Okay so I am going to apologize in advance because I know that for some of you who are reading this have probably heard most of this story if not once but maybe twice. I also know some people who are following our story is way behind on what has been going on so I am going to back track quite a bit and update as much as I can. So get ready for the longest blog post you will ever see or read. Again sorry in advance but this is just as much a record for our little baby some day as it is to update all of you.
So after getting released from the hospital on the 20th of May, I was basically out of work and confined to the worst torture ever. BED REST... Sounds too good to be true and trust me it is. Listening to the dogs whine, seeing all the stuff that needed to be done and all the dust bunnies rolling around came close to damn near making me go insane.
So for about two weeks nothing really changed. My blood pressure was still consistently high but manageable. I had two doctors appointments a week, urine collections and NST tests to check the babies heart rates and movements. Everything was staying consistently the same and I was basically just being monitored very closely to make sure nothing went out of control.
On June 4th, I went in to see Lisa and of course she was concerned. I wasn't looking very good and my blood pressures were all over the place. So she asked me to head back down to triage again just to have them monitor me and make sure that the baby and I were okay. After 4 long grueling hours of being poked, prodded and some more torture I was told there wasn't a whole lot of change and to go home and rest more.
On June 5th we had an ultrasound to check the babies weight, position and his biophysical profile. The BPP measures your baby's heart rate, muscle tone, movement, breathing, and the amount of amniotic fluid around your baby and basically gives them a scoring system out of a total 8 points. At the ultrasound the tech determined that the amniotic fluid seemed to be on the low side of normal coming in at 7.3 We were told not to be concerned but she wanted us to have the doctor made aware asap. Of course the little bugger was still sitting in my belly on the left side frank breech. The real kicker is he was already measuring to be around 7.4 lbs!! That placed him at the sizing of roughly a 37 week old baby and I was only 34 weeks pregnant! So anyways we dropped the papers off and were told a doctor would call later that day. Dr. Imro called me later that morning and said not to be concerned she just wanted to have another ultrasound done that following monday to check it again and make sure there was no cause for concern.
So on June 8th we had another ultrasound done and the amniotic fluid came back at 9.7 so it had seemed that the pressure had stabilized some what. The baby was still sitting frank breech and his BPP came back at an 8/8 so he was looking good. I had another appointment that afternoon with Lisa again and my blood pressure was still running around 140-150/98-108. It turns out I actually lost a pound which put me at a total weight gain of 8 lbs. I was excited about that. We both agreed that the goal was to make it to 37 weeks and even better if possible to make it to 38.
The following day, June 9th (Happy Birthday Jesse) I did another urine collection and planned on turning it in on early Wed. morning so that we had the results for my appointment Thursday. Well when wednesday came around I knew something was not right. I was having extreme headaches and was just not feeling right. I kind of had a feeling things were coming to a quick end in this pregnancy....
June 11th did not happen the way that I had expected. I woke up early after only sleeping a few hours because I had to be in monroeville that morning for my scheduled ultrasound at 11am. When I arrived I was already not feeling well. I had a really bad headache and was feeling very light headed. The ultrasound had a very hard time getting the baby to move. She had to push on my stomach several times and after a lot of poking and prodding he finally cooperated a little. After seeing his movement however she measured the amniotic fluid and we were shocked to find out it had drastically dropped to a 3.6!!! This was not looking god. She decided to do another check and she did find one more pocket however it only increased it to a 6.2 which is still very low. So she asked me when my next appointment was with my doctor and I told her not until 3:45 that afternoon. She said for me to go up right after and let them know just in case.
So I took the elevator up to the 3rd floor and advised the nurses at the front desk that I was feeling really crappy and just got some more bad results at the ultrasound. They hooked me up to the NST to check the baby and he was non reactive basically meaning his heart rate was okay but he was not moving around enough to show any kind of movement. They decided to weigh me and boy was I shocked when they told me I had gained 6lbs since Monday! That was almost more than I had gained the entire pregnancy and they knew immediately that my turn for the worse was coming. High weight gain is the sign of water weight which is a sign of severe pre-e. So really without any hesitation, Dr. Imro said "Carrie, go home and pack a bag. Expect to most likely be monitored tonight and be delivered tomorrow."
Wait what? Back up...... Okay so honestly I knew it was coming. I had just told Lisa the week before that I knew i would be lucky to make it to 37 weeks but seriously was this happening already??????? Yes at that very moment I had just realized that I was indeed pregnant. I know crazy right? I mean 35 weeks had gone by, this baby had kicked every internal organ possible yet it never really sunk in I was really going to have a baby. So I left the office kind of in an extreme panic. I called Kevin and told him to leave work they were expecting me to deliver our little boy the next day.Once Kevin got home, we packed up any last minute things and loaded up the car. I gave the puppies a kiss good bye and we were on our way.
So after getting to triage they hooked me up to the monitors of course, they took more blood and basically started to monitor me. Maternal fetal medicine came in asked about 100 questions to try and determine what the next course of action was going to be. I could tell after listing all the issues that their thoughts were in line with Dr. Imro's and that was to get this little one out.
The list that we gave them was basically this
- High Blood Pressure
- Severe Head Aches
- Light Sensitivity
- Extreme swelling
- 6lb of weight gain (hopefully water) in 3 days
- Baby is frank breech and already at roughly 7.4 lbs
- Loss of appetite
- Protein in my urine was running at around 400
- Shortness of breath
Before I knew it, there was several people in the room asking me a million questions, shaving my bikini line, asking me what I ate, if I was allergic to this and that, asking me to sign consent forms in case I died on the table and just about everything else under the sun. It became all too real all too quick. Within another 10 mins we had an anesthesiologist that was young enough to be the next Doogie Howeser in my room explaining to me about the spinal they would be doing.
To be honest I have never seen so many things happen so quickly. Kevin was told to dress up in his garments, they wheeled me into the OR and had the spinal in and me numbed up before I knew it. With roughly 15 people in there all doing different things it was kind of overwhelming but the spinal made me at ease and kind of sleepy. Within 30 mins we heard " The butt is out" and shortly thereafter we heard his first cry. So in 6 hours, I go from being monitored and feeling like crap, to having our little one brought into the world.
The next half hour the doctors stitched and stapled me up, while the pediatricians worked on our little one. We hear, he's seven pounds, he looks great, but they need to take him to the NICU to do a full check up on him. Before they take him, they wheel him in his cart over to us about 10 feel away was as close as they could get, and all i could see was a foot. That was the first and last time i would see my newborn for 4 hours and it really broke my heart that I couldn't even see his face.
After i was all closed up, they wheeled me to a Labor and Delivery Room to be monitored for 4 hours, while they pumped me full of Magnesium, Ringers, and Pitocin, hence the reason my body is so swollen from all the IV's and fluids. After the surgery, Dr. Divekar came over and checked on me and explained why the Magnesium treatment was necessary, reason is, being Pre-E during your pregnancy, you can still be Pre-Eclamptic for up to 6 weeks after delivery, complete with Seizures, headaches, upper respiratory problems, swelling & blurred vision. Fun right? I'd rather be stuck on a medication cocktail for 24 hours than have that risk. The only downfall, was i couldn't see my little one. While I was being monitored for the first 4 hours on the Magnesium, a Pediatrician came up to the LDR and told Kevin and I they had to put our baby on a ventilator to help him breathe. His lungs were slightly underdeveloped at this stage. Now keep in mind I was still drugged up from surgery and the recovery meds, and Kevin was half asleep on the couch in the room as it was almost 3am.
At 4am, they had decided it was time to move us to our final resting place in this long journey Room 2703 but before we headed there the nurses that were transporting us were nice enough to wheel me in the entire bed down to the NICU to try and see the baby. Of course they wouldn't let me out of the bed and his face was turned away in the incubator but I got about 10 mins of mommy time.. It was one of the worst things seeing him lay there and not be able to see his face or touch him but I appreciated the nurses doing what they did.
So we made our way up to our new room and I was moved into my new bed. I was told I was supposed to rest and try and take it easy... After they left, Kevin tried to get some stuff situated but all I could do was lay there and cry. I mean how was I supposed to rest knowing my little boy was down stairs on a vent and I couldn't even touch him.
Between 5 am and 2pm I think we had 20 doctors, nursers, social security workers, lactate specialists, resident doctors, nurse aides, pediatrician and a respiratory therapist so I don't know how anyone could have ever gotten any rest. Of course this was not including my family coming down. So that morning Dr. Chesin came in to see how I was feeling and I told her I really was feeling fine and that I wanted to go see the baby. She was adamant that I was not allowed out of bed and the best thing for me was rest. I was also informed I was not allowed anything other than water until 10:30 pm because of the magnesia. So much for getting through the day, I was already starving considering I didn't eat the entire day before besides a small fry.
This is the part that I want to take and tell everyone about a very special Nurse working at Magee. I won't say her name just because I don't want any of the other nurses out there to think that they weren't great however this one in particular was absolutely amazing and went out of her way to make both Kevin and I feel 100% comfortable. She also took time out of her busy work day to sneak me down to see the baby even though we were clearly told we were not able to go. We couldn't stay long but it was long enough I was able to reach my hand in the incubator and touch my little one. Those 10 mins made my entire day and to be honest I was on the verge of a mental breakdown. I truly want to send a thank you out to her and tell her how amazing she is!
Okay so after a long day already my nurse came in at around 5pm to tell me the best news I had heard yet! They were taking me off the Magnesia almost 3 hours at roughly 7pm early which meant they would take out my catheter, They would discontinue all the wonderful IV's, they would take of the boots on my feet to prevent clots, I could eat dinner, get a shower, watch some of the pens game and of course get a wheel chair and go see "Squishy". So 7pm could not come quick enough.
So after getting myself together we got to go down and see our precious baby. There he layed in the heated incubator and we heard great news, he was off the vent! When he had started at 40% oxygen for breathing had now been reduced onto room air which was a huge success! He still had a feeding tube in and IV's but I was happy to hear that he was onto such a great start in such a short amount of time. So when the nurse came in to tell us how he was doing she asked us if we wanted to hold him and of course I couldn't get him out fast enough. She gave us a few minutes alone with him and of course I cried like a baby. What had been almost 24 hours since he was born and I was just now getting to really hold him felt like years. I didn't care that he was hooked up to all the monitors because all I wanted to do was see his little face. We layed him back in his little heated bed and we headed back up to the room to watch the Pens win the Stanely Cup. All in all it was a pretty exciting night.
Saturday of course we tried to spend as much time with the baby as possible but we knew our little one needed as much rest as possible so it was intermittent at best. We learned that he came back positive for belly rubin aka Jaundice and they put the big blue lights over his bed. Kevin of course insisted it looked like he was getting a tan however it was just one more thing keeping our little one there. We also got to feed him for the first time but unfortunately we could only get him to take roughly 10cc's. We were advised he would need to be taking 40cc's every feeding to be considered for discharge so we had a long journey ahead of us considering he really did not seem interested in eating.
We made a promise to our family and ourselves that we were going to have a name by the end of Saturday night. We were still debating the name Cameron because we loved the name Cam so much however since we recently had a baby boy in the family that received that name we decided it probably was not right to still use that name. So after much debate we finally had settled on a name! He was no longer going to be only known as Squishy. And as usual, we cut it very close to our deadline....finally agreeing on Camden Michael, and looking at the clock as it ticked past midnight.....thats right, it took us until 11:59:59PM to make a decision on a name for our little one. Don't be alarmed though he will still forever be known as my "Squishy".
Sunday morning was right around the corner and I was going to be discharged around lunch time. So kevin and I both got up early so we could spend time with Cam before heading home. Kevin went down for the doctors rounds so we could get an idea of what the plan of action was and was advised that he needed to be off all monitors and help for 48 hours before he could be released. We fed him his 10:30 feeding and did have increase coming in at taking 15cc's. It was a decent level considering he was only taking 10 before. Upon discharge it was one of the worst feelings to have to leave without my little one in my arms. I cried like crazy when we got home because there is nothing worse than seeing you baby hooked up to all the monitors and not knowing when you will ever be able to bring him home.
Later that evening, Kevin, my mother and I all made a trip down for the 7:30 feeding. Cam was all wrapped up and waiting to be fed. Daddy got to change his very first diaper, take his tempature and dress him in a t-shirt. Suprisingly enough he seemed to know exactly what he was doing and was extremely comfortable. Then it was time for the feeding....Grammy took her turn and Cam increased his intake again to 18cc's.
Monday morning, Kevin and I were planning on heading down to the hospital for the 1:30 & 4:30 feedings. To our surprise he was taken off the Jaundice lights that morning. He made a huge jump on these feedings taking 30cc's and 35cc's respectively, looks like being in his little tanning bed, was taking a toll on his appetite afterall.
Tuesday we were back to the same routine, getting up early and heading for the same 1:30 & 4:30 feedings. When we got there, we found Cam all bundled up in the crib, with no heat, no lights, nothing. Just a feeding tube in case he gets finiky and needs a little help getting all his food. We were told that he was taking the 40cc's of food all night after we left monday and through the morning of Tuesday, so now it was our turn, for the 1:30 feeding, it was Daddy's turn. Cam was very hungry, and it showed, in a matter of minutes, he downed 45cc's.
After the 1:30 feeding, daddy held Cam for over an hour watching him sleep. We then decided to take a break and head to the waiting room where I could sit with my feet up for a bit. As we were leaving, we heard Cam start wimpering and starting to cry...it was the first time we heard him so upset. We were strong and kept going even though it tore at both of our heart strings...
About an hour later, we headed back to the room to find our little one as happy as can be, and no feeding tube. We were a little confused, so Kevin went to ask the nurse if she removed it while we were out, and she said "No", which means Cam decided he didnt need the feeding tube anymore...and yanked it out himself. Eyes open and Coo'ing, excited to see we returned.
It was the most amazing thing to see our little one so bright and cheery eyed. It was the most awake and oriented that we had seen him yet. It was literally like someone came in and replaced our baby with another that looked just like him only one that he was on some very nice happy pills. So after a few minutes of him looking at us and holding our fingers Dr. Roseido came in and informed us that she was going to do his circumcision. Of course Kevin winced and said he was sorry to let them do this to him and told his little man that mommy should be responsible for this one. They took him back to the room down the hall and Kevin and I heard a baby start crying really loudly. Of course we felt horrible but about 20 mins later here he came back in his little incubator with his nuk in his mouth. Turns out it wasn't Camden crying. They said all he did was wince a little but kept sucking his nuk the entire time and never made a peep. He's such a good little man already.
So we wrapped him up in a blanket and pulled him out for his 4:30 feeding. It was my turn and after just being snipped I was afraid he wouldn't eat for me but boy was I wrong. As soon as I layed him back he had his mouth wide open like a little birdie wanting his bottle. He wouldn't even give me a chance to get the bottle to his mouth before he grabbed my finger and tried to suck on it. Within 15 mins he literally had 55 cc's which was a huge jump from the day before. The real kicker is that he actually wanted more however we didn't want to over do it. Our little boy has changed so much in just one day that it makes me so extremely happy I could cry.
So now that we are caught up, if things keep going well hopefully he will be out of the hospital soon.
Again so sorry for the amazingly long post. We know that many of you wished that i would have shut up long ago however we hope that every will understand this is as much for our little one as it is for you...
So I am going to post a couple of links... The first one is from a video we took of our little one sucking his nuk friday night during the penguin game. The second link is to snapfish where you will find pictures. We are trying to update them daily however bear with us because bouncing between home, trying to recover and heading to the NICU we are so far behind in everything.
Photos - Link below but you will need to sign up to see them
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1092961009/a=25141700_25141700/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/
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