Luke getting his first set of
measurements taken.
Luke & daddy's first photo together.
WHAT HAPPENED?
For those who are wondering what happened, or for those of you who only got part of the story - let me clarify exactly why they had to deliver Luke at 32 weeks. (I'll try to do as short of a version as possible) On Friday the 8th, I had my first doc's appt. with my new OB. Everything was going fine; my blood pressure was a little elevated, but Dr. Fadool thought it could be stress related - due to moving, and not having all of our household things yet, and also due to the heat. But after taking my pregnancy history, she decided to send me to the hospital to get some lab work done. Matt & I headed to the hospital and the nurses started the tests. We started to get a little concerned when my BP was not coming down, then I was informed that my urine sample contained tons of protein, and that I had severely elevated liver enzymes (these are a few of the first signs of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia; HELLP Syndrome; these were some of the same symptoms I had with Ally). The only way to relieve these symptoms is to deliver the baby. Luke was being monitored the entire time and seemed to be handling everything very well; he was not appearing to be stressed. At this point we were basically informed that I would not be leaving the hospital. They were trying to hold off delivering him as long as possible, because my blood thinner shot had not been out of my system for 24 hours yet. Which could put at risk for a bleed-out during delivery (they usually like it to be out of your system for about 48 hours). Kind of in disbelief, Matt starting making phone calls; to our friends the Hedges - to make sure that Lilly could stay with them and to our parents to let them know what was going on. The tests continued and nothing was getting better, if anything they were getting worse. A sonogram technician then arrived to do an ultrasound on Luke and he was doing great. It was then decided that I would be transferred to St. Joseph's Hospital in downtown Phoenix; it has a level III NICU nursery and Del E. Webb (the hospital I was at) only had a level II nursery. So the docs decided to go ahead and airlift us downtown, instead of waiting until after delivery and then taking Luke by himself (which I was grateful about, then we were at least in the same hospital). So I got to see downtown Phoenix from a helicopter; not exactly under the best circumstances, but it was a pretty cool view. While I was in the air, Matt headed home to get some things for both of us and to see Lilly & take some things to her. So we get to the hospital and everyone is running around like crazy, trying to get me checked-in and trying to get updated lab work (I am a horrible stick - so that is a major issue - the few good veins that I have are had to find & had already been stuck several times at the other hospital). At this point they decided it was necessary to take me right then and it had to be an emergency c-section. Then I was told that I would have to be put completely under and that Matt could not go in with me. This had to be done because since the blood thinner had not been out of my system for 24 hours, they couldn't risk just numbing me from the waist down and then me start to bleed-out (they had to be prepared to do a blood transfusion if necessary). Yeah, very scary - I became very anxious, but with the help of the very nice anaesthesiologist (an older man), who continued to inform me that I had some of the best docs in the country and that he would be by my side the entire time, I was able to relax a little as they wheeled me back. In just the nick of time Matt came running into the room, so that helped to calm me down a little too and I told him to go with the baby to the NICU & make sure that everything was okay. Then he said he would be there when I woke up in ICU. Luke Matthew was then born at 9:06PM. First night in ICU was a major blur, but the next day I was awake & alert and other than the tube in my throat, and the IV in my neck I wasn't feeling too bad. Matt informed me that we had a little boy and that he was doing great & didn't have to be put on oxygen - that he was just on a feeding tube & some IV's. Within the next day or so, the ventilator was removed from me & I got to go see Luke for the first time. Then I was moved to the labor & delivery floor and everything kept progressing from there. All of the docs & nurses that had heard about me as I was being airlifted in, couldn't believe how well I was doing after about the first 24 hours. Some of the Residents & Interns that were checking in on me with my doctor, would walk in and say "how's superwoman today?" So I was definitely more sick than Matt or I realized. By this point, other than the docs & nurses trying to get my BP down to normal with the correct combination of BP medicine, I was just resting and checking in on Luke to make sure that he was progressing as well.
