Mason Alexander... full term baby with preemie issues
Mason Alexander arrived on 11/29/11 at 1:43AM. Very early Monday morning (11/28/11) I was getting up to go the bathroom when I felt a small gush before getting out of bed. My first thought was that I had leaked urine. I went to the toilet and emptied my bladder and fluid continued to slowly leak for a while. I woke up DH because I thought maybe my membranes had ruptured and were slowly leaking. However, I could stop and start the flow, which brought me back to thinking it was urine. Anyhow, I went back to bed since I wasn't having any contractions and put a call in to the doctor. I was able to see the doctor Monday afternoon to determine if I was leaking urine or amniotic fluid. Turned out to be amniotic fluid and I was sent to the hospital... still not having any contractions or discomfort, still not dilated.
Once at the hospital I was given an IV of fluids, antibiotics (since I had been ruptured for nearly 12 hours to prevent infection), and pitocin. The pitocin started at 4:45PM and was working within an hour and I was beginning to have contractions. After another hour the contractions were getting stronger and much closer together. By 7:00PM, I was very uncomfortable and contractions were coming 1-2 minutes apart. The nurse checked me and said I was 4cm. I was thrilled and asked for the epidural. The doctor was called to come give the epidural and we were told she would be there in 30 minutes. By 9:00PM, the doctor still had not arrived. The nurse had turned down my pitocin level because contractions were still right on top of the other and I was in a lot of pain and was having a hard time relaxing. She also started giving me more fluids faster since a certain amount has to be given before the epi can be done. At 9:30 I was given a dose of staydol to take the edge off the contractions, now about every 2 minutes. Just as the staydol was taking effect, the doctor arrived to give the epidural. Getting the epidural was easy and great! I fell asleep for a couple hours and woke around midnight with some pressure in the vaginal area, but didn't have the urge to push. By 12:30, the pressure was pretty intense and I called the nurse, telling her I felt like I needed to push. She checked me and I was a fully effaced 10 cm. Time to push.
I pushed for 1 hour, 15 minutes before Mason came out. My nurse and DH did an awesome job coaching me through pushing and getting me through it. It's dang hard work! Mason came out at 1:43AM. He had the cord wrapped around his neck two times, and I had a second degree (stage?) tear that needed repair. It was such a relief to have baby out and have the aferbirth out as well.
Mason showed signs of breathing trouble from the start. Although he is a full term baby, he was showing signs of respiratory distress. His nurse watched him closely for an hour in our room, and unfortunately I was only able to hold him for about 5-10 minutes before she took him again. It was a great few minutes though. He opened his eyes and looked at each of us and was making the cutest sounds, but we soon found out those cute sounds are signs of distress. We needed to hear more full cries. The nurse put him under the heat lamp and continued to try to clear his lungs of fluid he aspirated. I fell in and out of sleep. After 4 hours, the nurse said he was not improving and needed to take him to the nursery to have some oxygen put on him. He left our birthing room around 6:00AM. By 7:30AM, the neonatologist had made his rounds and decided to have Mason admitted to the NICU, which is at a different hospital about 30 minutes away. Transport came and set him up and they wheeled him into our room one more time before sending him to the NICU. I held it together while Mason was in the room, but as soon as the transport team left, I lost it. The rest of the morning is a blur because people were coming in and out, I was exhausted physically and emotionally. My recovery was going well though. By 1:00PM, my OB came to check on me and told me she would release me that day if I felt like I was doing okay. I had no doubt I wanted to be out of that hospital so I could be with my new baby. I was released just 13 hours after delivery.
We have since been spending most of our days at the NICU. Mason is on a ventilator and has been diagnosed with Respiratory Distress Syndrome, a common condition for preemies, but much quite unusual in a full term baby (like less than 1% of full term babies have this). Through xrays, they also found he has a pnemothorax (air is escaping his lung and going into his chest cavity). So far they have not needed to do anything invasive to clear the air from his chest cavity and his breathing is beginning to show small signs of getting less labored. Slowly the amount of extra breathing help he is getting is being lowered so he is breathing more on his own. I can't wait to hold him again and I can't wait to bring him home. For now we get to hold his legs and hands. He definitely recognizes his mommy and daddy and grabs hold of our fingers very tightly. He is just precious and we are so blessed to have him in our lives now. We are taking everything one day at a time and pray for speedy healing so he can come home soon.
Re: Mason Alexander... full term baby with preemie issues
Praying for your little Mason. If you have any questions, I would check out the preemie board.Lots of great ladies over there and they can pretty much answer any question you may have.
Congratulations on the birth of your son.
Congrats on your new baby!
My son was also full term and in the NICU. I know it can feel very isolating at times having a baby in the NICU. I also know that it is hard for me to find other parents who had a full term baby in the NICU. My son's main problem was GBS but he also was also in respitory distress when he was born, had to be aspirated to get the fluid and meconium out and had the cord around his neck (see siggy for all details). I just want to say that I will be thinking about you praying that your LO can come home very soon!
Feel free to PM me if you want to you.