Since I wrote about how I met my officer, I figured I would write about the arrival of our son.
About 2 years into our marriage, my officer and I were ready to have kids. I went off the pill in December of 2001. I had heard it can take up to 6 months to get pregnant when you get off the pill so was expecting it take a while. In late May, I was a week late so I thought I would take a pregnancy test. It said POSITIVE. I could not believe it. I was surprised it happened sooner rather than later. When I went to the doctor, I found out I was about 3 months along.
My pregnancy was great. I did have weird things happen like nerve pain down one of my legs, waking up in the middle of the night thinking I was smelling something burning, having vivid, crazy dreams, and an occasional nosebleed. However, I never had morning sickness or any other complications. We did the ultrasound at 20 weeks and found out we were having a boy and he was healthy. My due date was December 30.
On November 9th, my sister threw me a baby shower. It was a lot of fun. My friend from Tulsa came for the baby shower and stayed afterward to visit. After my officer had gone to bed, we stayed up talking. About 10 p.m. that evening I started having 'cramps'. I thought it was weird but not anything. I told my friend and my husband I was having cramps but nothing more. My friend left about 1 a.m. and by that time I was still having 'cramps' and they were more intense. I woke my officer up and told him I was having intense cramps. He decided we should call the doctor. The doctor on call said to lay on my left side for a couple of hours, drink lots of water and call back if the 'cramps' do not go away. I drifted in and out of sleep. At 5 a.m., I woke up and still had 'cramps' coming every 6 minutes. I called the doctor back and he said to go to the hospital immediately. I was only 33 weeks long - this would be considered pre-term labor.
We were at the hospital by 6 a.m. I was admitted and they immediately started to give me magnesium sulfate to stop the contractions. It felt like a mac truck hit me. I remember people being there, my mom, my friend, but it was all a haze. I do remember a nurse who sat on my bed and talked and talked. All the while she talked, she was touching my leg and all I could think was, "Be quiet and QUIT TOUCHING ME!" The medicine seem to help stop the contractions. The doctor told me to expect to just stay in the hospital for the duration of the pregnancy. I was not going to leave that hospital while I was pregnant. This prospect depressed me a little. That night I settled down in bed with all the wires and stuff connected to me. My poor officer had to help me anytime I wanted to turn over or move since I had so much stuff hooked up to me. He did not get any sleep at all.
At about 12:30 a.m., I told my officer I think I just wet the bed because I could feel wetness, but this should not have been possible since I had a catheter. The nurse came in and said my water had broken. She said we were probably having the baby and did I want an epidural. "OH YES!!!!! As soon as I can THANK YOU!". I had the epidural at 2 a.m. The nurse came to check on me, called the doctor (not my doctor because her husband had died so I had to have to on-call doctor who was a man - not really excited about this since I picked my doctor because she was a woman) and when I reached 10 c.m. at 4:45 a.m. we were ready to go. The nurses came in and set everything up. If I was modest before, I was not now. When you deliver your baby, and you have 10 people 'down there', you lose all sense of modesty. The doctor came in, within 5 minutes I pushed 4 times and my son was born. He was so small - 4 lbs. 8 oz. As far as they could tell, he was healthy. I had a fever so I only got to see him right after I delivered him. My officer got walked him to the NICU. Since I had a fever, I could not go down to see him. I had to wait until the fever was gone, especially since he was a preemie.
They said he would have to stay in the NICU until he could learn to 'suck, swallow, & breathe". When I first saw him, it was so sad. He had all kinds of wire stuck to him. He had little patches over his eyes. They fed him by a tube in his nose. We spent a lot of time with him in the NICU. Although he was 7 weeks early, his lungs, liver and heart had developed just fine. He did not have to be on a respirator, which is a pretty common thing for 33 week year olds. We were so blessed. We marveled at all the things that could be wrong but didn't.
After a couple of days in the NICU, a staph infection broke out. It started with some preemie twins, but now we had to gown up to go to see our son. We had yellow gowns & rubber gloves. We could not touch his skin without the rubber gloves. We worked on getting him to feed from the bottle instead a tube. It was very stressful because one nurse would say, 'watch out for this alarm, if it goes off, call us immediately'. Another nurse would say, 'oh don't worry about that, you need to do it this way!'. We would freak out when our son would stop breathing when we were feeding him and the nurses would have to come in and help him start breathing again. We got better at the feeding thing, figuring out when it was getting to be too much for our son and we would back off a little. We figured out the night nurses were more relaxed than the day shift so we started going then. We were going home every night and people from our church and my family brought meals. It was so helpful - it is one of my favorite things to do people who have newborns.
We were stressed we were going home without bringing our baby home. Everyone expects to be able to bring their baby home when they come home. However, the blessing in disguise was I was able to go home, heal, and rest up for when I brought our son home. After two weeks in the NICU, he got to come home. It was so exciting to bring him home. We were glad to not have to go the hospital 3-4 times a day (we tried to go up at a lot of the feeding). God had his hand on us and our son everyday. God's goodness never fails.
Psalms 139:13-16
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
About 2 years into our marriage, my officer and I were ready to have kids. I went off the pill in December of 2001. I had heard it can take up to 6 months to get pregnant when you get off the pill so was expecting it take a while. In late May, I was a week late so I thought I would take a pregnancy test. It said POSITIVE. I could not believe it. I was surprised it happened sooner rather than later. When I went to the doctor, I found out I was about 3 months along.
My pregnancy was great. I did have weird things happen like nerve pain down one of my legs, waking up in the middle of the night thinking I was smelling something burning, having vivid, crazy dreams, and an occasional nosebleed. However, I never had morning sickness or any other complications. We did the ultrasound at 20 weeks and found out we were having a boy and he was healthy. My due date was December 30.
On November 9th, my sister threw me a baby shower. It was a lot of fun. My friend from Tulsa came for the baby shower and stayed afterward to visit. After my officer had gone to bed, we stayed up talking. About 10 p.m. that evening I started having 'cramps'. I thought it was weird but not anything. I told my friend and my husband I was having cramps but nothing more. My friend left about 1 a.m. and by that time I was still having 'cramps' and they were more intense. I woke my officer up and told him I was having intense cramps. He decided we should call the doctor. The doctor on call said to lay on my left side for a couple of hours, drink lots of water and call back if the 'cramps' do not go away. I drifted in and out of sleep. At 5 a.m., I woke up and still had 'cramps' coming every 6 minutes. I called the doctor back and he said to go to the hospital immediately. I was only 33 weeks long - this would be considered pre-term labor.
We were at the hospital by 6 a.m. I was admitted and they immediately started to give me magnesium sulfate to stop the contractions. It felt like a mac truck hit me. I remember people being there, my mom, my friend, but it was all a haze. I do remember a nurse who sat on my bed and talked and talked. All the while she talked, she was touching my leg and all I could think was, "Be quiet and QUIT TOUCHING ME!" The medicine seem to help stop the contractions. The doctor told me to expect to just stay in the hospital for the duration of the pregnancy. I was not going to leave that hospital while I was pregnant. This prospect depressed me a little. That night I settled down in bed with all the wires and stuff connected to me. My poor officer had to help me anytime I wanted to turn over or move since I had so much stuff hooked up to me. He did not get any sleep at all.
At about 12:30 a.m., I told my officer I think I just wet the bed because I could feel wetness, but this should not have been possible since I had a catheter. The nurse came in and said my water had broken. She said we were probably having the baby and did I want an epidural. "OH YES!!!!! As soon as I can THANK YOU!". I had the epidural at 2 a.m. The nurse came to check on me, called the doctor (not my doctor because her husband had died so I had to have to on-call doctor who was a man - not really excited about this since I picked my doctor because she was a woman) and when I reached 10 c.m. at 4:45 a.m. we were ready to go. The nurses came in and set everything up. If I was modest before, I was not now. When you deliver your baby, and you have 10 people 'down there', you lose all sense of modesty. The doctor came in, within 5 minutes I pushed 4 times and my son was born. He was so small - 4 lbs. 8 oz. As far as they could tell, he was healthy. I had a fever so I only got to see him right after I delivered him. My officer got walked him to the NICU. Since I had a fever, I could not go down to see him. I had to wait until the fever was gone, especially since he was a preemie.
They said he would have to stay in the NICU until he could learn to 'suck, swallow, & breathe". When I first saw him, it was so sad. He had all kinds of wire stuck to him. He had little patches over his eyes. They fed him by a tube in his nose. We spent a lot of time with him in the NICU. Although he was 7 weeks early, his lungs, liver and heart had developed just fine. He did not have to be on a respirator, which is a pretty common thing for 33 week year olds. We were so blessed. We marveled at all the things that could be wrong but didn't.
After a couple of days in the NICU, a staph infection broke out. It started with some preemie twins, but now we had to gown up to go to see our son. We had yellow gowns & rubber gloves. We could not touch his skin without the rubber gloves. We worked on getting him to feed from the bottle instead a tube. It was very stressful because one nurse would say, 'watch out for this alarm, if it goes off, call us immediately'. Another nurse would say, 'oh don't worry about that, you need to do it this way!'. We would freak out when our son would stop breathing when we were feeding him and the nurses would have to come in and help him start breathing again. We got better at the feeding thing, figuring out when it was getting to be too much for our son and we would back off a little. We figured out the night nurses were more relaxed than the day shift so we started going then. We were going home every night and people from our church and my family brought meals. It was so helpful - it is one of my favorite things to do people who have newborns.
We were stressed we were going home without bringing our baby home. Everyone expects to be able to bring their baby home when they come home. However, the blessing in disguise was I was able to go home, heal, and rest up for when I brought our son home. After two weeks in the NICU, he got to come home. It was so exciting to bring him home. We were glad to not have to go the hospital 3-4 times a day (we tried to go up at a lot of the feeding). God had his hand on us and our son everyday. God's goodness never fails.
Psalms 139:13-16
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
1 comments:
This is beautiful! I'm so glad I read it today. Our little guy was only four weeks early, but very similiar situation. He was in the NICU for 11 days. I remember the magnesium as one of the worst experiences of my life. And I had to have it, again, one week after he was born.
Isn't God good? Our sweet babies are all such miracles.
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