The Precious Lamb of God: Jaeden's Story: Looking Good

Friday, June 20, 2008

Looking Good

I'm so happy to say that today Jaeden looked great. He was moving around, stretching, had his eyes open...correction, one eye open. ;-) Overall, he is amazing and working towards getting better, getting strong and a day closer to coming home.

He did have another blood transfusion because his hematocrit (red blood cell count) was low and it needed to come up some. He did well with the transfusion and it shows. His bilirubin is lower but he is still under the light. When we visited him today, they allowed him off the lights for a little while. That is how we got to see him with his eyes open until he felt enough was enough and then he went back to resting. I imagine getting a blood transfusion can be tiring for a little guy. Jaeden did gain a couple ounces from his birth weight. I knew I wasn't crazy when I said my baby looks like he was a little bigger. They put him back on the breastmilk, starting him back on 2 cc's and by tonight they will get him up to 4 cc's, every three hours. As long as he continues to do well with his feedings, he will fatten up and we are in business.

Tomorrow, the results should come in making a definite identification as to what kind of infection he has. The nurse practitioner said her guess is a staph infection, which is common due to his size and due to the central line. If that is the case, they will treat him with antibiotics and he should fight it off fairly quickly. He continues to be on BiPap and doing well. No apnea episodes. I guess he is following through on our agreement that he is not to scare Mommy too much. So far so good.

It was great to see him doing well and looking great!!! Keep up the great work Jaeden!!!!!

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How we got here!

It all started in December. I was sick as a dog. I had a cold, a cough that wouldn't quit and the headaches didn't stop. I remember coming home from work on a Friday feeling like crap. This was completely unrelated to the fact that I had missed my period and was wondering why. When I got home, I took a home pregnancy test but it came back negative. I was cool with that. This was already the third day I was feeling as if I were coming down with a bad cold or the flu. I go to bed Friday and stayed in the bed all day Saturday. My husband kept saying, C do you want to go to the ER. They may be able to give you some antibiotics or something. I thought I would be ok with some OTC medicine. I wake up Sunday, now I'm feeling worse. I finally take my husband's advice and we go to the ER. The doctor's asked me if I was pregnant, I said No. Remember I just took the home test two days before. OK. They said I had some type of upper respiratory infection but they could not give me anything because when they took my urine it came back positive for pregnancy. Of course, I felt like a deer caught in headlights. What do you mean, I'm pregnant? Hello, I just took a test that said Negative. Arthur and I were shocked, but happy at the same time. We discussed having a baby, but the timeline we had in mind, was a little later than this. God had different plans.

Nothing about this pregnancy was easy. Arthur and I were back and forth to the ER. There were episodes of bleeding. I remember leaving work with my sister, rushing to the ER and spending all afternoon and all night, to be told that I may not carry this baby past the first trimester. There was no heartbeat. There was the waiting game to see if a heartbeat would ever show. On another occasion, I went to the ER in my hometown, for them to tell me the same thing.

Finally, an ultrasound showed a heartbeat and we were in business. I was told I had to take it easy. That I did. In mid-March, I had the cervial cerclage placed and was placed on bedrest for a couple weeks. I went back to work and knew instantly that I was not going to be able to continue to work if I wanted to have this baby. After trying to work for two days, I went on disability. I was on bed rest with bathroom privileges for the remainder of my pregnancy. The only time I left the house was to go to the doctor and to have my ultrasounds done at the hospital. In April, there was noticeable shortening of my cervix. This continued to happen. In May, after one of my ultrasound appointments, I was put on strict bedrest in the hospital with NO bathroom privileges. Everything I had to do, had to be done while in the bed. I was away from my husband and away from my daughter. It had to be done for the safety of the pregnancy. I was given Steroid shots for the maturation of the baby's lungs. Dear mother of God, how those shots hurt. I cried each time I got them. Thank God, you only get two. Trust me that was quite enough. On Thursday June 5th at 3:00 am, my water broke, better known as Premature Rupture Of Membranes (PROM). Now there was cause for concern regarding infection. I was put on IV and given antibiotics to fight off possible infection. The next morning I was feeling down because I was worried about the continuous leaking of fluid. Worried if my baby was going to be ok. I cried and I prayed and cried and prayed. I fought to get my spirits up. But I managed to do so. Later on in the day, around 4 something, I started to feel pain. I didn't know what it was. I wasn't sure if it was contractions because the nurse said nothing was registering on the monitor. Everyone thought I was crazy. Hell, my husband did too. I knew I was feeling something and I knew the only person who would believe me was my own doctor. I made them call him and he came running. He ordered them to prep me for emergency c-section. In less than an hour, when my doctor arrived, and he checked me I was already 7 cm dialated. The mad rush began to hurry and get my baby delivered. By no means was it an easy delivery either. The surgery was difficult for me and for the doctors. But Jaeden made his debut into the world on that Friday June 6, 2008 at 28 weeks gestation. I thank God, that my husband was able to fight through Friday evening traffic and make it in time to support me and to see his son arrive. What a blessing!!! I thank my mother-in-law for being at the hospital, I thank my sister and my daughter. I thank my doctor for believing me and for acting so quickly. He said he ran five red lights. Hope you didn't get any tickets. I will end this by saying my son is truly a miracle child. It was later determined when my placenta was tested, that I suffered Placenta Abruptio. If my doctor had not believed me and he did not work as fast as he did, there would have been a different story to tell. Boy am I grateful, that my son was given a chance at life and that God did not find it robbery to bestow this awesome blessing upon my husband, and I and our family.

The Precious Lamb of God: Jaeden's Story

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Friday, June 20, 2008

Looking Good

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How we got here!