NICU Day Four

Filed Under Birth- Taylor, Breastfeeding, Grandparents, NICU, Newborn- Taylor | Leave a Comment

On Sunday morning when I got up, I called the NICU first thing. They told me that Taylor had a wonderful night and not only was he off all his oxygen and forced room air, but that he was doing well regulating his body temperature. That meant a move to the other side of the nursery! The sickest babies are in the middle close to the nurses’ station/desk. The medium sick babies are to one side, and then when they start doing well they move to the other end. I was so happy to see Taylor at the other end when I came down to visit.

The other big difference is that he got moved into an open crib instead of one with the warmer above it. This crib is just like the ones the “regular” babies sleep in during their hospital stay! The cute sign inside his crib was courtesy of Nurse Susie.

His nurse told me we could put regular clothes on him too. It just had to be something where his foot was free for the wires to come out. Here he is FINALLY wearing real clothes!

I officially had to be out of my room that morning by 10:00 (they had let me stay one extra night since my baby was still there). Jonathon was up there to help me get our stuff to the car and he stayed a while to visit. After he left, I began the longest few days of my life, basically living in the breastfeeding room next to the NICU. I just sat in the back “booth” with the curtain closed and read and wasted time online. I just had to sit and wait until it was time to go feed the baby again. He was on a three hour schedule with feedings at 11, 2, 5, and 8 around the clock.

My parents came up to visit that evening and they both got to hold Taylor for the first time. My mom was so nervous and didn’t want to hold him at first but I didn’t give her a choice.

Moved to the NICU

Filed Under Birth- Taylor, Difficult Stuff, Doctor Stuff, NICU, Newborn- Taylor | 2 Comments

About a half hour after Taylor was born, he started making little grumbly noises. You know how babies grunt and grumble when they’re itty bitty? We thought that’s what he was doing. Just before we got ready to move to our new room in Mom and Baby, the nurse started seeming a little concerned about him. She mentioned that she would check on him again in a few minutes. When she checked back, she said she would like the house pediatrician to come see him.

We moved to our other room, and Bailey and Grammy and Grandpa came to visit. After they had been there for about ten minutes the pediatrician came in. She checked Taylor over for about five minutes and then told me that she would be taking him down to the Special Care nursery (nice way to say NICU, lol) to run some tests. I was a little nervous at this point- all kinds of things flash through your head, from heart problems (I had a CHD) to cystic fibrosis to collapsed lung to tumors. Seriously. She said they would let me know when I could come see him, that it would be an hour or so.

I need to get his full medical charts from the hospital just to satisfy my own curiosity. I know some of the tests they did included CT Scan, x rays, and lots of bloodwork. The neonatologist, who was one of the nicest ladies ever, came down to my room to discuss the results. She sat down next to my bed and that’s when I really panicked. But the news wasn’t too bad. She told me he had been diagnosed with transient tachypnea which was basically temporary rapid breathing. They thought it was caused by two things: Immature lungs since he was two days shy of being a preemie, and fluid in his lungs. During a normal labor and delivery, the baby spends time in the birth canal, which compresses their lungs and helps remove the fluid. With such a quick birth, Taylor didn’t get much time in the birth canal! She said this condition is more common with c-section babies.

She also told me they would be starting him on an antibiotic just to be on the safe side. I believe he got both ampicillin and gentamyacin twice a day through his IV. She said his blood count was “borderline” for infection and they would re-evaluate after 48 hours and either take him off the IV or run a full seven day course. So we knew he had a minimum two day stay in the NICU. I was so disappointed that he would not be a “normal” baby at the hospital. I wouldn’t be able to hold him whenever I wanted, and keep him in my room during the day, and have visitors come see him. It’s funny how much that can throw off your whole experience with a newborn, when it’s not how you expected it to be. Especially after having a first child with no complications and a normal hospital stay.

I don’t think anything could have prepared me for going down to the NICU that afternoon and seeing my little guy look like this.

I wasn’t able to hold him for a few more hours. At this point he was on a CPAP and they said as long as he was doing well on that he would not need to be intubated. The tube in his mouth was a feeding tube but they were actually using it to release the pressure from his belly. Since the CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) forces air in, they said it would give him gas unless they helped remove it. The leads on his chest were for his heartrate and respiration rate monitors. The duck was for temperature control, since he was under a warmer. His whole right arm was wrapped so that he couldn’t pull his IV out of his hand. He was getting fluids through the IV most of the day and then the antibiotics just twice a day. His foot had a pulse ox monitor. At first his oxygen saturation levels were around 85-90% I think, whereas ideal is 99/100.

It is so hard to not just stare at the monitors all the time. There is constant beeping and then just watch the numbers skyrocket or drop. In his case, typically his RR would go way high (what should have been 25-40 would shoot up to 80+) and his oxygen sats would drop to the 80s. Sometimes the nurses would rush over and adjust him, other times they would just poke a button on the monitor and tell me not to worry about it. They kept saying, “Don’t watch the monitors, watch your baby. You can tell how he is doing by watching him.”

I think that first day, I got to hold him once in the afternoon, and once in the evening when my mom came up. He was not allowed to be held by anyone other than me or Jonathon because he was “too sick” which was heartbreaking to hear.

I went down to see him one last time before bed, and I just stood next to his crib and cried.

Brother and Sister Meet Each Other

Filed Under Big Sister, Birth- Taylor, Newborn- Taylor, Siblings, Two and a half years old | Leave a Comment

After Taylor was born, I was able to get up and walk around within about a half an hour. Not having an epidural was REALLY nice as far as recovery. I was on an IV with fluids basically in case they needed to give me something suddenly. After the delivery I was on Pitocin by IV. I had no idea they did that as a standard practice. Apparently it’s to cause contractions and shrink the uterus back down. I was surprised to hear that they were giving it to me though! Anyway as soon as the IV was out I was up and around, and ordered breakfast, and then they moved us to our regular room.

My parents brought Bailey up to visit soon after we moved to our room. My mom said she was SO excited to meet Baby Taylor. I had been looking forward to this moment for a long time and also stressing out about it. I was afraid it would set them up for sibling love, or hate, or something. It seemed like such a BIG moment. But it was just normal. It was my two kids, just checking each other out. Bailey was excited and wanted to touch his eyes, nose, ears etc. She said, “Hi Baby Taylor Owe-lin, I’m your big sister!” It was so sweet.

She also thought my hospital bed was pretty great and wanted to climb around on it. After crashing against my stomach several times she was removed from the bed.

Taylor’s Birth Story

Filed Under Are you kidding me?, Birth- Taylor, Doctor Stuff, Newborn- Taylor, Second Pregnancy | 11 Comments

Now that he is a week old, I decided it was high time to write Taylor’s birth story before I forget the details. Things have been a little crazy at our house since he came home.

On Wednesday, February 17th my nesting mode kicked into high gear. I was on a mission to make sure EVERYTHING was finished. I took Bailey to her last cooking class, then went and did grocery shopping. During her nap, I baked brownies, wrote some thank you notes, and got a few packages ready to mail out (clothing etc I sold online). That night, I went to church with Bailey to work doing childcare for the Wednesday night events. I sat in a chair and relaxed and it was actually a pretty low-key evening. Bailey and I stopped by the church library to get a few new movies. I asked to have them for a month just in case I had the baby early, so I didn’t have to worry about returning them.

On the way home, I started having what felt like an achy lower back and period cramps. That had happened on and off for about a week but just a slight, dull ache. Once I got home I ate a bowl of cereal and took a warm bath and I felt much better. I woke up a few times during the night thinking my back was still achy but it wasn’t even worth taking Tylenol for. Around 5:45 a.m. I woke up having what I thought were mild contractions. Around 6:00 I woke Jonathon up and told him what was going on. At this point the pain was still just crampy.

I got up and washed the dishes that were in the sink and switched the laundry to the dryer. The contractions were consistently about 5-8 minutes apart but starting to be stronger. I called my mom to see if she could get ready in case we needed her to come over. She suggested that I call my doctor’s exchange and ask them what to do. The doctor on call said that since it was my second baby and I was already at least 3 cm I should go ahead and come in to L and D. My mom headed over and I got in the shower. Bailey woke up at some point during this and was excited about Grammy coming.

While I was in the shower my contractions got noticeably stronger. I got out and tried to put on makeup and get ready. About halfway through blow drying my hair they really started hurting and I gave up. I think the contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart. At this point I just told Jonathon we needed to leave. It was about 7:20. Once we got in the car everything went a little crazy. The pain really got bad but I was trying to decide whether or not we should drive through McDonalds and get some breakfast. (Obviously I was not really being rational at this point!) Then I decided to scrap that idea and hurry up and get to the hospital so I could get my epidural. The contractions started coming almost every minute after this and I was panicking a little bit. I was yelling at Jonathon to go around the traffic- of course it had to be morning rush hour- and at one point I thought I should get out and walk instead. He cut a few corners and we made it to the hospital. The last five or ten minutes I could feel a lot of pressure from the baby. I kept saying, “This is not okay. He’s going to come out.” I was panicking.

When we got to the hospital I jumped out of the car to go up to the maternity floor. I told him to park and meet me inside. The woman at the desk was all calm and slow and I was like, “MY BABY IS COMING OUT!” I think she thought I was exaggerating, then I about doubled over against the couch and she got on the phone to call a nurse. I was checked in at 7:55 a.m. and they took me straight back to a delivery room. When we got in the room I told them I needed to pee before getting into bed. When I sat down to pee my water broke but I don’t think I was even aware of it. I was fairly sure I was going to die from the pain. They put a gown on me and helped me into the bed. The house OB checked me and I was 8 cm at this point. I remember having either two or three really strong contractions where I freaked out. The nurse was yelling at me to look in her eyes and breathe with her.

I started asking where the anesthesiologist was. They said they had called her and she was on her way. I was saying, “I can’t do this, I swear I can’t, I need an epidural.” But it also felt like I was ready to push. They told me I had two options, I could either wait and lay still and get the epidural, or I could go ahead and push him out. The nurse said if it was her she would just push because it would help with the pain and it would be over sooner. I asked if it was okay since I was only at 8. They said that I was probably at 10 and they went to check me and they were like, “oh, he’s right there and he has hair!” I believe I pushed once for his head and either once or twice at the shoulders. I could feel him slide out. The actual pushing didn’t really hurt compared to the contractions so I was glad I just went ahead and did it. But that’s the story of how I gave birth without an epidural!

The house OB was the one who delivered Taylor. My OB walked in just a few minutes later. Apparently the anesthesiologist got there while I was pushing, too. They let me hold him right away and he was MAD. He was still really covered in white stuff from being a little early. They cut his cord (Jonathon didn’t care about doing it this time, he said it was kind of weird and not a big deal). She said I had torn a little bit but it was very minimal. I said that I did NOT want stitches after I had done all that without drugs. She said since it stopped bleeding with pressure that I could skip the stitches. Taylor’s APGAR scores were 8 at one minute and 9 at five minutes.

He was 7 pounds exactly, and 19 inches long. He arrived at 37 weeks 3 days.

Look at his proud daddy!

In love with my little man…

First family photo

Heading off to my room!

Taylor Owen is here!

Filed Under Birth- Taylor, Names | 10 Comments

So remember how I was just saying that Taylor was full term now? (Except that I didn’t tell you his name?) Well he decided to surprise everyone and come into the world on Thursday morning! After a super fast delivery with NO EPIDURAL, he was born at 8:20 a.m. He weighed 7 pounds and was 19 inches long. He did great right after delivery and then started having some breathing problems so he is still in the NICU at this point but he is getting better very quickly! I have been at the hospital with him so that I can be here for all his feedings and to snuggle him. It’s rough not having your baby with you right away but we are learning a lot about patience and God’s plans. He should be able to go home by Tuesday. Your prayers are appreciated, and I will post lots more updates and the whole birth story and his NICU story as I have the time and energy.

Of course I have to share a picture of my handsome little man!