I'm here officially: Parker's Birth Story (XP) (PIP)

On Tuesday, November 29, 2011 around 2 am, I woke up feeling the need to pee and while walking to the bathroom I felt a big gush.   It took me a while to realize whether or not I had peed myself or if my water had broken.  I decided to go to the hospital to get everything checked out and sure enough my water had broken.    According to my LMP, I was 32 wks 6 days, I was not contracting but since my water had broken I had to stay in the hospital for observation, antibiotics, fluids and to get steroid shots for the baby's lungs, there was no going home for me until I had the baby.  They were going to try to keep him in until at least 34 weeks unless signs of infection or anything else showed up. 

Everything was going well until Thursday, December  1, after lunch they hooked me up to the monitors and the baby's heart rate was deceling at a rate that meant that baby was getting stressed.  After several decels, they got everything under control and my doctor told me that it was possible he was coming that day.   That if he had any more decels we would have to do an urgent c-section.  The rest of the day he did well so we were put back on the "wait and see" protocol, still trying to get him to 34 weeks.   At that point I summoned my husband to the hospital to stay, no more leaving for anything!  lol

Friday morning, December 2, at around 2 am, his heart rate had a major decel, during which they realized that there was meconium in my fluids.  After they got the decel under control the doctor's decided that if he had another decel that morning the on-call OB would take me in to surgery.   If everything was under control the rest of the night they would induce me after my OB got on duty that morning and see how he tolerated labor, but if he didn't tolerate it we would do a c-section.   I actually started to go into labor on my own and by 8 am, my OB was going to get me set up with some pitocin and an epidural but before they could get any of that started they were noticing a mix between too high and too low heart rates on the monitor.   So that plan was scratched and they prepped me for an urgent c-section.   The difference between an "emergency" c-section and an "urgent" c-section being that I did not have to be totally put under anesthesia, they had enough time to do a spinal allowing me to be awake for the procedure and my husband to be in the room. 

At 9:35am, at 33 weeks 2 days, Parker Oryan arrived weighing 5lbs 14 ounces and 18 inches long.   He arrived in relatively good health, especially considering his gestational age.   Because of the meconium and other issues, they had to run a lot of tests (some of which are not back yet) and put him on antibiotics as a precaution.  So far he is doing well.  The 1^st day they had him on CPAP at 25% and mild sedation because he was fighting the CPAP.  The 2^nd day they had him on just a nasal cannula and by the 3^rd morning (today), they removed the nasal cannula and he has been doing well staying oxygenated on just room air.  He has been improving every day and we are hoping for only a week to a week and a half stay in the NICU.   He is currently getting feedings of 20 ml every 3 hours, I'm trying to get my milk to come in so they won't have to supplement so much with formula but the early delivery and c-section have slowed my body down a little but I'm still in the normal time frame of when milk comes in. 

My husband was told that it looked like my placenta did have an infection (it is being sent off for testing), most likely caused from the water breaking, even though I had been on antibiotics since Tuesday.  This is most likely the reason why Parker wasn't tolerating the uterine environment anymore and why I started to go into labor on my own on Friday morning.    

I'm slowly but surely recovering from the surgery.   Everything is slowly becoming a reality.   I've pretty much been in shock all week.   We were never expecting an early delivery.  It's just so hard to believe he is here but after the roller coaster of a week we had, it is so good to know that he is here, safe, sound and relatively healthy and thriving.   I can't wait to bring him home and start smothering him with lots of love! 

Right after he was born

 

 Day 2, 1st time I got to hold him!

 

Day 3, No nasal cannula