Thursday, November 18, 2010
Kangaroo Care
Today I got to hold Brannick for the first time! (I held him before but he was a bundle somewhere in blankets and it was only for 3 minutes-but I loved that time too!) We did a kangaroo care which is skin-to-skin contact. I held him for about 30 minutes! It was wonderful! I loved everyminute of feeling his little body in my hands pressed up to my skin. I LOVE being a mom!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
The long awaited post
Sorry it has taken me 8 weeks to post about our new little addition to our family: Brannick!
I'll start with the short story and get onto his life for the past 2 weeks. On Sept. 8 (Wednesday) I went to my regular OB appt and while she was doing the ultrasound she said that the baby looked small and she wanted me to see a highrisk OB just in case. Thursday morning I had a really fun appt with the ultrasound tech and we got lots of pics of Brannick in the womb. My mom was with me. The tech told me she couldn't tell me if anything looked abnormal since she wasn't the dr. When the dr came in he sat down and said "I'm not going to sugar-coat this. We are in a very critical situation here. Your placenta isn't giving your baby enough oxygen or blood so we are admitting you to the hospital right now and you might be delivering your baby within the hour." How do you even respond to that? Well, I was in shock and was trying to wrap my head around the prospect of delivering a baby like RIGHT NOW! Well, we walked over the family birth center at Ogden Regional Medical Center and they got me in a room. Justin had arrived by this time and my mom had to go pick up my dad as he had just come out of surgery that morning. (It was a man's area surgery that older men often have to have. He did great and is better now.)
The doctors wanted to wait at least 2 days so they could give me steriod shots and another medication to help Brannick's brain. On Saturday morning they wheeled me into surgery.
Justin watched the whole thing from the spinal tap (numbing) to the delivery to the stapeling me up. As they pulled out little Brannick he let out a little yelp and she popped him over the curtain so I could see him and off he went for 3 hours of resuscitation as I went to my room (suite). His weight was 405 grams (14 ounces). His abgar(?) numbers were really really low and they wanted to get me and Justin in to see him in the NICU as quickly as possible before he left this earth.
Here he is now 8 weeks old and still kicking! He has had a very very very hard life thus far. He has had kidney failure 2 times and barely escaped with his life both times. I firmly believe that it is due to the prayers and priesthood power that he is still here. He has been very strong! The right side of his diaphragm is paralyzed so he is only able to breathe with his left side. Eventually they'll do a surgery to tack the right side down so he can use his right lung also. He is still on a ventillator due to this problem, but is doing great lately and if he ever has the chance to grow he will get those little lungs bigger and get off the ventillator. On November 1st Ogden Regional was unable to get in a pick line (a deeper IV to deliver meds) after 5 hours of trying and he had to be life flighted to Primary Childrens Medical Center. That has been his new home for almost a week. We loved ORMC, but this is where he needs to be now because he has had so many complications and Primary's has so many doctors and specialists on hand to help our little prince. He weighs almost 2 lbs now. It will probably be Feb or March before he can come home, but we are so lucky to still have him with us and we love him to pieces. Thank you to all of you who have loved and supported us through these past two very long months. Here are some pics of him for you:
Brannick's little foot in my hand:
My wedding ring around his foot:
A cute little beanie donated to the NICU:
Brannick just being cute!
I'll start with the short story and get onto his life for the past 2 weeks. On Sept. 8 (Wednesday) I went to my regular OB appt and while she was doing the ultrasound she said that the baby looked small and she wanted me to see a highrisk OB just in case. Thursday morning I had a really fun appt with the ultrasound tech and we got lots of pics of Brannick in the womb. My mom was with me. The tech told me she couldn't tell me if anything looked abnormal since she wasn't the dr. When the dr came in he sat down and said "I'm not going to sugar-coat this. We are in a very critical situation here. Your placenta isn't giving your baby enough oxygen or blood so we are admitting you to the hospital right now and you might be delivering your baby within the hour." How do you even respond to that? Well, I was in shock and was trying to wrap my head around the prospect of delivering a baby like RIGHT NOW! Well, we walked over the family birth center at Ogden Regional Medical Center and they got me in a room. Justin had arrived by this time and my mom had to go pick up my dad as he had just come out of surgery that morning. (It was a man's area surgery that older men often have to have. He did great and is better now.)
The doctors wanted to wait at least 2 days so they could give me steriod shots and another medication to help Brannick's brain. On Saturday morning they wheeled me into surgery.
Justin watched the whole thing from the spinal tap (numbing) to the delivery to the stapeling me up. As they pulled out little Brannick he let out a little yelp and she popped him over the curtain so I could see him and off he went for 3 hours of resuscitation as I went to my room (suite). His weight was 405 grams (14 ounces). His abgar(?) numbers were really really low and they wanted to get me and Justin in to see him in the NICU as quickly as possible before he left this earth.
Here he is now 8 weeks old and still kicking! He has had a very very very hard life thus far. He has had kidney failure 2 times and barely escaped with his life both times. I firmly believe that it is due to the prayers and priesthood power that he is still here. He has been very strong! The right side of his diaphragm is paralyzed so he is only able to breathe with his left side. Eventually they'll do a surgery to tack the right side down so he can use his right lung also. He is still on a ventillator due to this problem, but is doing great lately and if he ever has the chance to grow he will get those little lungs bigger and get off the ventillator. On November 1st Ogden Regional was unable to get in a pick line (a deeper IV to deliver meds) after 5 hours of trying and he had to be life flighted to Primary Childrens Medical Center. That has been his new home for almost a week. We loved ORMC, but this is where he needs to be now because he has had so many complications and Primary's has so many doctors and specialists on hand to help our little prince. He weighs almost 2 lbs now. It will probably be Feb or March before he can come home, but we are so lucky to still have him with us and we love him to pieces. Thank you to all of you who have loved and supported us through these past two very long months. Here are some pics of him for you:
Brannick's little foot in my hand:
My wedding ring around his foot:
A cute little beanie donated to the NICU:
Brannick just being cute!
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