Introducing Jorja Nicole Hone

JorJa Nicole Hone

February 5, 2008

6 lbs. 6 ozs. & 20 inches long

Let's start at the beginning (or close enough to the beginning)...it was early morning Father's Day 2007 - the home pregnancy test finally confirmed what I had known in my heart for a couple of weeks; we were pregnant. I ran to Jesse's room and found a white t-shirt and "created" an announcement for daddy that Jesse could debut when greeting daddy in the morning. Chris had mixed emotions; of course he was happy & thrilled but he was also overwhelmed since he had just started a hellacious graduate school program and we were in the middle of a remodel.

The pregnancy was a "dream" relative to my pregnancy with Jesse. No Morphine, No ER visits, No warnings from the doctor that the baby may not survive. In fact, we took a family vacation to celebrate Lydia's 50th birthday by cruising the Western Carribean in October. Yes, I had morning sickness (and a small supply of Zofran) the first 4 months but lucky for me I was on sabbatical for 2 months of it so I was comfortably at home....well comfortably at our home away from home. Due to our Spring flooding and subsequent critter infestation we moved out of our home and into Jess & Lydia's the weekend my sabbatical started (June). (Jess & Lydia were gracious, loving, supportive and kind enough to let us stay until our home was ready for us to move back in (Jan 08)). So I was truly blessed to be surrounded by family during my pregnancy which kept my spirits high, my stress levels low and provided a much-need helping hand with Jesse since Chris was practically living at school his first 2 semesters of grad school.

Our due date was February 15th but since we (the dr, Chris & I) decided the safest route was a repeat C-section, we selected February 6th as the baby's due date. Well on February 4th, the doctor's office called and said the doctor has a scheduling conflict on the 6th and would like to deliver on the 5th. Well, I wasn't entirely ready on the 4th and felt I needed that extra day to get ready but of course agreed to the earlier date since it was important to have the doctor present for the delivery. In fact, this "surprise" change in the date in some respects simulated a "natural" delivery in the respect you don't know exactly when labor is going to start and the nervous energy you have trying to get everything together before you get to the hospital.

The morning of the 5th, I was still full of that nervous energy. Chris drove me to the hospital while grandma Lydia stayed home from work to watch Jesse. I checked myself in and they showed me right away to my room which serves as a delivery suite for those normal moms but served as a changing/waiting room for me. The hospital was on time and ready for my 10 am C-section. I walked to the surgery room and held my breath for the part I was most nervous about and then was pleasantly surprised when the epidurel wasn't as bad as I remembered. I was asked if I had a music preference and I chose John Mayer.

At 10:08, our sweet baby girl made her grand entrance and the first thing the doctor said was wow, she has got some hair. Chris was kind enough to stay at my side and keep my spirit's high throughout the entire process. He finally left my side to take a few pictures of the baby and then brought the pictures back to me to see. Oh, she was so tiny and so red......and she had quite a voice. I was starting to doze off (due to the drugs) but then Chris pleasantly surprised me by handing me the baby. This was a new experience for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. She definitely had a lot of hair but I was most impressed by her alertness. Her eyes were wide open and she was just taking it all in. Love at first sight.

Grandma Pat, Grandma Pete and Don were all in the waiting room and got the first peek at Jorja. I held her up and she still had her eyes wide open and was anxious to meet her family.

Later that day, the introduction I was most excited for: