Monday, September 23, 2013

Judson Tyler Smith: The Birth Story

Judson Tyler Smith was born on September 11th at 12:46am.  He weighed 4lbs, 15oz and was 18in long. Our miracle baby came about 6 weeks early and has been in the NICU for almost 2 weeks now.

On Monday the 9th, Brett and I went to my doctor to have an ultrasound and doctor visit. During the ultrasound, the tech was measuring the size of the baby and looking to make sure everything was going well and that baby was healthy. She told us that the baby was measuring pretty small but the baby was in a position that she couldn't gt a great belly measurement so she wasn't quite sure how small. She then spend another 10-15 mins checking other thing out like the fluid levels, brain activity, umbilical cord, blood flow and so on. For all we knew, all of this was routine and we were not worried about anything. We were just excited to see our little guy on the screen.

Once we were done there, I had an apt with my OB scheduled right after. Once we were in the room, the nurse came in and hooked me up to a monitor. I asked her why and she just said it was because I was getting further along. I thought that was a little strange because I was only 34 weeks along. But I wasn't worried at that point.

After a half hour of monitoring, the doctor finally came in. She told us that the baby was not getting the nutrients or blood flow through the umbilical cord that he needed and he has stopped growing and we needed to gt him out. Today?! Yes today. He's going to be ok right? He will be just fine.
She told us to go home, get some stuff together and that Labor & Delivery would be expecting us shortly.

I called my mom and sister Alyssa and they both were able to head right up. My papa just happened to be up and the Naval Base and were were able to send the girls back to Orem with him to be watched by Paige, Dallin, Jerry, Grandma and Grandpa Smith, and I'm sure a few other family members.

We arrived at the hospital around 1. They immediately tried to induce labor. The goal my entire pregnancy was to have a natural birth. I had taken hypno birthing classes to control my pain. Inducing labor was already a step away from my plan but, I wanted to do it as natural as possible. My doctor was very supportive of my plan and what I wanted and was going to try everything she could to give me what I wanted.

They tried something called Cervidil first. After 12 hours, they checked me to see if I had started dilating. NOPE. Then they decided to start Pitocin to see if that would work. Every 4 hours or so, the Dr came in to check if I was dilating. No Progress.... No Progress....  In the mean time, I did start to have small contractions. I used my hypnosis and was able to stay comfortable during them. They kept increasing the Pitocin until they were at the max. My contractions continued and I had dilated to a 1/2. It had been so long and I was not even to a 1! It was so frustrating. The Dr decided that we would try one last medication- I can't remember what it was called.  Again every 4 hours I was checked. My body was not responding to anything. I was so frustrated.

After trying all if that, it had been about 36 hours since I checked into the hospital.  I had this nurse at that time that kept telling me that I should stop trying and just have a C Section. That was not even an option for me. It was absolutely the last thing I wanted to do. I hadn't even considered it and I was very annoyed that this nurse was running her mouth saying all sorts of opinions that I wasn't interested in hearing. The next step was to start over with the Cervidil again. I was very frustrated that my body was not responding at this point. I was contracting but not dialaing. I asked the nurse if she would call my doctor and ask her we could do another ultrasound. I trusted what had been said from the other ultrasound but I wanted to get a second look at it and maybe the baby would be in a better position to get better readings and measurements. My doctor agreed and ordered the ultrasound.

The 2nd ultrasound showed that everything that the 1st tech had detected was correct. In addition, the flow in the cord had gotten worse over the past 48 hours. Instead of absent flow in parts of the umbilical cord, there was reverse flow where blood was going in to the baby and then coming back out. Also, within the time of the first and second ultrasound, baby had gone from head down to head up and was now in the breach position.

After the ultrasound, the doctor and nurses came in and she told me that she was very sorry that I was not going t be able to do this the way I wanted and we had to get the baby out. So, a c-Section became to new plan. I was scared. Really scared.

They took me to the operating room. The anesthesiologist had to numb and stick me 3 times because he couldn't get it in the right spot. This was the most pain I had been in so far. I handled the first one but when he had to keep starting over, all I could do was cry. It was very painful. I'm not sure if it supposed to be or if that guy was just tired cause it was the middle of the night.

Brett was able to came in after I was numb and they got going on getting the baby out. Brett watched the whole thing while holding my hand. The baby did not want to come out. It was a struggle for them to pull him out. When they finally did get him out, they rushed him right out of the room. I had a bit of a panic attack at this point. I felt like I couldn't breathe. The anesthesiologist assured me that I was breathing just fine but I was panicking. He put something in my iv to calm me and after that is a bit of a blur. I remember going back into my room and I had to wait one hour to be able to see my baby.

They finally took me back there and I was able to see my teeny baby. He was so precious and so small. They would not let me hold him and I wasn't able to stay long.

I got to hold him the next day. There is something amazing about holding a child you created. I cant even really explain the feelings that I was having. My heart had burst into a million pieces... this baby was mine and I couldn't believe it. He was so precious.

Baby was born early Wednesday morning and did not have a name until Friday evening. It was the hardest thing to name him. We had sen the name Judson on a random list on the Internet once and Brett really liked it. We had a list of names that we were narrowing down and one day it just clicked that Judson was the right name. With a last name like Smith, we wanted something unique but not weird. It is perfect for him.


I stayed in the hospital til Sunday. 6 days was way too long to spend there.... I felt like I lived there. I missed home and my girls but was so sad to leave Judson there and go home without him. The first could days were so hard. I cried.... a lot. I was so heart broken that I couldn't have my baby home with me.

Brett is taking his paternity leave now to be able to help me so that one of us can be at the hospital for every feeding during the day. We go there at 8,11,2,5, and 8. We get to send an hour each time with him.

The first week that Judson was in the NICU, he was working on his blood sugar problem. His blood sugar was too low and they had to use and IV with sugar solution to help stabilize it and then gradually reduce the IV and see if he could keep it up on his own. He overcame this problem! Once he did that, he was able to move out of his box into a normal NICU crib.

After we did that, he started to have some breathing problems.  His oxygen levels were too low and without a breathing cannula, couldn't keep his levels up on his own. He is also not eating as much as he need too. He likes to fall asleep in the middle of eating and then we have to tube feed him the rest. These are both developmental problems that he will hopefully sort out soon. So it is up to him when he will come home. Hopefully its not much more than another week.























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3 comments:

Mandi and Adam said...

Thanks for posting all the pictures and the full story! He's just so perfect! We're praying for him to get to come home soon. Love you guys! You should be getting a box from us tomorrow. :)

Darlene said...

Such a blessing to have a baby. Sorry you have to go through all the problems. We are keeping you in our thoughts and prayers.

Cheryl said...

He is so tiny! I love the size of the binky compared to his head. Cade was in the NICU for 5 days. I didn't get to hold him until he was 36 hours old. Not nearly as long or traumatic as Judson, but it is weird to go home without your baby. I remember just wanting to spend every minute there with him. I'm glad everything looks like it will be fine. He is so handsome!