Monday, April 21, 2014

Tatum Grace Holley

Well I'd say going two months without any new posts deserves a good update... and what an update I have for you.

WE HAD OUR BABY GIRL!!!!
And even more has happened since then.
So here's the story of how our little girl made her entrance into the world:

At my 37 week appointment my blood pressure was a bit high. It had steadily been going up the last few weeks. Well my doctor ordered modified bedrest, and a 24 hour urine test. Oh yes, it's as glamorous as it sounds. I had to keep all of my pee in a big orange jug, and keep that in our fridge for 24 hours. They are testing for protein in your urine, which is an indication of pre-eclampsia, which is a pregnancy complication that is no good for mommy or baby.

Well my numbers came back high, but not to the point where it was emergent. The magic number is 300, and my protein levels were 257. So on my way to drop of my jug o' pee my doctor had me stop by and check my blood pressure. It was still pretty high, so I had to do ANOTHER 24 hour test. This time my numbers came back at 289. This was on Sunday the 13th, and that afternoon we got the call from the doctor. She said I was "2 seconds away from full blown pre-eclampsia" and we would be going in to have our baby that day!

So we started to get ready. I of course, had to take a shower, and Billy, in true Billy fashion, did just about everything under the sun, including clean the toilet. Our friend Sam came over to watch William, and we were off to meet our baby.

We got all checked in and settled and around 6:00 pm the put in the foley balloon to help manually dilate my cervix, and gave me some pitocin to kickstart some contractions. Well, they started, and while it all was pretty uncomfortable, it wasn't all that bad. Well I had to go to the bathroom, and let me tell ya, that was uncomfortable! There was a lot of pressure, so the nurse checked the foley balloon by giving it a little tug, and out it came, which meant I was at least 4 cm dilated. Turns out I was at 5.5! So they said they would break my water. I decided I'd rather stay on top of my pain, although I could tolerate it alright, and got an epidural. With Will I waited quite a while, and just couldn't fully relax until I got the epidural, so I decided to see how it would go if I was a little more proactive. It took a little bit to get comfortable and not feel the pain of the contractions anymore, but it kicked in nicely. I started shaking a lot around this time. The nurse said it was normal, but it was frustrating that it was so hard to control. Billy and Ann were my champions through the whole thing, helping me calm myself down and Billy even fed me ice chips. It was a nice little cliche. ;)

Around 11:00 I started feeling more pressure and the contractions a little more, so they checked me and I was an 8! I was surprised at how easy and fast this was going, it was seeming to go the exact opposite of William's. With Tatum they only had to turn the pitocin up to 5, where it was up at 20 (as high as it goes) for hours before I got my epidural with William.

At about midnight they came in to check me and said I was complete, and I could tell, lots of pressure!
My OB was delivering another baby so she was going to be just a little while. She came in, had me push through one contraction and knew it was go time. So everything got prepped really quickly, and two contractions later, I had a baby on my chest instead of in my belly!
She came into this world at 1:23 am on 4/14/14, my little Tatum Grace.

I couldn't help but think how small she was. After having a ten pound baby, it was a little odd having such a "small" baby. She weighed 8 lbs 5 oz. The best news came from my doctor about 2 minutes after she was born. "you didn't tear at all!"

All was great, we got up to our room around 3:00 and tried to get as much sleep as you can in a hospital right after you have a baby. We seem to like having our kids in the middle of the night, let me tell ya, it's not a good idea!

A little while later the nurses noticed Tatum was breathing a little fast, so for a while I couldn't feed her, because they didn't want her to aspirate on my milk. Every now and then they would take her back to the nursery after they checked her vitals. She would make a little grunting sound when she would breathe.
 ***WARNING!! THIS MIGHT BE A BIT MUCH FOR THOSE WITH A WEAK CONSTITUTION***
This whole time, I was feeling great. Much better than I did with William, that's for sure. Around lunchtime I started get really uncomfortable. My pain was increasing and I felt a little pressure. Suddenly I felt a clot come out, I could tell it was pretty big, so I had Billy get my nurse. She helped me up to the bathroom and then checked for excessive bleeding, but it all looked good. A little bit later the pain and pressure came back, this time much worse. So I had Billy call the nurse back in and she started massaging my uterus. The pain got incredibly intense, and then all of a sudden, relief. My bed filled up with blood and clots. (My doctor later told me that there is a term for audible bleeding, when there is so much coming out so fast you can hear it. They don't use it very often, but it exists for cases like this) Pretty soon my room was filled with nurses and CNAs and doctors. In that sea of people all I wanted was Billy. He was so good to stay by my side and hold my hand and try to keep me from worrying. Everyone was moving in such a blur, and talking over me in that way that doctors do when there is an emergency but they're trying to keep themselves and everyone else calm. They started hooking things into my IV and giving me shots, and trying to keep my focus. Then the doctor told me to try to relax as much as I could, and that she was sorry she had to do this. That's when the real pain started. She had to check inside to make sure there were no more clots and no leftover placental tissue. I just remember crying, asking her "please don't", and wanting to pass out. I had my sweet nurse holding one hand and rubbing my leg, saying "I'm so sorry, almost done" over and over, and Billy holding my other hand telling me to keep looking at him. Then the worst was over. Nothing more that they could see.
***OK! IT'S OVER***

Then I got the best visitor in the world. William came to see his baby sister! He gave her kisses and hugs and was so sweet. Luckily, people got pictures, because I was so weak and tired from what had just happened (not to mention a little sluggish due to the pain meds they had just given me) that I didn't get to fully enjoy seeing them together for the first time. He and I got some good snuggles in, and that did my heart so much good.

That afternoon Tatum's vitals started getting a little low, so they took her to the nursery to be monitored. Later we had a nurse come in and tell us that they did a chest scan on her and said that it looks like the bottom portion of her lung had collapsed, so our pediatrician was conferring with a doctor down in the NICU. We got a call just a little while after that saying that the doctor in the NICU said it just looked like she had air in her diaphragm that was compressing her lung and that she should be ok, but that they'd do another chest scan later. So I asked Billy to wheel me down to see her and hold her in the nursery, after they did her second chest scan. While we were there they got the results and said that it looked like it had improved, so we thought we'd turned the corner. They said they'd keep her a little longer and watch her.

Well, with all that happened earlier that day, I had to leave and go lie down. So I reluctantly left my baby.
Around 1 am my nurse came in and told me that Tatum's levels had gotten worse and that she was being sent down to the NICU. She had pneumonia and pneumothoraces (portions of both lungs collapsed).

I'll have to update on the NICU experience another time, I'm still processing it all to be honest. Lots of emotions. But she is doing well and making incredible strides. Hopefully we will get to bring her home soon.

I promise next time I will have pictures! ;)