Walker is here!

So I keep writing this post in my head but have not had a chance to sit down and type it out yet. (some of you may want to skip the LONG story and look at the pictures, feel free) I guess I'll just start with last Sunday night.  After posting my last blog post,  I tossed and turned a lot of the night, sure it was pregnancy insomnia, as I had had that all throughout both of my pregnancies.  I looked at my looming to-do-list, and the quietest thing on the list was packing the hospital bag.  So I started that at about 4:00 in the morning Monday morning. I finally went back to sleep at some point. I got up as normal and Savannah and I got ready, I stopped by my office, took Savannah to class, and went on to my regular 32-week checkup.  I mentioned that I was feeling a little pressure and wondered if I was having a bladder infection.  I thought maybe my doctor should check me to see if my cervix was dialated.  About 1 minute later, my doctor said "oh my goodness you are going to go over to the hospital right now, you are 6-7 cm dialated.  Don't get up, we will get you a wheelchair.  I need you to wheel down to ultrasound to make sure the baby is head-down.  We will try to stop labor, but at this late stage in labor, it is likely you will have your baby today."  Birc and I both panicked! We looked at each other and could not really comprehend what she was saying!  I called my mom, my sister, and my co-worker to tell her I couldn't be at work.  We got over to the hospital, I was put into a room and got re-checked where I was a "strong 7, almost 8".  I got a steroid shot to develop Walker's lungs, got started with some magnesium sulfate which is supposed to relax all my muscles so the contractions would stop and then my doc came by maybe an hour later and I think I was at a 9 so she said to turn off the magnesium sulfate and we would plan on having this baby today.  The NICU team came by and tried to prepare us that our baby boy would probably be very small and probably not be able to breathe very well, and that they would be taking him away as soon as he was out so they could work on him.  I know a lot of other things happened, but it is such a blur that I can't remember everything.  My mom, Birc's mom, Birc, my dad, and my sister were all there (Skip and Aaron were stuck at work) for labor and my mom and sister helped me through the contractions that I started feeling around 9 cm.  My doctor came back and decided to break my water since it had still not broken and she was worried about the cord coming out first or something.  She wanted a controlled environment for the baby to be born in and I agreed. I think maybe 30 minutes passed and I started pushing.  I did like 3 or 4 practice pushes and then sat up and pushed I think 3 times and he was out! They put him on my belly for like 20 seconds and all I saw was a ton of dark brown hair! I remember thinking he didn't look as small as I thought he would.  He let out some little cries that sounded like bleats so that made me sigh in relief.  They told me after a few minutes that they would be taking him to the NICU because he was breathing ok, but not unless they "made him really mad" so he needed to get supplemental oxygen. After I got re-situated, the NICU team came back and gave us a report that he was intubated and sedated, and he was 5 pounds, 5 ounces and 18.75 inches long! We were all shocked at his weight!
Natural childbirth #2, check. Fast forward to moving to postpartum, and getting to see Walker for the first time.  He was intubated, sedated, and had several IVs and 2 lines in his umbilical cord as well.  It was hard to see.  He looked big enough to be able to breathe and eat and cry so it was hard on my heart to comprehend what I was seeing with my eyes.  Right away I noticed that he has Birc's knees and feet and toes.  I could just tell.  And his hair is very straight and is dark brown just like Savannah's was. He has dark grey eyes, so I think we will have another dark-eyed baby (even though Birc and I both have green/hazel)!
The neonatologist came by at some point to give us a report that he was doing really well, but we should expect him to stay a month to six weeks in the NICU (also hard to hear), and explained some of the things we should expect to happen and look for.  He needed help breathing, learning to eat, and figuring out how to live outside the womb.  He started out on the ventilator with sedation, then three days later he got off the vent and got a nasal cannula, after three days he got his umbilical lines out, he had IVs in both feet and both hands (not all at the same time) and scalp, he was on IV fluids, he had the nasal cannula for another 2 days I think, he started eating breastmilk at a rate of 5 ml/hour every 3 hours through a tube when he was 3 days old, he got put on lasix for swelling which made him shrivel up like a little old man (hehe) and he's lost over a pound of weight.  He is back up to 4 lbs, 8 oz as of today, and the only thing he is getting is 32 ml of breastmilk once every three hours plus a caffeine medicine to counteract the apnea he's experiencing.  (a common preemie problem) He's off all other medication and not sedated, and has no tubes or wires besides the little nose tube that goes to his stomach to feed him.  I'm also hoping by the time you guys are reading this his jaundice is gone and he is out from under the phototherapy bilirubin light.  I'll keep you posted.  I got to hold him for the first time when he was 4 days old.  Birc held him the same day, and I get to hold him for one hour each day until he comes out from under the phototherapy light.

I was discharged 48 hours after having Walker and it was absolutely terrible to leave the hospital without my baby.  At the same time I was leaving, there were two or three other new moms with their baby in a carseat getting loaded in their cars to go home as a complete family, and I felt some serious pangs of jealousy.  A suggestion I have for the post-partum wing at Baptist is: 1. give the women who don't have their baby, either because they're in the NICU or maybe they've lost their baby due to stillbirth or born too early or whatever the case may be, give these women a separate hallway to recover from giving birth.  Hearing all the babies crying and getting wheeled down the hallway to their families, seeing the adorable, larger-than-life photo prints of full-term newborn babies on the walls in every patient room and hallway, and having people come by (nurses and assistants) who didn't know yet that Walker was in the NICU and asking when he is coming back from the nursery, made it so hard emotionally.

Anyway, Walker WILL come home and when he does it will be such an exciting day.  We can't wait to have him here with us at home but until then he can stay and grow in the NICU and I can visit every day.  Now, pictures!  I have a lot more photos but these are the ones that are on my photo stream, and I haven't had time to load up all the ones that other people have taken.  At some point I might try to post them.  Who knows.  My life is a fruit-basket-turnover right now.

 Meeting him for the first time :)

24 hours old!

Savannah meeting her little brother! She loves him so much.  She has been such a trooper through all of the confusion of mama and daddy being away, different people taking care of her, missing a week of school, and just so much going on.  She is such a blessing and makes leaving the hospital without Walker bearable because she's a little ray of sunshine.  

Getting skinnier.  

A good look at all that dark hair!

This is his "Comfort Inn" incubator. He started out in a Giraffe bed (pictured at the beginning of the pictures) which is apparently like 5 star accommodations, and when he is finally able to leave the NICU and come home, he'll have been sleeping at a "Motel 6" says the nurses.  :) So he's in the middle right now I think.  

eyes open!

a smile :)

Getting to love on my baby boy.

Giving mama some smiles. :) 

I'm not sure how regularly I will be posting on the blog, but I am posting updates on Facebook more regularly.  I want to post because I want to have a record of his NICU stay, but it is hard to find the time.

Please keep Walker and our little family in your thoughts and prayers.  We've been so covered in prayer already and I have been feeling God taking care of me (and of Walker) the whole time.