By 9:15pm, the decision was made that this baby had to be born via an emergency c-section.

Interesting sidenote--the anesthesiologist (Henry), was about to give another woman an epidural when he was called away to help get Susan ready for the emergency c-section. This other woman must have had to wait a very long time, because I understand there were two c-sections that night, and only one anesthesiologist.

Anyways, we raced down the hallway and into the operating room. I spent 20 minutes all dressed and ready to go in waiting because they don't let fathers in the actual OR until the anesthesia is working. At 9:51, our baby boy was born weighing in at 5 pounds, 8.5 inches, and with a length of 18 inches.

Recovery has been a challenge, and we are nervous about what awaits us at home. But we have the love and support of family, friends, parishioners, and co-workers. We'll make it through it all, and those adventures will be future blog posts on life with the Joneses.