I think I will go ahead and tell you about the past week and everything that has occurred. We went in to see the doctor on Monday the 23rd and everything seemed to be going good. The baby wasn't as big as they would like to see, showing that he was starting to slow down. That wasn't a big surprise because we knew we had reached the stage were that was going to happen. We were hoping for a better result because I was taking blood thinner shots that would keep the placenta working. Well I guess that didn't work, or at least not like we had hoped. We went in for our appointment on Friday the 27th (they had just started seeing me twice a week) everything had gotten a lot worse in just a few days. They were checking the flow of the umbilical cord and noticed it wasn't flowing as it should. The cord has a flow like a heart beat it has a diastolic flow, which is the low number when we check our blood pressure. It is basically the flow when our heart is at rest. Well the umbilical cord is the same way it should always have a constant flow even when it is not pumping. His umbilical cord was not registering a diastolic flow, meaning it was stopping the flow for a fraction of a second. If we were to continue it would get worse and worse until the flow started to reverse and that we remember is what happened with the twins before they died.
The doctors all talked and decided that with such a drastic decline in a week it would be better to get him out. They scheduled a C section for the next morning. Not exactly what we had planned for the weekend. We were in Teton Valley for the week and had planned to go to the doctor appointment and then back up to spend time with Brandon's family for the weekend.
Grayson was born at 25 weeks on Dec 28th at 9:14. He weighed 1 pound 4.5 ounces and was 12.5 inches long. Just like with Callie he was born and passed through a window to the doctors and nurses. They were able to get him breathing and intubated. With Callie we were so terrified and didn't know what had happened for like an hour it was terrifying. I'm glad to say that we didn't have that this time. Dr Leavitt was finishing sewing me up and asked the nurses to check on the status of the baby. So we were able to find out within a few minutes that they had gotten him intubated and that he was stable. Such a huge relief. We also decided that we were done having these risky pregnancies with horrible outcomes so we had Dr. Leavitt tie my tubes will he was there. Wasn't really a hard decision to make.
Grayson is doing great, the first few days they told us to expect him to get sick because his lungs aren't able to cope with everything and they start to get inflamed. He surprised everyone and never had that happen. The next thing that they worry about with him being so early is brain bleeds. The blood vessels in the brain are extremely fragile and can burst causing bleeding in the brain. They have different degrees of bleed ranging from 1 to 4; stage 1 and 2 bleeds usually resolve themselves, 3 and 4 they usually have to do something and if it is severe enough there is nothing that they can do but let him go.
The night that I was in the hospital they gave me magnesium sulfate through my IV it is used to strengthen the blood vessels in his brain and help prevent the bleeds. It was horrible, I felt like a dead person walking, I couldn't focus on anything, it made me nauseous and it was a hot flash that never went away. Within a few minutes of them starting it I felt it burn as it went in through the IV and my face was instantly hot, the nurse helped by fanning me then Brandon took over and they finally brought a fan in that was pointed at my face at all times. They were able to give me medication to help with the nausea but it was still horrible and I felt like a zombie.
On Friday we found out that Grayson had a stage 2 brain bleed. They were planning on doing another ultrasound on Saturday to see if it was getting any better or worse. They did the ultrasound but we didn't know when they would be able to tell us the results. Luckily they told us within a couple hours that it was resolving and getting better. We are praying that it continues to get better and the next time they do an ultrasound it will be all gone.
The next thing they worry about are his bowels, they are not meant to be getting food so early so there is no way to know if they are going to handle it. They started with 1 mL and increased it by one every 12 hours. They continue to up the amount until they get to the amount he should be getting for his size which is 12 mL.
He should be on full feedings today and will continue on that amount until he starts gaining weight and they will up the amount as he grows.
I really don't know how the next few months will go but I am looking forward to holding him and being able to do all the things I did with Callie as she was in the NICU. This week I don't know what I will be able to do but I still want to be there as much as I possibly can. I am going to try and update this blog with all the things that are happening. I don't know how often that will be Brandon actually did this first post to get me going.
Everyone keeps wanting to help with anything they can and there really is nothing that we can do but wait. We appreciate all the prayers and thank everyone for their thoughts. We are going to put a donate button on this blog. We aren't necessarily asking for donations but if people want to help we will be burning up a lot of gas driving back and forth and while I am there I am not sure what I will do for lunch and possibly dinner, I know we can't afford to eat out that much. We are lucky that Grayson qualifies for the same program that Callie did, becuase of his low birth weight he qualifies for social security and disability which qualifies him for medicaid. So the NICU bills will be taken care of. Darcie's bills we are responsible for, we do have insurance but a high deductible.We also know there are a couple of people who donated to help on our adoption blog. Please let us know if you would like that money refunded or we will just use it to help out with Grayson.
I guess that is all for now, I will update when I can.
1 comment:
I am happy that you posted this,because you and your family are at the fore front of our mind. This must be so difficult for you and Brandon. Is callie handling it ok? We will continue to pray for miricals for little Grayson.
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