Yes, he is finally here! We have been so blessed to have our little boy come into the world happy and as healthy as can be expected... There is some much to tell you about his little journey into life, but I am going to keep the first posting short and then we will add more. We have been so busy putting our lives back together and going up to see him everyday we have not had time to put everything on the blog. Things have slowed down a little bit and we are starting to get back into our routine. Let me give you a quick recap of what has gone on. On August 3 we woke up and had some indications that things were on their way. They sent us down to labor and delivery at about 6:30 in the morning. They said that it was hopefully not the real thing, but that they wanted to monitor me. About an hour later they sent us down and the contractions started. They did not want to give me any medicine in case it was a false alarm (we had already had three). I started to realize that something was different this time. The contractions started at 5 min. apart and were not to bad at first, but they picked up fast. They offered some pain medications, but I get sick on anything but the epidural. They said that they could not give that to me until they new I was in full labor. I tried to reassure them that it was real, but they did not want to check my dilation in case I was in false labor (infection could result). They did give me a dose of some small drug that lasted about ten minutes and they said that it was as strong as a few Ibuprofen. I started to get sick so we decided no more. At about 3:00 they said that I could have an epidural. The anesthesiologist was working on someone else so we had to wait. The Doctors were still unsure if I was in true labor so they were not rushing him along. Luckily I had the nurse on my side. She kept telling them she is in a lot of pain. Finally, at about 4:00 the anesthesiologist came. He was done at 4:20. It took about 20 min to kick in 4:40. The only problem was that I had what they call a hot spot. One side does not numb up. At 4:50 the nurse went to get the doctor to tell them that I was still in a lot of pain. 4:55 they came in so calm "I guess we should check you and put a heart monitor on the babies head." From the time she checked me to the time he came out was 4 min. They checked and said, "oh he is coming.” All I could think was I told you so. I knew and they knew that this little boy had to come fast because we needed to get him on the ventilator as quickly as possible. Luckily he was out in three pushes... One of the reasons we chose this hospital was for the high-tech equipment and for the special delivery rooms they have for high-risk babies. They have what they call a drive through window for baby. They pass the baby right through the window in to the NBICU. Everything happened so fast. Dave had me try and take a picture, while he cut the umbilical cord, but Boston was whisked away so quickly I didn’t’ even snap a photo in time. I tried to take one picture but our camera has a nice little delay, so all I got was my nice beautiful swollen legs as they passed him to the nurse. Dave grabbed the camera and tried to get a picture of him as they passed him through the drive through window. Dave’s photo caught the nurses back and not the Boston. Needless to say, Dave got to see him for a second and I had to wait 2 more hours. We found out later that his first hour of life did not go so well. He had swallowed a lot of blood clots on the way out of the womb from my placenta pulling away. So it took them a minute to figure out why he was doing so badly. They finally got those out and then it he went up from there. When a baby is first born they give them what they call an APGAR score ranging 1-10 (0-2 for 5 categories) 0 being the worst and 10 being the best. Boston was a 1. They said that once they got those out and put the surfactant in the lungs he would do better. He kept fighting and has done so well through all of this. The only info they gave us through the window for 2 hours was that he weighed 2lbs. 14oz. and was 15" long. This seems so weird because most people would not think of 2lbs. 14oz. as a blessing, but we have learned that your perspective can change with your situation. We thought with the placenta pulled away and no water that he would have weighed less. Unfortunately, the weight is a big factor, but the lung development is #1. They were finally able to get him stable and let us go in to see him. He was perfect, just a smaller perfect. Blond hair, which is weird for our kids because so far they have all had jet-black hair. I think he looks like his dad (handsome and strong).
He did very well for the first day. They had warned us that babies have what they call a Honeymoon period for the first 24 hours so don't get to excited. He did really well though. They took him off of the oscillator by 12:00 that night. If they can move them down they want to because too much oxygen can cause damage to the eyes and lungs. Boston skipped the ventilator down from the oscillator and went to the CPAP and cannula. They let us stay and watch them take him off of that on put him on the other one. Nothing is scarier in life then to watch them take your child off of a ventilator to see if he can handle the next one down. I want to say lets just keep him on this one forever. It seemed to be working just fine. He did great on the next ventilator. He has gone through three ventilators They started to give him breast milk through a tube by the 5th day. Then he ran into a little bump. They thought he had an infection. I called the doctor for our daily chat on the phone and she said " last night we thought he had a infection so we did a spinal tap and drew a bunch of blood. He did very well and we will call you if we have to do any big procedures." I thought a spinal tape was a big procedure. They put all of the fluid and blood on petree dishes and see if anything grows for 5 days. Longest five days of our lives. Everything came back negative. So, he had a few good days. The staff got him up to his full feedings a day, which is still so tiny, and after going down to 2lbs 12oz he was finally gaining weight back. A day later he had another bad night. He threw up all of is feedings so they stopped the food and did another spinal tape and drew a bunch of blood. This time it came back positive. He had a staff infection in the blood. Two steps forward and one step back. Another long seven days to see if the antibiotics are working.
Okay you are now pretty much up to speed. He is on his last day of antibiotics, almost up to his full feedings, and weighs 3lbs 12oz. Not doing as well on the oxygen as we had wanted, but he is a fighter and a CHAMP.
We are so proud of him for being so strong and enduring this trial that he has had to go through so young in life. We are also proud of his little sisters for being so strong for each other and being so helpful. I have to say that I am so proud of my solid husband Dave who has played Mr. Mom for the past month and ½. He has been amazing and I am so thankful for all of his love and support. As a family we are so thankful for all of the love and support. We love and appreciate everything that has been done. It all seems as though I have dreamed a dream and the dream continues.