Griffin's Story & Updates

Well since he has been here for over a week I figure its about time to post the how and why of his birth :)

Saturday Feb 14th:

The day started out well. The family visited and brought little rosies for our valentines lunch. I felt fine all day and then about 5pm started to feel some mild contractions. The on call doc decided to put me on Magnesium Sulfate. They on me on the 2.5 dose but I still had mild contractions so about 11pm they bumped it up to 3.

Sunday Feb 15th:

I felt like death. Once they bumped the Mag to 3, I couldn't talk, hold my head up, or hold my eyes open. I did stop contracting, but that is about all the good news I can give for that day. I started vomiting and no amount of medication could make me feel better. I felt so bad I banned all visitors from my room and made Zach stay close by because I felt things were going to get worse before they got better. About 10pm the contractions started back even though I was on the highest dose of the Mag. They also discovered they were going to have to lower it back to 2.5 because a blood test showed I had too much of it in my body. I got some extra terbutaline shots and labored through the night praying for morning when I would be able to see my doctor....and surely, have this baby.

Monday Feb 16th:

I woke up feeling much better although I was still contracting. The difference in the 2.5 and 3 dose of the Mag is unreal. I was hungry for the first time in 2 days but I refused to eat because I just had a feeling Dr.F was going to call it this morning and proceed with the csection. About 9am he came to the room with the Operating Room schedule in hand. He said he thinks we have hit a wall and its time to take the baby while we are still in control of the situation.

Thank goodness...we have an answer! Don't get me wrong. I would have spent another month in that room on that medicine if I needed to but everyone agreed that this was best for me and the baby.

Zach started making the phone calls to let everyone know we were going back for surgery in about 3 hours. Aubree came up to the hospital in her big sister shirt..SO EXCITED that Griffin would be here today. I, of course, started to get nervous about surgery, spinals, NICU, etc. Zach seemed to be pretty calm about it all but was super hungry because he refused to eat the hospital breakfast I ordered for him. :)

We rolled back to the OR a few minutes after noon and Griffin was born at 12:27...i think.

He cried when he was delivered and Zach was able to hold him going up the elevator to the NICU. He was put on a cpap machine for some light assistance breathing and showed no other signs of health problems. I was able to see him after the surgery was over and I had spent my hour in recovery. When I got to my room everyone was waiting there for me and eager for their chance to go to the NICU to see Griffin. I was not there when Aubree first got to see him but Zach says she just gasped and said, "Oh, I love him!" I hate that I missed that.

As far as my part of the surgery goes. Dr.Fiore was very vocal about how great our timing was. He said that my uterus was super thin under the placenta and that if I had continued to have contractions for another 12-48 hours we would have had an abruption which is deadly for both me and the baby. We can say with 100% certainty that we gave him all the time we could inside, which makes me feel better. We had also prepared for a large amount of blood loss on my part but we were lucky, again, and I didn't lose more blood than usual for a csection. I am recovering well..besides being allergic to the adhesive they used on my incision.

As far as Griffin goes he is doing great. He was breathing 100% on his own after 3 days. He moved to the progressive unit shortly after that. He is free of his IV and never showed any signs of infections. Now we are just waiting for him to take all feedings by bottle (rather than G tube) and continue to gain, rather than lose weight. As of this morning he has mastered one bottle...YAY! The nurse had removed the G tube and from my understanding is hoping not to put it back.

Some bad news is I have not been able to visit him in a while because Aubree has a stomach virus and Zach and I have both been exposed to her germs obviously. We don't want to take any chances in making him sick so we are just staying away.

I will keep updating daily now that I have got the whole story put on the blog. Here are some new pictures.

Here is Big Sister patiently waiting for baby Griffin.

Here is Mr.Griffin in the progressive nursery. The tube you see is how he gets his non bottle feedings.

This is one of my favorites, he found his thumb through his IV stuff. He was very happy :)