I haven't blogged in a long time! I'm happy to announce our new little boy Gabriel Oliver born on March 12th, 6 lbs 9 oz 17 1/2 in long and 5 weeks early. Three boys will keep a person busy, I barely know if I'm coming or going some days! I wanted to take time though to share our birth story. This was one truly miraculous birth in my opinion and I thankful everyday to have come through it with such a perfect little man.
Starting at about 31 weeks I began having weekly non stress tests and amniotic fluid index's done because I was experiencing unusually high fluid levels with the baby. Everything showed up fine at these weekly checks and the baby was doing well.
On March 11th I was having pretty weak but regular contractions. I had a feeling that m uterus was just irritated and that it wasn't real labor but I was feeling "off" as well. It was just one of those weird feelings that make you certain that something just isn't quite right and you need to do something. I called my doctor and explained the contractions and other symptoms and she told me to go to the hospital to be monitored. When I got in I was contracting every two minutes so they hooked me up to an IV and placed me on the fetal monitors to trace my contractions and the baby's heart rate.
Right away the baby's heart rate was showing in the low 90's and went up and down from about 90 BPM to around 120 and every now and then things would go back to normal around 140. The doctor ordered a biophysical profile to get a better idea of what was going on with the baby. The BFP is a 40 minute ultrasound to measure the baby's movement and breathing patterns as well as heart rate and gives a general picture of baby's health in the womb. We did 3 BFP's while trying to figure out why the heart rate wouldn't stay up. The good news was that all of the movement and breathing patterns were excellent and my fluid levels had even gone down to an almost normal level. The bad news was that the heart rate was still dipping very low and we didn't know how to stop it.
The doctor told me that I had to stay overnight to monitor the heart rate but that most likely we would just go home the next day if things continued looking good on my next BFP. I wasn't sure how to feel about that news. I knew it was too early to have the baby and didn't want to do anything drastic if unnecessary but when all there is to do is sit in a hospital bed and listen to your baby's heartbeat go up and down and get so terribly slow your brain just puts awful things into your mind. I got not a moments rest that night listening to the sound of his heartbeat go fast then slow, back and forth all night long.
The next morning, March 12th, the doctor ordered another BFP and said that if everything was normal then I would get to go home and I would then have to do fluid checks and NST's every other day for the remainder of my pregnancy just to be safe. When the results came back from the BFP everything with the baby looked great same as before. The bad part came when they measure my fluid levels and in 12 hours the levels rose over 10 cm. It was decided then that something was going wrong with the baby and we needed to get him out before something really bad happened.
I had the option of either doing an induction or having an elective c-section. The doctor said it was totally up to me but there was about an 80% chance I would end up with an emergency c-section because of how hard a time the baby was having keeping a good heart rate and that it was also very likely I would have a prolapsed cord once my water broke because the baby was floating around in so much fluid he could get low enough to keep the cord out of the way. Sal and I discussed it and I opted for the c-section. I never in a million years thought I would need one and couldn't imagine myself actually opting for an elective c-section but Murphy's Law bit me on this one. With the planned c-section we had the benefit of an unrushed surgery without major stress on me or the doctor without the baby being in serious trouble and a pediatrition in the OR waiting to care for the baby as soon as he was born.
I was a nervous wreck. They took me into the OR and started prepping and the doctor was running late. Sal was sitting outside waiting to be called in and there I was sitting up waiting for the doctor to do my spinal block and it was terrifying! I just wanted so badly fir Sal to be there with me so I didn't feel so alone.
The surgery was very fast but at the same time seemed to stretch on for an eternity. Sal watched the whole procedure and was far more entertained than I thought he should be. When Gabe was finally born I remember the nurse telling me he was out and Sal was taking pictures and Sal dropped the camera over the drape into the "sterile area" or whatever and annoyed the nurses. Then things just seemed to slow and take forever. They cut the cord and took Gabe over to the warmer but I hadn't seen him or heard him cry. I heard the doctors and nurses working with him and suctioning him. It felt like hours before I heard his first cry. It seemed like things were so harried and tense at the time and nothing happened like it happens with a normal delivery. No one said how big he was or how much he weighed or even what time he was born. Sal was at the warming table with him and they took him to the nursery for oxygen while the doctor finished my surgery. Afterward I returned to my room and waited to get enough feeling in my legs so I could see the baby.
After about an hour the poor nurse took pity on my and let me up to go to the nursery. I hurt like the dickens and had almost no feeling in my legs yet but its amazing how well you can walk when your in one room and your baby is on the other side of the maternity ward and your desperate to see him. There was no way I was going to wait for returning sensation before I saw my baby. Everyone kept asking what we were naming him and even though Sal and I had both decided on the name Gabriel I wouldn't commit to it when I had yet to see him and see if the name even fit him.
He was beautiful. So tiny and fragile and perfect I could hardly believe it. The doctors wanted to transfer him to a hospital with a NICU so that he could get the oxygen and breathing support he needed. The hardest part was how little of him I actually got to see before they took him. I was in the wheelchair because I couldn't stand yet and the warmer was too high to get more than a half of a side view and he had a big halo over his head to get oxygen to him and they had already put in the IVs and all the monitors. I got about five minutes with him before he was transferred.
I spent two days in the hospital and then it was the doctors turn to take pity on me and give me an early discharge. It's amazing how quickly I began to feel like myself again. I had almost no pain once I was discharged and was running around doing everything the doctors had ordered me not to do by about the fourth day home. I would have loved to have been able to rest and heal more slowly but the situation didn't allow it.
Gabe came home at just shy of three weeks old. His lungs were underdeveloped and he had to learn to breath and eat on his own. Thankfully he didn't develop an infection and was just in the hospital so he could grow and mature. He's a wonderful baby. I rarely hear him crying and he's just so content and easygoing. Really I'm probably having a much easier time of it than I deserve but I couldn't ask for anything better. Through his hospital stay I was able to start breastfeeding and have managed to continue after Gabe's homecoming. A big worry was not being able to pump enough to get a good supply or that Gabe wouldn't take to nursing once he had gotten used to the hospitals bottles but my little man is more than happy to take food any way he can get it. That little boy can eat enough to feed an Army of babies! He lost a lot of weight in the hospital and was 5 lbs 14 oz when he cam home. Right now we are almost at 6 weeks of age and he is almost 9 lbs!
Time is flying and I can't believe so much has happened so quickly. I feel blessed every time I look at him. He is our perfect little angel Gabriel and I am the luckiest mother on Earth to have three wonderful sons. Thank you to everyone that gave us their thoughts and prayers.
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nt, summer squash, cantaloupe, cucumber and zucchini. Space 
wise this is the most we could get since most of the yard is full shade all day we're limited as to where we could plant. I wanted some spinach and a few lettuce types but those would have taken up a lot of space and I wanted to get the most variety I could into such a small space. Right now I'm fighting hard with the boys trying to keep them from seeing the garden as one big dirt rally for their trucks and tractors. .jpg)
nt, summer squash, cantaloupe, cucumber and zucchini. Space 
wise this is the most we could get since most of the yard is full shade all day we're limited as to where we could plant. I wanted some spinach and a few lettuce types but those would have taken up a lot of space and I wanted to get the most variety I could into such a small space. Right now I'm fighting hard with the boys trying to keep them from seeing the garden as one big dirt rally for their trucks and tractors. 