Baby B was born Tuesday August 21, 2012 at 1:14 am.
The day before:
Of course for me it all started Monday morning. I got up to get ready for work, disappointed I did not go into labor that weekend despite the massive amount of walking I did on Saturday. Sunday I had signs of labor but a Google search told me I could still be a week away from delivery. As I got ready for work more signs of labor started. Not enough to know if I should stay home from work but like I said, I was disappointed I didn't go into labor over the weekend. The signs were so faint that after Mr. H gave me a kiss I told him I thought I had been feeling a contraction. His response, "I have that affect on people."
I called my doctor's office to ask questions only to leave a message. I decided not to go into work and ended up being walked to death into labor. My mom, sister and I went to my sister's school (the one she will be attending during the 6 weeks my mom is in town). While my sister tested, Mom and I went grocery shopping at King Soopers. We picked up Caitlin from her tests and did some more shopping at Walmart. By 12:30 I was not the only one complaining about all of the walking. Thanks to my sister's complaints we were allowed to go home, where I went to bed immediately. At that point contractions started coming every 7-10 minutes and this time they were for sure contractions.
So I called Mr. H home from work so he could take me to my doctors office to be examined. At the examination we were told Baby B was ready and to head over to the hospital.
The hospital:
We arrived at the hospital and instead of being examined again we were immediately taken back to a delivery room. The rooms at Lutheran are pretty snazzy, equipped with not only everything they need for the delivery and after but also had a jetted tub. The labor did not take long, I pushed for 30 minutes and everyone was amazed. Yes, I pretty much rock at birthing a child. I had the help of Mr. Epidural.
The rest has turned in to a bit of a blur. After he was born at 1:14 am on Tuesday August 21 I was able to hold him immediately while the nurse and doctor cleaned up the room to allow family to come see him. Baby B was then passed around until he had to get cleaned up and given a shot. Baby B loved getting his hair washed.
At 4:00 am we were taken to our post delivery room where the nurse noted "told patient all information needed but patient could barely keep her eyes open." She was a funny nurse with a southern accent. Mr. H and I got a couple of hours of much interrupted sleep. I don't remember when visitors started to trickle in but they were there throughout the afternoon.
Things take a scary turn:
We had noticed a couple of times that Baby B's lips would turn blueish and his skin tone turned a dusty color. We would pick him up or rub him and his color would return. We mentioned it to the nurse who told us to let her know if he did it again. At some point I took a shower or went to the restroom and he had turned again. The nurse checked his oxygen levels and they had dipped but returned as soon as Mr. H had stirred him. They decided to take him down to the nursery to observe Baby B for any trends during these "episodes." Visitors continued to come and Mr. H would take them down to see Baby B. I had yet to see him since he left our room and after Mr. H returned from one visit he let me know Baby B was going to be transferred to Children's Hospital where they would continue more test. Seizures were mentioned but I didn't really hear anything else. Mr. H helped me get ready to see him and I was taken to the NICU to sit by his side until the Flight for Life team arrived. (He was not taken by helicopter but by ambulance). My doctor gave the ok for me to be released (only 7 hours after I had delivered), and Mr. H and I drove straight to Children's. When we arrived doctors and nurses were at his bedside in gowns and masks. We were not allowed in the room due to a sterile procedure we were later told was an LP or spinal tap. We waited in the hall able to see the doctors work. Finally Baby B's doctor came out to explain the need for a spinal tap. They wanted to rule out everything, including meningitis. The only way to test for that is to test fluid from his spine. Unfortunately they were unable to get the fluid but they started his antibiotics to treat meningitis and would try again the next day. I was strongly encouraged to go home to sleep and since I had no energy to think I was numbly taken home where I cried...and cried...and cried... So much for getting sleep.
Much has happened since that night but I will never forget those first 24 hours. Today Baby B is one week old and has been extremely loved by his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles (even aunts and uncles who have yet to meet him).
The doctors were able to get the spinal tap the next day and the results showed that he had too many white blood cells indicating he was fighting something. He will have two weeks of antibiotics before they will test his white blood cell count again with another LP. If it's down we can go home. If not we will need to stay longer. Fingers crossed and prayers prayed for only being here 7 more days
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The rest has turned in to a bit of a blur. After he was born at 1:14 am on Tuesday August 21 I was able to hold him immediately while the nurse and doctor cleaned up the room to allow family to come see him. Baby B was then passed around until he had to get cleaned up and given a shot. Baby B loved getting his hair washed.
At 4:00 am we were taken to our post delivery room where the nurse noted "told patient all information needed but patient could barely keep her eyes open." She was a funny nurse with a southern accent. Mr. H and I got a couple of hours of much interrupted sleep. I don't remember when visitors started to trickle in but they were there throughout the afternoon.
Things take a scary turn:
We had noticed a couple of times that Baby B's lips would turn blueish and his skin tone turned a dusty color. We would pick him up or rub him and his color would return. We mentioned it to the nurse who told us to let her know if he did it again. At some point I took a shower or went to the restroom and he had turned again. The nurse checked his oxygen levels and they had dipped but returned as soon as Mr. H had stirred him. They decided to take him down to the nursery to observe Baby B for any trends during these "episodes." Visitors continued to come and Mr. H would take them down to see Baby B. I had yet to see him since he left our room and after Mr. H returned from one visit he let me know Baby B was going to be transferred to Children's Hospital where they would continue more test. Seizures were mentioned but I didn't really hear anything else. Mr. H helped me get ready to see him and I was taken to the NICU to sit by his side until the Flight for Life team arrived. (He was not taken by helicopter but by ambulance). My doctor gave the ok for me to be released (only 7 hours after I had delivered), and Mr. H and I drove straight to Children's. When we arrived doctors and nurses were at his bedside in gowns and masks. We were not allowed in the room due to a sterile procedure we were later told was an LP or spinal tap. We waited in the hall able to see the doctors work. Finally Baby B's doctor came out to explain the need for a spinal tap. They wanted to rule out everything, including meningitis. The only way to test for that is to test fluid from his spine. Unfortunately they were unable to get the fluid but they started his antibiotics to treat meningitis and would try again the next day. I was strongly encouraged to go home to sleep and since I had no energy to think I was numbly taken home where I cried...and cried...and cried... So much for getting sleep.
Much has happened since that night but I will never forget those first 24 hours. Today Baby B is one week old and has been extremely loved by his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles (even aunts and uncles who have yet to meet him).
The doctors were able to get the spinal tap the next day and the results showed that he had too many white blood cells indicating he was fighting something. He will have two weeks of antibiotics before they will test his white blood cell count again with another LP. If it's down we can go home. If not we will need to stay longer. Fingers crossed and prayers prayed for only being here 7 more days
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Dad holding Baby B his first full day in the Children's Hospital NICU.
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Doctors tested for everything, including seizures. The tech liked that we weren't freaked out about the Brodster being hooked up to the wires. She said most parents freak. Mr. H and I take pictures he won't live down. We're awesome parents.
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Then Baby B become a little jaundice. He only had the lights on him one day, what a strong little guy! He looks like a cross between Batman, Cyclops, Iron man, and a glow warm. Let me tell you feeding him while attached to an IV is hard, but feeding him while in a blue glowing blanket and IV, and his stats. Exhausting.
Baby B had a hard time getting a central line to get rid of the multiple IV's. The doctors tried twice but it really needs to be done by a nurse specialized in that. We had to be very careful with his current IV's and I came very close to talking to administration about a specific nurse who was not careful with his IV line. I told Mr. H if Baby B lost his last IV the next day (she was a night nurse) it would be her fault. And guess who was our night nurse the very next night.
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