Family - Along the Way…

Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

Happy Birthday, Sophie!

October 28th, 2009 |

On Tuesday, October 27th, at 7:19 in the morning, Sophie Hannah LeFebvre was born at The Family Birth Place, a birthing center adjacent to St. Luke’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. She was 5 pounds, 9 ounces, and measured 18” long.

Her original due date was November 23rd, but we were expecting her to arrive a couple of weeks early, as both of our sons were. On Monday morning, we had a regularly scheduled doctor’s appointment, where they ran some tests to monitor Wendee’s gestational hypertension. Apparently, they were alarmed at the results, as we were told to check into the hospital for seven days of tests and monitored bed rest!

When we arrived at the hospital, the doctors on call reviewed Wendee’s test results and decided it was an overreaction to keep her in the hospital for a full week, but went ahead an admitted her for a 24-hour stay, just to keep an eye on her and make sure everything was alright.

After the excitement of the day, we were both having a little difficulty getting to sleep. Well, “a little difficulty” is an understatement for Wendee, whose hypertension was aggravating a pre-existing sinus condition and resulted in a splitting headache that just wouldn’t go away.

At around 12:30 in the morning, Wendee sat up and exclaimed that her water had just broken, so we called the nurse and abandoned all hope of getting a good night’s sleep. After consulting the primary obstetrician, the doctors decided to schedule a Caesarean section at 6:30 in the morning. When asked for some pain medication, to help her get to sleep, Wendee was told by the nurse that she’d have to wait until the anesthesiologist had come to talk with her, but was assured that he was “on his way.”

Well, at around 6:00, with no relief for her pain, the anesthesiologist finally arrived, but it was too close to the operation to give her any medication. The flow of nurses and doctors began to increase, as everyone was preparing for the upcoming surgery.

At about 6:45, we all wheeled into the operating room for the birth.

The team got to business right away, but I was a little disappointed that this hospital wouldn’t let me actually watch the operation, like I did at Holy Spirit Hospital in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania (for Joshua’s birth). They required me to stay on the head side of the little blue curtain they’d raised to prevent Wendee from seeing her own abdomen opened up. I recall finding the experience with Joshua to be very educational for me.

While we were waiting for Sophie to arrive, the nurse assistants were standing next to Wendee and myself, and they were just carrying on with all kinds of small talk, just like you see on those silly soap opera-esque hospital shows like Grey’s Anatomy.

Finally, we heard Sophie crying, and I jumped up to take a few pictures of her! Here’s the very first photograph of the most important woman of the 21st Century! Wink

Needless to say, we are all very happy to finally have Sophie in our family! Both of the boys are very excited about having a new sister, but Joshua is particularly thrilled that he is now a Big Brother! Many times, throughout the day, he exclaimed, “I am both a little brother and a big brother!” Or, he’d say, “I’m going to be a good big brother for Sophie!”