Quinn

Now that we've been home for a couple days and I've had a chance to decompress from my week long hospital stay, I'll share a bit of Quinn's birth story.

If you will recall from a previous post, I was a bit nervous about my 34 week appointment, and it turns out, I was rightfully concerned. At 34 weeks, my regular OB measured Levi at a little over 7 lbs and my perinatologist measured Levi at 8lbs. 7oz. This time around, Quinn was measured at 7lbs even by my regular OB and 8lbs. 6oz. by my perinatologist. I will just allow you to imagine my reaction and slight anxiety attack that occured while I was still laying on the table with the ultrasound wand on my belly. This time around, I did not have extra amniotic fluid, which was a good thing, but not good enough to calm me down. I was given several options, but the number one thing both my doctors agreed on was that I wasn't going home until this baby was born mostly due to my anxiety level. They did not want it to cause stress to the baby. They asked me to wait until 35 weeks for delivery and gave me the option of an amnio, which I declined because I knew it wouldn't change my mind. I wanted Quinn out. I would have rather had him on a ventilator and alive than have his heart stop beating within my womb. So off I went to admittance. This was last Thursday, Sept. 30th.

I stayed on bedrest for two days. I turned 35 weeks on Saturday, Oct. 2nd, so my doctor performed a c-section delivery that morning. There was quite a bit of excitement and anxiety on that day. In fact, my blood pressure became so high once I was in the OR, that I almost became physically ill, and the doctors had to add a medication to my IV to relieve my nausea.

At 9:27 a.m. on October 2nd, 2010, I heard the cry of my beautiful 3rd son. I couldn't stop the flow of tears from my own eyes as I listened to that precious sound. The NICU team was in the OR waiting just in case he wasn't able to breathe on his own, but he did fabulous. He did have some grunting going on after each cry which is a sign of slightly immature lungs, so they provided him with a bit of oxygen, but he never had to go on a ventilator and pretty much breathed on his own from birth. However, his blood sugar levels were far too low, so they had to begin a glucose IV to bring them up. Saturday and Sunday he had to remain on the glucose, but on Monday, they began to wean him off as he was digesting his food and maintaining his blood sugar levels on his own. On Tuesday, he was discharged from the NICU and taken to the newborn nursery where he was allowed to stay in my room with me. Tuesday night, I went ahead and sent him to the newborn nursery so I could get one more night of sleep before going home, and I'm glad I did because while there, the nurses discovered Quinn had a bit of jaundice, so they started treatment under the photo therapy lights. On Wednesday, they brought both Quinn and the photo therapy lights to my room, and we had to wait around all day to have his bilirubin levels checked again to see if he could go home with us. I really didn't want to go home without him. Fortunately, his bilirubin had gone down enough that they allowed us to take him home and do the photo therapy from the comfort of our home. We took him back to the pediatrician today, and while we're still waiting to hear news of the blood test, the doctor says he looks well enough that he doubts we'll have to continue the light therapy.

We're all doing well. We're home. We're happy. Aidan is thrilled beyond belief about his little brother and likes to tell everyone he sees about him. We're a little tired, but it's oh so worth it.