I changed my font at Lily Puff

Friday, January 30, 2009

Our Little Will

Ok, I am finally able to add a new post and let everyone know what has been going on this week.

First off, Will was born on Sunday January 25 at 7:59 pm. He weighed in at 5 lbs 15 oz and is 18 inches long. Seems small, I know, not so small for a baby born at 36 weeks though. As you all know, I had been put on bed rest on January 5th...and I hated it. BUT I followed the rules. I only got up to use the bathroom and shower, and of course my weekly doctor appointments. At my last appointment I had, I had not progressed at all, so my doctor gave me permission to go to our baby shower on Saturday. I did really well there too, didn't get up except to use the bathroom, and then as soon as it was over, I went and laid down on my in-laws bed. I had started having more contractions then normal, but it was never more then 6 in an hour. So, I didn't worry. Later that night, after we were home, I started feeling worse and worse. My contractions were getting more and more frequent. I didn't sleep well at all. I was up and down, I even went to the sofa to try to get more comfortable. In case you ever wondered, The Fresh Prince of Bele Air plays on NICK @ NITE at midnight. I slept for a little bit, then woke up to worse contractions. I still had some of my medicine left over, I was finishing the perscription. So, when it was 4 am, I took my medicine. Then Andy started timing my contractions. I had 7 contractions in about 30 minutes, so we decided to leave for the hospital. We arrived there at about 5 am and I was immediately addmitted. When the doctor came in to check me, I was still at a 3 1/2. They decided to only give me a small dose of pain meds if I asked and to have me stay on the monitors and laying down, in the hopes that I wouldn't progress. I was getting very uncomfortable, so after a few hours, they let us go for a walk and use a birthing ball. I was stubbornly refusing any pain meds. The walk and the birthing ball were great. They made me feel so much better. Once I was laid down again, the doctor came in to check me and I had dialted to a 5. There was no going home for me now, so my doctor decided to go ahead and break my water. It was such a weird feeling, I felt like I had peed my pants. Well, I guess my bed...haha. After that, I really started feeling the contractions, I was having really horrible back labor. The nurse gave me some pain meds, and I was allowed to get them every hour up until an hour before I delivered. My doctor came in and checked me a couple more times and I was at a 6 1/2 for about 3 hours. My doctor decided to give me some pitocin, and I that's when I knew the contractions were going to get even worse. I decided I needed the epidural. My back felt as though it were splitting in half. I had been in labor for about 18 hours by then. Not including the three weeks of bed rest. I was exhausted. Once I decided to get the epidural, my doctor checked to see how far down Will was, she then discovered he was turned facing the ceiling. That explains my back labor. She turned him, and I got the epidural. I loved it. It was the best thing I did. I was so tired, and hurting so much, I was having trouble even shutting my eyes for a second. I loved it because I could still feel everything, it just wasn't such pain and I was able to get some sleep. I slept until I was about a 9, which was pretty quickly. When my doctor came to check me, she caused me to dilate to a 10, which is obviously when I started pushing. I pushed for about an hour. Then Little Will was born! The cord was around his neck, and so the doctor cut his cord. She left it long, so Andy was able to trim it. As soon as he was born, he was handed to the NICU doctors. I didn't even get to hold him right away. The doctors checked him, cleaned him off some and brought him to me. He was so darling, he was making these grunting noises, he was trying to breathe. I was able to hold him for about 2 minutes, and he was taken to the NICU. Andy was able to go with them and I got stiched up. I had torn on the inside and my doctor decided to give me an episiodomy. While Andy was with Will, all I could think about was how beautiful he is. Andy came back and we were taken up to recovery. We were told Will was just going to be gone for about 2 hours. At that time, the NICU doctor came up and we were told they were going to be keeping Will for about a week. He had been hooked up to an osilator to help his breathing. He was also on antibotics to help his lungs more. We were able to go see him at 11 pm that night. We weren't allowed to touch him though because he was struggling keeping his body temp up. It was so sad, he had tubes down his throat to his lungs and IV's. The nexk day he was able to ba taken off the osilator and put on oxygen. He was doing really great. We were able to go see him and I was even allowed to finally hold my little boy. The next day, he was taken off the oxygen and breathing on his own and keeping up his body temp amazingly! He has been doing those things great! He now has to start eating and gaining weight. The original thought was he was going to be coming home on Sunday. I was able to talk with the doctor yesterday and we discovered Will is possibly lactose intolerant, I've been pumping breast milk, but it has been slow coming in. So, they were feeding him formula. He kept spitting it up though. So he wasn't eating or gaining weight. He stayed at a steady 5 lbs, 13 oz for two days. I finally was able to give him some breast milk and he takes that much much better. The only big problem is he gets very tired when he eats. He isn't able to finish his bottles. For now he is on a feeding tube. He gets a feeding with the bottle at every other feeding and that is when they give him breast milk. Then he gets a feeding with a feeding tube at the opposite feedings. He does really well with the breast milk. Now if we could just get him to stay awake.

Tonight we are going to go see him and Andy and his dad are going to give Will a blessing. I saw him all day yesterday, but I have to start taking it easy. I'm giong to end up sick if I don't slow down. I wish I could bring him home so much. I miss him a lot. But maybe it will be best if We give him a break and let him just focus on getting better. I need the break too. I can't keep running back and forth. I get so stressed, I forget to eat, which is not good for my milk supply.

I would like to ask everyone to please pray for Will, that he will be able to become stronger and come home next week.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Happy Birthday Little Will: 01/25/09


Happy Birthday Little Will!!
01/25/09





(More pictures to come...)

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Baby Fraser Update

I had another doctor's appointment today. So far, so good. I haven't dilated anymore since last time I was checked, which is really great news! The medicine I am on is not effective at stopping labor anymore, it'll just help me feel more comfortable if I am having bad contractions. Which if I am having bad contractions, I should just go to the hospital anyways. But so far, so good. Still bed rest for me...

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The Doctor's Update :)

Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment. Let's just say, it was A LOT of work walking around after being on bed rest for a week. My sister-in-law Becky took me to the doctor since it was the first day of school for Andy. Well, when we got there, for SOME reason all my appointments had been canceled! The girls at the front then asked if it would be alright if I came back on a different day this week...Uh, No. That's not ok. I've been in the hospital all week and I'm on bed rest now. Dr. Lamb wants to see me, I promise.

So, they fit me in :)

Doctor Lamb came in the room and we talked for a little. We listened to Will's heart beat, which was good and strong, as always. My doctor keeps saying "This baby is doing great! It's just your uterus!" Maybe this is just as much baby as my body can handle or something. After that we talked about my medicine I am on. It stops working after 35 weeks. Why that is, I am not sure, so, I have another week of taking that medicine and when I go in next week, we will have a clearer picture of what is going on. He didn't check if I had dilated more, just because sometimes it can induce contractions, and we don't want that right now. So next week, we'll do all the checking and everything. Once I get off the medicine, I'll be on bed rest still, and my doctor is hoping bed rest will make me last until the end of the month!

So, in a nut shell, Will is gonna have to cook until the end of the month! Then he can come out!!

Friday, January 9, 2009

Bringin the New Year in with a BANG!

I guess since I am home now, I should let everyone know what has been going on exactly with us so far this year!

Today is my first day home from St. Mark's Hospital, where they took great, great care of me :) Monday, after work, I was walking to my car, and slipped on the ice, falling backwards. It didn't hurt too much and I just went about my day. When Andy got home, he made me call my dr office. So, I did, told them I fell and the next thing I know, Andy and I are heading to the hospital for monitoring. I wasn't hurting from the fall, just a little pain on my right side, it felt like just some stretching. Well, when we got to Labor and Delivery, they hooked me up to some monitors and noticed I was contracting. Two nurses and the on call doctor checked me out, discovering I had dialated TWO centimeters and am about 60% effaced. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't even feel the contrations. After about 2 hours, the on call doctor came in and said they wanted to admit me for over night, and let my doctor check me in the morning. So, I was admitted. They hooked me up to an IV, with magnesium solfate, which is a drug that knocks you completely off your butt and stops labor. I was on that all night, along with an antibiotic and IV fluids, bed rest, not even getting up to go to the bathroom, oh and the blood pressure cuff, going off about every hour, along with a heart monitor for Will and a contraction monitor for me. They also set the bed up in case Will did come and notified NICU, just in case. I am only 33 weeks along, if Will came that early, he'd be in the NICU for about 2-3 weeks, due to low birth weight and little lung developement. They went ahead and gave me two steriod shots, which help speed up lung developement in the baby, just in case. Well, the mag. sulfate was not working the way they wanted it too. I was still contracting and I wasn't feeling them very much. They gave me a shot of morphine which can sometimes work miracles and stop contractions, and it worked mostly!
The next morning, when my doctor came to check me, I had dialted to a 3 1/2 and am about 65% effaced. I stayed on the mag sulfate for another night, and I was able to get off it and just take the antibiotic. The contractions have pretty much stopped. I have them occassionally, when it's about time for me to take my pill, which I have to take every 8 hours, to hold off labor, and when my bladder gets full...which is about every 30-45 minutes because Will has dropped so low. My doctor is hoping I can make it to at least 35 weeks before I give birth. Hopefully longer, but 35 weeks, there are much less complications. And he won't have to stay in the NICU for quite as long. Andy has been SO great! He would rub my feet, my hands (until they were too pricked and poked that they bruised) my back, took care of helping me go to the bathroom, everything. I was in the hospital until about noon today, and I am on bed rest until I deliver. Only getting up to use the bathroom and shower. Our family and friends have been so great and we are so incredibly grateful for all the thoughts and prayers. The Lord truly has blessed us and we see all the blessings each day.