If you weren't around for Reagan's birth or you never heard the entire story, here is her birth story, well, in part. Many details have been left out simply because there is so much that happened.
I had been having a lot of complications with my pregnancy. The last fews months that I was actually pregnant, my doctor had been having me come in twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays) for non-stress tests, bloodwork and various other things. I went in Thursday, December 14th and everything was as fine as it could be considering the circumstances.
Monday, December 18th, I went in and Reagan's heartbeat was extremely low...in the 80s...I started getting really upset but my doctor thought perhaps it was my heartbeat they were hearing. So they had another tech come in and find Reagan's heartbeat...it was really sluggish still but much higher..into the 120s and 140s. My doctor decided it was sluggish enough to warrant a bio-physical (ultrasound).
I thought everything was fine because the tech even took pictures and was smiling and talking to me...but then she sent me into the hall to wait for my dr. My dr. said there were some problems...Reagan had developed fluid around her lungs. She was going to admit me then but I didn't have bags packed or anything..so she told me to go home and prepare myself for a possible C-Section while she spoke with some specialists in Indianapolis. I received a call later saying I definitely had to get in for a C-Section, it was an emergency at this point.
Josh and I arrived at the hospital and were put into L&D for monitoring. Someone from the NICU came up to talk to us and said they weren't sure what was going to happen, but Reagan was having some serious complications and they had Riley Children's Hospital and Samaritan (the helicopter) on standby and they were waiting on the pediatric cardiologist to arrive. I went into hysterics and the NICU representative was asked to leave by my nurse. I was completely unprepared for what I was told.
A little while later, I was wheeled into surgery and at 8:39 p.m. Reagan was delivered. She wasn't crying..it was so quiet in the delivery room...and the NICU nurses, cardiologists and neonatologists started working on her immediately...as soon as they stabilized her they showed her to me for about..literally a second..holding her up as they wheeled her out. Josh went with Reagan. As soon as they left I started having a lot of heart problems, I was violently throwing up so they couldn't get me sewed back up, I was losing too much blood--I really thought I was going to die--I heard my doctor and nurses arguing and I heard my dr say something about she couldn't do anything because I was shaking so uncontrollably..I actually heard her say oh no, so Iwas really scared at that point. But, long story short, my dr is incredible and she and the team working on me did a great job getting me back together.
I was really out of it for the next several days though..Icouldn't even really get it through my head that Reagan was my child. Reagan spent almost a week in the NICU, -I was in the hospital almost as long-she seemed to get healthy so fast at first in light of all the problems. The drs said that if my OB hadn't been so vigilent, that if Reagan had been allowed to go just a few more days, we would have lost her. She had so many problems, a virus--we don't know how she got it because I tested negative for it...it was Parvo/Fifth's Disease..fluid around her lungs, heart problems, PDA, apnea, severe reflux, pretty bad jaundice. I can't remember if there was anything else wrong..as I said, I was really out of it. T
The last night in the NICU we were allowed to sleep with her in the NICU family room, she had a bililight (I think that's what it was called...the large one). Well, it lost it's wheel and almost crashed down on her...if it would have hit her, she would definitely have not survived. Luckily, I thank God, Josh was right beside her and caught it. I'm soo soo thankful..if it had been just me there, there is no way I could have have caught it because my reflexes were so off.
They finally allowed us to go home with her. We were home for 6 hours..the monitor kept going off, her heart rate coudln't stay high enough...back to the hospital. We were admitted into a regular hospital on a regular ward. The next day we were transferred by ambulance to the main hospital she had been born in, this time into the pediatric ward (once you leave the NICU, you can't go back in due to the fact that it is a sterile ward only for newborns).
In the pediatric ward they began tons of testing. We were there a few hours, and yet another nurse came in to do testing. Reagan was so still and quiet in my arms and the nurse kept saying she didn't like how unresponsive Reagan was, that she was too quiet, too still, too pale. I kept telling her Reagan was fine because I was watching the heart monitor and I knew as long as it was over 100 she was fine. I guess it didn't register (again, I was still recovering from the medication I was on) that the monitor was ONLY showing 100.
And then she started crashing. That was the worst moment in my life. Alarms were going off. Reagan wasn't responding. The nurse was frantic, Josh was running into the hallway...I just kept watching the heart monitor go lower and lower and I was sobbing and shaking reagan and the nurse had to yell at me and snatch her away from me because she said I was shaking her so hard I was choking her. And then so many doctors and nurses were running in with equipment and they started working on Reagan. Oh God. You can't even imagine. Our poor baby and all these people around her, working on her and we were helpless. I couldn't do anytihng for her, just sob. And then they were telling me they were getting her out of there and she was going into the PICU, and the nurses were carrying her down the hall with oxygen and monitors attached to her.
And we got there...I think it was Christmas Eve at this point. Her pedi had people lined up around her room waiting to do tests and scans on her heart, brain, lungs. He said he ran almost every test he could on a newborn--then he perfomed a spinal tap. He stayed with us almost all night until the preliminary results came back. I thank God they were negative. She stayed in the PICU for several more days until they could rule out further viruses, they pumped her full of antibiotics. Finally they felt she was well enough to go home, but on a monitor, tons of medication and on oxygen.
She came off the oxygen when she was almost a month, the medication at seven months and the monitor at nine months. Now she's a healthy, happy, beautiful and smart baby. And i am the luckiest mom in the whole world to have her.
Below is a picture of Reagan at two days old I believe, before she had more wires and oxygen attached. The second picture is of her now! As you can see, I have a very strong willed and determined child to make it through everything she went through!
Happy Birthday my sweet baby. You are the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me. I love you more than anything in the world. Mommy
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Happy belated birthday, Reagan!
ReplyDeleteI knew you had a hard time and some serious medical issues to deal with, but I had no idea just how bad it was. So glad that you are able to celebrate your beautiful little girl this year!