May I have your attention, please: Our "Little Man" has arrived!!!!!

Our "Little Man"

~Born on~

12-30-09

@

2:37 am

~Weight~

5 lbs. 4 oz.

~Length~

18.4 in.

I'm sorry that I am making this announcement almost two weeks late. It has been a crazy couple of weeks!....No, scratch that. It has been a crazy couple of months!!

Here is a little background story for you all:

Most of you will remember that I was diagnosed with a complete placenta previa. Well, on Christmas day my 11 yr old decided to wake us at 5:00 a.m. He was VERY excited that Santa had arrived! ;) Even though I was on bed rest I decided to go out to the living room and sit on the couch to watch him dig through his stocking. My husband and I were still very tired and only two other children were also awake. So we told the three that were up that they could go through their stockings, but to wait till the sun came up before waking the others. I got up from the couch to return to bed and had a sudden gush of blood. My husband called over to his parents house for someone to come watch the kids and then we left for the hospital. After careful monitoring in the hospital for several hours the bleeding subsided along with the contractions enough for me to return home to watch the kids open the rest of their gifts.

The following Tuesday the 29th I woke to bleeding while still in bed at around 4:00 a.m. Once again my husband called his parents to come stay with the children while he took me to the hospital. This time they did not let me go home. The OB told me that they have a three strikes (bleeds) and you're out policy. They had been generous with me because my third bleed had been on Christmas day. But this last bleed made number four and I would not be going home now till the baby was delivered.

Once again the bleeding had subsided, but the contractions, for which I was already on medication for, did not. The doctors, after much discussion, decided to transfer me up to the much larger hospital an hour away while I was still fairly stable. Their reasons were based on the fact that I was on my fourth bleed and that I was only 32 weeks pregnant. Our local hospital does not have a NICU for the baby or the proper blood products that I would possibly need. So away I went up to the big hospital.

I got there later in the afternoon and settled in with the medical staff telling me to get ready for the long haul. I would have to remain on bed rest while in the hospital for the next 4 weeks at least. It began snowing and my husband and I decided it would be better for him to head back home to be with the children before the weather got to be too bad. He left around 4:00p.m. He looked exhausted and I worried about his safety driving home in the increasingly bad snow storm.

Around 9:00 p.m. the contractions picked back up and so did the bleeding. I rang for the nurse and that's when things really sped up. She rang for help and others came in and they wheeled my bed to a room right next to the OB OR. Two IV's were started and monitors put in place. I was laid completely flat as well. At this point I called my husband to let him know what was happening. He sounded so tired. And once again I worried about him. I told him I didn't know what was going to happen and that I was still under observation. The night slowed back down until around 12:00 midnight when the bleeding picked back up. The contractions had never really stopped. The doctor was called for a fourth time that night/early morning and said that he was coming in. I called my husband again around 1:00 a.m. and let him know that the doctor was coming in and that they were preparing me for a c-section. He said he would get to me as soon as he could. But I knew he would have to wait for his mom to come stay with the kids and that he would be driving in bad weather.

The doctor came in and told me that I would be having a Cesarean and that I was going to be able to stay awake for it. YEA! I was going to be able to see my baby right away! The doctor also told me that this was not a "crash emergency" c-section, but that we would not be able to wait for my husband either. The surgery took place and it all went well. They went right through the placenta to get to the baby quickly and I heard my baby boy cry! They immediately showed him to me after making sure he was stable and was briefly allowed to "hold" him. They actually held him while resting him lightly in my one arm. I kissed him on the forehead while the doctors worked on getting the placenta out. It came out without a problem and the bleeding was under control. I did hear the doctor say that there was blood in the amniotic fluid from a small separation of the placenta from the uterus. He said that we didn't wait a moment too long to deliver the baby when we did.

My husband arrived right after I was taken into Recovery. It was so, so good to see him. The baby had been taken into the NICU and my husband then went in to see him. I was very relieved and beyond thankful that everything had gone so well. The baby was okay and I was okay. And all our months of worry were behind us. Praise. Be. God! :)

It has been 12 days since the birth of our baby boy and he is still in the NICU. My husband was able to take off four weeks from work. We have been going up everyday to be with our baby. Not an easy feat when you have seven other children at home and are trying to recover from surgery. Really, it would not be possible if it weren't for the support of family and friends. I owe them more than I feel I will ever be able to repay. I thank God for them and all the blessings I have received during this trying time. Mainly, I thank God for the blessing of our new little man. *sigh* I had forgotten just how wonderful the smell and feel of a new born baby is! He was worth every moment of that difficult pregnancy.

I'm going to continue to ask you for prayers though. "Little Man" has continued to make good progress, but according to the NICU nurses we still probably have at least another 3 weeks to go before he can come home. He has passed all his requirements except for being able to "nipple feed" all his feedings and gain weight. We are up to two nursings/bottle feedings a day and today they thought that maybe they could move him up to three a day. His main nourishment is still through the gavage (tube) feedings. To state the obvious, this is really wearing on my husband, myself and our other children. Not to mention the family and friends that have been helping us with watching the kids. Mostly though, I just really miss my baby! I hate leaving him everyday and long for the day we can bring him home. My other kids can't even see him (other than in photos) because of all the flu precautions. So If you could please send us a few prayers we would be most appreciative!

Okay. That was a long post and well, I'm wiped out. I think I'll be heading to bed here soon.

Thank you for reading!

God bless,