What an ordeal!

Well, looks like my mom made the announcement! Now for the birth story.....

We arrived on Tuesday morning for our c-section. I did ask for induction, the Dr. checked me and I was only 3 cm dilated (he said a good 3 cm, but not 4) I was having intermitten ctx about every 5-9 minutes. We talked, and at that point I just decided to go ahead with the c-section.

We waited our turn, and finally at 9:40 I was wheeled back to the OR for prep. They began the section at 1000 sharp, and after cutting their way through some apparently pretty severe scar tissue, Bennett Grant made his debut at 1017. 8 lbs. 4 oz. and 20.5 inches! Beatiful, and LOUD! He screamed the whole time they were assessing him. The Dr.s took another 40 minutes to close me up. They were 'fixing' all the scar tissue, cutting it away, and apparently gave me a mini tummy tuck in the process (hey Doc, why not go all the way?!?! LOL)

Then came the drama.

First, he was shaking a little bit (can ya blame him, they wouldn't let me eat after midnite) checked his blood sugars and it was 36. So as soon as the Docs were finished with me, they wheeled me straight into the post-partum room and handed Ben to me to BF and try to get his blood sugars back up. First of all, trying to BF while the spinal was still in full effect was interesting, but we managed. His blood sugars went up to 85 and we thought we were in the clear. They pricked him 3 more times throughout the day to make sure he maintained good levels, and he did! YEA!!!

Later in the day though, the nurse thought he was breating to fast, and took him down to the Special Care Nursery (level II NICU) to be evaluated...... He was admitted for TTN (Some type of trachypnia thing) his breaths per minute were in the 90's, and I guess they are supposed to be below 60. Anyways, later in the night they decided he was breathing to fast to feed, so they attempted to put an IV in him - they literally tried a MINIMUM of 15 times (he has 4 prick holes in each of his hands/feet and a few between his 2 wrists) and they were never able to get the IV line in.. That night the Ped on duty decided to let me BF so he could at least eat. The following morning, they decided to insert a feeding tube. His breaths were going down, but he would have 'episodes' of incresed breathing again, so they kept him in the SPN. I began pumping, but we had to supplement with formula as I wasn't pumping enough to satisfy him yet (obviously) I pumped every 2 hours to try to get my colostrum supply up and my milk to come in. He was a champion BF'er before the tube went in though!

This continued with the intermitten TTN, his health was otherwise perfect. He showed no signs of distress, was always 100% oxygenated, good heartrate, no spit-up (twice he spit up) or choking or anything.... Friday they finally decided his breaths were low enough we could try a bottle. He got a bottle of EBM and did excellent! So our next feeding would be with the breast. When we tried that though, it was difficult. For such a short period of time being away from the breast, we had to work to get him back. the first feeding required us to use the Supplemental feeding System with the tube into his mouth and being fed by a syringe while sucking at the breast. This worked, and by the next feeding he was straight back to the breast and being a champ again!

We thought for sure he would come home with us on Friday. The Docs had already allowed me to stay an extra day (they were going to discharge me at 48 hours) to let me be with my son. Friday morning came though, and we got a surprise by the Doc saying he could not go home! Even though he had done well with all his feedings for the previous 24 hours, they were not allowing him to go home becuase his breaths were still hovering right above 60/min. I was dishcharged, but moved up one floor to the surgical unit where I was allowed to board until his discharge. Basically the hospital became a hotel for me. Ben was released from the NICU and allowed to room in with me from about noon on Friday. His breath counts came in at around mid 50's to very low 60's all day Friday and throughout the night on Friday. We REALLY thought we were coming home on Saturday. As soon as shift change came around though, the new nurse counted his breaths back up in the 80's again!

At this point we were extremely frustrated, for several different reasons, but mainly becuase each of the staff members in the NICU had their own way of doing things. There seemed to be no standard that anyone was going by, and each of the Dr.'s (we saw 3 different Ped's during our 4 day stay)had their own opinion as well as to how they would treat our son. Well, the Ped on call Saturday morning ended up calling another hospital and consulting w/ a NeoNatologist (none of the ones at our hospital were Neonatologists, just Pediatricians) and THAT Dr. said that so long as Ben was showing INTERMITTEN TTN, and nothing consistent, we could go home, with daily follow up appt's and the understanding that if ANYTHING seemed funny, we rushed him back to the ER.

FINALLY!!! We begain the 5 hour long dishcharge process. they had to do 2 hours of breath counts to prove intermitten TTN, then he had to stay 2 hour past his circumcision to watch for complications, then he had to do a 1 hour car seat challenge test since was in the NICU.

20 minutes before we were to go home, I was changing little Ben into his going home outfit, and noticed a suspicious white film covering his tongue......... Good lord in 24 hours he managed to SOMEHOW contract THRUSH!!!! So we had to get a script for nystatin to get rid of that.


BUT...........

Despite all of that, we are now home, getting used to our big sisters and eating like a Champ! Every 1-1.5 hours, and his weight is back up to 8 lbs 1 oz after dropping to 7.14 (to be expected with BFing)

What a crazy first 4 days of life! I never in my wildest dreams thought that our full term (actually past term) baby would have more complications than our twins, who never spent 1 minute in the NICU or had any issues at all (thank goodness)

 

First Congratulations on the birth on Bennett!! I am sorry you didnt get your VBAC. 2nd wow :icon_eek: what an ordeal. I am so glad he is ok. Welcome to the world little man.

 

Congratulations! He sure does know how to make an entrance, doesn't he?

 

My goodness what an entrance!!! I am so glad everything is ok now!!!

YAY!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! :birthday: LITTLE MAN!!!!

 

Thanks for sharing your story. It's helpful to hear about things that could possibly go on after delivery. My twins didn't have any real complications either (one had jaundice for a couple days but that was easy to manage). I'm glad Bennet is doing well now!! My doctor told me on Thursday that baby boys are wimpy breathers She said it's best to keep boys in there as long as possible because there is less of a chance they will need to be monitored or assisted with breathing. Apparently this is scientifically proven. Girls don't struggle with this nearly as much. Why do boys have to be so difficult???

 

Oh my goodness what drama!! Sorry poor baby was stuck and pinched so many times. Glad you are all home!

 

Congrats!! I'm glad he's home now.

 

Congratulations!! Thanks for sharing your birth story!!! Gentian violet is a great way of getting rid of thrush. Nystaten didn't do anything for us.

 

OH! I am so happy that he is finally home! That is great about him being a champ at eating! Way to go Mama!!!

 

What a cute name! Glad he is home and doing well now, but wow, what an ordeal!!!! You know, I had a similar experience with Olivia...she was in the NICU for 2 days under O2 for a pnuemothorax. Yeah, my twins were preemies and spent 17 days there (but never had ONE medical issue or required O2...lol). But, come on...I had a FULL term baby, my water broke and then BOOM, she's in teh NICU for 2 days. UGH! It's SO frustrating. Never in amillion years would I have dreamed that's how she would've come into this world. Crazy things happen, that's for sure.

But, he's home and doing well and great job with the bf!!!! Keep up the good work...cant' wait to see pics!

 

Congratulations!! I'm so happy that everyone is home and doing good! :hug99:

 

Thanks everyone!

Thank you Jackie for the advice on Thrush, I will have to get some today and try it. The Nystatin seems to be keeping it under control, but it's not making it any better......


Ben is THE best baby in the world (aside from my girls that is! LOL) He puts up with the girls 'loving' on him constantly, persisting that he takes his paci (he don't even LIKE the paci) and with the dog licking on him (our dog seems to LOVE newborns, and is like a little daddy himself, protective, but not to the point he'll not allow anyone around the baby)

The girls love their little bro too. They are both lil mama's in their own way. One is always wanting to pet him (okay, bad analogy, but that's what she's doing) and touching him, the other is always trying to 'make' his carseat with his blankets, or trying to get the blanket around him just right (that consists of throwing the blanket on him and 'smoothing' it out over him)

So precious. I'm sooo exhausted, trying to split my attention between 3 babies, but it's rewardiing at the same time. I cried over an ordeal tonite, and i'm sure there'll be many more of those "I'm a bad mommy" moments, but hopefully they are few and far between.


Thanks again for all the well wishes - I can't wait to hear everyone else's birth stories too!

 

Wow that poor little guy had a rough time. I'm glad to hear everything worked out though and everyone is doing well!

 

Congratulations and what a dramatic entrance. Glad that he's handling big sisters well!

 

Oh my gosh!!! What a little drama king you have!!! Congrats on your precious little boy. I'm so glad you are all doing well at home, sorry you had such a hecktic few days.

 

Congratulations on the birth of your little boy! :Clap::Clap: I'm glad you are all finally home. :hug99:

 

QUOTE(blueclouds @ Aug 4 2008, 03:53 AM) [snapback]912059[/snapback]
Thanks everyone!

Thank you Jackie for the advice on Thrush, I will have to get some today and try it. The Nystatin seems to be keeping it under control, but it's not making it any better......

Good luck! How is it going? You coat their mouth once a day, for about 3-4 days in a row. Then give it a break. I hope it worked for you.