Here I was thinking I had at least one more "bump update" to do before Atticus got here.
Someone out there like to take my plans and crush them to remind me I'm not in control.
So I guess this will be a birth story/update on our little guy.
The morning of Friday the 24th I woke up in quite a bit of ligament pain. More than I'd have been having. It was supposed to be my last day working in the office (was going to finish my time before the birth working at home...) so I really wanted to get in there. Got ready for work, started the drive. About halfway there I realized that my pain was kind of coming in waves, and was less ligament pain, more just "ow". So I turned around and went home. I logged onto work from there and frantically got some stuff situated because I knew I was going to have to go to the doctor to get checked out.
Still mostly convinced what was happening wasn't a big deal. After all, I was only 37 weeks. I went 41 with Thad.
Called the doctor around 9:30, told the nurse what was going on and they wanted me to go ahead and come in to be looked at. I went ahead and grabbed my packed bags for the hospital, just in case. But driving into the doctor I convinced myself I was making this pain up. When I got there, my doctor went ahead and checked me (things I thought I got to avoid with a c-section...) and found my cervix was still closed. She even had trouble finding it. Cool. Decided to hook me up just to see if what I was feeling was contractions.
Sure enough...
I was having regular contractions. Ruh roh, raggy. So then I got to hang out and get two bags of IV fluids to try to stop labor. During that time my pain decreased a little, and I was feeling more Braxton-Hicks contractions, so I figured we were well on our way to okay. After the second bag I got hooked back up to the monitors... and was still having regular contractions. Ugh. Okay. So the doctor decided to check me again. After she was done she was like, "Well... you're definitely at a 4." I'm sorry, what? It's been like... 2 hours?? So she said she was going to talk to the lead surgeon for my c-section, but it'd be done this afternoon and I should head to the hospital.
Okay, fine.
The next hour or so was a frenzy of calling everyone, trying to figure out who would be able to help with Thad, actually starting to feel my contractions (oww), running home to grab Michael and more stuff, and then going to the hospital. Getting hooked up there, answering an insane number of questions, having contractions every two minutes. Whirlwind. I walked back to the OR at 2:30 or so.
The surgery itself went great. I got my spinal, didn't shake nearly as bad this time. They had to work through some scar tissue, but it went well, outside of some pulling I was fine, and at 3:15, Atticus Ronan came out with a little screech, and then a lot of crying. He was 6 pounds 2 ounces, and 20 inches long. Not bad for an early guy. I got all stapled up and then to recovery. We were all hanging out, and kind of noticed Atti grunting a little bit when he was breathing. I knew that was a sign babies are having trouble, so we asked about it. At first were reassured that he came out screaming and it was probably nothing. But it kept going on, so they said they would check it out when they took him to the nursery to get cleaned up.
And he hasn't left the nursery since.
He was having some trouble breathing. Chest x-ray showed quite a bit of fluid on his lungs - not out of the ordinary for an early baby born by c-section. The doctor also noticed a little spot on his lungs that might be pneumonia, but his blood work looked okay so we held off on doing anything. That first day you could tell he wasn't feeling great. Didn't want to be touched or anything. He was breathing too fast, and having trouble keeping his pulse ox up. The next day they did a repeat chest x-ray, and the fluid level had gone down, but then you could clearly see the pneumonia. So he started antibiotics that night.
Since then it's been ups and downs. We can tell the antibiotics are working, but then we ran into he's early and having feeding issues. Plus reflux. The pediatrician started him on zantac, and we switched to a sensitive formula. He seems to be doing better, last night he had a great night. This morning he ate his whole feeding without dropping his pulseox down below 90. Hoping that he keeps improving so we can move him to the room they let us stay in at some point.
This whole thing has been a rollercoaster. On the whole, he is sick, but I know there are much sicker babies out there. And if we've had this many ups and downs, I can't even imagine what it's like for those other parents. Then there's the whole, we also have another kid at home who misses his parents. Now that I've been discharged, one of us is staying here at night, and the other is with Thad. He's done so well with the family and friends picking him up and taking care of him, I wondered if he even missed us. Then Michael went home around bedtime one night and it was apparent. And then yesterday when I told him he and daddy were going to go home and sleep he got really upset and said he didn't want to go home. It's those little things that completely break my heart. I know, hopefully soon, we'll all be home together, and I'm very much looking forward to that.
I'm recovering well, physically. It's easy to get up and move when you have the motivation of a cute little person down the hallway in the nursery. Emotionally, as I said, it's been tough. But not just on me, on Michael too. He wrote on facebook the other day how there isn't enough support for partners through this whole process. And he's very right about that. I haven't been the greatest about it, either. We need to make sure our non-birthing partners are supported and loved just the same as our mothers are.
This is way longer than I thought it'd be. But one last paragraph as a giant thank you to everyone who has reached out, offered to help, and spared thoughts and prayers. It means the absolute world to us to know we have people out there thinking about our Atti and want him to get healthy. We are sending out mass amounts of love to all of you. I don't think I'll ever be able to completely convey my gratitude for all that's been done for us. Family and friends have stepped up in huge ways and I am so thankful.
I know I need to post pictures... but most are on my phone and I haven't had a chance to move them over yet. Obviously most of you get here through FB, where there have been plenty of pictures. Once we break loose of this joint I'll be able to get some newborn pictures done of Atticus. And I'm sure in the coming days we'll have one of Thad and "my TyTy", as he calls him.
Again... thank you to everyone. I'll be back in a couple days because a CERTAIN SOMEONE is turning 3... :)
Someone out there like to take my plans and crush them to remind me I'm not in control.
So I guess this will be a birth story/update on our little guy.
The morning of Friday the 24th I woke up in quite a bit of ligament pain. More than I'd have been having. It was supposed to be my last day working in the office (was going to finish my time before the birth working at home...) so I really wanted to get in there. Got ready for work, started the drive. About halfway there I realized that my pain was kind of coming in waves, and was less ligament pain, more just "ow". So I turned around and went home. I logged onto work from there and frantically got some stuff situated because I knew I was going to have to go to the doctor to get checked out.
Still mostly convinced what was happening wasn't a big deal. After all, I was only 37 weeks. I went 41 with Thad.
Called the doctor around 9:30, told the nurse what was going on and they wanted me to go ahead and come in to be looked at. I went ahead and grabbed my packed bags for the hospital, just in case. But driving into the doctor I convinced myself I was making this pain up. When I got there, my doctor went ahead and checked me (things I thought I got to avoid with a c-section...) and found my cervix was still closed. She even had trouble finding it. Cool. Decided to hook me up just to see if what I was feeling was contractions.
Sure enough...
I was having regular contractions. Ruh roh, raggy. So then I got to hang out and get two bags of IV fluids to try to stop labor. During that time my pain decreased a little, and I was feeling more Braxton-Hicks contractions, so I figured we were well on our way to okay. After the second bag I got hooked back up to the monitors... and was still having regular contractions. Ugh. Okay. So the doctor decided to check me again. After she was done she was like, "Well... you're definitely at a 4." I'm sorry, what? It's been like... 2 hours?? So she said she was going to talk to the lead surgeon for my c-section, but it'd be done this afternoon and I should head to the hospital.
Okay, fine.
The next hour or so was a frenzy of calling everyone, trying to figure out who would be able to help with Thad, actually starting to feel my contractions (oww), running home to grab Michael and more stuff, and then going to the hospital. Getting hooked up there, answering an insane number of questions, having contractions every two minutes. Whirlwind. I walked back to the OR at 2:30 or so.
The surgery itself went great. I got my spinal, didn't shake nearly as bad this time. They had to work through some scar tissue, but it went well, outside of some pulling I was fine, and at 3:15, Atticus Ronan came out with a little screech, and then a lot of crying. He was 6 pounds 2 ounces, and 20 inches long. Not bad for an early guy. I got all stapled up and then to recovery. We were all hanging out, and kind of noticed Atti grunting a little bit when he was breathing. I knew that was a sign babies are having trouble, so we asked about it. At first were reassured that he came out screaming and it was probably nothing. But it kept going on, so they said they would check it out when they took him to the nursery to get cleaned up.
And he hasn't left the nursery since.
He was having some trouble breathing. Chest x-ray showed quite a bit of fluid on his lungs - not out of the ordinary for an early baby born by c-section. The doctor also noticed a little spot on his lungs that might be pneumonia, but his blood work looked okay so we held off on doing anything. That first day you could tell he wasn't feeling great. Didn't want to be touched or anything. He was breathing too fast, and having trouble keeping his pulse ox up. The next day they did a repeat chest x-ray, and the fluid level had gone down, but then you could clearly see the pneumonia. So he started antibiotics that night.
Since then it's been ups and downs. We can tell the antibiotics are working, but then we ran into he's early and having feeding issues. Plus reflux. The pediatrician started him on zantac, and we switched to a sensitive formula. He seems to be doing better, last night he had a great night. This morning he ate his whole feeding without dropping his pulseox down below 90. Hoping that he keeps improving so we can move him to the room they let us stay in at some point.
This whole thing has been a rollercoaster. On the whole, he is sick, but I know there are much sicker babies out there. And if we've had this many ups and downs, I can't even imagine what it's like for those other parents. Then there's the whole, we also have another kid at home who misses his parents. Now that I've been discharged, one of us is staying here at night, and the other is with Thad. He's done so well with the family and friends picking him up and taking care of him, I wondered if he even missed us. Then Michael went home around bedtime one night and it was apparent. And then yesterday when I told him he and daddy were going to go home and sleep he got really upset and said he didn't want to go home. It's those little things that completely break my heart. I know, hopefully soon, we'll all be home together, and I'm very much looking forward to that.
I'm recovering well, physically. It's easy to get up and move when you have the motivation of a cute little person down the hallway in the nursery. Emotionally, as I said, it's been tough. But not just on me, on Michael too. He wrote on facebook the other day how there isn't enough support for partners through this whole process. And he's very right about that. I haven't been the greatest about it, either. We need to make sure our non-birthing partners are supported and loved just the same as our mothers are.
This is way longer than I thought it'd be. But one last paragraph as a giant thank you to everyone who has reached out, offered to help, and spared thoughts and prayers. It means the absolute world to us to know we have people out there thinking about our Atti and want him to get healthy. We are sending out mass amounts of love to all of you. I don't think I'll ever be able to completely convey my gratitude for all that's been done for us. Family and friends have stepped up in huge ways and I am so thankful.
I know I need to post pictures... but most are on my phone and I haven't had a chance to move them over yet. Obviously most of you get here through FB, where there have been plenty of pictures. Once we break loose of this joint I'll be able to get some newborn pictures done of Atticus. And I'm sure in the coming days we'll have one of Thad and "my TyTy", as he calls him.
Again... thank you to everyone. I'll be back in a couple days because a CERTAIN SOMEONE is turning 3... :)
