We have a lot that has happened this last year in 2008. From moving to Arizona in December of 2007, to moving to Alaska in May, to moving again and finally deciding to move back into our home in Orem, Utah in November. On top of our nomadic lifestyle, we found out right at the end of April that we would be expecting a baby in December. We were so excited to find out that we would be having a little boy. Eden has been so excited and has been so patient waiting as mommy's tummy grew bigger and bigger.
We had a scare with the pregnancy at the end of August, 23 weeks into my pregnancy, right before we left Alaska. I woke up in a lot of back pain, cramping, and a lot more nausea and throwing up then normal. I couldn't even keep water down. After a blessing from Austin and me trying to tough it out because of lack of health insurance, and not wanting to make an unnecessary trip to the hospital, I finally let Austin take me to the ER. I knew something wasn't right, and was worried I might be losing the baby. I got checked in and had tears of joy when I heard the baby's healthy heartbeat. Come to find out, I had a kidney stone that was too big to pass on it's own, but could not have the procedure done to blast it while I was pregnant. The temporary fix to help minimize the kidney stone discomfort was to have a stent placed in my ureter to help the kidney flow normally until the baby was born. Unfortunately, it was the only solution, and it was miserable, with cramping, and bladder spasms, with symptoms that felt like a constant bladder infection. The only relief was frequent warm showers and staying in bed. It made all of our frequent moves and travels with Austin's job very hard. This is most of the reason why we felt like we needed to get settled back in our house in Orem. We loved our OB doctor in Layton, Dr. Johnson. He had delivered Eden, and since we had such a wonderful experience with her delivery, we wanted to keep him, especially since we had so many complications. We were able to get health insurance now with Austin's job promotion as manager, and we're glad Dr. Johnson was in network. It worked out great when our tenant needed to move out, right as we were ready to move back. As the baby got heavier, the discomfort increased.
Finally, at 37 weeks, I was scheduled to be induced a week later. However, Friday morning, Dec. 5th, I woke up with a "nesting" drive to finish getting my house sanitized. My mother-in-law woke up impressed that she and my father-in-law needed to come down and help me finish cleaning and moving into our house. At the end of the day, right as we finished all of our preparations for baby, I sat down and realized I was having contractions 4-7 minutes apart. I called the hospital, and asked what I should do. (The hospital was an hour drive away, and we didn't want to just go if it was false labor.) The nurse said to take a warm bath and drink 32 oz water, 2 tylenol and see if the contractions would stop. The contractions did not stop, so we headed up to the hospital, while the contractions continued to get more severe. Once my IV was started at about 2:00 am, the contractions almost stopped completely! Go figure, but after a few hours, the nurse checked me and just while I was there I went from 3 cm to 4 cm, and became almost completely effaced. So they started me on pitocin. I started feeling the urge to push around 12:30 pm, so they called the doctor who arrived in about 10 minutes, and after 2 sets of pushes, he was here! He was born at 12:43 pm and weighed 7 lbs, 20 inches. It was a wonderful delivery, thank goodness for epidurals!
Unfortunately, he only made a few cry noises, and it became evident very quickly that he was struggling severely to breath. The nurse let me hold him for a minute while Austin gave him a blessing, and they rushed him off to the NICU to run tests. They baby's doctor came back with Austin and told me that they needed to keep him in the NICU to find out what was going on. They let me see him for a few minutes on the way to my recovery room, but wouldn't let me see him for a while because I had developed a fever and wanted it to go down before I could go into the NICU. It was a very difficult few hours, but Austin stayed by Elijah's side the whole time, which gave me peace of mind. Once I was allowed to see him, he seemed to do a little better once I began to talk to and sing to him. The nurse said that that was the best she had seen him do all day. It was extremely scary and difficult to watch him suffer so much. He wasn't able to sleep because he could never catch a breath. His breathing consisted of extremely fast grunts. He was unable to eat for the first few days because all of his energy was spent trying to breathe, so his body wasn't digesting anything. He eventually went to a feeding tube, then a bottle (I pumped the whole time), and then by Thursday night, I was able to start nursing him. He remained in the NICU until the following Saturday night. During that time, he received two treatments that required the doctors to intabate him, and spray Surfactant into his lungs to help with their developent. They concluded, since they never saw any evidence of infection, that his lungs weren't quite mature enough to handle breathing on his own. He remained on an IV for several days, and stayed under the billy rubin lights toward the end of his stay. He was and still is on supplemental oxygen, but I am so grateful he was able to come home. He'll have to stay on oxygen and monitors for another week or so. We basically are home bound, for fear of introducing him to any type of sickness since his body is so weak. Now, he is a normal newborn, eating and sleeping so well! It'll be nice to take off the oxygen and monitors, but we are so happy to have him with us.
We've been struggling to try and figure out what to do about my kidney stone situation. Because they were diagnosed prior to us having insurance, we weren't sure how to proceed with getting it and the stent removed. The doctor told us it was a $11,000 procedure! As if the hit in Alaska didn't hurt enough! We called the insurance, and they said that would deny it at first, but to send documentation of when it was diagnosed, and then they would cover it. So we are praying and keeping our fingers crossed that it all works out. I was scheduled for a lithotripsy to have the stone blasted on Christmas Eve. The doctor came in before the procedure, and told me that it had gotten bigger, and that the stent was encrusted with the kidney stone material, and had fused to my ureter. Normally, to take a stent out, I just have an office appointment and he can take it out there in the office, but now, it would require another hospital procedure to blast the stent free, and then take it out. He said he would try and break up the stent from the ureter while he blasted the kidney stone. After the procedure, the doctor came in and said that, though he was able to break up some of it, the large stone was still there, and it would require another lithotripsy to get it removed. So, I'm supposed to go in on Monday and figure out a game plan on what to do next. I am ready to have this trial behind me, and I am sure that it will be over in the next little while.
In the mean time, I am grateful to be a little more settled in my home in Orem. Austin continues to do a great job with his work, and taking care of us. I couldn't ask for a greater husband to help me get through this tough year. We are so blessed with wonderful family and loved ones that take care of us. Heavenly Father knows us and continues to give us strength and patience to endure these hard times. We are so blessed with a beautiful, healthy little girl and boy, and am so proud to be their mother.
Fun in the sun
11 years ago
