WARNING: This is a very long blog post.... I know there are some of you who like details so I'll do my best to remember them all.
I'm not really sure where to start so I guess I'll just start with the amniocentesis that I had on 1-11-11. We were hoping to find out that Dylan's lungs were mature and he was ready to be born the next day, no such luck! The level of whatever it is that they measure in an amnio needed to be at least 55 and Dylan's was only at 15. So, we were told that we needed to wait until I was at 38 weeks (which was 10 more days) until we got have him. No biggie, I would rather have a healthy baby than be comfortable. We got the appointment for the c-section scheduled for the 21st at 9:30am. Here I am at 38 weeks, getting ready to head to the hospital.
We get to the hospital and get all checked in and things were going much smoother than when we had Skyler. It only took them 2 times to get my IV in instead of 3. My nurses were awesome. I walked into the operating room and climbed onto the table, which I thought was weird, I thought they always wheeled you into the O.R. but whatever. I got a spinal block this time instead of an epidural and it was fabulous! I didn't feel a thing, unlike last time when I felt WAY TOO MUCH! My doctor came into the operating room at 9:45 and had Dylan's head out before I even knew she had made an incision. And Dylan was born at 9:56am, weighing 7 lbs 9 oz and 20 inches long. He was much bigger than I thought he would be since he was born 2 weeks early. I heard him cry almost right away which I thought was a good sign since I never heard Skyler cry when he came out. I heard the nurses and Rich laughing because he peed all over and managed to hit like 3 of them. I also heard the nurses talking in a concerned way about how smooth his feet were. I thought that was kind of weird since babies all have smooth feet, don't they? Apparently not. I guess smooth feet are a sign of underdeveloped lungs. WEIRD! I had never heard that before. It soon became obvious that he was having some difficulty breathing and they needed to take him to the Special Care Nursery. I wasn't too worried because I had actually planned on him needing to go there. I figured that since his lungs were so premature just 10 days prior that he would probably still need a little bit of help. This picture was taken right before he was taken to the nursery and was the only time Rich got to hold him while at St. Pete's.
Here he is on the scale in the nursery.... 7 lbs 9 oz. Notice how purple his hands and feet still are in this picture.
Getting some oxygen
While Dylan was getting some special attention in the nursery, I was getting all stitched back up and then I went into the recovery room for about an hour and a half. I actually remember being in the recovery room this time. I felt totally fine and not all shaky like last time. I just visited with the nurses the whole time while they monitored my blood pressure and made sure I was doing ok. After recovery they took me to see Dylan in the nursery for about 10 minutes. This is how he looked when I got to see him...
At some point in time it was determined that Dylan's condition was more serious than they originally thought and he needed more help than St. Pete's was able to provide him. So, they called for a transport to Tacoma General. Here's the team from the Tacoma General NICU that came to get Dylan. I got to see him just briefly one last time before he was taken to a different hospital than me......so sad!!
Bye-bye sweet boy ;(
This is the crazy contraption that he rode in the ambulance in. Yes, that's right, on his 1st day of life Dylan has already done something that I've never done, he rode in an ambulance.
We were told that he would probably have to be at Tacoma general for 48-72 hours or maybe up to a week. It all depended on him. He needed to be on a CPAP breathing machine since his lungs weren't fully developed yet. Rich and his dad went up to TG with Dylan Friday night. Here he is in his isolette all hooked up to the CPAP machine.
Here's his little area in the NICU
Since his oxygen levels were too low and he wasn't able to breathe well enough with the CPAP machine they had to intubate him. (That's the tube down his throat) Rich and his mom went to see Dylan on Saturday while I was going bored out of my mind at St. Pete's. My stupid tv was stuck on channel 5 and I had nobody to visit with and my baby was at a different hospital than me. But on the plus side my recovery was going really well, so well in fact that my doctor was going to release me Saturday night so that I could go see Dylan. Only spending 1 night in the hospital after a c-section is practically unheard of. I opted to stay Saturday night though because by the time I would have gotten discharged there were no pharmacies open to get my prescription filled. So they promised to get me out first thing Sunday morning.
Here's Rich visiting Dylan on Saturday.
His little arm is getting ready to have an IV put in it. He was pretty stressed out in these pictures, you can tell by looking at how tight he has his feet curled up. SAD!
He is now on the ventilator and has an IV in his arm
Saturday night I was grateful for visitors. After being bored all day it was nice to see our good friends Joe & Corinne and Ryan & Alisa who brought their adorable little boys for me to hold. Since I couldn't hold my baby it was the next best thing. And having company got my mind off of being so far away from my baby.
After they all left Rich and I had a hard night though. We kept getting bad news phone calls from TG. First off we found out that Dylan got a pneumothorax, which is basically a hole in his lung that was letting air into his chest. Apparently babies who are on the bigger side with underdeveloped lungs can try too hard to breathe and can end up popping a hole in their lungs. Dylan did that. So they needed to put a chest tube in him to let the air out of his chest. Also, they were having to draw blood so often they needed to put in a PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line in his head. It lets them draw blood without having to poke him constantly and it also works as his IV to get all of his fluids in him. The nurses felt really bad that they had to shave the side of his head in order to put the PICC line in so they saved his hair for me and put it on a little card that says "Dylan's first haircut" Dylan had some seriously awesome nurses taking care of him.
Sunday morning I got released from the hospital bright and early so that I could go see my baby. Since we live in Olympia and we had a baby in the TG NICU we were candidates for staying at this place called the Tree House. It's literally right across the street from the hospital and is for families with babies in the NICU.
This was our room in the Tree House
This was the common area in the Tree House
Dining room
Kitchen area
Skyler loved this playroom!
We felt really lucky that we were able to stay so close to Dylan. It made it so much easier to spend lots of time with him. Especially since there were so many babies in the NICU whose parents we never saw in there. I couldn't imagine being anywhere but right next to his bedside. It made me really sad for the other babies in there. We were also grateful that Rich's family was able to keep Skyler with them for an entire week. That was a huge help to us!
Here's our first family picture. Skyler wasn't too sure about any of this and was just really missing his daddy.
These are 2 of Dylan's awesome nurses - Jen & Ericka
Each nurse in the NICU is only responsible for taking care of 2 babies
Every 4 hours they would take his temperature & change his diaper. This was the only time we were able to touch him. He needed to be in a very calm and quiet environment in order to get better. So most of the time we just sat by his bed and looked at him. But whenever they did his care we helped out.
Rich's turn changing his diaper
Ericka did little footprints for us one night
Look at those cute little black feet
The days are all a little fuzzy for me but at some point in time they discovered that Dylan also had a heart murmur and pulmonary hypertension so they had to put him on high blood pressure medication.
Staring at my little cutie pie
My sister, Michelle, works at TG and came to visit one day. I think we freaked her out a little bit. She had 3 healthy babies and never had to go through this with her kids. We had already sort of been through this once before with Skyler (just not as bad) so we were kind of used to it all.
Instead of being depressed and discouraged about everything, Rich and I chose to get excited about all of the little improvements that Dylan made everyday. Especially since there were many other babies in the NICU much worse off than Dylan. One night a baby came into the NICU, in the cubby right next to Dylan's, who only weighed 1 pound and sadly that baby didn't survive. We had to leave and go get dinner so that we could get away from that situation. When we came back we saw the family holding their baby and it hit both Rich and I very hard. It made us even more grateful to know that our baby was going to be ok. We just had to patiently wait for him to get better.
This was the day that Dylan got his chest tube taken out. YAY!
What a cute little foot!
For the first couple of days they had Dylan very heavily sedated so this was the first time we got to see his eyes open.
When Dylan was 5 days old I FINALLY got to hold him for the first time. I had been pumping and when I came back Dylan's nurse told me she had a surprise for me. I thought the surprise was that he had another tube or wire taken off while I was gone but when she told me that I could hold him I could hardly believe it. It was the best surprise ever! I had originally been told that we couldn't hold him until he was off the ventilator so I never expected to get to hold him that day. It took several nurses to get all of his wires and tubes untangled and situated so that I could hold him. Here i am patiently and excitedly waiting to hold my baby
Once they put him in my arms all of his numbers on all of the different monitors were like perfect. It was the craziest thing. We were both so happy to be reunited!
It just so happened that Rich's mom and sister brought Skyler to visit right when I got to hold Dylan for the first time. This was a great day!
Dylan required some photo therapy to clear up his jaundice. I think he looks very relaxed, almost like he's tanning, in this picture :)
Day 2 of photo therapy, look at what's missing in this picture..... no more tube down the throat! He's back to the CPAP machine, HOORAY!
All done with photo therapy now, but we had to put socks on his hands because he kept trying to pull out his feeding tube. Naughty boy!
First time Rich got to hold him since the Operating Room at St. Pete's. Doesn't he look like such a proud daddy! Oh yeah, no more CPAP machine. Now he just has the nasal cannula giving him a little oxygen.
I think it looks like he's blowing kisses here
He got moved out of the isolette and into a real crib
No more oxygen, he's now breathing 100% on his own :)
He's looking more and more like a real baby without all the extra tubes and wires
What a happy boy!
Auntie AJ feeding him
No more PICC line in his head
Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that the flu was going around the hospital. 1 week after having a c-section I got the flu and had the pleasure of puking my guts out for 2 days. It sucked! I wasn't in the comfort of my own house, I couldn't see my baby for 2 days and I was completely miserable!
After i was feeling better i finally got to go back to the NICU to see Dylan but I had to wear that awesomely claustrophobic mask. But at least I got to give Dylan his first bath...he hated it!
And I got to give him a bottle too
Monday January 31st I got a call in the morning letting me know that the hospital had a room for me to stay in that night so that i could be with Dylan all night and assuming he did well with his feedings they were going to release him the next day. What exciting news! I got everything all packed up and ready to go and we went to the NICU to see Dylan. The room wasn't quite ready for me yet so we decided to go to the cafeteria to get some food. While in the cafeteria Skyler came down with the flu that I had. Poor little guy, and poor Rich. Skyler threw up all over him. We decided that since we were already at the hospital we weren't going to mess around and we took Skyler straight to the ER. I didn't want him getting dehydrated. They got him all fixed up and Rich and Skyler and AJ headed home while I stayed in the hospital with Dylan.
This was our room. I didn't get a wink of sleep that night. There was nowhere comfortable for me to sit or lay in that tiny room. The bed felt like I was just laying on plywood, not exactly comfortable when you're recovering from a c-section.
After many tests and tons of paperwork Tuesday morning Dylan was finally released. Here he is, 11 days old and finally going home! Isn't he just so stinkin' adorable!
After almost 2 weeks away, the first night sleeping back in my own bed felt so amazing! Dylan got to take a nap there in the morning and he seemed to enjoy it too!
Napping with daddy
Skyler is the best big brother ever! He is absolutely in love with Dylan and is so helpful with him. He loves giving Dylan kisses and hugs and always makes sure he has his binky. So cute!
My sister AJ came and stayed with us for 11 days. It was nice to have her around to help out with the boys. Too bad we were either in the hospital or sick practically the entire time she was here. We didn't really get to do anything fun while she was here aside from a little shopping.
Grandma and Grandpa with the boys
Look at those eyes, so cute!
Awe, so sweet!
Kisses from Skyler. This happens about 100 times a day, it's really adorable!
Well, I think that about sums up the story of how Dylan joined our family. We love having him here with us. So far he has been a really mellow baby. He doesn't fuss much unless he's hungry, and he's just so cuddly and cute. We are so happy to finally be home and we're working on getting into a routine. Thank-you to everybody who was concerned about our family and prayed for our little Dylan to get better! We can't wait for you all to meet him!!
PINATA TIME-
We're so grateful that we have such awesome friends and family who were able to come to Skyler's party and make it so fun for him! Thank you for spoiling our little Skyler!
