We have a son

We are so completely in love with our boy! His name is Finn Declan Oprea. "Finn" was our choice and "Declan" was actually chosen by his biological family. Throughout the duration of the pregnancy, his biological sister who is eleven has called him Declan as it is the Irish saint of goodness. We chose to keep that as his middle name in honor of their family. They will always hold a special place in our hearts as they've chosen to give us this most precious gift. There really are not enough words to describe how much we admire and respect his birth mother for choosing life and choosing us.

We got to Kansas on Wed night and it has been quite the roller coaster since we got here. He was born Thursday morning at 11:46 AM weighing in at 5lbs 15oz and 18 in. His birth mother allowed me to be in the OR with her during the c-section, for which I am so incredibly grateful. It was also during this time that I got my first mother's worst fear moments. Shortly after they took him out, he started turning blue. The neonatal team rushed in, because he was in respiratory distress due to his lungs not being all the way developed. They intibated him and I was able to walk (jog) down the hall with them as they took him to the NICU. A chest X-Ray confirmed he had some fluid in his lungs and his body wasn't producing enough surfactant (the stuff that allows your lungs to fully expand). After a shot of medicinal surfactant and hooking him up to the ventilator, he stabilized and has been stable ever since. They took him off the vent Friday morning because he was fighting it and he stayed off for about 6 hours. Since his breathing was still pretty labored, they hooked him up to a cpap (a step down from the vent) to give him a little more help. After two hours on the c-pap, they decided it would be best to put him back on the ventilator as it would allow his little body to rest while his lungs got stronger. All of his other vitals look good, we just need his respiratory rate to slow down a bit and become more steady. The super sweet respiratory therapist told us that it will with time. It is all due to him being early and his lungs just need to catch up to the rest of his body. He is a strong little guy and quite the fighter so we have no doubt that it will happen with rest and time. They also have him on a feeding tube since he can't take a bottle yet. We've been at the hospital with him most of the day and were even able to hold him this morning while he was off the vent. The biggest thing that happened today was that the papers were signed that make him legally ours! We are so in love with our little man! Here are some pictures that I've taken with my phone over the past day and a half.

This was right before the c-section

 

 

About 3 hours after he was born on the vent

Our first picture as a family of three!

 

Already looking for that thumb!

This morning when we were able to hold him when he was off the vent.

We fall more in love with this sweet little man every time we see him. He has a full head of dark brown hair and right now his eyes are a dark blue (just like most newborns). While this is not what we anticipated our time in Kansas being like, we are so thankful that God chose him to be a part of our family.