He Came Out!

What more can I say? As Lil’ Sam's words so succinctly suggest, Chad Alan Fluegge Jr – AKA CJ – was born today at 11:06AM. He weighed in at 6lb 1.1oz and he measured 19” in length.

While nearly double the size of his oldest sister, he is most definitely a preemie. With only 34.5 weeks under his belt, his lungs are not yet fully developed. Although Mom and baby were given a steroid shot at the beginning of this week, that alone was not enough to bring the lungs to full term in under five days. That being said, according to his nurses, he is doing great!

In case any of you were wondering, we are in the exact same hospital with this little guy that we were in with Lil’ Sam – aka Franky – when she was born. While there are some bittersweet memories here, we couldn’t have ended up in a better place. The OB that delivered CJ was the same one that delivered Franky; and in my opinion, he is an outstanding doc. Not only did we have the same OB, but Jess’ nurse was the same nurse in attendance when Sam was born!

As if that didn’t take the cake, the nurse that worked on Sam all night long that first night; she, too, was on duty this afternoon. She remembered vividly Sam’s first hours and as a result she immediately started treatment that hopefully will preclude some of the things that we went through with Sam. Thank the LORD for people with good memories!

With all that good news, we also had a sweet reunion with the NICU’s head doc, Dr Frei. She came into our room and she immediately recognized which one was Sam. For a minute there, it looked like she was going to cry. We spent a few minutes reminiscing old times and then Dr Frei spent some time talking with Sam. To this day, if you ask Sam who Dr Frei is, she will tell you that Dr Frei gave her a bear when she was sick in the hospital. When she gets older she’ll get the whole scoop, I’m sure.

So, now onto CJ.

As I said he is a preemie, and as such, his lungs are not yet fully developed. He is currently on a ventilator; however, they have actually started to wean him off of it. Aside from the ventilator, they have also started him on some of the same meds that Sam had when she was here. One of the things that they did differently with CJ in comparison to Sam is that they immediately started him on some meds to help prevent blood clotting. In case you don’t remember, one of the things that prevented Sam from coming home so soon was that she had developed a blood clot, presumably, due to the central line they had set up.

There, now that we have that covered, lets get onto some pictures of our cute little guy!

In closing, I'd like to share a verse that the Lord gave me this morning before CJ was born. II Samuel 10:12 says, "Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our God: and the LORD do that which seemeth him good." The thing that really touches me about this verse is the way in which God ties it to me and CJ. When I read the words, "and the LORD do that which seemeth him good," I knew that, come what may, everything was going to be alright.

Good night, Son - see you in the morning! :)

For those of you who can't see the flash slideshow here ya' go:

CJ's Birthday