Jack's Back With the Family

At about 8:00 PM tonight Jack was released from the newborn intensive care unit and joined Mom and I to spend the night together. It appears that there is a very good chance that he will be able to come home with us tomorrow. I know everyone pretty up to date on this week's happenings, but I'll try to provide a little more detail.


Wednesday the 5th was like most days, Carrie and I woke up a little before 6:00 AM to get Carlos ready for school. Much to Carlos' liking we had some inclement weather and a two hour delay turned into a school closing. After I finished my annual winter rant about how we had to have 5 feet of snow for them to cancel school in Upstate NY when I was growing up Carlos headed outside for some sledding and I went back to work.

Carrie spent the day doing some baby/Christmas shopping and doing some things around the house. Benny and Tiki were playing outside in the snow for quite some time and when they came in Benny's wireless shock collar was AWOL. This happens every now and again because Tiki like to grab Benny by the collar and whip him around when they're playing. Unfortunately, by the time we realized it was missing a few inches of snow had come down and we couldn't find it. Because those collars cost over a hundred dollars Carrie and I engineered a plan of attack where we had Carlos slowly dialing down the radius of the wireless parameter while Carrie and I listened outside for the collar to start beeping. We had no luck and gave up after about a half hour and let the boys back out. Within about 5 minutes we saw Tiki fling something up out of the snow through the window and sure enough it was Benny's collar.

After dinner we started building a gingerbread house which has become a family Christmas tradition. About halfway through Carrie commented about how she hadn't really felt Jackson all day and decided to lay on her side to get him moving. After about 20 minutes with no success we called the nurse's station at the hospital and they advised that Carrie drink some juice and continue to lay on her side. We felt a few weak kicks, but were still worried so we decided to venture over to the hospital despite the bad weather at about 7:00 PM. They hooked up Carrie to the EKG and we saw that jacks heartbeat looked OK, and that she wasn't having any contractions. We left sometime later and arrived home at about 10:00. Carrie and I did some email and checked the news to find out that school had been canceled for the next day as well, so I set the alarm clock an hour later and went to bed.

Carrie awoke at about 5:30 AM on Thursday the 6th with a contraction. As she noticed the next one after a relatively short amount of time she grabbed her cell phone and did a rough timing of both the interval between contractions and their duration. She woke me a little after 6:00 and told me the situation. I called the nurse's station and they told us to wait about another 30 minutes, and if the situtaion was still the same, to come in. I woke up Carlos and told him to get his stuff ready and get something to eat quickly. I made Carrie a quick breakfast and hopped in the shower. We headed to the hospital and got to the emergency room around 7:00. They wheeled Carrie upstairs and put her in a triage room again hooking up the EKG. At about 8:00 they did an internal examine and said she was about 2 cm dilated. She was pretty surprised by this because the contractions were getting stronger by this point so they gave her about an eight of the normal dose of Nubain. This seemed to relax her a bit, but she was still feeling some pain. At this point Carlos decided he'd rather hang out n the waiting room. At 11:00 they gave Carrie another internal exam and said she was still at 2 cm and there was a good chance we'd have to go home. She was adamant about the fact that she knew her body and knew she needed to stay at the hospital. We spoke with the doctor and he told us our midwife was at the hospital and she could make the final determination. She came in at noon and examined Carrie yet again and found her to be 4 cm dilated - she'd won admittance to a delivery room!

Once in the delivery room the severity and pain associated with her contractions seemed to escalate exponentially (hey that's not a bad alliteration for an engineer ;) ). They gave Carrie a full dosage of Nubain and this seemed to allow her to ride out her contractions a bit better. During this period she remained pretty calm and even was able to doze off for a little bit. I used this opportunity to check on Carlos and give him Carrie's cell phone to keep him updated. I told him he could call someone if he felt like talking, and after a quick trip to the bathroom I saw him pacing the halls chatting on the cellphone in full view of any 11 year old girls that might be at the hospital overhearing an occasional "dude" and "awesome". All I can say is those teenage years are coming quick like a fast freight train just a choogin on down to New Orleans (any CCR fans reading this)?

At about 4:30 our midwife did another internal exam and Carrie was at about 8 cm dilated, 90% effaced and Jackson was at a -2 station. Things were moving very quickly as we expected, after all her labor for Carlos was only about 4 hours long, quite uncommon for a first child. I called Carlos to tell him the news and told him I'd probably be unreachable for about the next two hours, as the midwife estimated the baby would be out in that timeframe. Because her water had not yet broke, but it was described as "bulging" through her cervix, we all decided to break it. When they did they noticed some discoloration consistent with meconium. I'm not sure that Carrie picked up on what the doctors were discussing, but I was immediately anxious as my nephew Connor had a very tough going when he was born because he inhaled some meconium. The doctors called pediatrics and Carrie started to push. In the course of pushing through about three good contractions she got Jack to a +1 station. The doctors and myself were quite amazed by that. By this point I was holding a leg and glad that I wasn't quezzy as I was worried I'd be. A few minutes later Jack was crowning and I was a bit worried as he appeared to have some meconium on the top of his head. I few hard pushes later and he was out. Obviously, I cannot do the experience justice with word, nor can I describe the pure anguish Carrie seemed to endure to get him out. All I can say is that when the experience was over I will never view Carrie in the same light again, and mothers in general. She persevered through those long last hours with such strength, it was truly remarkable.

The midwife told us that she was going to make sure Jack didn't scream when he came out as she didn't want him to inhale any meconium. I quickly cut the umbilical cord and he was given to the pediatric doctors. Carrie and I watched on a they pumped oxygen into a dazed looking Jackson and sucked out his esophagus. We asked if he was OK and was understandably given to with noncommittal responses. They just didn't know. His skin was very pale, and he just had this dazed look. I listened on as they gave out horrendous Apgar scores and began to worry. They did let Carrie hold him briefly though which offered some consolation. They then rushed him out and left us kind of scared. About 20 minutes later one of the pediatric doctors returned and told us that it looked like the meconium had only made it to his vocal cords, that he seemed to be breathing better now, and was more responsive. He would however have to remain in the NICU for observation. With our glass now half full I called Carlos and gave him the good news, but told him he'd have to wait for a little while to meet his brother. He came over to the room and Carrie and I began to make some phone calls. I called my Mom and kind of lost it when I heard her voice. I ducked in the bathroom because I didn't want to freak Carlos out. After talking with her I called Jess and she was able to calm me doen a bit as she had been through the same experience.

We headed to the NICU a few minutes before 7 and were able to see Jackson. He had a oxygen hood on but already looked much better. He was much more active, his skin had better color, and he was sucking away on a pacifier. As Jess told me later, this was a big a milestone in and of itself - if there was any concern of meconium he would not be allowed to do this. Carrie and I spoke to the doctor and were given some reassuring words. We returned several times throughout the night to check on him and at about 1:00 AM we were told that they had turned his oxygen level down to 35%, not bad considering we breathe 21% oxygen. The doctors were still noncommittal on a release date, but they said he was looking much better and they're next step was to get him breathing room air.

We arrived Friday morning to find him with his oxygen hood off! We could finally see his face up close and personal and even better we could now hold him! As the day continued we were told that the next step would be to see how he reacted to being breastfed! We couldn't believe how quickly things were changing for the better. That night at 9:00 Carrie fed him for the first time and did the same at midnight. He was still on his IV so the nurses told us he was getting enough nutrition and we should get some rest and return at 6:00 AM to feed him.

We continued to return to breastfeed throughout Saturday morning and stuck around to speak with the doctors while they were making their rounds. We asked a bevy of questions and were given positive responses to all of them. The most important of which was that the anticipated transferring him out of the NICU and over to the maternity ward that evening provided his sugar levels stayed up once he was taken off the IV. We returned later to see that he was indeed of his IV, but they had to reattach another to administer antibiotics. Sadly, they stuck him several times and were only able to get a good one in the side of his head. But as of 8:00 tonight he's with us in our room and things are looking good for him to leave tomorrow!

Obviously, we are very excited to have him here, and have been soaking him up.

Here's a few more parting shots: