July 12, 2012

Well, let me back up to July 9, 2012.  I had my weekly appointment.  I went in and my blood pressure was up pretty high.  As I said before, my dr knew how worried I was about something and now my blood pressure was starting to show as well.  She sent down to labor and delivery triage so be monitored.  They took blood there and tested for pre-eclampsia and it came back negative.  My blood pressure wasn't as high  as it was in office and they weren't going to admit me.  I was having pretty regular contractions and I was beginning to dilate but they weren't going to do anything that day.  My doctor came to see me there and wanted me to come back to see her on Thursday, the 12.

That morning was like any other.  We got up, I fed Corben breakfast.  Steve stayed home with him just in case I was to be admitted.  I got to my appointment and sure enough, my BP was high again.  My heart rate was also very elevated and Dr. H decided right then and there that it was time.  She called down to the hospital and they had room for me.  She said she would see me in a few hours.

It was around noon then.  I called Steve, who arranged for my dad to leave work and come stay with Corben.  He left shortly after and met me at the hospital.  I was already in the process of being induced.  Looking back, the actual delivery of Hunter was such a non event.  I started feeling contractions, I got my epidural, it only worked 100% on my right side so I felt EVERYTHING on my left side but it was so fast it really didn't matter.  I called the nurse, who had just left the room and I was at 7-8 cm, and told her it was time.  She reluctantly came back and checked me....sure enough it was time.  We didn't do any practice pushes or anything as Hunter was right there.  They called my Dr to come back to the hospital, she had just left to take her daughter home. I didn't know if I could wait.  The nurse even told me she had delivered a baby or two before so don't worry!  A few minutes later my doctor got there, quickly threw a gown, gloves, and mask on and told me to push.  One push and Hunter was here!

His umbilical cord was wrapped twice around his neck and also had a knot in it.  My doctor kept telling me that was the mommy instinct I had.  Had we not induced him at 37 weeks, that knot could have pulled tighter.....things could have been very, very different.

He looked like a normal 8lb, 20 inch baby...

I'm so glad I have this picture, but hate it at the same time.  Someone who is about to have 

their whole world turned upside down shouldn't be allowed to look this happy.  

but something was off.  He cried, I held him, but Steve and I both kept asking if he was ok.  We just knew something was up.

They took him from me to clean him up and assess him.  I sent out a quick picture of our sweet boy to the world and literally right when I hit send the nurse told us she wanted to take him to the NICU as his breathing was too fast and he was grunting.  She also heard a heart murmur.  I was a crying mess.  No, my baby is fine.  He isn't going to be taken from me.  But he was, and Steve went with him.  I was alone with a nurse who had just come on her shift and I am sure she wasn't quite sure what to do with me.
Because my epidural was so concentrated on my right side, it took a bit longer for me to be able to walk.  But I had to see my baby.  So I changed into my sweats and they wheeled me to him....

Because he was born a few weeks early, his lungs still had some fluid in them.  He had TTN or transient tachypnia of a newborn.  Basically, just breathing way too fast.  His oxygen saturation was at about 80-84% so they put him on a nasal cannula of oxygen flow and it went to 99-100%.  They said usually after 72 hours the lungs clear and he would be fine.  The heart murmur would be addressed in a few days if it was still there.  A lot of babies have their PDA stay open and it can take a couple of days to close.  They figured it was that.

THAT, is the only thing that really upsets me about his first few days.  Now that I am a heart mom, I know of a much more severe heart defect... basically a baby born with half of a functioning heart.  AND, they are finding a correlation between the heart defect that runs in our family and this other defect. An echocardiogram should have been done right then.  If he had it, and his PDA was left to close, he wouldn't have survived.  But, thankfully that wasn't the case.  Just upsetting and I believe to be an irresponsible choice on the neonatologist's behalf.

By this time, it was the middle of the night.  I had nurses lecturing me to go rest.  I did just have a baby hours before.  I couldn't.  I couldn't leave his side.  The last time I was in that hospital and in a post partum room, I had my baby WITH me.  Being in the room made me sick.  I had to be with my son.  So I stayed and the nurses were very unhappy with me.

I wish I could say that I look back at Hunter's birthday as a happy day but I don't.  Yes, it was the day that I met my strong warrior for the first time, but it's not a day that I would say was happy.  It was the beginning of a very rough road that at the time, I had no idea I was on.  That's the part I hate.  I was so unknowing and naive that day.

But that is Hunter man's birth story.  More on the days following.......