Warren's First Bath

Bob and I were able to help with Warren's first bath today!  Very exciting..below are some pics..sorry they are so dark!

Warren is one week old

Warren had quite the first week in the NICU.  He was initially intubated but was only on a ventilator for less than 24 hours.  He was given one dose of surfactant, which helps with the development of his lungs.  He was then moved to oxygen (skipped completely over CPAP) and was on O2 for only 3 days.  The third day he was on room air, which is so amazing considering how little he is.  For the first day or two he had a TPN which is how he received all of his nutrients without getting any kind of food.  They then slowly started feeding him very small amounts of expressed breast milk (my milk finally came in yay!)  He started with 3 cc's every 3 hours (1 teaspoon)  and they very slowly upped his feeds.  They need to make sure that his little body can handle food and doesn't develop a potentially fatal condition called NEC, an intestinal infection unique to preemies.   He also had a small meningitis scare and had to get a spinal tap, thankfully that came back fine and no infection was found.  The doctors also had to start him on caffeine to help with the small apnea spells and bradycardia spells that he was experiencing.  He did have a little bit of jaundice and had to be under the billi lights for a few days.    At 5 days old he had an ultrasound of his head which revealed no brain bleed which is very common in preemie's but thankfully he never had any. Needless to say the first week was very scary and very stressful.  Everything was progressing fine and he is such a little fighter.       

Warren's Birth Story

I had spent 3 weeks at home on bed rest then at 23 weeks I was admitted into the hospital and spent another 6 weeks on strict hospital bed rest in trendelenburg position the entire time.  It was about 6:30 pm on Thursday May 20 and all of a sudden something didn't feel right.  I called in the nurse and she hooked me up to the monitor and sure enough I was having contractions, about 2 minutes apart.  They then wheeled me over to labor and delivery.  I was immediately put on magnesium sulfate to help stop the contractions.  That probably was the worst night of my life.  It's hard to describe how crappy you feel on that med.  Since magnesium sulfate is such a strong medicine the nurses came in every 45 minutes to check all of my vitals.  Unfortunately it was not working. My contractions were crazy strong and still happening.  Then at about 6:30 am on May 21st, I got so sick from the magnesium that I ended up getting really sick and once I threw up my water broke.  The doctor came in and checked me and told me that I was 7 cm and that I was having a baby today.

I was so nervous.  I was only 29 weeks pregnant...our baby boy was going to be 11 weeks early.  But there wasn't anything else we could do to stop my labor from progressing.  Next the anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epidural.  Thank goodness for that!  Finally I was no longer in pain.  I was having such bad back labor along with the contractions that the pain was very unbearable.  Then all of a sudden I felt a lot of pressure and Warren Joseph was born on May 21, 2010 at 10:37 am.  Weighing 2 lbs 8 ounces and measuring 15 3/4 inches.  As soon as he was out I heard him cry and immediately knew that everything was going to be ok.  He got 8/9 and 9/9 on his apgar scores which is amazing considering how little he was.  I was able to hold him for about 1 minute before they had to take him to the NICU.   It is still such a blur.  It was probably one of the scariest days of my life.  Thankfully I was at an amazing hospital with a level 3 NICU and I knew that my baby boy would be just fine.

My Bed Rest Escapades

I wanted to share a brief summary of my bed rest days.  I had spent a total of 43 days on strict complete hospital bed rest.  I also had spent 21 days on modified bed rest before I was hospitalized.  It all started at my 20 week ultrasound.  We went in for the routine ultrasound to determine the sex of our baby.  Everything was looking great with the baby the tech was super happy with how everything was looking.  Then she decided that she wanted to look and measure my cervical length.  I thought nothing of it, but once she measured it she said that she needed the doctor.  I then knew that something wasn't right.  The doctor came in and told me that my cervix was measuring short and that I needed to go to the hospital to meet with a high risk doctor to further evaluate my situation and he put me on bed rest immediately.

Later that day we went to the hospital for another ultrasound and when they checked my cervix everything looked completely fine so she wanted me to return in 1 week, but too still stay on bed rest.  At that time she has diagnosed me having a dynamic cervix. Fast forward 3 weeks and when I went in for my ultrasound they discovered that I no longer had a cervix.  They changed my diagnosis as an incompetent cervix.  I was 80% effaced and finger tip dilated at 23 weeks.  A full term pregnancy is 40 weeks.  Also at this point the baby is not viable, so I was immediately admitted to the hospital.

The first day was a blur.  I was wheeled up to antepartum and put into a room with a horrible roommate.  She was so rude to the doctors and to the nurses and just kept saying how she was ready for the baby to be delivered. I can't remember how far along she was but I know she wasn't full term.

 I was given IV fluids, put on constant monitoring, had my first round of bethmethasone (steroids to help with the baby's lung development), first round of indicin, and started on procardia.   Thankfully there was a nurse whose name was Lynda and she pushed for me to get my own room.  By that evening I was in my own room!

After that first day the rest of the time went by very slowly.  At first I was on a bed pan, then bedside commode and then finally I had bathroom privileges.  I also was allowed to shower every 3 days which was so amazing and I took complete advantage of that.   I tried to make a schedule everyday.  I woke up around 9, when the nurses would come in and give me my procardia, prenatal vitamin, take my blood pressure and take my temperature.  Then I would order breakfast (the food was the worst) watch tv until lunch, then I would read a book or I would knit or do some latch hooking (both of which I learned while being in the hospital), then at 3 pm I would watch General Hospital and Oprah.  Most days at one point or another I would have a visitor.  Which helped pass the time by.

I think one of the hardest things was being away from Bob.  The hospital was about 40 minutes from our house and it was just too much for him to come everyday.  I missed him like crazy.   Some days were easier than others but I definitely cried a lot.  After a week or so I started getting massage's every Tuesday and Thursday morning which was nice.  I had an ultrasound every Monday along with my P17 (progesterone shot).  One of the nice things was that every Monday I was able to see my little baby growing and I could see and hear his heartbeat, I could watch him move and see that everything was developing normally.   I also had at least two more rounds of indicin and another round of betamethasone.  Every day I also had 3 Non-Stress Tests, which would last at least 30 minutes every time.  The doctors just wanted to make sure that the baby was never in distress, which thankfully he never was.  The nurses would always comment on how great he looked during my monitoring.  I should also mention that contractions were never picked up on the monitor, which was odd because my cervix was still dilating.  Usually during the late evening monitoring the nurse would sit and talk with me to help with my sanity. Every Saturday Bob and I would have a "date" night and he would bring a movie and we would watch it and he would bring in yummy outside food.

People always asked how I made it, how could I lay there on my head all day long and never get up.  How I did it was by looking at ultrasound picture of the baby and took one day at a time.  If I looked too far out into the future I would go crazy.  I was actually getting to the point that I was going to be in there until he was almost full term, but unfortunately Warren had a different plan.  For the most part that was my bed rest life.  Somehow 43 days passed and Warren came.  Then 2 days after I delivered I was able to go home..which was bizarre.  I was leaving without my baby...probably another one of the hardest days ever.  I unfortunately only have 2 ultrasound pictures uploaded on my computer, if I ever get a chance maybe I will scan some more in.  Since I had so many of them!