The Fabers: NICU

Continuing from Part I of this story. I'm not leaving anything out, so read at your own risk. ☺ Bwahahaha.

"Where is your husband, we need to do an emergency c-section NOW!?"

Oops. I hadn't called Cary yet. I called him and I don't remember exactly how that conversation went down, but I think I did manage to tell him that they were probably going to do a c-section and that he needed to come as fast as he could. LDS hospital was a good 30 minutes or so away from where we lived at that time.

(In recovery)

I had the chills and was shaking pretty bad, they decided to go ahead and start prepping me for surgery without Cary there. They explained that a nurse would bring him back to the operating room when he showed up. Obviously, this wasn't an "emergency" emergency c-section, since they can have the baby out of you in like 8 minutes if they need to.
Cary showed up at some point before they started, and I remember hearing Aidan cry when they pulled him out, but I didn't get to see him. This operating room was right next to Pod 1 in the NICU (Newborn Intensive Care Unit), and they pass the babies through a window to the NICU team. Aidan was born at 32 weeks 4 days, August 10, 2007 at 3:34 AM. He was 16 inches long, 3 lbs and 13 oz.

(Cary holding Aidan for the first time, the nurses were worried that I was going to be mad about him holding Aidan before I got to. Ha.)

After inspecting the placenta they thought it was starting to separate (placenta abruption), but the immediate concern was that Preeclampsia had descended very quickly on my body, and the pulmonary edema (fluid in lungs) that can lead to heart failure. The only way to get rid of Preeclampsia is to end the pregnancy, so that is what they did.
I was in and out of consciousness for the rest of the night. Cary took the camera to the NICU and took some pictures and came back to show me, I was just happy that Aidan looked somewhat healthy.
The rest of Friday was pretty much a blur, I really couldn't stay awake for more than 3 minutes at a time. Ben and Chandra stopped by, Dan and Melanie, and Sharon and Janille. At that time (They've since moved to a new hospital, where I had Ella, and I'm not sure how they do things there), the NICU was pretty strict about who could go in the NICU, we could only pick 8 people who could see Aidan, and only 2 people could go in at a time. Considering we have big families, it was pretty hard to decide. Obviously we wanted our parents to be able to go in, and from there we just picked people that we thought would be most likely to make it in to visit. Sharon and Janille were planning on staying in to help out so they were on the list, so most of our other guests were out of luck about seeing Aidan and I don't think I was much fun to visit with at that point. ☺

(Aidan under the lights)

By Saturday, I was doing quite a bit better but still sleeping alot and my blood pressure readings were still through the roof. The nurses were pestering me about getting out of bed, going to the restroom (Ah, but I loved the catheter, unless it kinked, then it kind of sucked. ☺), and going to the NICU to see Aidan. Janille was pestering me about pumping (Thanks, Janille!) and going to see Aidan, I was really starting to wonder if I really wanted to pursue breastfeeding anymore, and I definitely didn't want to see Aidan. For whatever reason, and I've now learned it's somewhat normal, I was feeling guilty about everything that happened, like I did something wrong to make it turn out the way it did and that made me not want to see him and face what happened. I guess.

(Holding Aidan for the first time)

(I didn't see him in person until he was a day and half old.)

(Man, I look hideous, but I'm glad I have these pictures) ☺

Kenneth, Crystal, Rosaleen, Alex, and Abby (Did I miss anyone?) came in to visit me that afternoon. (Sharon and Janille were there too) I had finally gotten out of bed, went to the bathroom (forget having a baby, going the bathroom afterwards is the scariest part of the ordeal! It looks like a war zone and I was pretty sure all my insides were going to fall out!) was moving around a little bit and Janille and the nurse were really pushing me to go visit Aidan, so I reluctantly agreed.

I started bawling the minute we entered the NICU and I saw Aidan. I was just so overwhelmed with guilt, seeing him so tiny, but happy that he looked okay and that he was mine. After that visit I never wanted to leave him, but with our circumstances that wasn't possible. I did leave the NICU with a more renewed sense to keep pumping since at that point it was the only thing I really could do to help Aidan. "Breast Milk is best" was the mantra around the NICU. ☺
I was in the hospital until that Tuesday, so I spent a total of 8 days in the hospital. It took awhile for my blood pressure to come down, it was actually still pretty high when I left, but a lot lower than it had been. (I'm actually glad I was pretty ignorant of just how high my blood pressue was, now that I know it would totally freak me out!)
I was really dreading being discharged, being in the hospital meant I could visit Aidan anytime I wanted by just walking down the hall, come back to my room, have a snack or meal waiting for me, pump when I needed to, sleep whenever I wanted, etc... ☺ Going home meant fixing our own meals, Aidan was now 30+ minutes away, finding rides to the hospital since I wasn't supposed to drive, and planning all that around my pumping every 3 hrs schedule, etc...blah.
Do you know how much atrophy happens to your muscles in eight days? Cary had this brilliant idea for us both to walk to our vehicle instead of him going and getting it and picking me up. I think it took me an hour to get to our van and it wasn't THAT far of a walk. lol. My legs didn't know how to function anymore and my muscles were shot. I had to stop all the time so my legs wouldn't cramp up.
After I was discharged, Janille stayed with me a lot of the time, so that Cary could go back to work. She was the one driving me around and was my breastfeeding cheerleader. Ha ha. When she wasn't there, my mom, Melanie and Cindy helped me get to the hospital. I usually tried to be there for his 8:30 feeding in the morning, and then Cary and I would go again at night.

(Mom with Aidan)

(A week after Aidan was born)

Aidan didn't really have any problems other than he needed to gain weight. Babies typically lose weight after they are born and his weight dropped to 3 lbs 5 oz. His lungs were good, he was a little jaundiced at first, but I think he only had to do 1or 2 sessions under the lights. So most of his time in the NICU was spent getting him to grow and teaching him how to eat.

The best things that came out of the experience were getting acquainted with the Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) team at LDS, I liked every doctor I met, and I ended up staying on with Dr. Esplin, who delivered Ella and is still my doctor. I LOVE him.
We also stayed with Dr. Cannon who was Aidan's pediatrician in the NICU, and now he's our pediatrician for both kids and we LOVE him too. ☺
Dr. B called me TWICE after I had Aidan and I could tell he was worried about me suing him. He was very "concerned" and sweet, and told me come back to him to get checked out after being discharged from the hospital. Whatever, dude. I don't really hold anything against him, I'm sure he's a good doctor, we just didn't make a good team.
When Aidan came home on August 27, after 17 days in the NICU, his gestational age was 35 weeks, and he weighed 4 lbs 6 oz. We were told he would sleep about 20 hrs a day and we were like "sweet!". What they didn't say was that WE weren't going to get any sleep. Ha ha. Aidan needed to eat every 1.5-2 hrs, so thankfully he was drinking from a bottle so for the first week that he was home, Janille, Cary and I would take turns at night so at least we could get a 3-4 hr stretch of sleep. That was HARD, Cary and I weren't getting any sleep for about 2 months. I longed for a stretch of sleep that was over 3-4 hrs long. ☺
We did a mixture of bottle feeding and nursing until he was 2 months old and then I started to exclusively nurse, I was so happy to be done with bottles! (I know, I'm weird since most people try to get their newborn to take a bottle)

(Aidan's last day in the NICU)

Aidan is now my smart, energetic, almost 3 yr old, he's always been a little bit slower on the walking, running, jumping, physical side of stuff, than other kids, but he does alright.