Phinehas Jeffrey is here!

We’re thrilled to announce the birth of Phinehas Jeffrey this morning at 12:21 am!  We’re doing great!

Vital stats:

Weight: 5 pounds, 12 ounces

Length: 19 inches (he’s awfully lean!)

Nicknames: I call him Finn, you could also call him PJ.  His name is pronounced the same way as Phineas (from Phineas & Ferb), but we chose the biblical spelling.

Other: He has a black eye from delivery, but Jeff says that’s okay cause chicks dig scars.  I think it might be a little too early to think about that!

He’s got lots of blonde hair, but it isn’t very long.   Someone started the rumor that it has a reddish tint to it, but I don’t think it does.

How he got his name:

Phinehas’s name is found in Numbers 25 and Joshua 22 of the Bible.  He was a man that was zealous for God and that’s our prayer for our son – that he would be on fire for God, resulting in doing the work of God, in whatever capacity God has for him.  Some passages that describe Phinehas:

Numbers 25:10-13

“Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give him My covenant of peace; and it shall be for him and his descendants after him, a covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel.’”

Joshua 22:30-33 30

So when Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the congregation, even the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words which the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the sons of Manasseh spoke, it pleased them. And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Manasseh, “Today we know that the LORD is in our midst, because you have not committed this unfaithful act against the LORD; now you have delivered the sons of Israel from the hand of the LORD.” Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest and the leaders returned from the sons of Reuben and from the sons of Gad, from the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the sons of Israel, and brought back word to them. The word pleased the sons of Israel, and the sons of Israel blessed God; and they did not speak of going up against them in war to destroy the land in which the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad were living.”

Some labor details (for the gals):

My blood pressure started spiking in week 37, causing me to go on bedrest and a planned induction sometime week 39.  Week 38, we discovered that my platelet count was getting lower than anesthologists would like, so we moved up my induction date to that week – Wednesday, 4/18.

Upon checkin, we started a pill to dilate me further (I was at 2 cm) at 10:00 am, but didn’t make any progress.  I suspect the pill wasn’t inserted in the right spot because they did another pill at 2:00 p.m. (instead of doing the planned pitocin) and that started contractions right away.

At 6:30 p.m., I was still only at 3 centimeters and having occasional contractions, but nothing consistent.  So, they broke my water.  Contractions started coming hard and fast!  But they weren’t consistent.  I’d have several right on top of each other, then a break for a few minutes.  No consistency in length.  No consistency in strength.  No consistency in time apart.

They did try pitocin later on that night, but just did a really small dose.  My blood pressure went from really high (180s) to really low (90s) randomly.  Because of all that, they stopped the pitocin.  For pain meds, I did some IV-based pain meds that were supposed to take the edge off without being an epidural.

Around 11:30 p.m., they put in an epidural, thinking that we were going to head down the c-section path.  I was still only 3 centimeters, not handling contractions well and now Finn wasn’t either.  He still hadn’t dropped into the right position.  In fact, at times, he was backing away from the right direction, getting even higher up (being really small helped him do that).  Because of the high blood pressure, my spine was swollen, making it very difficult to get the epidural in.  Which meant that if I had to go the c-section route, I was looking at full general anesthesia (completely knocked out).  After a 3rd attempt, it finally got in.  Relief was practically immediate for me.  Made an amazing amount of difference in my ability to cope.

My contractions were still wonky, causing stress to Finn, so they gave me shots to STOP contractions.  Or at least weaken them.  At midnight, my OB arrived, fully expecting to perform a c-section.  In fact, they had me sign the consent papers before she arrived “just in case”.  Instead, she checked me and I was dialated to 9 centimeters.  In 20 minutes, I went from 3 cm to 9!  We all were shocked!  The theory is that I was blocking my body from dialating because I wasn’t handling the pain well.  Once the pain wasn’t an issue, I wasn’t holding my body back.

Finn was still showing signs of stress, but being dialated to a 9 is a much different story than just being a 3.  My OB didn’t want to do a c-section; she felt that I could still have a vaginal delivery.  Because he never dropped, she used forceps to get him into position, then I pushed him out in a matter of about 5 minutes.  3 sets of 3 pushes and he was out!  He does have a bruise over his right eye, but it will fade. It kind of makes him look like a boxer.  Jeff likes to say “Wait til you see the other baby!” as if he got into a fight with another newborn.

Because he has a lower birth weight, we’ve been careful to give him his first bath under a warming lamp and he’s usually swaddled with 2-3 blankets.  He’s been quite sleepy this afternoon, so I suspect he’ll be awake tonight when I’m quite sleepy.

He’s here!  He’s ours!

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