No word- verb, adjective, noun- can describe my life in the recent months. No words that I begin to write on paper can do my life justice. I can begin to tell "you" what has happened from my perspective over the past few months.
Let me begin by saying June 16th was my due date. Wyatt had other plans.
Often I find myself planning for things- dinner, vacations, weekend get-a-ways etc. However, I didn't plan for this.
On Easter Sunday, my water broke at 3:30 in the morning. Mom was here and we packed a bag and headed to Gateway Medical Center. In the back of my mind, I am thinking that my water broke too early... I still have 8 weeks until my due date. I get checked in and we are immediately taken to Labor and Delivery. Wyatt and I are hooked up to machines for monitoring. I am given medicine to stop my labor and steroids for improve his chances of healthy lungs once he is born. They want me/him to have at least 2 doses of this medicine before he is born and we can only get the medicine every 12 hours. They begin giving me antibiotics in case I have an infection, which is normal to give mothers when their water breaks so early. I meet my nurse and got settled in my bed. I am officially on bed rest- can't even get up to pee. How fun!?!?! My nurse tells me about my Doctor, Dr. Johnston, that 'she is cool and will let you (me) have popsicles.' I think to myself, no food- just popsicles?! Great... I should be in a fantastic mood in a few hours without food. :) My nurse and doctor reassure me that things look good, I believe I asked every time they came in how Wyatt was doing and each time they said he was doing well. I waited until morning to call people...I let Brie and Deana know where I was and what was going on. Mom called Dad and my sister. We waited until we knew more to call anybody else. I called the Red Cross like I was told to do and that was a mistake. The person I talked to told me they only give Red Cross messages for the birth of the baby unless it is an emergency. I explained I was delivering my baby 8 weeks early but she didn't seem to think that was an emergency. She questioned who told me to call for this... I was floored at what she was saying. I cannot tell you how incredibly frustrated this whole phone conversation was.... I had the nursing staff and the doctors prepared for a phone call from the Red Cross, in case they called. Mike ended up handling this for me- he called them back that afternoon and got someone who understood and they tried to make things right, but by then it was too late. By that point, Leah had already gotten in touch with Josh who began to try to figure out how ot get Jason home. I am so thankful for their fast-acting willingness to get him home. Looking back, I am not sure I could have gone through the next few days without him.
I didn't sleep much Sunday night. I slept off and on, but not more than 30 minutes at a time. I couldn't get comfortable. Monday morning, Deana came to hang out and by this point, Jason was on his way home. I figure that he will be in Tuesday morning at the earliest. I received an epidural, which was awesome! Mom, Deana and I are just hanging out and my nurse comes in and checks on things. Its about 8:20 and she checks me and says, 'oh its about time to deliver your baby.' Oh my... didn't realize it would be now. Thought I would have felt contractions or something but didn't have much warning that I could feel. She used her nifty communication tool and called all the doctor in and the NICU staff. Before I knew it, there were quite a few people in the room waiting for Wyatt to come. At 8:51 am, after 4 pushes, yes only 4, I delivered a 3lb 8 oz baby boy. His umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck but Dr. Johnston easily took care of that. He was swept to the NICU staff, who were waiting in the room, and I waited patiently while Deana and Mom took some pictures of them working on him. Dr. Huang, the neonatal doctor at Gateway, brought Wyatt over to me where I held him for a mere 30 seconds before he took him away to the NICU. After what seemed like a few minutes, Dr. Johnston came into the room and asked for my camera so she could take some pictures of him. Dr. Huang came in and told me he was doing well and that I could see him whenever I wanted. Soon after that I was whisked off to the Postpartum Ward. A few hours passed and Dr. Huang came in to check on me and to tell me that his first set of levels looked good but that they would do more tests in a little bit- he was going to go home but he would check-in the morning.
That morning, Dr. Huang came in early and gave me a report. He said they Wyatt's hemocratic level went down at the 12 hr mark. He told me that if the 24 hour test comes back low as well, then we may need to go to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville for further testing, but that would be precautionary. Dr. Huang came back a few hours later and asked if he could send Wyatt to Vanderbilt. I agreed immediately, and he said that he already called and they are on their way. By this point, Jason is on US soil- had a layover in DC where he knows Wyatt was born and that we will probably spend some time in the NICU at Gateway. His next phone call from we was a little different. Jason went home and showered, and came to Gateway. I warned him that we me be going to Nashville to Vandy and he had questions but I let Dr. Huang explain it all to him. Just seeing my husband after him begin gone for all of this, made me break down. He was walking off of a plane to come to a hospital just to get back in the car and go to another one. By now, the transport team from Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, has arrived at Gateway and Dr. Huang has stepped aside and is talking to us- filling Jason in on everything. We get done with Dr. Huang and Jason is finally able to see his son.
<3
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