Maverick's birth story part 2

Maverick's delivery part 2

  From the moment they had finally let me hold him for the first time, I would not let him go. It took them a little while to put me back together and I was so weak, my eyes would just close automatically and I would have to shake my head back and forth to keep myself from falling asleep. Even though it was a little bit of a struggle I held on to that baby for dear life.

      

      There was so much going on all around me, nurses everywhere. One was trying to get him to breastfeed, while one was trying to take stats on him, then there was one taking stats on me and a million others taking notes, supplying pain meds ect. I kept thinking, "well so much for this being a recovery room. It didn't take long before they were wheeling me back into my own room again where my mom and mother in law were waiting for us. 

      It was crazy to think that this little tiny peanut was just here now and he came out of me. Like no one else around here is shocked? Like they opened my stomach and this breathing thing just is here ready to be alive and look around. I don't know, maybe its just me, but everyone else was acting like it was just a really great day and this stuff happens all the time...OK it does, but not to me! still in shock over here. 

    Here is the kicker. The whole time I was in labor I couldn't eat anything besides broth and jello. After being in labor for 36 hours I am sure you can imagine how hungry I was. I get hangry, not just like "it's ok if I don't eat, I'll be alright", no I am more like the type to risk  my life for the last cookie and I will take anyone out who dares cross my path. I love food, food gets me. So while I was in labor my family started buying my favorite candies and promising the best food around town to motivate me to push through. Well after 36 hours in labor, and hourish of c-section, 1 hour in recovery and then waiting and waiting for them to take me back into my room. They finally transferred me into my bed, I waited so patiently for everyone to ooooh and ahhhh over the baby and when things settled down I finally (PATIENTLY MAY I ADD) asked if I could get something to eat. THAT POOR NURSE WHO ANSWERED IS ALWAYS GOING TO BE ON MY HATE LIST. poor girl, she was just doing her job, but seriously. She informed me after having a c-section I was only able to have broth and jello. I could have committed a murder. 

   It was pretty late and we had a very long few days of trying to get this guy to come out, so our moms decided to get a hotel room and come back first thing in the morning. I was ready for at least a little bit of sleep, even if it was like 30 minutes I just needed to close my eyes. HAHA. That boy screamed and screamed and his dad slept on the little couch the whole night. Once again, I could have committed a murder. In all honesty Spencer sleeps through literally anything and everything, so I wasn't suprised especially when he had been up for so long, but I really was jealous and dare I say almost just about hated him for a moment. The awful thing was I couldn't pick him up because my lower half didn't work so I couldn't sit up. The nurse was so sweet and would offer to let me sleep while she took care of him. I know, I know I should have let her, but I trust no one. 

 When the morning came, he had settled down. Poor little mav, could not latch and was so hungry. It was so frusterating and hard to not be able to feed him. I felt so bad. A lactation specialist came to see us and started to have me pump to get something going.  Maverick had started sleeping a little more which gave me a little time to pump, in return started my supply. I was very fortunate to have an unreal amount of colostrum. Everytime we were able to fill a syringe we would save it for when he was awake and use our pinky and syringe to feed him. 

We had a few Drs come and check maverick over to make sure he was doing good. They said he was a healthy baby and at a good weight. Passed him for going home and away they went. I however still had a few nights ahead of me. At this point I still couldn't walk and hadn't even had my catheter removed. I was on oxygen, to be honest I can't remember why, but my blood pressure was high so they were keeping a close eye especially because of how swollen I was. Things seemed to be pretty good at this point and I felt like if I could just walk it would be that much better. 

Unfortunately, that was also the turning point. A few hours later Maverick started to have low blood pressure. Our lactation specialist and our nurse started to come by every thirty minutes to check his blood pressure and to help make sure he was taking in the colostrum. They had me pumping non-stop and kept saying we needed to get his blood pressure up. Maverick was born at 8 pounds 1 ounces a few weeks early, so the initial reaction was he was a bigger baby and bigger babies usually have blood pressure issues at first and it is a relativity easy fix. I would pump, fill a syringe, feed it to little mav and then they would check. We did this a few hours with no change. He was starting to be extra sleepy and just laid there. I was able to start to feel my legs again and my nurse had walked me into the bathroom to help clean me up and to try to get me to have a BM since taking the catheter out. 

   My Dr. had dropped in around this time to check on me. She was all dressed and ready to go to the lake, but wanted to stop in and see how I was doing. She said I was doing pretty good and said she would see me in the morning. She left and not even a few seconds later came back in. She said something just didn't feel right and just to be safe she wanted to have maverick sent to the NICU to have a more extensive exam. She said it could be nothing, but she really didn't feel right about how he was acting. I will forever be grateful for her. For her to be on the lake in a little bit and a quick stop by my room she could have easily just brushed it off and passed him like the Drs. before, but she went with her gut and took her time. She saved my baby. 

  A nicu nurse and the Dr. before came up and took maverick. Spencer and his mom went down with them since I was stuck where I was at. they assured me they would turn on his monitor so I could watch him on my tv when they were done doing a few tests. Something felt very wrong. I knew deep down in my gut things were not right. 

  Spencer called my mom and informed her they were going to do a spinal tap. As soon as my mom and I heard they were doing a spinal tap I said I needed to get down there. It just didn't make sense, something so small as blood pressure to leading to needing a spinal tap on a newborn made me so uneasy. I couldn't leave my room however so I was stuck. Waiting for those results killed me. What in the world were they looking for? Why couldn't he just stay with me? Why is he in the NICU?

  Spencer called once more and said they had to take another spinal tap because they were not able to confirm something. Now it was a little unclear and Spencer sounded worried, so I said I wanted to go down. My nurse got me put together in a wheel chair and gave me an amount of time I could be gone before I needed to be back. My mom wheeled me down the hall and around the corner. There were double doors locked and we had to look up at a camera and give our names before we were let in. My mom had to stay out because only the parents and one vister were allowed at a time, so spencer met me at the door and took me to go see my little boy. 

  Down the hall we went and my heart was racing. Why hadn't he been released yet? We were doing this just in case, they Drs earlier had just said he was healthy. Spence pulled up to a little room and opened the door. There little maverick was hooked up to all kinds of tubes and monitors. He didn't look like he was going anywhere and my heart sank. Spencer's mom was sitting on the couch and Spence left to go update my mom on the situation outside and said a Dr. would be in shortly to explain. Right after he left a few minutes later Maverick's Dr. showed up. I will never forget holding his little hand while I listened to the most awful conversation. She was very blunt, very honest and very stern. She said his spinal tap showed he had an infection. They were testing to verify which one, but she was confident it was Strep B which is known to cause meningitis. She said she didn't know if we had just caught it in time. She said that the dr who sent maverick to the NICU saved his life, If we had gone home he would not have made it. She said, from this point moving forward it would be touch and go. Babies cannot take these kinds of infections because it can cause major problems. She then informed me they were starting him on strong antibiotics right away because a lot of the times in newborns when they are this sick, they go downhill fast and at his stage of life fatal. At this point I could see how sick Maverick really was. 

For those of you who may not know, or maybe don't quite understand why moms are freaks about people kissing their babies, or people not washing their hands and putting hand sanitizer on right before they go near that baby, it is because when those little, band new babies come into this world it takes a good six months for them to have somewhat of an immune system. Due to their bodies not being able to fight off an infection like you, or I can, they cannot afford to be introduced to different virus's, like the herpes simplex virus, or strep B in Maverick's case. When an infant is introduced it only takes hours for it to spread and things like pnuemonia, sepsis and menengitis are what end up causing deaths in babies. So please, give these poor moms a break the next time you think they are being uptight, or you know more since you have had kids before. I can tell you that having my baby in a NICU not even a full 24 hours old, being told worst case scenerios, watching him being poked, seeing him sick with nothing I can do and all those sleepless nights are not worth your stupidity. More times then not everything is just fine, I totally get it. This is coming from a mom who didn't even have a chance to worry about the outside world of the hospital infecting her baby because it had happened before we had even left. Don't kiss babies, wash your hands and mind your own damn business if it is not your kid. Now for those of you who are reading this and are like I still am freaking out about all the crazy things that can happen to your child, this is only meant to tell my story and to hopefully connect with others out there facing similar experiences. More times then not, everything is just fine and babies are incredible little crazies who bring joy and excitement into our dull repetitive lives. 

  

  After recieving the news and trying to wrap my head around it, the Dr. left the room and my mother in law left to go find spencer so we could get a hold of my uncle. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and latter day saints. I had struggled with being a member for the longest time because I had experienced a few things in my life that caused me doubt my heavenly father. However, after a few years of working on myself I knew I could reach out to him and if there ever was a time, it was now. I was finally alone with maverick and I prayed. It was a short prayer, but I gave it my all. With everything I had in me out loud I asked for Maverick to make it and said I could not take anymore. I was just about to fall apart when my uncle and spencer came in. My uncle gave the best blessing to Maverick which is pretty much a prayer for the sick. In that prayer he talked about maverick growing up and Spencer and I raising him, at that point in the prayer I felt a rush of calmness and peace over me and I knew Maverick would be okay. 

 They had said because my water had been broken for 36 hours there was infection. When your water breaks after 24 hours it is more likely for infection and as I was in labor they had monitored both the baby and I with no signs either of us were sick. It was just one of those things that happened and thank goodness some one was there to catch it. 

Not even thirty minutes after my uncle had left the Dr. came back in and said it looked like the first diagnosis was not the case and although he was very sick, we were looking at better case scenario of staying a few weeks. Of course the news was exactly what we wanted and what I needed to be able to leave him again to go back to my room. Once I had gotten back, they had littler Mav up on the screen for me and my nurse was waiting to hook me back up. It was so hard leaving him behind, but they said I could be wheeled over to see him again in a few hours. After that night Maverick did so much better. He was so much more alert and eating like crazy.

  When it was time for him to feed I would bug anyone in the room with me until they took me to go see him, my mom and spencers mom of course I always hoped would be there because I knew I wouldn't have to wait, they would be just as excited as I was to see him. My hospital was amazing, they would let me hold him and feed him any time I wanted. Maverick had been started on a bottle since we were seperated and for some reason no matter how many times a laction specialist came to help he never really latched. So my new schedule went something like this. Wake up, pump, wash pump, wheel over to maverick, feed him and snuggle him, let him rest and go back to my room, nurse would monitor me and then i would have about an hour to sleep, but of course I couldn't. I'm sure someone has been counting the amount of sleep I got from the time I got to the hospital to now, and you can give up, it was next to nothing. I was running on pure adrenaline. 

  

  The first night of him being in the NICU wasn't so bad because I was able to keep up with his feeding schedules. The next day however I started to feel pain. I couldn't let it become the problem though so I pushed myself, which wasn't the best move, but I think with Maverick as the motivation I was able to progress. It was so hard being wheeled around and I needed to see my baby so I did not let anything hold me back, so I stood up and walked next to me wheel chair until I couldn't anymore. Each visit to the NICU I would get closer and closer to walking all the way to his door. It was such a blessing to be surrounded by my mom, mother in law and maverick because they made everything so much more bearable for me. It was really hard to be stuck in the hospital, but it was even harder to not at least have my baby by my side. 

  My mom and mother in law would bring snacks and come and talk and then we would all go see maverick and those little moments were amazing to be able to spend time with each other and to be able to laugh even when things felt crazy. 

  The third day maverick was in the NICU we got the news that he may not actually be as sick as they had thought and they were going to culture the tests done for a total of five days just to make sure. Right after the first spinal tap was taken the very first time they said it was clear he had infection. They were now questioning if he really did have an infection at all. You guys, to have a Dr. look you in the eyes and say things were not good and give you the worst case scenerio and being confident in knowing he was very sick, to then having them questions what the test had even found made it crystal clear to me that the answer would never be found. There would never be an explanation because it was simply the power of prayer that saved my little boy. There is no one in this world that can tell me all of the prayers said that day were not heard by our Father above. I know without a shadow of a doubt he played a tremendous part in Maverick's birth. Even though women are tested and it is monitored well there are a few babies who do contract the virus and it is known that when they do it can cause still births, miscarriges and babies like maverick who show symptoms within the first 24 hrs. He could have been a still born, but he was here and he was doing well, so well the Drs couldn't even explain what was happening. 

  That third night was my last night I needed to be monitored and they were going to "release me" the next morning, but let me stay an extra night in the room since Maverick was still in the NICU. The next day nothing much happened we stuck with our routine and little guy was still doing well they were just watching his weight. On the Fourth day my mom had to head back home, but my mother in law stayed behind. That night my mom, mother in law and spencer talked me into going home to catch some sleep. Leaving the hospital almost ripped my whole soul out. I can't even explain how much it hurt to leave maverick there while I went home... I only lasted a few hours and I had my mother in law drive me back. 

  The FIFTH day was the best day of our lives. That morning as they were doing rounds we got the news that it was confirmed Maverick could go home. It was unreal to Spencer and I. We couldn't  believe this was actually happening and we were actually going to take our boy home. We jumped on the opportunity just in case someone was going to say just kidding or something and packed up everything as fast as we could and waited for his last check up. The final conclusion after checking him over was someone miss diagnosed him, by 1 microorganism. They said it was just a white blood cell that they misdiagnosed. I'm sorry, but even his pediatrician questioned it and was like how does that even happen. We know the power of prayer is real, Our heavenly father listens and even though we have plans on how we want things to go, or in a time frame that would work best for us, its all in the Lords hands. 

I am forever grateful for my Dr. for listening to her gut. I love and appreciate all the nurses in my delivery and in the NICU for working hard on our case and putting in the extra time to help my husband and I push on during the hard times. Those nurses and Drs who worked nighshift and when I was running late to feed who were cuddling maverick will always have my respect because they made a huge difference in how things all panned out. This boy is almost a year old, he is the happiest little cheeser and we adore him. We are so very blessed.