Avery joined the world at 1:53pm on Tuesday February 24th, 2009. Weighing in at a cool 9lbs 12oz, and measuring 20.25 inches in length.
I finally get to hold in the NICU- Thursday Morning at 9am
Brad gets to "meet" Avery again in the NICU
Birth Story...
I arrived at Johnston Willis at 6:45am with Brad and my best friend Beth. We met my labor nurse Jessica a little before 7am when she escorted us to our room, a corner room, Brad worked his magic with his CJW connections. We got settled into our room and Dr. Davis came and broke my water at 7:51am, I was a "tight" 3cm, 50% effaced and -1, which means she had dropped a little, but was still high, but Dr. Davis was feeling good about her position. They started pushing Pitocin immediately. I was already contracting on my own, but I couldn't really feel it, I could see my stomach tense, but didn't have any pain. Jessica checked me again at 9:30am, still 3cm. I received an Epidural around 10am and it was heavenly. At 11:30am Jessica checked me again and I was still at 3cm, I thought for sure I would be closer to 5-6cm, I was disappointed but pain free, and Avery was hanging tough in there, so there was no rush. Brad and Beth decided to take a break and get some lunch, so I rolled over and rested for a little bit. At 1:00pm Dr. Davis came through to check on her 3 laboring patients, I was 8cm. She left and went to check on the other patients, at 1:30pm she came back to check on me before going back to her office, she said "if you are ready, we are going to have this baby", sure enough I was ready. A few pushes later and Avery was here...
I am so thankful that Beth was here to experience her birth with me, watching her give birth to Austin tops the list of one of the coolest experiences I have ever had.
Now on to Avery...she came out looking a little purple, but after several suction attempts her color improved and she finally started to scream. They took her from me to "clean her up" a little, weigh her and do her APGAR scores. They brought her back to me and I could tell something wasn't right. She was having a lot of trouble breathing, her eyes were freaking me out, they were straining, like it was hurting her to breathe. The nurses said I could spend 30-60 minutes with her and then they would take her to the Nursery and "check her out and bathe her" and she would be back to me within 3-4 hours. Being that I was already worried, I told them to just take her back to the Nursery, I wanted to ensure she was getting the attention she needed, I wouldn't enjoy the moments with her if I was freaking out.
About 2-3 hours later her Baby Nurse came into the room, WITHOUT her, and I could tell something was wrong. She looked around the room, saw a room full of visitors and came around to my bed. She explained that they did a deep suction and thought they had cleared her of the fluid that was giving her issues, but that when she started to give her a bath she had an "episode" and turned blue. The Neonatal NP recommended that she be evaluated for admittance to the NICU. A few hours later the Neonatal NP came into the room, looked around and asked to speak to Brad and I alone, clearly not a good sign, I could feel my heart sink and I started to shake. She spoke very slowly and explained that Avery was "okay", but that she had some challenges to overcome.
#1 - She has fluid in her lungs
#2 - They could hear a heart murmur, and suspected that she had a PDA, meaning that a ductus in her heart had not closed at birth like it should have.
#3 - She might be fighting an infection
I still couldn't really walk, the Epidural was still at work, but they let Brad go see her, and he was able to talk to the Doctors and Nurses more about her condition. They told him that they were running a lot of tests, a blood culture to determine whether she had a true infection or not and that the culture would take 3 days to come back, at this point I was devastated, 3 days, that meant she couldn't come home with us, little did I know at this point that was the least of my worries. Pam Fuller, the NP came back to talk to us a few hours later and explained that a Cardiologist consulted on the case and did an Echo of her heart, in fact the ductus had not closed and that was causing most of her issues. We have learned a lot over the last few days about this and to simplify things, it basically means she didn't transition well. She didn't start doing the things she needed to do on her own after she came out, she was still counting on me for circulation, breathing, etc. At this point she said at that earliest it would be Monday March 2nd before she could come home.
I went to see her Tuesday Night once I could stand and walk, I couldn't see her face, she was under an Oxyhood and her breathing was so fast I had a hard time even looking at her, her stomach was going up and down faster than you could imagine, I lost it. All the wires and monitors, all the beeping was freaking me out. The nurses were great, and very compassionate. We saw her a few times on Wednesday and Brad talked to the Neonatologist who prepared us for Jaundice issues as well as them moving her IV to her head, thank god they warned us, it wasn't a pretty sight. Finally Thursday morning we were able to hold her, she was off the Oxygen and breathing very well on her own. We were discharged Thursday morning, but they let us hang out until we were ready to leave. We were able to feed her, so we stayed and fed her a few times and then headed home around 4pm, it was almost 70 degrees and sunny. Thursday we asked to speak to the Neonatologist again, we were getting mixed messages from each and every shift of nurses. The Doctor prepared us for another week in the NICU, that it would take her 2-4 days to wean her off the IV even though she was eating, but because she wasn't digesting her formula well they switched her to a Lacto-Free Formula and they needed to see how that worked.
Friday we packed up and headed to the hospital for the day. Brad dropped me off, so I was already with Avery when he came in. As soon as I walked in, I saw that her IV was out, her feeding tube was out and she was dressed and looking like a healthy, normal newborn. I cried y eyes out, Brad came in and saw me crying, he was worried something had happened. I was so shocked, I had just said to Brad on the way to the hospital that I couldn't wait for her IV to come out, I always worried about pulling at it, and hurting her. We fed her a few times and headed out for lunch. We picked up Olivia at Donna's and with Brad's Parents headed back to the hospital for her 6pm feeding. They told us that she would likely be able to go home on Saturday and that since we had a Toddler at home we didn't have to "Room-In", which is protocol for NICU babies, the parents spend the night with them in the hospital to ensure they can handle it. We fed her again at 9pm and then I went back to the hospital Saturday morning at 9am and by 12:30pm she was home with us, all dressed in her Going Home Outfit.
And now she is home, healthy, a typical newborn. She feels so much smaller than Olivia, its amazing how much of a difference 1 pound makes when you are talking about it spread over only 20 inches of body. She isn't a great night-time sleeper, but she sleeps like a champ during the day.
Of course, Olivia woke up Sunday morning with a fever of 102.7 so she has been home with us all week. Brad was able to stay home with me yesterday and my Mom helped out today, but its been a circus here.
Avery got a "clean bill of health" today at her 1 week Appointment, she goes back next Tuesday for her 2 week Appointment.
Thank you all very much for you thoughts and prayers, we could feel the love and support and hope that you all know how much we really appreciate having family and friends like all of you.
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