Big brother and Daddy getting ready for Corbin to arrive :) both so excited (Ryan was trying not pass out thinking about going into surgery with me... he has a VERY weak stomach). Thankfully, they had him SITTING!
Sooo excited to finally have his little brother here :)
Helping momma feed Corbin, he just couldn't quit smiling! This was about 20 min. after C got out of the NICU
Holding his little brother by himself for the first time! I am so excited for Ryan and I to have Corbin here, but equally excited to watch Brycen get to enjoy his little brother he has waited so long for.
just couldn't get enough of him
holding him at home for the first time!
the plate B made awhile back for C :)
Well, I am sitting here w/ Mr. C on my lap while B is on his field trip to Krispy Kreme. My mom went with him. We have had an eventful time since C has been home. Our furnace broke... they had to order a new part and it won't be in until tomorrow (it went out the day after we got home). The CO levels were too high in the pipes (it checked out ok in the house, but we weren't taking any chances of it leaking out into the house) so we have been living at my parents. Not ideal with a newborn, but it works and we are grateful to have them and their house to stay at. They will probably be ready to get rid of us by tomorrow though! It's been nice to have some help with B while I'm recovering. I over did it a little the past couple days and was really feeling sore last night in my incision. I got my stitches out yesterday so that was nice! C had his check up on Tuesday and he is up to 5lbs 9oz from 5lbs 3oz when we left the hospital on Saturday. He had also grown an inch since birth so he was up to 20 1/2 inches. He is such a good baby. I mean like so good he is spoiling us! If he changes I won't know what to think! lol. He gets up every 3 hours (2 times a night) to eat. He eats and I change him all in about 25 min. and he is back asleep. He is eating about 2 oz. every 3 hours... sometimes a little sooner, and it's around 2 1/2. He is a growing boy though! He sleeps and makes the cutest little faces. I am in awe of him and can't put him down! Thankfully, his big brother is just as in awe of him and doesn't mind how much I hold him, only gets mad that he doesn't get to hold him enough! haha! He says I hog him! B and I have been coloring lots of pictures while I am taking it easy. My blood pressure is still rather high, but as of yesterday Dr. Reisinger didn't want to put me on meds just yet (which is fine with me). I feel fine, but am checking my BP and am supposed to call them into her tomorrow morning so she can see if she thinks I need to go ahead and get on some meds for awhile until it evens out.
Well, last Tuesday, the 9th, I was home with B all day b/c he had a snow day from school. I felt okay, but just a little different. My BP wasn't extremely high, but higher than it had been. Ryan got home and we left for my weekly appointment, leaving B w/ my mom (which I rarely do, he went to all my appointments!). On the way to the dr's office I prayed that if C needed to come out to let my BP be high in the dr's office (it was never high there, but had a few high readings at home). We were actually there about 30 min. early since we didn't know how the roads would be, but they must have had a lot of cancellations or something b/c they got me back within 5 min. Ryan was in the bathroom when they took me back... the nurse took my BP and had a funny face and said, "Something is going on with your BP it was 160/100. Dr Reisinger will be right in." The nurse went to get Ryan and he came in there and I told him what my BP was... he was like "okay, let's go, we have to go to the hospital right now." the poor guy!! He was so nervous. The dr. came in right away and said, "okay, you are going straight to the hospital, I don't want you anywhere but there." She did go ahead and check my cervix and I was at a 2 (and had some other signs I won't go into details about) of progression since the week before. She called the hospital and sent us on our way. It all seemed very surreal. We got to the hospital and they admitted me and got me hooked up to monitors. My BP did go down (not normal, but it wasn't as high as it was at the dr's office and all my labs actually came back fairly normal. Since they couldn't decide if I was "full term" or not (by that whole 3 days) they were trying to decide when to take him or if his lungs would be ready... since I was doing okay and being monitored they wanted to wait 'til the next day. That was the decision that was made that he would come out the next day. The dr. went out of the room and my body decided otherwise. The irregular contractions that I had been having turned into contractions every 2 min. The dr. was watching them on the monitor at the nurses station. She came in and asked if I could feel them and I said I could, but they weren't painful. She wanted to check me again and said if I had made progress since I was at her office then I was in labor and C was just ready to come out. She checked me again (can I get a hello uncomfortable?!) . I was already at a 3 (this was less than 2 hours after being at her office at a 2). She said, "well let's do this" and they started prepping me for surgery. At this point it was very surreal. Twenty min. before my friend Olivia had been painting my toenails and fingernails and now I was going to meet this sweet baby we have prayed so long and hard for. (Yes, I got my nails and toe nails done at the hospital, lol). Olivia was on her way to stay with me Tuesday night to highlight my hair and paint my toes when I called her and told her I had to go to the hospital so she just came there and kept us company instead. She was good for our nerves while we waited on them to decide what they were doing. I was hooked up to an IV already "just in case". Dr. Miller the dr. that did my spinal was amazing. I didn't feel a thing (hurt way less than getting my cervix checked!). He was asking me the whole time if I was okay and how I was feeling and I was asking poor Ryan the same questions! My dr. and the assisting dr. and Dr. Miller and Ryan and I and the nurse carried on a conversation through the whole thing. It was amazing and they put me at such ease. I just keep going back to the word "surreal". Now a week later, it all feels sort of like a dream! When C came out he was crying and that was the most amazing sound ever! The dr. held him up and we got some pictures. After they weighed and measured him and cleaned him up Ryan got to hold him and hold him up to my face. It was precious. Then I started feeling like I was going to pass out, not so amazing! Dr. Miller took good care of me though and I started feeling better. C started "grunting" at some point and they took him to the newborn nursery to be observed by his nurse (who was wonderful and explained it all to us before just taking him away). I was then taken to recovery. Ryan kept trying to go back and forth between us and letting me know what was going on. The nurse that was with me was great too and we just talked about random things. After my hour in recovery was up they wheeled me to my regular room and I got to go past C and look in the nursery at him for awhile. When we got to my room I'm not sure how much time it was, but not too long they came in and let us know they had spoken w/ the NICU dr. and that they thought C needed to go there for awhile. He was having to work pretty hard to breathe and couldn't eat b/c of it so his blood sugar was low. Dr. Hermmann the NICU dr. was wonderful and came to see us right after seeing Corbin and explained that he might be out the next day or it could be around 10 days, it would just depend on how he did. I didn't want him in the NICU, but I was just so relieved to have him here and know that he was going to be okay that I really did deal with it okay I think. Soon after that they wheeled me down to see him. Since they were still getting him stabalized we couldn't hold him yet, but we got to touch him and look at him. The next time we went down I did get to hold him and it was AMAZING. I was just overwhelmed. It felt like a dream. His NICU nurse was great and I just loved her! He had her both nights he was in there and then the day he got out that night she came to visit us in our room! I can't say enough how appreciative I am of how sweet she was and how she made us feel. Wednesday he was in the NICU all day/night, but at 9am that morning they started him on feeds and took him off of the cannula/room air that was helping him not work so hard to breathe. He did great with out and never looked back. They started him out at 15 cc's I believe and increased it by 3 cc's every 3 hours. The iv feed number had to get down to 3 before they could take it out and he could come to us. He never waivered and did amazing, tolerating each feed and eating more and more. I was so relieved each time he took the whole amount he needed to, because each time that number on the IV machine went down he was that much closer to coming stay in our room! Thursday morning we met with Dr. Herrmann and he said at his noon feeding if he did okay we could take him to our room! They were kicking him out! I was so glad :) The nurse brought him to us at noon and his big brother finally got to meet him! They also decided my hemoglobin was so low that I needed a blood transfusion. I wasn't too excited about getting hooked back up to an IV since I had just got unhooked and so had C... all those tubes and wires make things a little complicated! My hemoglobin was down to 5.3 though and they said it would make me feel a lot better (normal is around 11-12 I believe). After one transfusion it was back up to 8.3 so they didn't think I needed a second one! This is all after my first IV quit working and fluids leaked into my tissue and my arm started ballooning up and then they blew out 4 more veins before finally getting the 2nd IV started. It wasn't ideal, but we had our baby so it didn't matter. I fed him and got a blood transfusion at the same time, that's what ya call multi-tasking ;). My nurses were WONDERFUL. I had the same day/night nurses the whole time I was there and I was def. spoiled. Karen, my day nurse was a nurse that I had last year with Andon and we've become friends and facebook and have stayed connected this whole time. It meant so much to have her through this happy time (she has FIVE boys!). Friday when they rechecked my blood level I was finally able to get my IV out! My BP started staying high and I was sooooo swollen from all the fluids they had been pumping through me. They wanted me to go ahead and stay until Saturday which at that point we were okay with. It was pretty early Sat. morning when we got released. We got home early afternoon. It was a relief to be home, but also nerve wracking to have this little baby that had just been in the NICU all to ourselves! Then our furnace broke... oh my! We couldn't of asked for a smoother transition for Corbin though. He has done so well and we are so thankful. At his dr's appointment the dr. said since his lungs were a little pre-mature and he had to have some help the first day and since he is so tiny that we need to keep him away from germs until RSV season is over. It's hard because we want to show him off, but we need to do what's best for him to keep him healthy!
Well, I'm sure this blog post is extremely long, and probably not all that interesting to anyone, but I wanted to write it all down before I forgot. I'm sure there are parts I'm leaving out though! Thank you all for your prayers over the past year. We appreciate them more than we could ever express.
Well, last Tuesday, the 9th, I was home with B all day b/c he had a snow day from school. I felt okay, but just a little different. My BP wasn't extremely high, but higher than it had been. Ryan got home and we left for my weekly appointment, leaving B w/ my mom (which I rarely do, he went to all my appointments!). On the way to the dr's office I prayed that if C needed to come out to let my BP be high in the dr's office (it was never high there, but had a few high readings at home). We were actually there about 30 min. early since we didn't know how the roads would be, but they must have had a lot of cancellations or something b/c they got me back within 5 min. Ryan was in the bathroom when they took me back... the nurse took my BP and had a funny face and said, "Something is going on with your BP it was 160/100. Dr Reisinger will be right in." The nurse went to get Ryan and he came in there and I told him what my BP was... he was like "okay, let's go, we have to go to the hospital right now." the poor guy!! He was so nervous. The dr. came in right away and said, "okay, you are going straight to the hospital, I don't want you anywhere but there." She did go ahead and check my cervix and I was at a 2 (and had some other signs I won't go into details about) of progression since the week before. She called the hospital and sent us on our way. It all seemed very surreal. We got to the hospital and they admitted me and got me hooked up to monitors. My BP did go down (not normal, but it wasn't as high as it was at the dr's office and all my labs actually came back fairly normal. Since they couldn't decide if I was "full term" or not (by that whole 3 days) they were trying to decide when to take him or if his lungs would be ready... since I was doing okay and being monitored they wanted to wait 'til the next day. That was the decision that was made that he would come out the next day. The dr. went out of the room and my body decided otherwise. The irregular contractions that I had been having turned into contractions every 2 min. The dr. was watching them on the monitor at the nurses station. She came in and asked if I could feel them and I said I could, but they weren't painful. She wanted to check me again and said if I had made progress since I was at her office then I was in labor and C was just ready to come out. She checked me again (can I get a hello uncomfortable?!) . I was already at a 3 (this was less than 2 hours after being at her office at a 2). She said, "well let's do this" and they started prepping me for surgery. At this point it was very surreal. Twenty min. before my friend Olivia had been painting my toenails and fingernails and now I was going to meet this sweet baby we have prayed so long and hard for. (Yes, I got my nails and toe nails done at the hospital, lol). Olivia was on her way to stay with me Tuesday night to highlight my hair and paint my toes when I called her and told her I had to go to the hospital so she just came there and kept us company instead. She was good for our nerves while we waited on them to decide what they were doing. I was hooked up to an IV already "just in case". Dr. Miller the dr. that did my spinal was amazing. I didn't feel a thing (hurt way less than getting my cervix checked!). He was asking me the whole time if I was okay and how I was feeling and I was asking poor Ryan the same questions! My dr. and the assisting dr. and Dr. Miller and Ryan and I and the nurse carried on a conversation through the whole thing. It was amazing and they put me at such ease. I just keep going back to the word "surreal". Now a week later, it all feels sort of like a dream! When C came out he was crying and that was the most amazing sound ever! The dr. held him up and we got some pictures. After they weighed and measured him and cleaned him up Ryan got to hold him and hold him up to my face. It was precious. Then I started feeling like I was going to pass out, not so amazing! Dr. Miller took good care of me though and I started feeling better. C started "grunting" at some point and they took him to the newborn nursery to be observed by his nurse (who was wonderful and explained it all to us before just taking him away). I was then taken to recovery. Ryan kept trying to go back and forth between us and letting me know what was going on. The nurse that was with me was great too and we just talked about random things. After my hour in recovery was up they wheeled me to my regular room and I got to go past C and look in the nursery at him for awhile. When we got to my room I'm not sure how much time it was, but not too long they came in and let us know they had spoken w/ the NICU dr. and that they thought C needed to go there for awhile. He was having to work pretty hard to breathe and couldn't eat b/c of it so his blood sugar was low. Dr. Hermmann the NICU dr. was wonderful and came to see us right after seeing Corbin and explained that he might be out the next day or it could be around 10 days, it would just depend on how he did. I didn't want him in the NICU, but I was just so relieved to have him here and know that he was going to be okay that I really did deal with it okay I think. Soon after that they wheeled me down to see him. Since they were still getting him stabalized we couldn't hold him yet, but we got to touch him and look at him. The next time we went down I did get to hold him and it was AMAZING. I was just overwhelmed. It felt like a dream. His NICU nurse was great and I just loved her! He had her both nights he was in there and then the day he got out that night she came to visit us in our room! I can't say enough how appreciative I am of how sweet she was and how she made us feel. Wednesday he was in the NICU all day/night, but at 9am that morning they started him on feeds and took him off of the cannula/room air that was helping him not work so hard to breathe. He did great with out and never looked back. They started him out at 15 cc's I believe and increased it by 3 cc's every 3 hours. The iv feed number had to get down to 3 before they could take it out and he could come to us. He never waivered and did amazing, tolerating each feed and eating more and more. I was so relieved each time he took the whole amount he needed to, because each time that number on the IV machine went down he was that much closer to coming stay in our room! Thursday morning we met with Dr. Herrmann and he said at his noon feeding if he did okay we could take him to our room! They were kicking him out! I was so glad :) The nurse brought him to us at noon and his big brother finally got to meet him! They also decided my hemoglobin was so low that I needed a blood transfusion. I wasn't too excited about getting hooked back up to an IV since I had just got unhooked and so had C... all those tubes and wires make things a little complicated! My hemoglobin was down to 5.3 though and they said it would make me feel a lot better (normal is around 11-12 I believe). After one transfusion it was back up to 8.3 so they didn't think I needed a second one! This is all after my first IV quit working and fluids leaked into my tissue and my arm started ballooning up and then they blew out 4 more veins before finally getting the 2nd IV started. It wasn't ideal, but we had our baby so it didn't matter. I fed him and got a blood transfusion at the same time, that's what ya call multi-tasking ;). My nurses were WONDERFUL. I had the same day/night nurses the whole time I was there and I was def. spoiled. Karen, my day nurse was a nurse that I had last year with Andon and we've become friends and facebook and have stayed connected this whole time. It meant so much to have her through this happy time (she has FIVE boys!). Friday when they rechecked my blood level I was finally able to get my IV out! My BP started staying high and I was sooooo swollen from all the fluids they had been pumping through me. They wanted me to go ahead and stay until Saturday which at that point we were okay with. It was pretty early Sat. morning when we got released. We got home early afternoon. It was a relief to be home, but also nerve wracking to have this little baby that had just been in the NICU all to ourselves! Then our furnace broke... oh my! We couldn't of asked for a smoother transition for Corbin though. He has done so well and we are so thankful. At his dr's appointment the dr. said since his lungs were a little pre-mature and he had to have some help the first day and since he is so tiny that we need to keep him away from germs until RSV season is over. It's hard because we want to show him off, but we need to do what's best for him to keep him healthy!
Well, I'm sure this blog post is extremely long, and probably not all that interesting to anyone, but I wanted to write it all down before I forgot. I'm sure there are parts I'm leaving out though! Thank you all for your prayers over the past year. We appreciate them more than we could ever express.
12 comments:
So glad that you guys are home (well your mom & dad's). We will have to love on Corbin through the blog so we don't give him any unnecessary germies.
hey Chelsa! Happy to hear an update and that even with all the little bumps along the way things are overall going well. You are doing a great job staying positive!
We also had to stay away from people and o.d. on sanitizers after Lancelot was born because of his breathing difficulties and it was hard. When we could finally go out and let people hold him we had a party to celebrate! Enjoy the snuggly time with your little man!
So glad you are home safe and sound!
I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about Corbin's arrival!! I am SO happy for you guys :)
I ate up every single word of this post with a huge smile on my face! This baby has been much prayed for and anticipated - I loved hearing more details about his birthday!!! Take it easy and I hope y'all get back to your own house soon. Although if you're like me I sure do love some good spoiling by my parents :-)
I just couldn't stop grinning and was so teary eyed looking at the pictures and reading through this! I'm just so thrilled for you Chelsa! It sounds like you were a trooper through all the additional stuff... one of the many reason A, B, and C are so fortunate to have you as their mother! Thank you for sharing your story... you're truly an inspiration!
I also enjoyed hearing all the details about little C's arrival--thanks for sharing! Again, I'm just so happy that you're all home enjoying each other's company. There's really nothing better!
I am so excited that everything is going so well...minus the heat. But that is just a minor thing right now. Also, I loved reading about the birth of Corbin and all the little details:) What a day you had. Take care and I hope your BP will start coming down.
Phew. I bet that is crazy timing that all out! Im so glad you both are home and healty!
Sounds like a hectic couple of weeks! Glad he is growing and his big brother is doing so well. I love the pic of Brycen in front of the window!
Thanks for sharing your story! I'm so happy Corbin is healthy and home with you!
Great story!! I am still so happy for you and thankful for such a great experience for you.
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