Matthew Edward Starke

He is here!! Little stinker took us by surprise this morning but it was a good day to have a baby. :)

First, the details. He is 8 pounds, 2 ounces (but we're getting differing reports from the Grams to pounds conversions). He is 19.5 inches long. He is a chunky little monkey and I already love him more than I ever imagined.

Here's a little bit of the story for you. Thursday, I had my last doc appointment. Everything was great on the NST and the sonogram. He was really active all day long. I mean, non-stop! Friday, he wasn't as active as Thursday but, you know, babies have off days too and compared to Thursday anything would seem like an off day. So Saturday rolls around and I did nothing all day. He just wasn't very active and he should have been with me being so lazy. I had an ice cream sandwich at 9:45 (Go Mavs! by the way) and he danced around a little and even got the hiccups. I was satisfied that all was well and I went to bed.

I don't know if I had a bad dream or what, but when I woke up Sunday morning, he just wasn't moving. He doesn't always move much first thing in the morning but he usually kicks back when I poke him. Today, he wouldn't even kick back. I drank some juice. Changed positions. Still nothing. So I freaked out and we rushed to the hospital. Of course, he started moving all around on the way here. I was promptly hooked up to the monitors and his heartbeat was strong!! So yeah, I felt a little like an idiot. Again.

After a while the nurse checked me and still no more dilation than before but she left to call the doc. I figured I would be heading home shortly.

THEN she came back in and said, "well, we are having a baby today." and explained why. I was having contractions and his heart rate was fine during them but it started to decelerate after the contractions, meaning he was having a little trouble recovering from them. That's a sign that the placenta was starting to give out. Oh great!

So James had to go home and get the camera. But this time, he made it in time and he looked so cute in his haz-mat suit.

My c-section went great but they told me my uterus was a little thin and that the cord was around his neck. We weren't in any immediate danger but it was good that my instincts told me something wasn't right and I came in.

My beautiful son is sleeping happily in his little bassinet. He had to have a little formula because of borderline blood sugar levels but he is just absolutely perfect.

My wonderful husband is sleeping next to us on the "daddy couch".

Sleeping sounds good to me too.

Jennifer Starke

Sent from my BlackBerry.