Welcoming our sweet boy to the world!

Hey Guys

Whew what a happy, sad, scared, and hectic few days it has been for us. Monday August 17, 2009 we woke up that morning b/c we had a doctor's appointment with the Maternal Fetal Medicine team at 8:30. Upon arriving we had an ultrasound and was then placed in a consultation room to speak with the Dr. Dr. Collins came in and went over the results of the ultrasound, after looking over the ultrasound it appeared that the blood flow to the umbilical cord and the placenta had become more compromised since our last ultrasound and visit with our regular ob dr. It also showed that the baby had not grown anymore and was somewhat still small for his gestational age. Dr. Collins recommended that it was time to go be admitted back to the hospital to hopefully continue with bed rest and try to keep the baby in the womb as long as possible. He thought this to be a good idea so there would be continuous monitoring of the baby. So Landon and I left the office and our way to the apartment to get packed up stopped by taco bell and grabbed some lunch. I decided that I didn't know when I would some good food again so I wanted some taco bell. We went back to then apartment and got all packed up and went to the hospital. Once at the hospital we went through all the admission stuff and got settled in our room. They came in and hooked me up to the monitor so watch the baby for 20 min or so. While hooked to the monitor, Parker was not showing much movement or what they call variability(which is where there is rises and falls of the heart rate, they want to see that for a baby still in the womb). At this point Dr. Kang came into the room, she is another one of the Maternal Fetal Medicine Team, and she said that due to the ultrasound we had just had, and the lack of activity she was seeing on the monitor that she felt it absolutely necessary to deliver our baby right then. She said she thought we had gotten as much time out of the pregnancy as we could and at that point he would be better off being born early, than staying inside. Now comes two more problems, I was still on a blood thinner that takes 12-24 hours to get out of my system, so that poses a bleeding risk with delivery. Also they want you to have had an empty stomach for about 8 hours before surgery and mine was full of nachos, tacos, and a bean burrito! So at that point all that stuff didn't matter b/c the baby needed to be born so they told me I would have to have what they call General Anesthesia which is where you are completely put to sleep and temporarily put on a ventilator that breaths for you. So as the medical staff quickly started to fill the room I became very upset and started crying uncontrollably. They started IV's, Putting in catheters, asking all kinds of questions, and giving medicine while we were waiting on Dr. Bellardo, my normal ob to get there to deliver. He arrived and again restated everything that Dr. Kang had talked to us about and we continued getting prepared for the C-section. Once that was all done, I had about a half a second to speak to Landon and tell him I love him and say goodbye, they wheeled me away to the operating room. Once inside the or, I became so nervous I couldn't hardly stand myself, there were so many people in there and they were all stirring around like crazy b/c of the emergent situation. There were several people talking to me at once telling me step by step what they were doing, and I couldn't listen to them all at once, and not to mention I was strapped to a table, and had an oxygen mask being held to my face by a Dr. I felt so closed up, nervous, cold, I just told them to all stop talking to me and just do what they had to do, but that I could not stand all of them telling me every little detail, so with that said, about 5 min later I drifted off to sleep. The next memory I had was waking up in recovery with people saying "Mrs. Daniel, wake up, the C-section is over, I need you to open your eyes." I opened my eyes and had the most severe burning and pain over my abdomen. Remember most c-section patients have an epidural that numbs them so even when they wake up they are not in pain, but I couldn't have that b/c of the blood thinner so I was in a lot of pain! Landon said he was trying to tell me about Parker and I just wanted to be left alone, I have no memory of this part at all, only the pain. He told me that they had him in the NICU and that he got to see him temporarily but they made him leave so that they could work on him. He told me he weighed 1 pound 8 ounces and was 13 1/2 inches long. He said "Crystal, he's so beautiful, and he has hair everywhere" Landon being bald was very excited about Park having hair lol. Anyway as I continued to wake up I continued to hurt badly, and was starting to realize the reality. And the reality was I had a son, and not only that but he was extremely small and extremely premature, my stomach was just in a huge knot. I was in recovery for around 3 hours. They came and asked me if on my way to my room did I want to go to the NICU and see my baby. I said of course I did and so off we went. When I arrived at the side of his little incubator I was very surprised, he looked a lot better than I expected him to, he had been put on the ventilator but I could see enough to notice he had Landon's nose, and hands and feet, and Landon was right.....He was beautiful, I just started crying again, I couldn't believe how much I love him, or how scared I felt at that moment for him. I only got to stay there about 5 minutes and then was wheeled off to my room. We had called our families earlier on when we found out what would be going on so they all had arrived by this point. My mom and step dad, Landon's mom, Aunt Brenda, and cousin Shana, Hope and Katie, Nick and Emily, and My Dad, stepmom, and brother were all here. I couldn't get up, so Landon took everyone back one at a time and let them see him. I was told I had to wait until the next morning b/c I had to stay in bed. Nick and Emily got us some bubble gum cigars to give out, a stuffed monkey and balloon and a hanging bow with a precious moments angel that prays aloud to hang on the door. Hope filled out all of Parkers info on it and her and Emily hung it on my door. That made me feel good to look at those things, it was about the only normal birth thing that had happened. Some hours later, everyone went home or to a hotel and Landon and I tried to get some sleep. Of course there was not much sleeping b/c I was in pain and Landon was back and forth in the NICU seeing Parker. My nurse must have felt sorry for me b/c she came in and asked if I felt like getting up, she said if I did she would get a wheelchair and let me go to the NICU and see my baby. I was so very anxious to see him, I did not feel like getting up at all, but when she asked that, I got my butt up out of that bed and got in that wheelchair and off we went. Once I got there I got to get a better look at him. We just sat in chairs beside his incubator for a long while. He was so precious. The Dr. explained how his lungs were very immature and what the plan was to get him better. After this we went to our room and went to sleep.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009
We woke up early and there were all kinds people coming in, so much paperwork to fill out, We still family here that had spent the night they all stayed till around lunch time, Parker was still doing about the same at this point. His oxygen that they were giving him, the level was kind of low, which is good but throughout the day they had to continue turning it up to meet his breathing needs. While all this was going on, we also had the lady from birth certificates calling requesting her paperwork be done, we had the lactation specialists coming in giving me a log that I have to fill out every 3 hours when I use the breast pump, and she also taught me how to use the breast pump and stressed on the importance of breast milk for a preemie, they say it medicine for them and their development and immune systems. We had of course my nurse in and out all day, and social worker coming to talk to us about filling out insurance information and paperwork that had to be done for babies under 2 pounds. We went back and forth to the NICU all day and spoke with the Dr's and nurses. They talked to us in great length about the life there in the NICU, they explained how the next 2-3 months would be a roller coaster full of highs and lows. They said a baby of his size will be doing good one minute and having trouble the next, and so they tried to prepare us for the long journey that lay ahead, basically they stand over him all day adjusting and changing things until something works that helps his breathing. It was a very hectic day. Two more of Landon's aunts came to visit and him, them, and his mom left and went to lunch, so I had about an hour to unwind and have some alone time. I had big plans for a nap but nothing of the sort happened b/c the phone rang the whole time. They took me off of my morphine and changed me to pain meds by mouth, I was glad b/c the morphine didn't seem to be working very well. They also took my catheter out which was a huge relief. By the time the evening got here Parker's oxygen had been turned up quite a bit b/c he was requiring more and more. That was discouraging. By around 10 or 11 that night, the Dr. explained to us that he had gotten a pretty bit more sicker and some of his numbers were not looking so good. But she assured us that this was normal for a 27 weeker and they were gonna keep doing what they could. Around 1am Landon went to go check on him and he seemed to be responding to this medicine that they put into his lungs and they had backed off of some of the oxygen so we were a little relieved and called it a night.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

I was awoke this morning by the nurse who needed to give some meds, and do several things. As soon as I opened my eyes I felt it....Horrible Pain! I thought to myself, that someone must have some in my room in the night and beat me. Today has been my worst pain day, it took me about 15 minutes to get out of the bed. Anyway we got up and ate our breakfast, I pumped some breast milk and we left to take it to the nursery, All the milk I pump they keep in the refrigerator or freezer and put it into his tube that goes to his tummy, until he gets big enough to breast feed the real way. Anyway we walked into not good news at all. Apparently after 1 am he took a turn for the worst and had become very sick. They told us they were giving him his 3rd and final dose of the medicine for his lungs, they only give 3 doses and only within the first 48 hours. When we breathe in we breathe in oxygen and when we breathe out we breathe out carbon dioxide, well Parker is breathing in O2 just fine but when he breathes out he not getting rid of the carbon dioxide and it is making him very sick b/c he has extremely too much. They watched him throughout the morning, and we were in there most of that time. The NICU closes for 1 hour from 12:30 to 1:30 during the day so we went back to our room. At 1:30 were getting ready to go back when the phone rang and it was Parker's nurse Roma. Now they had told us that unless was something very serious they would not call us, that they would just communicate when they would see us in there, so when she said this is Roma, Parker's nurse, my heart sank.....She said he had gotten sicker from earlier and they had drawn more blood and his carbon dioxide was worse than before. She said for us to not come to the NICU to visit but to stay in my room and wait for her phone call, she said they were going to put him on a different kind of ventilator call the "jet" vent and it would make him breath faster and more often in hopes that it would make him get rid of some of that co2. She said it may take an hour and we will call you back when we know more. I hung up and began to cry telling Landon our baby had gotten sicker and filling him in on what she had said, he walked over to my bed put his arms around me and we sat there and cried together. It's only been 2 days and having this sick, premature, tiny but precious child makes us feel completely helpless and vulnerable. So now all we could do was wait and pray, and we did a lot of both. Apparently the normal co2 level is 35-45 and this morning Parker's was 90, at the time of the call it was 78 but starting to go back up so it was serious. All that kept running through my mind was "well what if this other ventilator doesn't get it down? then what? They said he was getting tired from working so hard to breathe and that this vent would do more of the work and help him to rest. Finally after waiting over an hour, I got tired of waiting and called the NICU and asked what was going on, she said for us to come on back. So rushed down there, scrubbed in, and started talking to the Dr. they had just gotten him on the "jet" vent, they had also sedated him some b/c he was kicking his legs and flailing his arms and that just uses too much energy that he needs for breathing so they want him to rest as much as possible. She said they would have to just wait and see how this would work for him but that he was very sick. After sitting there with him for a long time, and watching them work on him, they got some more blood work that showed the co2 was coming down some. They put him on a new monitor that shows his co2 level in real time so they don't have to draw blood every time to know what it is. Throughout the evening it has continued to go down and I just called back to check on him and the level of co2 is now 41, and he is doing better. Another potential problem though is they did an ultrasound of the brain today, which they do on all preemies quite often, to check for bleeds, the results showed up Parker had 2 small bleeds in the brain, however, we are told that most preemies do have these and their bodied usually reabsorb the blood and they heal themself, the Dr. said she was not at all concerned about this and will do a repeat brain ultrasound again in 2-3 days, so we will see what it shows. So basically guys the past few days have been exactly what they told us from the moment we walked in the door, a roller coaster, his health has been up and down since we got here and will probably continue to do that. We are exhausted and worried, but God has a plan. Please continue to pray for our sweet boy and us. We need it desperately. I know I haven't written in a while so this blog is so very long, but I had so many people wanting to know all of what was going on so here it is, I will try to start updating more and keeping you all better informed. My best friend Emily will also be updating when I can't b/c the fact is sometimes we are just too busy and my baby needs me at his bedside so I can not type what our days has been like, so she is gonna be helping me out with this, as will Landon, he will be updating some too. Anyway I'm calling it a night b/c I'm so tired. We will talk to yall again soon. Goodnight!
Oh yeah I forgot to mention earlier but he has gained 1 ounce he is 1pound 9 ounces, but they have stopped feeding him through his feeding tube b/c he wasn't digesting it, they think b/c of the stress of the breathing situation, so he is getting his nutrition through an iv right now but once the breathing problem is resolved they will again begin working on the digestion problem.
Goodnight!