Corridor 9

No new pictures today. I’ve been told that it was time to enjoy time with out baby and not take pictures. . Luckily, Dad’s taking a few pictures as I type so maybe I’ll update this post with a few new pictures sometime tomorrow.

Christian’s lung functions have improved a bit and he has been taken off the C-Pap machine. His O2 Saturation is still in the mid 90’s which is right where they want it. The are now doing 3 chest X-rays per day due to a problem that the found in his chest wall earlier this morning. He has a small pneumothorax; basically a small hole in his lung that allows air to escape into the chest cavity. The doctors don’t think that this is going to post any problem, but he’s still having a hard time blowing off his CO2.

The bruising on his face is looking better. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but since he’s been stuck in the same position with his head down for the last 7 weeks, his face was black and blue when he came out. It’s now a bit more pink, but they are anticipating him needing a light tent because bruised babies tend to develop jaundice easier.

His feet don’t look pretty, and I’m sure they hurt a lot. They both have numerous needle sticks for both veinous and arterial blood. While his feet are big, boy that kiddo has boats for feet, they’re even more swollen now.

Ok. So as we thought, baby Christian needed to go to the NICU based on some medications that he needed, his breathing pattern, and a bit too much CO2. Since he was put in there this afternoon, they’ve placed an IV, run a number of blood tests, hooked him up to a C-Pap machine, and kept him warm.

He seems to be doing well and has eaten at least once now. He still gets a bit stressed when touched, but that will calm down. Kristie and I attribute that to him being poked and prodded every time they took an Ultrasound. They were literally pushing him around today during the US to get proper measurements.

BTW. I changed my first diaper today. WOOT.

Christian Alex
Born 12:54 pm
5 lb 2 oz
18 in long

Welcome to Earth, Son.
Additional Pictures can be found here:http://www.corridor9.net/gallery/v/Being+Family/Baby+Christian/.

This past week has been rather uneventful. The highlight of the week was on Thursday when I took 12 hours of vacation time in the morning so that I could be here at the hospital with Kristie for and ultrasound and placement of a PIC line. As usual, I was able to go back and watch the ultrasound in real time. The fluid level in the amniotic sack was estimated to be about 5.3 cc which is a bit lower than last Thursday.

We were worried that the drop in amniotic fluid level might indicate additional problems down the line. As I mentioned before, the lack of fluid during pregnancy can contribute the a lack of development in the baby’s lungs. However, we were assured that this would likely not be the case as the baby is already almost 30 weeks along. Dr. Quatro consulted with a perineonatologist from Vanderbilt University a few days ago and they confirmed that the baby’s lungs should be developed enough that the lack of fluid should not be an issue. Only during early development would this lack of fluid matter, and he should not induce labor simply due to low fluid volume. This is definitely a relief for us.

As for the PIC line, I was not able to be in with Kristie during the procedure. I was forced to hang out in the waiting area. I wasn’t too happy about this as I’d taken vacation for the specific reason of comforting her during this time. While they had a few problems getting it in due to her vein’s spasming, the procedure wasn’t too painful for her, and it definitely was worth it so she doesn’t have to be stuck 17 more times for IVs.

Kendall ended up staying the night Friday and camping out on the floor. It had been quite a while since she was able to spend the entire night with Kristie, and they both seemed to enjoy watching TV and having fun.

Some new information on the baby front:

The other night, Kristie was taken off the IV fluids because she was doing so well on her output. They were using her injection port to give her the antibiotics with instead of a constant fluid drip. When the nurse came in later that night, she ended up removing the injection port all together and placing her on oral antibiotics for a period of time.

When we were moved to the second room, we were given a rather small room due to the fact that she doesn’t need an observation room, but doesn’t need a mother/baby room either. The room was only about 150 sq ft and was not real good for visitors and such. In the end she was moved to a room that was roughly twice the size and had a couch bed that I could occupy instead of the hard backed chair that has been killing my back for the past few nights.

Today Kristie is getting a PIC line. It functions just like an IV port, but doesn’t need to be replaced every 4 days like an IV port does. This way she doesn’t need to have 17 separate IVs over the course of her 2 month stay. I’m actually writing this now from the x-ray waiting room as she’s back in the arteriogram room having the procedure. With this PIC line they will be able to draw blood, and inject fluids and antibiotics.

She also had an ultrasound earlier today to check the baby’s position and amount of amniotic fluid. The baby is currently turned head down and is sitting just on top of her cervix. The heartbeat is still nice and strong, and everything with him seems to look good. The amount of amniotic fluid that she has is a bit small. With averages being between 8-25 cm, her 5.3 cm is not looking so hot. If it drops much more, they will likely induce labor so that the baby’s lungs arent damaged due to a lack of fluid.

Other than that, everything is pretty much the same as before. Nothing much to discuss, so no posts everyday. I’ll keep you informed regarding future events.

Yesterday Kristie was moved to a new room. They moved her out from Labor and Delivery Observation into more of a post delivery room; smaller, but only slightly less pricey.

She’s now allowed to take “quick showers”… See. every nurse that came in always mentioned taking a quick shower. After about the 10th time Kristie asked if Dr. Quatro wrote “quick” in the chart. Actually, he wrote “patient is allowed to take one 5-minute shower per day”. LOL

Nothing is new with the status. The baby is still getting monitored every few hours, but no longer constantly. She’s still receiving 1 L of fluid every 10 hours which means waking up every 2-3 hours during the night. She’s now on antibiotics every 6 hours until she has the baby.

Still waiting I guess….

Throughout the day, Kristie has been hurting miserably with her back, using a bedpan has been unsuccessful to say the least, and lack of sleep has made her grouchy! Needless to say, I’m the one feeling the brunt of her pain.

It’s official, her water has broken. It hasn’t gushed like you would normally expect, but she’s been loosing water for a while now. Because of this, she’s been taken off anti-contraction medicine. See, the problem is that if her water is broken, she doesn’t need to leave the baby in there. It’s her bodies way of telling her it’s time to have a boy.

In addition to being removed from the contraction medicine, she’s also been put on antibiotics. When the water broke, the risk of infection to both her and the baby went up dramatically. She is on antibiotics now every few hours and they are having to draw blood to check for infection every day now. Did I mention Kristie hates needles?

Expected time frame is within a week for delivery.

Kristie’s first night here at the hospital was quite restless. She has already started having contractions, and is already dilated to 3 cm. She began having contractions at roughly 1 am if I remember right. Unfortunately, because they are really trying to hold off delivering this baby for a while, they are giving her anti-contraction drugs. While this keeps the baby in there longer, it also increases the risks a bit.

In addition to the pregnancy problems, she’s always had back problems. Laying on these beds for 24 hours a day really sucks. During the night she was told that she no longer gets bathroom privileges anymore either. It’s bedpans for now.

12:40 at the fire station, and I’ve been here for roughly 30 hours. Kristie just called me after visiting with the doctor regarding her pregnancy. She called me and you know what the first words out her mouth were… “We’ll, I’m headed to the hospital!”

I was almost in shock, mouth dropped wide open, and I left promptly. We had a brief stop in the ER prior to coming straight up to Labor and Delivery, where she was placed on a fetal monitor, contraction monitor, and bed rest.

Part of the concern is the fact that Kristie is only 28 weeks along. For those guys out there who don’t know… a normal term pregnancy is roughly 40 weeks. That puts the baby almost 3 months early.

Note: I’ll try to keep up to date on blog posts throughout this process, but right now I’ve got to catch up on some old information.

Kristie had her first ultrasound this past Monday. It was such a neat experience to see the little heartbeat and hear it pumping. I was smiling the whole day, and I know that she was much more at ease now that she’s heard the heartbeat. I’ll keep you posted on new developments.

Well… it’s finally coming true. Kristie is pregnant.

I was sitting there playing my game on the computer when she came in and held up what appeared to be a Q-tip. I was wondering if I had left it sitting on the counter or something. Finally after abour 4 seconds I realized that it wasn’t a Q-tip but a test strip, then after another 4 seconds I finally realized there were 2 lines on the strip.

Neither of us could really believe it so she ended up taking a total of 3 tests. The next morning she called a friend at the doctor’s office who said that 3 tests was more than enough to confirm the pregnancy.

Needless to say I’ve had a smile on my face for the past few days.