Ethan's Birth Story - Part 2

Within minutes of me agreeing that a c-section was the way to go, they were wheeling me into the operating room. Todd was waiting outside as they prepped me for surgery. Ethan was unhooked from his monitors, which made me really nervous because we couldn't tell what his heart rate was doing, but they assured me all was fine. When they went to put me on my back on the table, my back suddenly siezed up because I had been on my side so long during labor. I couldn't lie back it hurt so much. The nurse promised me some stronger pain medication as soon as Ethan was out, so I had that to look forward to. 

Once I was prepped, Todd came in and stood by my head as they got Ethan out. I don't remember much from here on out because I was pretty drugged up, so I'm going off of what's been told to me. Ethan came out really blue. His APGAR score when he first came out was a  4. That's really bad. Really bad. I'm glad I didn't see him like that but I do remember asking Todd why he wasn't crying and nearly panicking because my baby wasn't crying. They did get him crying and all was good. 

They took me into recovery and I finally got to hold Ethan. Honestly, I don't remember that first time I held him. I was pretty cloudy from the drugs and I regret that. I wish that I had the presence of mind to refuse the additional pain medication they gave me because of my back muscles. I don't know if that would have made a difference but it might not have in the long run. 

The next thing I remember is being wheeled to my recovery room with Ethan in his bassinet behind me. We tried to nurse, but he just wasn't having it. He started showing signs of his sugar dropping, which tends to happen in babies of diabetic mothers, so they had Todd try to give him some formula. He was really lethargic at that time, so a nurse tested his blood sugar. It was 30. Thirty!!! Which is dangerously dangerously low. Next thing I know, he's being taken out of Todd's arms and whisked away to the NICU. I was still pretty out of it at the time and wasn't scared for some reason, but looking back, that was a terrifying moment. The nurses in the NICU said later that he was the 'floppiest' baby they had ever seen come back. His sugar was that low. 

He ended up spending 5 days in the NICU. Todd and I made the trek from my recovery room on one side of the hospital to the NICU at the other side of the hospital multiple times a day. Every time we left to go back to my room I sobbed. I felt so bad leaving him there, all alone, with an IV in his arm after another unsuccessful attempt at nursing. My milk hadn't come in and he was still really lethargic from the c-section and the low sugar. I had been dead set on breast feeding before he had gotten there and with every failed attempt, I felt worse and worse. I started pumping on the third or fourth day and started to get a little, but not much. 

It was on the third day that he started developing jaundice because of my lack of producing enough milk for him. He got extremely jaundiced and at that point we decided to refocus on getting the jaundice taken care of and work on breast feeding later. I felt defeated that I hadn't been able to provide for my baby, but knew that it needed to be done to get him out of the hospital and that was what we wanted. 

Once we got him on formula, he perked up and the jaundice went down with the help of the bili lights. By Thursday, I was released in the morning and we were hoping that Ethan would get released that same day too. Once his results from his bili levels came back we got the best news ever...they were low enough for us to go home!! His sugar was completely stabalized and he had been off the IV for a day now and with the bili levels going down enough, the doctors were okay with us going home. 

He turned one month old yesterday and is thriving. He was a chunky 8lbs 15oz and at his last doctor's appointment had gone up to 10lbs 8oz. I call him Chunka, Mr. Chunks, and Chunka Monka and his cheeks just kill me every time I look at them. He's brought so much into our lives in the short time he's been with us. Being a mom has changed me in ways that I didn't expect and I love that little monkey more than anything.