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Friday, March 19, 2010

Tacori's Birthday

After being discharged from Clovis Community Hospital, the next day consisted of bedrest. Per nursing instructions, if you don't have MORE than 4 contractions per hour-don't worry about it. Apparently, the antibiotics can cause "false" contractions. Well, I had consistent contractions 3-4 per hour and...tried not to worry. Come 24hours later I went to the restroom and *bam* there went my mucous plug and I was hemorraging everywhere and was in full blown labor. I was a mess and immediately we were off to the hospital. I was full of emotions and my husband became my strength-even though I know he was just as confused and scared as I was, he remained calm, cool and concerned. I arrived .to the hospital within 15minutes of losing the mucous plug and they got me into a room, checked my cervix and I had already dilated to a 6. The doctor told me little to nothing of what to expect. The only thing she mentioned was my waterbag was still intact, her heart is still beating and if you could get through the weekend-that would be ideal-if we could get your bleeding under control. I was immediately placed on magnesium (which was one of my roughest ventures in my life). It basically takes away all your strength so your body isn't strong enough to give good contractions that labor needs to advance. But it comes with horrid side effects that I could never wish on anyone. They gave me trobuteline to also help stop the contractions and a steroid to help speed up the development of the baby's lungs (in case she were to survive the birthing process) Within a day, I couldn't see, nor feed myself, nor move myself and was only allowed a very small amount of fluid to help prevent pnuemonia. When I say small- I mean it. Maybe 15cc/3-4hrs. Therefore I became dehydrated and needless to say I became a pin cushion-they had to closely monitor my levels since I was the patient and the baby-well, wasn't even a factor at this point. My veins had little to no fluid and they were unsuccessfully attempting to draw blood every 2-3hrs-I had no choice but to recieve a PICC line. I held in there for as long as i could which turned out to be only 3 days-:( We received overwhelming support through visits, prayers and caring thoughts from family and friends. But the best support we endured was hearing the monitoring of her heartbeat. It was strong, really strong since the day of admit. Nevertheless, she decided to come crashing into this world December 30th, 2008 weighing it at a whopping 20oz (580gms or 580paperclips) (1lb 4oz). Immediately she was wisked away to Children's Hospital Central California. She was a fighter from the getgo and the next 5months were some of the hardest days to swallow. Everyday she made it was a blessing. We ended up with normal preemie stuff such as desatting, a heart surgery PDA closure, ventilation, Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), chronic lung disease, infections after infections, self extubations and then the need for a tracheostomy and later a gtube for feedings due to feeding issues. There were many more but even though the odds were against us--a year later we feel like somehow someway we continue to fight them off as a strong and loving family.

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