He's Here!- The Story

THE APPOINTMENT:
My pregnancy has gone pretty darn good up until my appointment on Aug 31st. My blood pressure was just a little higher than normal. Because of this we scheduled another appointment for the 3rd for a non stress test, fluid level check and re checking of the blood pressure levels. That Friday at the appointment, the non stress test went great. My blood pressure was borderline, and my fluid levels weren't dangerously low, but still lower than the doc would have wanted. So, he said "We can induce you today or wait the weekend and check everything again on Tuesday. Even still you're not going to last to next weekend." HOLY MOLY! I was not expecting that. We weighed the pro's and con's and agreed that the baby could benefit from cooking a little longer in the oven. We left the appointment, ran to Walmart to get some last minute baby items, ran to school and finished up some sub plans and headed home with the warning to keep my feet up and if I had a headache that would not go away with Tylenol, to go in and get checked.
Alas, I didn't follow doctors orders exactly and sure enough that headache came on and after the BYU game we headed to the hospital to get checked.

THE CHECKING: We went to the hospital at 9:30 (after the game ;)) All the tests came back great except for my blood test which was 7 points too high indicating the comings on of preeclampsia. So I was admitted to the hospital at 12:30 Sunday morning to be enduced.



THE LABOR: I had the cervadill for 12 hours and then they started pitocin at around 1:30pm.

Me and my 6 IV's


My contractions weren't bad but were getting worse so I called in for the epidural and in the meantime, since I was only at a 2, the doctor broke my water, which sent my contractions soaring!!! The baby didn't respond too well to that and his heartbeat dropped dramatically and we lost it for a couple of minutes. Their was an all call and they were ready to take me for an emergency c section when my doctor saved the day, stopped the contractions and all 6 IV's I was on, put a probe in his head to mark his heartbeat and went in there with his hands and manually stimulated the baby to get him back. Thankfully his quick acting worked and we just left progressing the labor on hold for 2 hours till baby got stronger and stable. When they did put me back on pitocin, they started it and progressed it a lot more slowly (and I had an epidural by then) to make sure that the baby wasn't in distress. I progressed well and there were no problems and so when I got to 10 I started pushing. 30 min later baby was out! He wasn't breathing for several minutes but the respiratory therapist worked his wonders and got our baby breathing great!
I didn't tear like others do, just slightly internally. My doctor even chuckled when I asked if I did, and responded, "not really". He was amazed that for my first baby my labor went so well (with me anyway).

THE RESULTS: So Kaden John Brown was born on Labor Day, September 6th, at 3:47 AM he was 6 lbs, 6 oz, and was 20 inches long!




After he was out he went to the nursery to get cleaned off and fed (I fed him a little when he came out) so we could rest. After eating 30 ml his blood sugars were still pretty low and they were concerned.

THE HOSPITAL STAY: Kaden's levels stayed too low and this kept him in the NICU for a week. He had a slightly high CRP level (thick blood) but after testing it twice it was in an ok range to not thin out his blood. He was put on an IV of dextrose to get his sugar levels in the 50+ range. He did great at first so we started weaning him off the IV, but on his last test the levels tanked so he went back on the IV, we weaned him off more slowly and keep him feeding. During this his biliruben levels were too high so he was sent under the blue lights to break down the biliruben. After a day and a half of lights they got back down to normal and after slowly weaning the IV his blood sugars stabilized so we were finally able to take him home on Saturday morning. It was a tough week emotionally and physically for all of us. He was poked, prodded and had blood drawn in every way. He even had to have an IV put in his head after he pulled it out of his arm, but he was a trooper the whole time hardly cried at all compared to the other non NICU babies in the nursery, and has recovered well.



We are grateful to have this little guy with us and will always love and appreciate all of the doctors, nurses, therapists, and staff that were with us through this time. And thank you for reading our very long story!