Jaxson in the NICU
I wanted to document his story for anyone interested but mostly for him someday. When I first found out I was finally pregnant I started seeing the first Dr someone told me was good even though he was a family practice Dr instead of an OB GYN. After a few months of very brief and not through appointments and after finding out that he only does 1 ultrasound the whole pregnancy I decided to do some research and find someone else. After 5 or so glowing recommendations and reading many great online reviews I decided to switch to Dr Nathan Ward. He was more detailed and gave me way more education. Shortly after I started seeing him it was about 18 weeks in so his ultrasound tech did my big ultrasound. She was great and very experienced. She found that I had a single artery Umbilical cord and Jaxson had an abnormality with his left hand. If we had gone to another ultrasound tech there is a good chance they would not have caught either in that ultrasound. During my pregnancy we did extra genetic tests and met with neonatal specialists at the University Of Utah to make sure we were prepared and that there was not anything more serious going on. At first I could not understand why the Dr was ordering extra tests, and it was so hard to find any information about what everything meant. I found some research that said that said that when a single artery umbilical cord and a physical abnormality were both present there was a higher chance that there is something more serious going on. Thankfully, they determined that the cause of his abnormality in his hand was most likely the result of a blood clot early on in development but that they would not be able to tell the extent of what was there until he was born at which point we would be referred to more specialists. As far as the single artery umbilical cord Dr ward and his staff would watch it more carefully throughout the pregnancy to make sure the baby continued to get all of the blood and nutrients he needed. I received ultrasounds at almost every visit and NST’s (non Stress tests) every week for the last 8 weeks. His delivery date was supposed to be July 7th but the Dr decided to set the date and induce me on June 28th because there was a higher chance of a stillbirth if we let him go full term.
On Monday June 19th I woke up at 5:00 am for work. I was teaching some group fitness classes at the gym that day. I also trained most of my regular clients that day. I was tired and didn’t have a chance to eat much that day but I was feeling very accomplished. After work I went to interview my first pediatrician in the search and then straight from there I went upstairs to my weekly Check up and NST. Even though I had felt the baby moving a lot that day the NST showed that he was not as active as the dr would have liked. Dr Ward did an ultrasound and found that the baby had not grown for 2 weeks He informed me that the baby was not in distress but that they needed to get him out before anything happened to him. He had the nurse walk me right over to the Labor and delivery floor of Lakeview Hospital which was attached to his building. I called Frank as we were walking, still in shock and panicking since I had not packed a hospital bag and was not ready. As first he did not believe me but after the nurse Cassey confirmed it Frank’s shock kicked in also. I told him that there was no need to rush to the hospital but that if he could leave work early that might be a good idea. As the nurses were preparing me to have my water broken about thirty minutes later Frank called me and told me to ask if he could pick up his best friend to bring along for his moral support, it was a nice comic relief to ease the stress and the nurses and I got a good laugh.
My plan was to go natural. I had read books about the Bradley Method and it made a lot of sense to me. I figured that I had a pretty high pain tolerance and since the doctor had said that the baby was on the small size I could do it. Not to mention the faster on average recovery time and I didn’t want me or the baby to be drugged up or disoriented. Rewind back to about 20 weeks pregnant for a side note, I tore a muscle in my abs while showing a client how to do an exercise I probably should not have been doing. As my belly grew the muscle was separating more and hurting more and more. The Dr prescribed me Tramadol for the pain. I had told him that I didn’t want to take anything that had any side effects for my baby and he reassured me that it was not dangerous at all and people take way stronger drugs while pregnant and the babies are just fine. I didn’t take nearly as many as the prescription allowed for, just as needed a f I wish I would not have believed him. Fast forward back to June 19th with the pediatrician meeting, when I told him that I had been taking Tramadol he seemed concerned and told me that I would need to go off of it about 2 weeks before I delivered the baby ( I was already scheduled to be induced in 8 days) so that my baby wouldn’t go through withdrawals! Holy panic attack! My Dr had never mentioned anything about this to me before. Had I known anything about possible withdrawal for my new baby I never would have even taken the pills.
I was planning on the Dr doing a cervical softener and being able to hopefully labor at home for a while and hopefully avoid having to take Pitocin. I had heard so many horror stories about how pitocin makes natural labor so painful.I labored naturally for about 13 hours with pitocin full blast. I also had to take several rounds of antibiotics because I was group B positive. I was uncomfortable but it was fairly do-able. The things I found that helped me through my natural laboring the most was trying to focus on deep breaths and keeping my hands relaxed. I highly recommend the Bradley method and will definitely try to do it again.
When the nurse came and checked to see how dilated I was around 8:00 the next morning I was only dilated to a 2. It was at this time that I made an emotional and defeating decision to get an epidural. I was so exhausted and knew I had so much longer to go and I knew that when my baby finally came I wanted to be able to enjoy him which I knew I wouldn’t be able to do unless I got some sleep. After the epidural I was able to relax a little and get some sleep. My Dr came in and checked me around 3:00 pm and I was only dilated to a 3. He told me I was going to need a C-section because the risk of infection is too high after the water has been broken over 24 hours. I asked if we could wait any longer and he agreed to let me wait one more hour. I don’t know what kind of miracle I was expecting but did not progress much and so when the Dr came back about an hour later we started prepping for surgery. My Dr was great and I trusted him to do what was best. He allowed my husband Frank and My sister Roshelle to come in because I wanted it recorded. I will try to attach the video of the C-section. I found it so helpful in my recovery to see what happened to my body in the delivery. Every time I get frustrated with what my body can’t do right now I think back to the video and immediately see just how far I’ve come.
I’ll spare the less than glamorous details of post surgery vomit and poop. In the end I got my beautiful baby boy 5 lbs and 18 inches long. I have never loved anything so much in my life and all of the pain was suddenly forgotten as I held him in my arms. As they were doing his tests they found that his blood sugar was extremely low (most likely because he had not had sufficient nutrients for the two weeks prior). I nursed him and was able to raise it to a safe level but right after everyone went home to give me some bonding time alone with my baby, a nurse came in and informed me that the neonatal Dr wanted to have my baby put in the NICU for observation. They wanted to run extra tests because of his hand and keep him under observation because of his blood pressure and they were worried about the Tramadol giving him withdrawals. They were also concerned because he was early and had such a low birth weight. It was so hard for me when they took him away that night. Something about it made me feel like such a bad mom. I felt like people thought I was some druggy and bad Mom because of the Tramadol and his hand abnormality. A nurse practitioner came into my room and questioned me about what I was taking and I felt awful. When I was finally able to see him he had an IV in his head and monitors all over. There is nothing worse than seeing your baby hurting. Thankfully he was pretty good at nursing so they let me nurse him every three hours but I also had to supplement with a high calorie preemie formula.
After three of the longest days of my life I was discharged from the hospital but allowed to stay in my room until the baby was discharged. Two days later I was able to take my baby boy home. I have never been more scared and excited in all my life. When I think of everything that could have gone wrong with my pregnancy I feel so lucky that my little man made it. If I would have stayed with my first Dr and waited to go into labor naturally, he may have been stillborn. Things could have been so much worse with his hand. I don’t know if anyone will read this who can relate or take anything helpful away from my experience, but the most important thing I have learned from all of the difficulties this pregnancy presented is gratitude. I am so grateful that my baby is here and safe.
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