On Thursday august 25th at 4:30am I woke up to sharp pains in my lower belly with strong Braxton hicks contractions...well at the time I thought they were just BH ones. I watched these contractions for nearly two hours before Paul woke hearing me moan every 6-8 minutes then every 4-5 minutes. Not knowing if this was the real thing we got up and had an early breakfast while we waited for Brandon to wake.
After a while the contractions started to get further apart which frustrated me because I thought this was another false labor. So I began taking laps around our street and they went back to 4 minutes apart. So I waited until 9am and took Brandon on a stroller ride around the neighborhood and called my OB to get advice on going to the hospital or waiting at home, they wanted me to go to the hospital but me being scared they would check me and send me home I asked if I could come to the office for them to rule out false labor since my 38 wk apt was the next morning. The doctor agreed I could come in right away, but to have our bags packed to be sent straight there. We called our friends who were watching Brandon in case this was the real thing to make sure they could meet us at the hospital to take Brandon to their house.
Well at the doctors office they confirmed i was in labor already 4cm dilated and water was ready to break any minute. So it was smart of us to pack the car with our hospital bags and all of brandons overnight bags. My doctor was only a 2 minute drive from the hospital and Paul dropped me off at the entrance while he waited for our friends to meet him to pick up Brandon.
I got to skip the triage and go straight to my delivery room which was around 11am. We waited for my doctor to come from the office, but another doctor who was already there came in before she arrived and broke my water around 12:45pm. Once the doctor broke my water my body was trembling in fear because I knew the contractions were going to get painful, more intense, and closer together because at this point they were still anywhere from 5-7 minutes apart. Well after about 30 minutes and one really painful contraction I threw the towel in and asked for the epidural to be ordered since it would be 1 hour until the anastheologist would get to me. She left the room and literally 20 minutes later I was letting out painful cries because I felt the need to push and did a little and the baby was crowning. The nurse rushed in and checked me and I was 9 1/2 cm and ready to deliver this baby, she said no matter how hard I wanted to I was not to push but just pant until my doctor arrived. My doctor came in the room in her office clothes and had to rush out to put some scrubs on, she didn't think I would go as fast as she predicted, she thought she had time to perform a C-section on another woman first then deliver Peter. I was getting very dizzy and sweaty from panting very fast so the nurses tried to get to me slow my breathing down. Well they rushed everything together and it only took about 5 min of pushing and my doctor yelling at me to keep holding my breath while I push and hold on to my legs (I was not a cooperative patient, but I think I had good reason, things were moving so fast and with my first baby I never felt the sensations of the final phase of delivery)
I do have to say pushing felt good and weird at the same time, Peter had a much smaller head so I barely felt any pain compared to Brandon's birth with the epidural which was very painful.
So at 1:40pm Peter was born. He looked perfect all bundled up in a blanket, but no one knew that he actually had a very serious heart condition. After a hour in recovery I was brought to my room I'd be staying in for the night and Paul went with the nurses and Peter to the nursery to be assessed and washed off. Well after being assesses Peter began to turn purple, he was having trouble breathing, so the nurses did some tests on his lungs and heart,first they thought the machine was broken from the readings so they got another one, but that read the same results so they called the NICU and they brought up their machines, but there tests read something was wrong too. So he was brought down to the NICU to run tests and fast. We tried to think positive that it is just from him being born so fast or that the he is coughing up goop from his lungs from swallowing in utero. But when we went down to the NICU to see Peter and talk with the cardiologist we received the scariest news of our life. Peter has a heart condition called transposition of the great arteries and he needed emergency surgery to save his life before he could have open heart surgery in a couple days to correct the defect on his heart. The doctor assured us that his condition was fixable with the open heart surgery, but to keep him alive they needed to keep a hole in his heart open that closes once they take their first breath of air. He was only 4 hours old when he had his surgery, they went in through his umbilical cord to keep open a hole in his heart that only stays open when he was in utero. They were successful and since this surgery he has been in the NICU waiting for his open heart surgery.
Everyday we have been celebrating Peter continuing to stay healthy and strong for surgery. Today, Tuesday was supposed to be Peters heart surgery, but since he was the second case of the day for the heart surgeon there was a chance that the first case would run late become complicated and take longer and push Peters back another day. The surgeon also told us there are a couple of other babies who are in more serious condition that him that he might need to see before Peter. This news was very upsetting. We have been holding our breath for days waiting for today and now we have to wait as long as another 2 days. I know if the doctors thought he wasn't heathy enough to make it another 2 days waiting they would do the surgery right away, but we setup all our excitement that Peter would be on the road to recovery by now and the next 48 hours will be another waiting game and to just sit with Peter and hope he can keep rested and calm. Whenever he starts to cry or get upset his oxygen levels change and he has to work very hard to breath.
Another thing that is really hard for me as a mom is not to be able to comfort him in my arms anytime I want to or even nurse him. I've been in a pumping schedule every 3 hours. Paul and I go to the hospital 2 times a day once in the morning and then after Brandon goes to bed we go again until 11 or 12am. Every time we go we bring a cooler full of breast milk for the NICU to freeze when we can eat again. For now Peter is getting nutrition from an IV and he is back on some medicine to keep the hole in his heart open until his surgery. The day before his surgery they took him off the medicine because he was doing very well without it and was only 24 hours away from surgery. Today since surgery was canceled this afternoon they put him back on the medicine because they do not want that hole closing, plus Paul and I noticed that his oxygen level was up to 50% and the night before it was at 30%. So I knew Peter was needed extra help breathing today with the level up to 50%. (we breath oxygen at 20% so when Peter was at 30% we were very excited)
Right now we are waiting a call from the nurse in the NICU to see if Peter's surgery will be tomorrow morning or Thursday morning. The doctor told us that the latest it will be is Thursday.
I can not say I am excited for surgery, it's very scary, but I am looking forward to it being behind us and watching Peter recover. Every little accomplishment after surgery will be one step closer to him coming home. All I want is my baby home and to enjoy the exhaustion of life with a newborn, I know I will never take any time for granted once he is home.
Sent from my iPad
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