A blessed New Year

Well, I’m finally getting a moment to post after a whirlwind couple of days. Monday (the day after my last post), my doctor had someone bring me over for my ultrasound about 10:30.

My amniotic fluid looked great, but Jack was not as active as he had been up until that point, and it was harder to see his breathing movements. My doctor decided we needed to go ahead and induce, so they took me back to my room, and I called Nick, then my parents and in-laws.

I already had an IV in, so they just needed to get the epidural and pitocin drip started. The nurse wanted to start the pitocin drip first (which would have started the contractions), but I insisted on the epidural first, lol. The epidural actually went very smoothly, very little pain from the injection or the insertion of the IV line. My doctor came in once the epidural was in effect and broke my water, around 1:30 I think. Family was in and out, but Nick stayed with me the whole time unless he was walking Morgan out when they needed to check dilation, etc.

Shortly after 5:30 I was 7 cm, which was about as far as the doctor planned to take me before delivery since he was so small. There was just a bit of my cervix that still needed widening, so she had me push gently a couple of times. That did the trick and got me to 8 cm, but it made Jack’s heart rate (which had been great until then) drop down, so we knew we had to go fast. We got everyone’s attention, she had me push one whole time and he was out. There was a scary moment because the cord was wrapped around his neck twice (thus the heart rate drop), but the doctor had him untangled within a couple of seconds, and we heard beautiful, loud, pissed off crying!

The doctor was so pleased with how gorgeously pink he was, and his Apgar scores were 8 and 8. She laid him up on my chest, and as soon as I put my hand on him he quieted down. Because he was so small, they only did basic cleanup and vitals in the crib warmer, and they had him in the incubator and out of the room within a couple of minutes.

It was so hard to watch them wheel him out and have to stay put, but I knew it was best that they get him down to the NICU to check him out. My nurse came back in about 15 minutes with his stats and the news that he looked to be doing great and had not had to have any breathing intervention. He was born at 5:42 PM, 3 lb and 11 oz, and 17 1/4 inches.

Nick took the family down to see him once they gave him permission (about and hour and 1/2 after delivery), but they wouldn’t let Morgan come in because it’s flu season. She was pretty upset, but she did understand. I didn’t get to go see him in the NICU until he was almost 5 hours old, which killed me! I tried earlier, once the epidural first started wearing off, but when I got up I was too lightheaded to even make it to the bathroom without a nurse on either side to help me walk. By the time I was able to get up and move without passing out, the NICU had closed temporarily for shift change, so I had to wait for a bit longer.

When I finally got to see him, it was a bit terrifying to see how very small he was, and all the monitor wires and the IV line (all standard accessories for brand new NICU babies) made it even scarier.

But he’s done just wonderfully well! He never had to go on any sort of breathing treatment, and yesterday he actually did a great job of latching on and nursing on two separate visits, truly impressing his nurses (and his parents!). I’ve been pumping breast milk, which they’ve been giving him via a feeding tube or a syringe in addition to the nursing, and they got to take out his IV line today. He became a little jaundiced earlier, but that’s more or less expected at his age (Daisy went through it too, and she was full term). They’ve got him under the bili lights right now, although they’re taking him out for feedings of course. I’ll be going back down in about an hour and a half to try nursing again.

I can technically leave at any time, although I’m delaying check-out (with my doctor’s approval) until after Nick gets off work and can pick me up so that I have a place to hang out between feedings. Of course we had been hoping and praying that he would not have to stay longer than I would, but the news is still much better than it could have been. The NICU doctor anticipated as of yesterday that we will get to bring him home by the end of next week, which is a huge change from the 5-6 weeks they were predicting before I had him!

I think we’re going to try to bring the girls down later so that they can at least see him through the window. Morgan was in the room for all of my labor except for the approximately 7 seconds it took for him to actually be born, lol. She chickened out at the last minute and left to join her papaws in the hallway, but I didn’t mind.

Thank you again for all your prayers, and I would really appreciate their continuation that we can bring him home soon (but when he’s ready of course!). Off to pump more milk…