Until February 14, Valentines Day. On this day, I am 23 weeks, 6 days pregnant with our son, Christian. My husband and I wake up at 9:00am. He has to be at work by 10:00am. We do our normal morning routine and I start to have constipation-like pains in my stomach. I have 2-3 before we leave and think nothing of it. we head out the door to my mother-in-laws house to deposit her Valentines Day gifts. Once there, I have 2 more, so I try to go to the bathroom. Nothing. Then we leave there so my husband will get to work on time. I have a couple more pains on the way dropping him off. They aren't too bad, but they do hurt. Once he's safely at work, I return home. I was planning on going to the storre, but not with these pains. So, I went home and tried again to go to the bathroom. No luck. I sit on the couch and watch some television. I'm still not concerned with these pains. I figured it just a part of being pregnant. The pain comes again, so I decide to try the toilet again. This time, there's blood in the toilet. I get very scared now. I say a prayer to God begging him not to let this happen. That I love my little boy too much for this to happen. I know that passing blood at 24 weeks is not a good sign at all. So I call my doctor. I have her paged and in my scared state, I mix my work and home phone numbers so she never calls. I call again to have her paged. She called me about 10 minutes later and said the number I gave never went through. I told her what happened and she said to come to Labor and Delivery for a check up. So I call my husband and tell him whats going on. I call my Mother-In-Law and let her know that I'll be picking her up. That she's coming with me to the hospital. She gets scared. I pick her up (We live in the same apartment complex) and go to get my husband. He's on the way to the hospital. At about 11:30, we arrived at the hospital. Once there, I got into a gown and they asked my husband to fill in all this paperwork. He can't even remember my birthday, he's so scared. He kind of gave up on it. The nurse hooked me upto the fetal monitor. She got scared because she kept losing the heartbeat and I told her that the baby kept moving around. I wasn't worried about that. I knew he was still moving around. They hooked up the blood pressure monitor to my arm. They tried to put an IV in my arm but they had a hard time finding a vein. I was dehydrated. They ended up putting it in my right hand. They immediately gave me a shot of magnesium to stop the contractions. (That's what my "constipation-like" pains were, contractions.) It made me very hot and when I tried to lift my arm, gravity was pushing against it so hard, it fell back on the bed. Then the nurse got this plastic thing and wanted to check inside. She was really worried because she couldn't see past all the blood. She called in my doctor. The doctor checked me and she said, "Uh, your 6-7 centimeters dialated!" I didn't like that at all. She said something to the nurse and hurried out. She'd ordered the nurse to give me a shot of steroids. This would help mature the babies lungs. They also elevated my feet over my head. They said this would slow down/stop the contractions. It sure was uncomfortable. When the doctor came back in, she said that MedVac (the helicopter) would be taking me to another hospital. She said that the baby has a 15% chance of surviving and if the baby does, the other hospital has better equipment to care for such a premature baby. I started to cry. I didn't like that at all. I was very scared for my child. This was my husband and my first child. I loved this baby more than life itself. Even though I was only 24 weeks, this child was so very special to me and to my husband. Well, the helicopter came and they loaded me into the chopper. We went for a 10 minute flight to a hospital with a Level III NICU. My husband and Mother-in-Law drove there. From the first hospital, it was about a 45 minute drive. I arrived at the new hospital around 2 pm. They got me settled into my room. My husband got in around 2:30pm with my Mother-In-Law. Things were pretty uneventful and we didn't know how long bedrest would last, so I sent them both home around 9pm. My husband had to work early the next morning and I didn't want him waiting around for nothing. The doctors and nurses monitored me often. They kept giving me drugs whenever I felt a contraction. I always thought contractions would be worse than what I was having. My night was pretty quiet until about 2am. They checked me and told me it wouldn't be much longer. I called my husband and Mother-In-Law back to the hospital and I called my Mom, in Ohio, and told her she'd be a Grandma soon. I'd called her earlier, so she knew it was coming, she just didn't know when. She was very worried about the baby and me. I told her I'd be fine. It's the baby that I worried about. Well, after we hung up, off to the delivery room I went. It was different than I thought it'd be. They still had the fetal monitor on me. I was at the very edge of the bed. All of a sudden, this gush of water comes out. My water broke. They told me to push. I pushed. Baby's heartrate dropped. Doctor said stop pushing. I stopped. The doctor asked if there was room for a c-section. I was worried then. A c-section? Why? I tried to stay calm. I knew being stressed wouldn't help me and it wouldn't help the baby. But my husband wasn't there yet. I didn't want to have this baby without him. They decided there wasn't enough room for a c-section, so they moved me across the hall. The room was much bigger with even more equipment. So many people running about. The put a sheet up like they do for a c-section, and this guy put a mask over my face. I thought it was oxygen, but it wasn't. They put me out. That is all I remember of my sons birth. It was a very scary time for all of us. God was by our side the whole time.
God remains by our side to this day. Christian was born at 3:06am on February 15, 2004. He weighed just 1 pound 6 ounces and was 11" long. I woke up in the recovery room and once they checked my vitals, they were going to take me to my room. I begged for the nurse to take me to see my son. She said she'd have to see if it was ok. When she came back, she said it was ok, so they took me, gurney and all, upto the NICU to see my baby. From my bed, all I saw was his tiny bent knee. He had a plastic hood over him. I remember that Ed was his nurse, but I don't remember too much else. I was still pretty drugged from the surgery. After that, they took me to my room. I remember that I had to move from the gurney to the hospital bed. I know that hurt. Once in my bed, I put my hand on my stomach and felt the little bandage from my c-section. I know that they checked my vitals there, but don't remember too much from that. I know I took a nap, frequently interupted by vital checks. I stayed in the hospital for 3-4 days. I don't even remember when I went home.
Christians progress was very slow. He had a lot of problems with his lungs. I changed his diaper for the first time on February 23. It took so long because he was just so small. I didn't know how to handle a baby that small. I was afraid to break something. It took my husband even longer. My husband and I were able to hold him 5 1/2 weeks after his birth. He ended up on a ventilator for 14 1/2 weeks. That was very hard for him and us. He went to CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) and was on that for 25 hours. Then they put him on Nasal Cannula for 3 days. He had a couple bad episodes, so they put him back on CPAP, then back on the Ventilator. Then he went back to CPAP. Then they put him back on Nasal Cannula and he needed that for 1 month after he came hom.
He had a PDA Ligation on March 18, 2004. He had laser eye surgury on May 27th, 2004. He had a double bilateral hernia surgery and circumscision on June 14, 2004.
Christian is at 1lb 2oz, but it's normal to loose weight just after birth. I am pumping my milk so that when Christian is strong enough, he will receive it. The night nurse, Ed, tells us how strong Christian is. He likes to kick him when Ed changes his diaper.
Christian is upto 1lb 7 1/2 oz. The nurses commented on what a pee monster he is. Christian is trying to open his eyes. Not quite yet, though.
Christians heart shunt finally closes. Couple doses of bicarbonite did the trick. It usually closes when babies are born full term. Surgery had been scheduled for 2-24-04 at 8:30, but they were able to cancel it.
Christian had his first meal today. He received 1cc of mama's milk. Christian is now at 1lb 7 1/4 oz. We had a priest come up and say a prayer for Christian today.
The shunt opened back up again. They are giving Christian a couple days to see if it will fix itself. If not, they'll schedule another surgery and it will be closed with a titanium clip. Christian is now on an oscillator. It breathes a lot of breaths in very quickly. Christian also has an infection and a lung disease, Chronic Lung Disease. That is common for kiddos who've been on a respirator for so long.
