My pregnancy with Marc was the polar opposite of my pregnancy with Em. The morning sickness was worse, I was SUPER uncomfortable starting at about 20 weeks, pretty much all the time.
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| Only 3 months pregnant here. And HUGE! |
I don't know if it was because I was chasing a toddler around, or the way I was carrying him, or because he was a boy (probably not that last one :-) or just that we were so busy with the move and lots of changes in our lives. But also my blood sugars were much higher from the beginning. My doctor in Houston finally put me on insulin shots.
So we had an appointment on Thursday, September 30. Seemed like a normal appointment, by now we were having ultrasounds every week and everything was going fine. During the ultrasound my doctor says, "well, your amniotic fluid is low. We're gonna have this baby today." I'm like, "uh... what? I'm not due until the 10th." (I think we had set a date for a c-section on October 5th). And she went on to explain that the baby needed to be out now because my amniotic fluid was dangerously low. Mikey and I were both in shock I think. This was a regular appointment and I expected to go back to school and finish my day. But you know, things just don't go the way you always expect them to.
Mikey and I started to discuss who would take care of Emmery. We didn't know anyone here in Houston! Marc and Kathy were flying in that night, so we told the doctor and she decided to wait until the next day to deliver the baby.
So the next morning we headed to the hospital to greet our new bundle of joy. We had decided not to know the sex of this baby, so there was still some excitement in the air, even though both of us were nervous because of the rushed nature of the whole situation.
Everything was so calm, getting ready for surgery, asking all the questions and getting all our insurance information. Then the nurse informed me that "protocol" for GD babies was that they would be transported to the NICU for a minimum of 4 hours. I had no idea about this, and I was up...set. Little did I know it would be a lot longer than that before I saw my baby boy. Or held him.
They wheeled me into the OR and got me all ready, then brought Mikey in. The surgery didn't take long, and I remember that there was tremendous pressure, pushing, and pulling. I was squeezing the nurse's hand so hard I really thought I broke some fingers. Finally the baby was out and Mikey announced "it's a boy!" Tears immediately filled my eyes, I really thought it was a boy but to hear those words was just magical.
They wrapped him up and brought him to me, I kissed his little face, got a quick picture of the three of us, and then they whisked him away. I think Mikey went with him, I don't remember much until recovery.
So this is the hard part to write. Partly because I don't remember the details, and partly because it was a scary time for us. Having a baby in the NICU was never anything I would have expected, although I guess no one really does.
After delivery Marc wasn't getting enough oxygen so they finally did an x-ray. He had a collapsed lung. At the time he was just in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) but they moved him to NICU Level III, which is as bad as it gets. To fix the collapsed lung, they had to insert a needle into his chest, which would allow the air that was trapped between his lung and chest wall to escape. Once that happened, the lung would fill back naturally and the problem solved. But this didn't mean he was out of the woods yet. He still needed to get his breathing under control. He was receiving oxygen from a machine for now, and they said it would be a few days before he would breathe on his own.
I think Mikey was able to take me up to the regular NICU to see him, before they did the procedure. And then late that evening we got to go up again, this time to Level III. When we saw him that night he had so many tubes and wires all over the place. It was a pretty scary and overwhelming sight. They explained what each one was for, and once you are more familiar with what is what it's a little less intimidating.
So he had two tubes going into his mouth. One was delivering oxygen and one was cleaning out all the phlegm and stuff that was in his lungs. There were different sensors attached to his belly, and he also had a feeding tube in his umbilical artery. They said this was the best way to get him the nutrients he needed.
This is basically the setup that each baby had in the nursery. At the top are the things that were going into his feeding tube, meds, food, etc. The bigger screen on the right shows his vitals. The little green screen was where they programmed in how much of each thing was given to him. The stuff all the way at the bottom is more medicine I think. See how there are tubes coming out the top of each box? That's a lot of stuff to keep track of for one little baby! It was pretty amazing to watch the nurses, they definitely knew what they were doing.
Every day the on-call doctor would meet with us and explain what the next step was. These doctors were great, they really knew how to talk to the parents and keep them calm. I think it was day 2, the doctor basically said that Marc was going to be absolutely fine, he will have no long-term effects from any of this and will be totally healthy. But it just takes time to heal. She told us it takes most babies about two weeks before they are ready to go home. Two weeks sounded like forever, but at least there was an end in sight! We went up to visit him a couple of times on Day 2. I think I slept a lot, and when I wasn't sleeping I was pumping. They stored the milk for us in the NICU, so Mikey would run it up there for me and check in on Marc. Mikey was so awesome through the whole ordeal. He took such great care of me, I think he slept less than I did!
The next step in Marc's recovery was to take out the breathing tube. This would hopefully make him a little more comfortable. Mikey and I went up to visit him that morning. Here he is before extubation. Doesn't that just look so uncomfortable?
And after!
They still kept the other tube in there. Every once in a while they had to clear out his lungs, and if they took it out they would just have to put it back in for that. They wanted to make sure his lungs were nice and clear before they removed it.
I think the doctor cleared me to go home that day. What an awful feeling to leave that hospital without him. I still remember driving away and just looking up at that building, feeling like I was leaving half of my heart behind.
I will say the one good thing about coming home without Marc was that I was able to recover quick. I still woke up twice throughout the night to pump, but that's a whole lot easier than taking care of a newborn. It was also great to have Marc and Kathy there. They took care of everything for us, the cooking, the cleaning. They kept Emmery entertained so that I could nap or just relax.
On day 5, we went back to the hospital to see Marc, and this was the BIG day we got to hold him!!! They wanted to wait until they took out the tube in his belly.
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| Such an amazing moment! |
Of course Mommy gets to hold him first! I didn't want to give him up! But Daddy got his chance too...
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| My handsome boys! |
On Day 6, we were able to begin feeding him bottles. This took a while, I'm sure the last thing he wanted was something else stuck in his mouth. One of the bigger obstacles for NICU babies is to get them to eat, either from the bottle or breast. He'd been getting his nutrients from a tube in his belly, so that initial reflex to suck isn't as strong as it was at birth.
It was a little frustrating because he would just push the nipple out of his mouth, or fall asleep. The nurses were very helpful though, always giving us tips.
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| Much easier to sleep without all those tubes! |
The next few days we just had to wait for him to take the bottle well, and then they said I could eventually try nursing him. I was really worried that he wouldn't take to nursing since it had been so long. The first few times we tried in the hospital it didn't go great, but he figured it out pretty quickly and has nursed like a pro! Still does :-)
On day 8, I got a voicemail on my cell phone. It was Dr. Savrick saying that Marc was ready to come home!! I just smiled as tears poured down my face. I'm pretty sure Kathy knew the moment she looked at me. Mikey was at work so I called him and told him to call my phone and listen to the voicemail.
So October 9th, one day before his due date, we brought our baby boy home.
I was so excited to put some clothes on him! The onesie says Handsome Like Daddy.
NICU babies must be escorted out in the bassinet and with a nurse.
She had to watch us strap him into his carseat too. No pressure Mikey!
And finally home, nice and comfy, asleep in his "crib."
He slept in the pack-n-play in our room since he didn't have his own room yet. We were still in an apartment, and didn't move into our house until December.
