Jett's First Bath

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Alright, so I know this post is a little out of order, but I just couldn't wait for you all to see him! Jett had his very first bath tonight and with the help of his wonderful nurse, Erin...I was able to bathe him! Joel took some videos, so enjoy! I promise to catch up on the blogs...it's just been really busy!

Although Jett was born at 2 pounds 10 ounces, he lost a lot of weight and dropped down to 2 pounds 2 ounces. He was pretty scrawny, but he's bouncing back and is now up to 2 POUNDS 6 OUNCES!!!!

There are 5 quick videos...CLICK HERE!

Joel changed his diaper for the 2nd time!!

Jett's First Few Days

Lying in the recovery room was both a relief and a moment that I will never forget.

The medication was definitely working and I was on cloud nine that everything had gone fine and Jett was delivered without any difficulties...as far as I knew.

Joel and his parents were able to see Jett right away. They were elated! Jon and Rita both came back to my recovery room with tears in their eyes saying, "He's just so precious". I was so happy that he was here, but extremely anxious to see him. I came out of the surgery at 3:00pm. I was unable to see my son until 8:30pm. You can imagine my emotions. All I had to go on were the reports of others and according to most of them, he was doing alright. I also learned that they protect the mother from the truth while she's in recovery!

Jett was very sick. At delivery, he was born with a rash covering his little body. It could have been heat rash or a rash from his infection, but they were uncertain. Once in the NICU, the doctors assessed and treated him right away. Jett's left lung was collapsed due to a hole in it. This caused a Pneumothorax, which is a collection of air or gas in the space around the lungs and may result from chest trauma or lung disease. His "air bubbles" had moved to the center of his chest and were putting too much pressure on his heart. His blood pressure was all over the map, he had edema in his lower abdomen, and a crazy bacterial infection.

They inserted a chest tube, immediately started him on a breathing machine...called the "Jet Valve"...go figure! He was pumped full of medications for his heart and lungs, antibiotics for his infection, x-rays to monitor his PDA heart murmur, brain ultrasounds to check for brain bleeds, blood transfusions, anemia, jaundice, and fluids. This is the short list!

It's hard to put into words the emotions that I felt as I held my sick little boy's hand. I wanted it to be me, not him. I wanted to be the one being poked and prodded with all of the sticks and needles and wires. I didn't want him to have to fight so much in the first few days of his life! We were scared. They said that he was septic, which meant his blood was infected. His infection was caused by Pseudomonas, a bacteria that lives in the environment all around us.

The doctors' major concern was his PDA. A PDA is the patent ductus arteriosus (vessel outside of the heart that can make the baby's breathing and heart problems worse). There are a few ways to treat it, but they were leaning towards heart surgery to correct the problem.

Jett's Delivery

March 16th, delivery cont...

After Jenn arrived, the doctor went over a few more things with us before the surgery. He said that because my fever had spiked so quickly, Jett needed to come out as soon as possible. 

The nurses had to adjust and redo my IV (which was no fun at all) and we were off and on our way to the OR. I remember it being ice cold when the double doors opened. Because of the fever, I was already shivering, but now I was almost convulsing! 

They prepped me for the spinal and before I knew it, my toes were numb. Again, a really weird feeling! The anesthesiologist did her magic and we were soon underway.  Joel came in with tears in his eyes and told me he loved me. He tried to hold my hand for me even though I was shaking so bad. I asked the anesthesiologist to hold my other hand because I couldn't keep it on the table.

Unexpected Fever

March 16th, 2010...Tuesday morning I woke up feeling a little "off". I was freezing and the room temperature was set on 80 degrees. I kept asking Joel to turn it up, but he was sweating so I knew something was wrong. Joel buzzed our nurse, Kit, and told her I wasn't feeling that well. She checked my vitals and Jett's heartbeat, and although my temp was only 99.1 (which they don't consider a fever yet) Jett's heartbeat was in the 160's instead of 145 which he had been averaging the past two days.

I decided to take a shower and even though the water was hot, I had chills. I put some warm clothes on, dried my hair and tried to calm down and crawl under the covers. After my shower, the ultrasound specialist named Joann came in to do her routine 3-day ultrasound to check Jett's progress and fluid amount. When she saw the heartbeat of our son, she saw the red flag and notified Dr. Kempner that something was wrong (she didn't let us know that there was something wrong so we wouldn't freak out). The doctor came in to check on me once she heard I wasn't feeling well and as soon as she saw me shivering in my fleece hoodie, she decided we needed to move back down to the labor and delivery floor and to get ready for Jett.

By the time they transported my bed two floors down which took about twenty minutes, my temperature had risen from 99.1 to 102.4! The nurses began to prep me for delivery and another doctor came in to meet us. He very calmly said that he suspects there is an infection and we need to go ahead and do a c-section to get him out. In the midst of all this, I asked Joel to call Jenn, our cousin. Joel said, "Why?" I snapped back and said, "Don't ask me why just do it! We don't even have a camer to get pictures of the birth!!!!" Joel quickly called her.

Joel's parents, Jon and Rita, were on their way from Wilmington, NC to meet their new grandson!

March 12, 2010...Long Weekend

March 12, 2010 to March 15, 2010...Starting out early Friday morning after the transfer from Rex to Duke, we ended up in the Triage of the Women's Hospital from 1am until 5am. Grandpa Jon and Grandma Rita were right by our sides (well...in the waiting room) after their intense drive from Wilmington at midnight. When the Labor and Delivery room was available upstairs, we finally moved up to the 5th floor and were on standby, waiting for Jett's arrival. A few hours went by, and we were both stable. They were monitoring Jett's heartbeat as well as mine, pumping antibiotics through my IV to prevent an infection, and checking vitals every three hours. By the time 5pm rolled around without any signs of contractions or distress, the doctors ordered me upstairs to the 7700 floor. The 7th floor is for pregnant women on long-term bed rest....and that was me. By wheelchair, they transported our little family again into "the closet". It was the tiniest room, especially for a 6ft. pregnant women to stay in for 7 whole weeks if their plan worked! I was already thinking about how crazy I would have been in 7 weeks after being stuck in the closet. Thank God Joel is such a social butterfly! He became friends with all of the nurses and found out quick how to get a room upgrade. By 6pm on Sunday night, we were moving to room 7734. It was a double room converted to a single, and we at least had room to move.

Uncle Cy & Aunt Linda sent Choc. covered Strawberries :)

Friday night, my friends, family, and school family began to visit! Talk about feeling like people loves you and your family...Underwood teachers and parents are truly unique and unbelieveable. From a laptop, to a dvd player and dvds, snacks, fruit, magazines, books, puzzles, manicure tools, etc. We were not going to be bored in this long journey, that's for sure. Thank you so much to all of you that thought so much of us on a Friday!

Saturday and Sunday went by very quickly. There were so many wonderful visitors to distract Joel and me. We laughed and made the best of a very scary situation. Sunday night, we got the message from our wonderful nurse, Kit. "Okay, time to move!!" Joel was on top of it from the moment we arrived in the closet, and Sunday night everyone helped move ALL of our things. There were 7 people there at that time so it was perfect....we moved in ten minutes-if that!

February 6, 2013...Bed Rest tips off the memory

March 11, 2010...My water broke on Thursday night completely out of the blue. I had just gone to the doctor that afternoon for my glucose test and left the office with great news and feeling great! Joel and I went home, cooked some dinner, I had my nightly ice cream treat and while flipping channels between the Georgia Tech game and Idol, a sudden rush of water happened! I had no pain, just confusion. We called the doctor and she said I needed to go to the hospital.

When arriving at Rex, we were told the baby was coming! Obviously not what we've planned, it was a scary night and we had to move fast. Once there, they realized that I wasn't dilated at all but assumed labor would begin in the next 48 hours so they began monitoring me and the baby. They pumped us full of antibiotic IVs because the risk of infection was their first concern. They also gave us a steroid to help his lungs to develop. At 27 weeks, he's obviously wasn't ready yet. But, the good news was that he wasn't going anywhere.

Since Rex is only a Level 2 nursery, they wanted to transport me right away to a Level 3. We traveled by ambulance shortly after to Duke Women's Hospital. We arrived at 1am Fri morning, they assessed me again and moved me to Labor and Delivery at 5am. After two hours of sleep, my internal alarm clock woke me up for school. Needless to say, it was a long night.