Sugar and Spice...and A Boy!: Eli Turns One!!

My baby boy turned one yesterday. I can't even believe that I know have three toddlers at home. Well, one is pretty much a big kid, but I only call her that if she asks me to...ha.
What a year this has been with my third child. So many ups and downs and ups and downs during the first two months of his life. I think I will use this post to tell his birth story and his life in the hospital for the first two months of his life.

On March 22, I was put on bed rest because I was feeling dizzy and my blood pressure was slightly elevated. I went to see my doctor and she wanted to wait until I was 39 weeks to induce me. I had not been induced before-both of my girls came on their own so I was just waiting for that to happen. Little did I know that my baby boy was not coming on his own! He was pretty comfy in my belly.
Fast forward to Monday, March 26. I arrived at the hospital at 6:00AM. I was stoked. Awake. Scared. Excited. Every emotion you can think of. We had the IV hooked up by 6:30 and the pitocin started soon after. The contractions were very light I wasn't feeling most of them. My nurse was a bigger lady and she came from the Czech Republic. She was very loud and intimidating, but I got along with her just fine. I really liked her. By 9:00, I still had not really felt any strong contractions so I was just talking and laughing with my parents, in-laws and hubby. About half an hour latere-BAM.....I had two strong contractions back to back. I told Brandon that and he went to find Liba ( my nurse) and that I wanted an epidural. Liba comes walking in and telling me that I didn't need one yet-I was just at a three the last time she checked me. I told her that I needed one now because the contractions were killing me all of a sudden. Well, she checked me and I was suddenly at a seven! She called anesthesia and they said they would be there in 15 minutes-longest minutes of my life!
During that time, I had one contraction on top of another. I couldn't talk or anything. Liba told me she just kept upping my pitocin because I was so happy and just joking around. Well, it was up to the highest setting! Holy poop!
The anesthesiologist finally got there and was explaining to me what he was about to do. I could barely breathe at that point. I kept moaning and screaming....I had to sign a consent and Liba had to grab my hand so I could "sign" it-it looked more like a squibbly line.
Once the epidural was in, Liba tried to lay me down and I told her I wasn't moving. Well, she pushed me down on the bed because I wouldn't lay down! It was quite comical! She then checked me and I was at TEN! I could have just had a NCB, but that's okay.....
Dr. B. then showed up and I was ready to push. I pushed for about 45 minutes. They ended up putting an oxygen mask on me because Eli's heartrate kept dropping slightly during my pushing. Finally, out came sweet Eli. Crying, crying, crying. Did not stop. Loud as can be, pink as can be....looked as healthy as a baby is supposed to look. I held him for about 30 minutes while Dr. B. delivered my placenta and while we let the cord stop pulsating. The nurses then took him over to wipe him off and weigh him. It was during that time when they noticed his heart murmur.
While the nurses were listening to his heart, they heard something else besides the murmur. They came over and told me that they were a little concerned so they were going to take him to the NICU and have him checked out as a precaution. While he was in the NICU, a nurse put the tip of her finger in his mouth to let him suck on it and my baby turned blue and his O2 sats dropped into the 50's. Something was wrong.
During this time, I was stuck at my bed because I was still numb. Brandon and our parents went to go see Eli, but I had to wait-that was very hard.
While I was along, I finally announced on Facebook that our son had been born. Everyone was asking for pictures, but what did I have to post? Nothing except that my baby's life is in danger. How depressing those moments were.
Finally, I was able to be wheelchaired to the NICU. A doctor met us there and she told us that Eli had Pulmonary Stenosis. That was the lesser of the evils of all other scenarios we had been given, thank God. She told us this was treatable, but he would need to have a surgery to correct it. That was hard to hear, but we were grateful that he had a good chance of recovering from this. Eli was then transferred by Lifeline to the Children's hospital about a mile away. I had to stay at the hospital I gave birth to overnight, but my sweet doctor discharged me the next day so I could be with Eli. Brandon went and visited him throughout the night so Eli would have someone with him. That helped me deal with him being away from me a little better.
When I went to be with Eli the next day, we learned that they were going to do a heart cath. This was done on March 29. This procedure did not help Eli improve at all.

Eli in the NICU

During this time, I was staying at the Ronald McDonald house-just me. Brandon went home to be with the girls each night. That was a really hard time too-hearing my other babies cry because they missed me. I finally went home once that week so I could see them.
There was a decision made that Eli was to have a valvotomy on Monday, April 2. After that surgery, he was transferred from the NICU to the PICU-a horrible place to be. Kids are so sick, kids are dying. I hated it there. The nurses were great, it was just a depressing place to be. When Eli came out of surgery on April 2, my mom and I were there when he woke up. My poor baby's eyes widened and he had a look of fear in him. I couldn't hold him, couldn't help him. I had never felt so helpless in my life. They gave him some meds to calm him down and he fell back asleep. I stayed all night again that night. The next morning when I came in, there were a bunch of med students in his room. He kept desatting. All day long. I remember there was a really horrible time around 11:45 when his sats dropped into the 30's. I just sat there and cried. The doctor, RT and nurse were very calm, just did what they were supposed to do. They brought him back up and he was pretty stable the rest of the day. I decided to go home that night since he was doing better.
The next morning as I was getting dressed to go see Eli, I called the hospital to see how he was. As I was calling, the doctor was in the room calling me and Eli's surgeon. Eli had a horrible night and the conclusion had come that they were going to do another procedure on him-a BT shunt.
I consented to that over the phone, threw my clothes on, woke Brandon up, had him take the girls to the sitter and told him to come to the hospital afterwards. I went and picked my mom up and we sped to the hospital. We got there five minutes after Eli had been taken back. We talked with his doctor and felt better after we spoke with him. Dr. Rotta was positive this procedure was what Eli needed. He was right-it worked. Eli showed massive improvement after this surgery.

Waking up after his third procedure-holding Daddy's hand!

Holding him for the first time after his three procedures-it had been ten days!!

However, now we had a new problem on our hands. Since Eli had desatted so many times, his brain sent all the available air to his lungs and took it away from his GI tract. He then in turn developed NEC. That is a serious condition to wear your intestines can leak, form holes, kink, etc. Eli had a perforation on his left side and an abscess on his right side. He ended up staying in the PICU from April 2 to April 22. During that time, he switched rooms because our neighbor had many highly contagious diseases and they shared the same nurse with us. Our surgeon then demanded that Eli be moved to the other side of the unit. We stayed there for about a week until they discharge Eli to the Heart Center.
The Heart Center is a completely different world from the PICU. Even though you have your own room in the PICU, I had my own bed, bathroom-complete with shower in the heart center. Plus, they turn off all alarms in the rooms so you don't hear the constant beeping of alarms when your monitors slip off or get in the wrong position.
So now, we just played the waiting game. If Eli had not developed NEC, we would have been home by now. While you have NEC, you do not eat so you don't have food/poison leaking into your body. Eli was on TPN which nourished him until we could feed him. Basically, he did not poop for over a month. His belly was measured every day. He had upper GI's, Barium Enemas, a PICC line put in (and replaced), then taken out, a central line put in, replaced, then taken out--they both got infected.


Little man with a tube in his nose to drain out the gastric fluid in his belly

The drain in his belly

They finally just had to do manual blood draws to make sure he had not bacteria in his system. He also had a drain put in his stomach to try and drain the fluid out. Finally, finally, finally, after being on antibiotics, TPN and waiting, the decision was made that he would not have to have any risky surgeries to fix his intestines--they healed on their own-thank GOD!! We then gave him a bottle-he took it. I breastfed him-he did that like a champ.

Gastric tube out-NG tube in giving him my breast milk :)

Eli was discharged on May 22.

GOING HOME!!

He went home on a Joey Pump that fed him through an NG tube through his nose. I pulled it out for good two days later. He kept pulling it out and I would have to put it back into a screaming baby. He was eating good and had no issues, so I pulled it out and left it out. Mommy knows best in that situation!
Eli will have to have a few more surgeries to replace his pulmonary valve because it is not widening at all. We are hoping to wait until he is three to do the first of the series. He has developed more leaking in his valves and now has an ASD as well. Hopefully once we replace his valve, his ASD will mend itself. Only time will tell.
I am just thankful for every day I have will my sweet Eli!!