I'm an Auntie! (again)
Sweet baby Elaina Jean was born Friday, January 11 at 10:54pm (right on the verge of Mommy's birthday!) via emergency cesarean. She was 1 month early and weighed 5 lbs 3 oz. She is currently living at Primary Children's Hospital in the Newborn Intesinve Care Unit, awaiting surgery for congenital heart disease.
Auntie Doula's Side of the Birth Story
My sister Hollie had been on bed rest for the last few months with pre-eclampsia. She went in to the hospital on Thursday for a non-stress test, and the baby's heart rate kept acting up, so she was admitted to the hospital. Hollie and I (as her doula) had talked about preparing for natural birth, but the baby had been in a breech position for at least 2 weeks, and although there are several techniques to turn a breech baby into a more favorable delivery position, it wasn't going to be easy with a mama in hopsital. I'd spent most of the day Friday looking up things we could try, so baby would turn and mom could avoid the knife. During Hollie's hospital stay with continous Electronic Fetal Monitoring, the baby's heart rate kept dipping down to the 70s, here and there, and docs wanted baby out soon. So, even though they'd initally discussed an induction, they switched gears to a planned c-section (docs in America refuse to catch breech babies!). Hollie had been resigned to the induction for weeks already, but desperately wanted to deliver med-free! She was none too thrilled to have major abdominal surgery. (I learned later that she had a low-lying placenta, which would have made a pre-term external version and induction to vaginal birth very risky on a baby with a possible heart abnormality. So it's a good thing we didn't have time to press the issue.) Late Friday afternoon, Hollie called me and said "They're not going to wait any longer, they're taking the baby tonight! How soon can you get here?"
I left work a little early and rushed to Orem (a 2-1/2 hour drive that I made in a swift 2 hours, through rush hour traffic no less), thinking I might miss the main event. Turns out they bumped her surgery to 10:00 instead of 7:00, and we had plenty of time to talk and prepare. Becky was able to join us too, which was fabulous.
Well 10:00 rolled around, and Hollie was sent into the O.R. to get her spinal. They wouldn't allow anyone to go in with her! It was pretty distressing for Mike (and for me, her sister and doula) knowing what she was going through with no one to hold her hand. (She told me later that the anesthesiologist had to stick her with the needle about 5 times before it worked! She was in agony and ended up with a big black bruise on the small of her back.)
Becky and I knew it would take a little bit of time to prep her and get the party started, so we left Mike in the hallway outside the O.R. and went back to Hollie's labor room to chat. After 20 minutes, we were too anxious to wait any longer and went to see what was going on. Big Fat Nothing! (This would be because of the needle fiasco taking place behind closed doors, but we didn't know it at the time.) Mike was pacing the halls and muttering like a crazy person. I was texting Mom & Dad, Tricia and John with every little update.
FINALLY at about 10:40, they were ready to begin. Becky and I badgered a nurse into letting us watch through the operating room window. (There's a window, why not use it?) There wasn't a lot for us to see, but we did catch a glimpse of blood and guts a couple of times. (AWESOME) Then we got to see Elaina come out! Woohoo! I was texting everybody like mad, and trying to get pics with my crappy cell phone camera. As soon as the baby was out, Uncle Don and Aunt Kathy brought Ben in to see his new baby sister. He was thrilled!
Everything seemed to be going just fine. The surgery went well, and we got our first view of the baby as they wheeled her to the nursery. She's so tiny! And they had her all scrunched up in the corner of the isolette, and she looked like a little cabbage. (A cute cabbage.)
I was fortunate to be able to follow Mike in to the nursery for a couple of minutes to get a close-up view of my new baby niece. She was in a little oxygen tent, which is not unusual for preemies, and the nurses were all over her listening to her heart. She looked perfect to me; you would never know by looking at her that this sweet little baby had a fragile heart inside. Mike gave her a Lakota blessing and the nurses watched with funny looks on their faces. (Mike's mother is Native American and he had to do his little speech about his family tree before people stopped rolling their eyes at him.)
Anyway, during the baby's checkup in the nursery while mom was being finished up, the medical team discovered a heart murmur in the baby. (Mike has a heart murmur too, and a family history of heart disease.) A pedatrician was called in earlier than usual and ordered some x-rays. He suspected some abnormalities in the baby's heart, and this little community hospital didn't have the proper testing equipment to find out for sure what was going on, so he suggested moving the baby to Provo for an ECG. He also suspected that Elaina may need heart surgery, and the only place to do that is Primary Children's in Salt Lake City. A high-risk transfer team was called in from Utah Valley Regional in Provo, and they worked on the baby for about 3 hours. It was a long night. Hollie just wanted to hold her baby. At about 3:00am, the transfer team brought Elaina in on a "stretcher" which looked like a little isolette atop a giant tool cabinet. She was hooked up to about a dozen wires and tubes. They decided to take her straight up to Primary Children's after all. Hollie did get to see Elaina for a minute or so before the transfer, and was at least able to touch her, but it was a devastating separation. (Mom would have to stay behind in Orem a minimum of 3 more days for her own recovery.) There was some discussion about who should ride along with the baby, but Mike was beyond exhausted and couldn't even form coherent sentences by this point. He slept on the makeshift hospital cot in the corner and I stayed by Hollie's side for about an hour until she drifted off to sleep.
I stayed over at Don & Kathy's and tried to sleep some. (Ever been too tired and stressed to sleep? Yeah. Also, helLO freezing guest room! gosh.) Anyroad, at about 9:30 I dragged myself out of bed and made my way back to Hollie's side. She hadn't really slept at all. In fact she barely slept a wink in the first 24 hours, she was so worried and stressed out (This is a feat, with all the drugs she was on, recovering from surgery, etc.). Primary Children's had called that morning to let her know they'd gotten there safely, and later they called to say they'd begun the testing and should have results back by lunch time. Well... 8 HOURS LATER, genetecists and cardiologists eventually contacted Hollie to let her know they had found
Needless to say, Hollie was devastated by this news. All 3 sisters, plus Erin, Kathy and Valerie were by her side when she relayed the prognosis to our Mom & Dad in Nebraska, and we all had a good long cry. It's excruciating to watch a mama have a baby and never really even get to see it, let alone hold it and feed it and love on it, then be forced to watch the baby taken away, and have to worry for baby's health and future. I'm pretty sure this is Mike and Hollie's last chance at baby-makin, and I have it on good authority that they went through an awful lot to get Elaina here at all. It is heartbreaking that things turned out like this.
Hollie had to stay in the hospital until Tuesday morning, when she was finally able to go up to SLC to see her sweet girl. Elaina is still on IV fluids only (no food, because the blood supply needed for digestion is not currently available to her body in this state) and she is on prostaglandin therapy to keep her heart valve closed so the "blue blood" doesn't get passed into her system. The prostaglandins fire up her nerve endings which makes any touch painful, so she has to be sedated. (No skin-to-skin contact with mom yet.) She hasn't really cried since birth, but she makes tiny little squeaks and whimpers when she's moved or fussed with. (It's so adorable, but also sad because you know she doesn't feel good!) She has graduated off of her external oxygen supply and is breathing room air today! Hallelujah. Today they have scheduled a procedure to thread a catheter tube from her groin to her heart so they can inject some dye and get a clearer picture of what's going on in there. (The long-term prognosis sounds promising, and mama already has grand plans in store for her birthday girl.)
I'm remaining optimistic and I believe this baby is in good hands. I'm encouraged by the stellar reputation of the crew at Primary Children's. Even though Elaina's heart condition is rare, it was quickly identified and the docs know what needs to be done now. Yes, it's scary and sad, but there is hope and we are all pulling for this darling little girl.
More updates will come to you as they come to me.
p.s. my text messaging bill is almost $20.00 already this month. JOY.
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