The Rest of the Story

When J finally came back to the room, he looked excited and scared all at the same time. He had spent nearly two hours in the NICU trying to digest the situation. Just hours before, we had had no idea we'd be parents that day! Unfortunately, I was not able to see our baby due to my condition. It was a little surreal to know that I was a mom but not know what my son looked like. J brought pictures for me to see. I have to admit that I was a little jealous that he'd been able to hold him, but I was so happy to see the love in his eyes. He excitedly told me that Finley was 3 lbs 2 oz and 15 1/2 inches long. He seemed so tiny! The NNP told him that they would have flown me to Denver to deliver Fin if they'd known he was going to be so small. He was under the limit for delivery here in town. Thank goodness we didn't have to go through that!
J then told me that he'd talked to my mom several times that day, and she would be in town by 11pm. I had told her she didn't need to come, so she called him instead! Ha.

The next 5 days were tough. I finally got to meet our son at about 10:30 the next morning. I started crying like a baby when I held him. I hadn't cried during the entire ordeal until then. So much for being a tough girl!

I cannot believe I'm posting the picture above. I looked like Humongo-girl still. Yikes. And J is still wearing his clothes from the day before. We were a little unprepared for the turn of events.

Finally, I was taken off of the magnesium sulfate, so I slowly started to feel more normal. We spent as much time as possible in the NICU those next couple of days. On Thursday, my doc was discussing the fact that my blood pressure was still high when the pediatrician, an NNP and another nurse walked into our room with news. Unfortunately, Fin was having trouble regulating his glucose levels. They planned to establish a main line through his umbilical cord to administer a glucose drip. If they couldn't get one in, then they would probably fly him to Denver. They said they would be back in two hours with an update. When they returned with bad news, we were devastated. They then told us they were going to try playing with his IV to see if they could bring down his levels manually over the next couple of hours before making a decision. Basically, we sat and waited every two hours that entire day to see if things would improve. We were ecstatic when they told us that what they had done seemed to be working. Thankfully, he slowly got better over the next few days until the scare was finally over. He got down to 2 lbs 8 oz during the ordeal!

I was released from the hospital at 11pm Friday night. It was surreal to leave the hospital without our child, but it was nice to sleep in my own bed. Not much sleep was had between pumping and a 4am alarm... we were showered and out the door by 5:30 to get to the hospital by 6am. This would be the start of my new reality.

After another week, J went back to work and my mom went back home. I spent my days in the NICU-- from 6am until 7 or 8pm. Before coming home, Finley would have to eat without a feeding tube and continue to grow. The last couple of days were filled with tests-- car seat test, rooming-in test, etc., but after 38 days in the NICU, he was able to come home with us! When we took him home, he weighed 4 lbs 14 oz.
After a week, he was able to come off the oxygen. And, four weeks after being home, he weighed 6 lbs 6 oz and was 18 1/2 inches long! He's growing like a weed. He's pushing the limits of his preemie clothes, but he's still swimming in the newborn ones. He'll get there soon enough!

The Birth {aka Part 2}

Well, I couldn't figure out why the scheduled posts didn't pop up last week, so I had to create a new post altogether... hence the delay. I left off prepping for surgery.

As I mentioned, J sat next to me and held my hand while my doctor started to preform the c-section. Unfortunately, I was staring straight up at the ceiling-- into a silver light fixture that reflected the image of what they were doing to me. Ugh. It wasn't pretty. It was like I was rubber-necking at an accident that was gruesome, but I just couldn't look away. Thankfully I couldn't feel anything, but my body was shaking uncontrollably!! The anesthesiologist told me that he would give me something for it once the baby was delivered and then told J that they were getting ready to pull the baby out if he wanted to look. Just as he stood up, I heard the doc say, "So, that's why you never turned." (He was breech for the entire pregnancy.) J told me later that the umbilical cord was wrapped around Finley's body like crazy, which is why he was measuring small for his gestational age during the last two ultrasounds. All of the nutrients had been going to his heart and brain. The assisting doc handed him over to the neonatal nurse practitioner who began to check his vitals. For a while, no one was talking. Then, I heard the NNP say to the doc, "There's a lot of fluid... a lot." At this point, J asked if he could go with the baby. Unfortunately, Fin was whisked off so quickly that I didn't get to meet him.

After the doc stitched me back up, I was taken to recovery. I remember being a chatty Kathy. I couldn't stop talking. J had looked like he was near tears when he left the room, but I could tell there was fear in his eyes. So, I asked the anesthesiologist and recovery nurses if they knew what was going on. That's when I was told that my baby had had 60 cc's (about 2 oz) of fluid in his lungs when he came out and was not fully breathing for nearly 7 minutes. Thankfully, the NNP that had been on duty for the surgery was filling in from a larger hospital in Denver while the normal staff was at a conference because she was a rockstar. She told J that was the most fluid she'd ever had to aspirate from a baby after delivery, but she was super calm and just kept working without fully letting on to J how scary the situation was.

After I left recovery, I went back to my room. I was alone for the next hour and a half and was still sick from the meds they had me on to prevent seizures. I was throwing up and miserable. Let me tell you... throwing up with fresh stitches in your belly is not fun. I just wanted to see J and know what was going on...

Stay tuned for the rest of the story.

Oops...

I just realized my scheduled posts for this past week didn't post. You'll get the rest of the story as soon as I figure out why they're not posting!

The Story of Our Little Bean {Part 1}

So... let's see. We left off here. I was put on bed rest on Friday, September 17th-- 7 1/2 weeks before the expected due date of our little one. I was definitely disappointed, as I had planned to work right up until the due date, but I knew that my doctor was looking out for me and the baby. The plan was to go back to the hospital on the following Monday morning to have all of the tests rerun to see if anything had gotten worse, then go in again on Thursday to go through the process all over again if everything went well on Monday. I was really proud of myself for sticking to the bed rest plan all weekend, even though I was going crazy. By Sunday night, I looked like I had normal legs and ankles! It was amazing! I just knew that everything was going to come back okay on Monday.

I woke up around 3am Monday morning with a weird pain in the middle of my chest, just under my ribs. I couldn't sleep and was extremely uncomfortable, so I made note to mention it at my appointment. Later in the morning, J and I drove into town, and by the time we got to the hospital, my legs were swollen again. J dropped me off, as he had to stop by his office before working out of town for the day. Within 45 minutes of getting to the hospital, a nurse came in to tell me that the tests had come back and that I would be having our baby that day! I interrupted her and told her to hand me the phone. She kept trying to explain my results, but I interrupted her again and told her that I had to get in touch with J right now. Thankfully I caught him just as he was leaving town because if it had been just a few minutes later, then he wouldn't have had cell service the rest of the day. When I got off the phone, the nurse explained that my pregnancy-induced hypertension had turned into full-blown severe preeclampsia. {Because my doctor was working at a clinic 45 miles away, she was relaying all of information through the nurse. } That pain in my chest had not gone away, and the nurse had originally written it off as indigestion, although I knew that wasn't what it was. After speaking with my doc, the nurse came back in and told me that my test results suggested that my liver was failing and that it was becoming so enlarged that it was pressing against my ribs and chest causing the pressure I was experiencing. At the time, they didn't see any reason to do an immediate c-section, so they scheduled it for 4pm that day.

In cases of preeclampsia, there is a high chance of brain seizures, so I was given magnesium sulfate as a preventative. They warned me that I wouldn't feel too hot for about 48 hours. Uh... I was throwing up within minutes and felt like I was on fire. It was awful. They planned to take my blood and rerun all of the tests every two hours. J arrived shortly after I got the news that I would be going into surgery at 4. By then, it had been two hours since my first blood draw, so they did another one. {Unfortunately, my veins are not very cooperative and never have been, so they had to stick me over 7 times in a matter of 4 hours! I was pretty upset by then.} Those results came back fairly quickly and showed that I was getting worse. At this point, they had notified my doc, and she was already on her way to the hospital. They told us that I'd be going into surgery as soon as she arrived. My mind was spinning. I was going to have a baby... today. I barely even noticed when the nurse came in to insert my catheter.

The doctor arrived in about an hour, just enough time for me to call my parents to let them know what was going on. Amazingly, I was the most calm out of everyone. J looked like a deer in the headlights and wouldn't stop staring at me. My mom was crying on the phone, and my dad didn't seem to know what to say. I was just trying not to throw up anymore. Pretty quickly, I was wheeled into the operating room to get my epidural. I had always been scared of the thought of an epidural. But, for some reason, I remained calm when it came time to get it... that is, until I felt a twinge like a nerve had been hit. I let out a bit of a yelp. My doc and the doctor assisting held my hands for the last bit, as I was a bit more wide-eyed than before.

I was then laid down again and a blue "curtain" was put up between my head and my chest. J was allowed to come in to the operating room at this point. I asked him to sit next to me and not watch. I think I was afraid he'd be grossed out by seeing me all cut open. {Unfortunately, there was a silver light fixture above that left me rubber-necking the entire procedure.}

Stay tuned for the rest of the story...

Time Flies

Tomorrow, our little bean will be two months old. It's crazy to think that his original due date was last week! My goal is to have his birth story up before the weekend is up, but I've been doing quite a bit of one-handed typing. Toes are crossed!

Vendor Spotlight: Shutterfly

As the holidays are sneaking up on us, we've been trying to decide which photo cards to order (in addition to birth announcements for our new babe). We had great success with Shutterfly last Christmas when we used their services to create wedding photo albums for our parents, so naturally we were drawn to their site to look into what they had to offer again this year. I was instantly drawn to this card:

J said he'd go with whatever I decided. He likes simple cards, and I don't think you can get much simpler than this one! It's perfect... and the colors are right up my alley.

While I was browsing, I couldn't help but think of gifts we could create with our little bean's mug on them. I can see the grandparents loving any of the photo gifts, and I wouldn't mind having a calendar made myself.

Here's the kicker... Bloggers can get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly: http://bit.ly/sfly2010 !! I'm definitely taking them up on the offer. We were really impressed with the photo books that we had made through them last year, so I would suggest you look into their offer, too. Enjoy!

She's Alive!!

No really... I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, although it certainly seems like it. I'm amazed at how little time I actually have to spare. Little bean doesn't sleep nearly as much as I had expected. His original due date came and went on Tuesday, which made me realize I hadn't updated you all in a long time. I don't have enough time to fill you all in right now, but I'll be back soon. Here's a quick wave from the little bean.