Baby Anthony's Traumatic Near Death/Birth Story

Day 1 - After a long but normal 40 week and 4 Day pregnancy I went in to be induced. My mom and fianc? came with me to the hospital. They got my room ready, I ate some dinner and around 7:00pm on the 12th of October they inserted the Cervadil. I had some pretty hard contractions for the next twelve hours to come?until they gave me epidural?thank God for the epidural!  Day 2 - I watched my contractions shoot to the top of the monitor as I chatted with friends, did my make-up and got ready for what was supposed to be the best moment of my life. The doctor came in and checked me at about 11:00am on Day 2 and said "Well, we should have a baby around 3 or 4pm today!"  I was so excited! My sister flew in from 1000 miles away and I was so happy because she "just made" it there for what I thought was going to be the birth early that evening. Well, 3 and 4pm came and went. The doctor came back in and I hadn't made any progress at all. Then she realized that one of the nurses had mistakenly turned down the pitocin. It had been turned down for at least four hours at this point. They broke my water to see if that would start the flow of things.  About 10:00 that night the epidural was wearing off, I was starving, shaking, in so much pain and stuck at 9cm. Finally at about 11:30 I started pushing?even though I was only 9.5cm. Every time I pushed the baby's heart rate would drop. I really didn?t think anything of it. I was a little nervous but I had heard about that happening all the time. I pushed for about and hour and finally they said we had to do an emergency c-section due to the baby being in distress. I was a little nervous but relieved at the same time. I was so glad to be done with 30 hours of labor and I knew that they would just take the baby and everything would be fine!  I would have my precious little one in my arms in no time!

They wheeled me to the OR and began my c-section. My fianc? was with me every step of the way. I asked them to shoot my up with Valium as soon as the baby was born?.my nerves were going crazy!  My son was born at 12:40am on Day 3, October 14. All I remember was being cut open, feeling a little tugging and then I don?t remember anything until I woke up in recovery. My finance came into the recovery room and I just knew something was wrong. He had tears streaming down his face and they were not tears of joy. He told me there were major complications and that "the NICU team was working on the baby. He wasn?t breathing".  Working on the baby? What did that mean?  I told my fianc? to go upstairs and be with the baby. Our son needed his daddy with him. I laid in recovery not knowing what was happening to my little one. I kept asking if my baby was okay? Was he healthy? What did he weight? What time was he born?  As time passed I begged and cried and pleaded for someone to come and tell me whether or not my baby was alive or dead!  Finally a nurse came over, grabbed my face with her hands and said that the entire NICU staff was working on the baby, they could not take a minute to come and update me or else they might lose him. I was a mess at that point. I had no idea that it was that it was that bad.

When I was finally wheeled to my hospital room, it was about 4:30am. I honestly don?t remember who came in there and told me about my son but someone did. They said he wasn?t breathing when he was born, he was diagnosed with Group B Strep, Meconium Aspiration Syndrome, a collapsed lung, a pneumonia, sepsis, a heart murmur, and anemia. He was swollen and retaining fluid. The cord was around his neck when he was born. He was eventually treated for Meningitis, although we will never know for sure if he actually had it or not due to the fact that they were never able to get enough fluids from his spinal taps. He was not able to breath on his own. He was on a Bubble CPAP and nasal canula. He had a chest tube, a PICC line, and a feeding tube. They put him on a 72 cooling blanket to slow the brain from damaging. He was also monitored by a neurologist via a 72 hour video EEG. My fianc? brought me a picture of him and he was the sweetest thing I had ever seen. I was so proud. I saw past all the tubes. He was beautiful.

When he was 17 hours old, I was well enough to be wheeled up to the NICU to see him. I had to ask which baby was mine. It makes me sad to think about that. I eventually got to hold him when he was 5 days old and daddy got to hold him when he was 7 days old.

We were told he may not make it and if he did he might be brain damaged or brain dead. My pregnancy was 100% healthy, how could this be!??!!  Why was this happening to us?

The next 17 days were scary and long and I felt like I was on an emotional roller coaster . We had the best NICU team we could ever ask for! The doctors and nurses was absolutely amazing!!  We had one very special nurse who was our favorite. She was the first one to give our son a bath, the first one to let us hold him and she even dressed him up as a pumpkin for Halloween and surprised us with pictures of him because we were so worried he wouldn?t be home in time for Halloween!

Our little fighter came home on October 30th after being in the NICU for 17 days.  The day before Halloween. Our son is a miracle. All the nurses and doctors even said it. He beat all odd when there were so many against him. He was born fighting and he won.

Our son is now a perfectly healthy 10 month old boy! He enjoys crawling around the floor as fast as he can, eating everything in sight, and destroying everything in his path!  He loves to be tickled and to play peek-a-boo. When he is tired he loves to cuddle.

He is the best little boy we could ever ask for. We are truly thankful and so lucky to have our little boy. He is just amazing.