Baylor Anthony Wyatt made his way into this world almost a month early. He was due on August 9th, but for the past two weeks my platelet count in my blood had been dropping. I was called in to have more blood drawn and was told that an early induction was likely if it kept dropping. It did, so my doctor made an appointment for me at 5am on Thursday to go into the hospital.
Thursday morning came very early (Dustin and I had been staying up hours after putting the kids to bed this past week to clean and organize our house - you should see our pantry! I guess I was nesting...). Dustin and I woke up, drove to the hospital, got checked in, and the nurses started getting me hooked up to the machines. My contractions were starting as I ordered breakfast (I got the fresh fruit and cottage cheese platter with a side of bacon - yum). Dustin ran down to the cafeteria for his breakfast. We ate, started calling, texting, and messaging the news, and settled in to wait for baby. We didn't have to wait long.
Baylor arrived with only one push at 12:46pm on July 11, 2013. He weighed 7 lbs, 7 oz and was 20 inches long.
Because he was so early, there was a team of specialists in the room in case he needed help breathing. Dustin and I were nervous about that at first but were greatly relieved when we heard his first cry. They checked him out after giving us a few minutes to hold and admire him.
Then they passed him back to me to hold for another 30 minutes or so. By then, Southern and Remington were able to come back into our room and meet their new little brother. They joined us on the bed, and Southern touched Baylor's feet and hands. Remington just looked on curiously.
He was then taken to the nursery where they wanted to keep him to monitor his progress. He was breathing a bit too quickly and was not interested in eating. He just wanted to sleep. I was able to help feed him finally around 4pm as a nurse helped manually express some breastmilk onto a spoon and dropped several drops into his mouth. They inserted a feeding tube after that (I have been pumping) and kept him hooked up to the monitors overnight and into the next day.
I was released from the hospital on Friday. Luckily, Baylor's breathing by then had been normal for quite some time. I spent the night at home but have been going back and forth to the hospital with Dustin and the boys frequently. Yesterday evening, Baylor had progressed enough to be able to be unhooked for awhile while I held him (before that, I would just have to hold him near the machines so he could stay hooked up). I took him over to the nursery windows so the boys could have a close-up look. Last night, he finally took to a bottle of breastmilk, and he now has progressed enough so that this afternoon, they took the feeding tube out. He spent part of the day today under a LED UV light for jaundice.
The doctor is very happy with his progress, especially for his age. Baylor was supposed to spend another month just sleeping and being fed through the umbilical cord, so he is being remarkably brave and strong to have come this far in just a couple days. As for now, we are just spending our days going to the hospitals for visits, feeding sessions, and milk drop-offs. Dustin and I take turns visiting in the nursery, and the boys have fun on the playground outside the hospital and in the room we were given to use while visiting (so much fun that Remington passed out and took his nap at the hospital today).
We are looking forward to the day we can bring Baylor home with us. (Should be sometime this upcoming week!)
No comments:
Post a Comment