Sunday the 13th started out as a typical Sunday, football and normal bed rest day until 2:00 or so when I began having some pains. I of course thought I was just uncomfy and sore from laying in bed for over 3 weeks but the pain became more intense. I called the nurse in and she set me up to the machine to check to see if I was indeed have contractions, but the machine was not showing any contractions. I called Andy and we convinced ourselves that I was not having contractions but he decided to come back up to the hospital just in case. As the pain became more intense I called the nurse again and she had the doctor come in to see me, she decided to check the baby and see if he was head down and thankfully he was. She also checked to see if I was starting to dilate but I was still elongated and cervix was completely closed. Thinking that I might just have an irritated cervix they decided to give me something to calm it down. But also move me into a labor and delivery room. During all this chaos my parents arrived with dinner…they knew I would not be eating the hospital food and my mom had made me my favorite soup, little did they know what they were about to walk into. The pains seemed to go away for a while and we all begun to think I was going to be fine, I was even able to eat dinner. But soon after the pains came back stronger then before and of course this was during the nurse change over time, not good timing on my part. During this entire time they had the contraction monitor on me but not the one that measured B2 heart rate, ummm yea. Our moms were able to find someone to come to the room, although not my nurse he tried to help me and said he would find out about the sleeping pill they wanted me to take. My “NURSE” finally came in and was still working on getting me a sleeping pill, since she said I was not having contractions, rest would be good for me. I asked her if the pain would just go away if I fell asleep… no response. Things only went from bad to worse, I could go into great detail but I get so upset when I talk about it that it is just easier to give the short version. The contractions that they said I was not having went from painful to the worst pain I had ever experienced and needless to say I became another person, I have to say that I think I may have been able to deal with the pain much better if I knew what was going on but I was told over and over that I was not having contractions…the last time the “NURSE” told me I was not having contractions was about 25 minutes before I delivered my sweet little boy, it would have been sooner but they needed me to pretty much cross my legs until the neo natal team arrived. I guess my blood curdling screams convinced her to finally to call the doctor to come and check me, and yes I was having very very hard labor and went from zero to 10 + 3 dilated in a few hours. Luckily our sweet Asher came out crying, they did not have time to set up everything so we are thankful and thankful over and over again.
Asher crying was such a good sign and from that first day has not had to be on a ventilator, which for a baby his age that is a huge accomplishment. He is currently on a nasal cpap, which just reminds him to breath, in the next week or so he should be moving to a nasal prong. This first week has been really really encouraging, the first ultra sound of his brain did not show any signs of bleeding which is by far the best indicator for a baby his age, they will do another one this upcoming week, the last few days they have been introducing breast milk to him every hour and increasing it every 12 hours, this is often a bit hard on such an immature digestive systems but so far Asher has been doing very well with this and is also finally gaining some weight back, as with all babies he lost a few ounces the first few days. During this last week we have slowly become more comfortable with seeing our child with all the wires and such hooked up to him, we have also started to take an active part during his care times. Care times are every 4 hours and during this time they take off his head gear, take his temperature, and change his diaper, oral care with breast milk, among many other things. Although they do some of these things in between those four hours, they don’t take off this head gear which is one of my highlights right now, I get to see my sweet boy. Little Asher is blonde as blonde can be…he has his sisters nose and mouth oh and her big eyes, so Asher pretty much looks like his sister but with very blonde hair. My next favorite participation is changing his diaper; they are the smallest thing I have ever seen. I made sure I took one home for his baby book that I will for sure be breaking out when he is a state champion wrestler and to show his future wife. Oral care is the also high on the list of highs, rubbing breast milk into his mouth on a qtip, he LOVES it!
Within the next few weeks they think we will be able to hold him, he just needs to get past his few spats with apnea (forgetting to breath) that he seems to have a few times a day, I am longing for this time with our baby and from everything I have heard and read this is one of the best things for premature babies.
We have been learning about the process we will be going through with our sweet boy. Although we have been given so much information and have been so over whelmed we have convinced ourselves that we have to just take each day as they are, the little accomplishments are very big during this time. Asher is such a trooper and has proved to be such a strong little guy. Although we are living day to day, we have high hopes for what is to come. We cannot say thank you enough for all the loving thoughts that have been given to our family, we cherish all the loving notes and messages.
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