It started on Jan 15th when my wife started hemorrhaging and had to be rushed from work to the hospital. To give a bit of background, she was pregnant with our third child and the pain and amount of blood had her very worried.
Fortunately we have an excellent hospital with a top notch Maternity and Delivery ward. After batteries of tests, ultrasounds, blood cultures, poking, prodding, examining and monitoring, the baby appeared to be fine and content inside mom, but my wife was suffering a great deal of pain in sporadic bouts that would come and go at a second's notice. It wasn't typical contractions, and she was not going into labour, but would experience a pain similar to contractions, but they would last for between 30 and 90 minutes at a time. Unfortunately, the gestation period was only around 29 weeks at this time, so the doctors really did not want to remove the baby this early. To paraphrase the many doctors that saw her over the next two weeks, she was pretty much told to "suck it up and let the baby develop for as long as possible where it is happy and much better off than being delivered now." :?
She was administered two shots of glucocorticoids, a steroid that passes through the placenta and helps speed the development of the lungs of the baby, as this is typically the most at-risk system for babies born premature - their lungs are not developed enough to sustain themselves at such a premature state and often fail, necessitating invasive respirators to be utilized on the babies. This can lead to all kinds of respiratory problems throughout their young lives and often to lung infections which can cause awful complications.
Now, my wife is a tough woman. There is no doubt about her mental fortitude - after all, she married me - but after a week, she really was ready to go insane. I spent a lot of time at her bedside, shuttling the kids back and forth between our house, the hospital, their dayhome, and occasionally I would try to work a few hours, over a slow air-card link that drove me nuts, but actually allowed me to get a few important tasks done. It was a very stressful time - any husband who has had to watch their wife suffer the pain of child birth in a normal circumstance can attest to the utter helplessness of the situation - you want so desperately to be able to take away the pain and suffering, but you are really forced to watch from the sideline, being able to offer nothing more than what sounds at the time like lip-service encouragement, and a hand to squeeze on when the pain gets really bad.
Twice in past pregnancies I have been with my wife through her pain and both times were horrible - she had had tough pregnancies... This was infinitely worse.
To shorten a very lengthy story - my wife was a trooper throughout this ordeal. I was stressed and losing a lot of sleep in uncomfortable chairs at her bedside for many of these nights she spent in the hospital. Her doctors became concerned that she was losing too much blood and had suffered an awful lot. There is a fine line between ensuring the baby is not put at any unnecessary risk, but also balancing the needs of the mother as well.
Finally, early one morning after a routine checkup where the nurses strapped one of their numerous machines to measure the baby's vital signs to her, she experienced the worst pain episode yet. The baby's vitals experienced a previously-unseen dramatic drop which indicated the baby was stressed. Her doctor was paged and when the vitals did not return to acceptable levels, the decision was made and things progressed at a rate of speed that was nearly a blur.
Before we knew it, her doctor had driven into Edmonton from the same suburb that we live in, an OR was prepped, Lee-Ann was given an epidural, and I was thrown into scrubs to sit with her in the OR.
At 04:51 hrs on January 28, 2008, our third child and second son, Evan Christopher Pettinger was delivered, 8½ weeks premature, but otherwise alright. He weighed in at a tiny 4 lbs 3 oz but was actually a decent size for a baby born prior to 32 weeks of gestation.
Fast forward almost another two weeks and Evan is doing remarkably well. The steroids helped immensely, as did the extra 2 weeks of 'cooking' inside mom from her initial day of trauma. He is back up to his original birth weight as of today, and has begun feeding from a bottle for the time being. This means that the tube that runs through one nostril and into his stomach may be able to be removed soon if he can continue tolerating orally-administered milk. Once all his nutrients are being administered orally, he can have the tube yanked for good.
The medical staff are pleased with his progress. His lungs have had multiple episodes where he stops breathing, but has been able to return to normal with mild to moderate stimulation. These episodes are decreasing at a steady pace and once they have ceased, we are hoping it will not be too long before he is able to come home with us. They are predicting another month or so, which would take him to the point where he would be considered the equivalent of a "full term" baby - 37 weeks.
Dad is still busy shuttling kids kids back and forth to the dayhome for their days, the hospital for short visits and the occasional "picnic" with Evan, and then home daily. Mom has been cleared to come home and can now drive herself back and forth and spends a good deal of her waking hours at he hospital letting our little guy know that he is loved and cherished. I am back to work and split my days between the office and working from home when I can in order to provide necessary assistance to my wife, who is still recovering from the c-section performed.
We feel very fortunate for the wonderful staff at the hospital - they have been so caring, compassionate and understanding. We are optimistic that Evan's great progress will allow him to come home soon where we can try to start this thing over again in a more normal sense. All is well in our little universe that consists of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, home, and the roads in between.
Of course, I am already looking forward to 2010, when some declarations of SQVPs and 2nd labels will be announced and I will get the chance to pick some up for him to sit beside his brother's and sister's stashes in the cellar.
And yes, Daddy has been snipped so there will be NO FOURTH!
Needless to say, I am over a month behind on the Forum, so if you see a bunch of postings that are being dragged up from weeks ago - well, that would be me!
I apologize in advance! I also have not been drinking an awful lot over the past few weeks, although I have had a couple of bottles opened in celebration, along with a TN for the January Virtual Tasting - I'll get to posting this eventually!Todd
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