Blakesters: May 2011

Let me backtrack to January. I found out we were having a little girl and was so excited. After discussing the ultrasound with our doctor there was some concern and we had to schedule a level 2 ultrasound at another office. They confirmed the doctors concern and informed us that I had only two vessels in my cord. Everything looked good for now, but there could be health problems. We would need to wait until she was born to see. We tried not to think about it for the next 5 months.

Tuesday, May 17^th

4:00PM I went in for my weekly non-stress test (they monitor the baby for 30 minutes) and then I have my checkup. The baby wasn’t moving enough, so the doctor sent me to the hospital

6:00PM Dropped Katelyn off at my sister’s house

6:15PM Admitted to triage and monitored. Baby was very active, but they still decided to keep me and induce labor because of my two vessel cord.

7:30PM Given 3 sets of gels to help labor begin- 1 hour lay in bed and monitored, 45 minutes up walking around. I did that three times.

8:30PM Mom headed to hospital from Las Vegas. She had a 6 hour car ride.

9:00PM My sister Kristen brought dinner.

Wednesday, May 18^th

2:30AM Mom came to hospital. I couldn’t sleep so we did crosswords together until I got tired enough to ignore the pain and sleep. I was able to sleep a few hours.

6:30AM They started my pitocin. About 4 cm dilated.

Kristen came in time for the delivery.

9:00AM My water broke and my contractions tripled in pain

9:05AM Asked for my epidural and found out they didn’t take my blood yesterday. I couldn’t get an epidural until my blood was taken and processed. I was not happy.

9:45AM Epidural given- I love being numb!!

10:00AM Pain still in my upper right side of stomach. Epidural man came back and inserted more meds into my drip line. Pain went away!!

11:15AM Dilated to 7cm

11:45AM Nurse checked and head was crowning. I was fully dilated. She called doctor, but she was in her car 10 minutes away. They repositioned me so the baby would not come out, but the heart rate started to drop. I pushed three times and Lily started to come. The two nurses delivered her, because they couldn’t wait for the doctor any longer. Cord was wrapped around her neck and they had to cut it before she could come out completely.

11:58AM Lily was born and placed directly on me. She didn’t cry and looked blue. The nurses grabbed her and took her to the table. We waited for what seemed like forever and finally we heard a cry. Doctor walked in and apologized for missing my delivery. Lily was 6 lbs 13 oz and 20 ½ in. long. We had a healthy baby girl!!

That afternoon Eric came to visit.

Grandma and Grandpa Strong came to visit.

Hospital pediatrician came by and said she was healthy and everything looked good.

At night Lily was not eating as well as she had been. I would start to feed her and she would fall asleep. The nurse pricked her and tested her blood sugar level, but the level was fine. Lily also was spitting up a lot of amniotic fluid and Scott spent a lot of the night suctioning it out of her mouth.

Thursday, May 19^th

Early morning The hospital pediatrician came by and said we could not go home until Lily started eating more. It looks like we had to stay another night in the hospital. We really wanted to go home, but said okay. While she was examining Lily she noticed her right thumb was smaller and flopped a little. Really you examined her yesterday and things were fine and now oops you found this. We will have to have someone look at it eventually. At least she had a thumb and fingers. If you glance you could hardly notice it.

We got Lily’s pacifier out and Scott worked on her trying to suck the pacifier. We knew this would help her eat better when she got the sucking part down.

Mom brought Aunt Kristina and Katleyn up to the hospital for a visit.

Afternoon Lily was still not eating like she should so I pumped and Scott and I fed it to Lily with a dropper. We felt like we were feeding a little bird. Later in the day she started eating from me and got the sucking part down.

The hospital offers pictures of the babies when they are two days old. I thought I got a free picture, so I said sure. Turns out the pictures weren’t free and for one page we got to pay $17.00.

Evening We were reminded the newborns 2^nd night is the worst. They realize they are in a new environment and cry a lot. We were up most of the night with her. Scott was either holding her or I was feeding her. Morning finally came and we were so happy to go home.

Friday, May 20^th

Morning Our nurse came in and said everything was done and we could be discharged once the pediatrician came by and cleared us. Lily was eating now so we knew we could go home soon. We started packing up and waited. The pediatrician came early yesterday, so we expected her to come early today. She did not show up until 11:30.

11:30AM Finally the pediatrician arrived. As she was examining her the dreaded words opps I didn’t notice this were said. Really you missed something AGAIN!! Lily started pooping and it was coming out just below her vagina. The pediatrician looked closer and realized Lily did not have an anus opening. She would need to be transferred to another hospital by ambulance and have surgery to correct the problem. Of course I started crying. Scott and I called family to tell them the news. We had Grandpa Strong come up to help give Lily a blessing. Apparently if the baby had a two vessel cord there could be 7 problems with the baby. Because the thumb had a problem she looked for the other 6 things. The anus can be one of the problems, which ended up being the case. Everything else seemed okay.

We waited for the ambulance to arrive. We were surprised it hadn’t come yet, so we asked the nurse. She came back and told us that a baby was born and needed to be life flighted to the same hospital. Our ambulance found out and turned the ambulance around; hopped in the life flight helicopter to pick up the baby, and then were going to come get us. Our baby wasn’t in critical condition, so we were fine waiting longer to be transported. Scott and I took turns holding Lily and we never set her down once we heard she was to have surgery. Kristen got off work early and came to sit with us until we left.

The life flight team came and put wires on Lily. I carried her and put her in the isolette. We walked out to the ambulance. I rode up front and Scott followed in the car. Eric and Kristen followed behind Scott.

They took us up to the NyICU. We saw all the babies in incubators hooked up to monitors. They all looked so small. We sat in there until one of the doctors came to look her over. Dr. Lilien was very nice and explained everything in a way we understood. They weren’t sure if we would have the surgery that night or the next day. The surgeon never came in that night.

Mom and Katelyn came that night to visit. I missed Katelyn so much and wanted to be home with her. I knew I needed to stay here for Lily. My mom would take good care of Katelyn.

All night I came in to feed Lily. That gave me comfort being so close to Lily.

The hospital gave us the Koala room to sleep in. It is a room for families that live further away, so we could get some sleep.

Saturday, May 21^st

We met with the surgeon and he said he probably could not fix the problem today. She was too little and we could need to wait for her to grow. He would put in a colostomy bag and route her poop to go into the bag. This of course made me cry. I thought we could fix the problem today. Going into surgery once scared me, but I was not expecting her to have to have more than one surgery.

Set up for 3:30PM surgery.

Had to stop feeding her and start pumping to keep my supply up.

Lily got an ultrasound and x-rays done. They checked out the 7 problems that could be a concern to make sure everything else was okay.

We had to leave the room while they put an IV in her. Luckily we weren’t there because they couldn’t get it in her hands or feet. They ended up putting it in her head. That made me cry again!!

Dad drove all night and was able to hold her before surgery. Scott and I went in together and said a prayer with Lily before the surgery.

3:20PM We took a little nap which helped me calm down. We got a phone call to say they were moving Lily down for surgery and to meet them. We walked down and met the anesthesiologist and the surgery nurse. The surgeon came out and explained if he could fix the problem he would (it is called Anoplasty), but she was probably too small and he wouldn’t be able to correct the problem. If that was the case he would put in the bag.

Scott and I knew everything would be fine and planned to expect to see the bag. We knew we could handle taking care of her and we wanted Lily to have the safest procedure. We waited an hour and a half.

The surgeon came to our room and said he was unable to do the Anoplasty and put in the bag. Lily did a great job and we could see her. She was still coming out of the anesthesia. It was hard not to be able to hold her and feed her.

Scott and I came in every four hours when the nurse did her check up. We helped soothe her as she got her temperature taken, diaper changed, and the nurse checked her over. It made us feel better seeing her. Each visit she looked better.

Sunday, May 22^nd

During one of the early morning visits they said I could start feeding her again. I had to be careful with all the wires and the IV hookup. It was nice having her in my arms again.

The next time we came Lily was in a little portable crib.

Uncle Collin and Aunt Karen came to visit. Mom, dad, and Katelyn came after church and spent the day with us.

The nurse brought Lily’s crib into our room and hooked her up to the monitors in the room. The nurse told us that we would be going downstairs into the 1^st floor NyICU. Lily would finish her recovery downstairs with the other healthy babies and that we would be discharged from there.

Before we headed downstairs Kristen and Eric brought us a yummy homemade dinner. It was nice spending time with family and having Lily out of surgery.

Scott and I slept on cots that night. We were supposed to do everything on our own. We took her temperature and changed her diaper. I could feed her when she fussed. She was still in a lot of pain so the nurse gave her pain medication. It seemed to help. The upstairs NyICU said we could not touch her without permission and downstairs we could do it all. We knew would be home soon.

Monday, May 23^rd

Morning We met with the surgeon intern and he said things looked good. Dr. Lilien came down to check on us. He gave us permission to be discharged. We needed to meet with one other person. Mary came in and showed us how to change the colostomy bag. We did it on our own and I wrote down the steps. I was a little nervous at first, but Scott jumped right in and did a great job.

5:00PM We were able to walk out the hospital doors. It was a long 6 days, but we were finally going home with our baby girl Lily!!