M at 1 month

M started out life with a bang!  He wanted to make certain we didn't forget his newborn days. Thankfully, things calmed down for the rest of the month.  There were lots of snuggles and cuddles amidst the general craziness of life.

Five days post-DeVos, M had gained 7 ozs.  At our next weight check, a week later (3 wks old), he gained a full pound in that week. By his month check up, he weighed in at 12 lbs 4 ozs.  He was doing great!

Aunt Jenna visited us to meet our newest member to the family the night before our trip to GR. She went to GR too for the weekend to hang out with friends and brought us breakfast on Sunday.  Funny how things work out sometimes.

M was the typical newborn...he slept and slept and slept.  After the first week home from DeVos, he began waking up on his own to eat about every three hours.  I joked that he finally reached his due date of 40 weeks and so he was ready to begin life.  He started staying awake for longer stretches of time at this time too, but he still slept more than the 18 hours the pediatrician told us was typical of newborns.  Of course, he only slept soundly when he was being held.  He certainly liked his cuddles.

 The one disconcerting thing was that he always woke up unhappy.  He always screamed upon waking.  He did it from the get-go...and he continues it into month 2 also.  He is never happy to be awake.  He really likes his sleep.

M's siblings loved him.  They loved holding him.  Unfortunately, M didn't have much happy awake time and so they didn't get to hold him nearly as much as they wanted to. He was always either eating or sleeping and that didn't leave much time for sibling cuddles.  But, you can tell by X's face how much he loves being a big brother again!

Funny tidbit...when Jut called to check on the kids the morning after M was born, he told my mom M's name.  Mom told the kids, to which the boys were very unhappy with our name choice.  We already knew a M from church and so we couldn't choose that name.  C claimed he was going to call him 'Zeb'.  For the first 3 weeks of M's life, C only referred to him as 'baby'. Then, he told me, "Mom, I don't like that name (meaning M).  I am going to call him Zeb!" I just laughed and didn't argue with him...and about 3-4 days later, C finally started referring to him as M. Crazy three-year old!!

1 month old M

M's First ER visit and Ambulance Ride

At DeVos all hooked up with his arm immobilized with the IV

We went home from the hospital on Monday.  It was so good to be home!  Poor C was having a hard time not having Mom around.  On Sunday, he looked at me while they were getting ready to leave and said, "Mom, when are ALL of the Daron's going home?"  Broke my heart.  So, it was good to get home with everyone.

On Wednesday, we went to the pediatrician's office.  M was doing well.  He had maintained his discharge weight.  His heart sounded good.

On Thursday evening, he refused to nurse.  He cried and cried. At 11, I finally convinced him to take an ounce from a bottle.  Then, he was back awake at 1...crying and crying.  He finally nursed a little at 4:30 and went to sleep.

By 9 AM, he still hadn't eaten again.  So, I called the lactation consultant and discussed the situation with her.  She gave me some tips and tricks to try.  They worked.  He drank a bit from a bottle and nursed for 5 minutes and went to sleep. At 3, I decided something was seriously wrong with the little guy.  Starting at noon, he'd wake up for a bit, cry, and fall back asleep but didn't eat.  I couldn't convince him to nurse or bottle feed. By 3, his cries were weak and he was difficult to rouse.  I called the pediatrician.  He said to get to the ER.  So, I called Jut home from work and we headed to the ER. It was about 4.

The ER was busy. They got us to a room. We saw the doctor.  The notes on M's heart problems following birth scared everyone.  Plus, his initial weigh in had him losing 25% of his birth weight.  They decided that was inaccurate and reweighed him but he had still lost too much weight.  The dr came in and said that we needed to take him to a children's hospital and asked which one we'd like to go to.  We chose DeVos. So, he started getting the transfer stuff organized around 8. We prepared to leave because he'd told us that we'd be driving M there.  Then, things started getting crazy.  The nurse came in and started prepping him for an IV...lab was in to take his blood...there was talk of a catheter.  We mentioned driving and the nurse was like..."no...he's going to GR with a medical team." Jut asked if I'd be able to go along with him and the reply was "if they take the ambulance".  We then found out that they were considering airlifting him and things got a lot more scary.  Something must be seriously wrong if they were going to airlift him. 

Looking much better on Sunday

They decided that he'd be fine to wait for an ambulance. So, we waited...and waited and waited. He was given antibiotics in case he had an infection.  They were pushing fluids through his IV. The nursing staff did a great job.  The phleb that drew his blood was shaking like crazy when she finished...but she got him on the first poke.  They got the IV started on the first jab.  It was awful to watch but they did a really great job with him. M finally took an ounce of formula shortly before we left.  The ambulance didn't get to the hospital until midnight.  It had to come from Lansing because all the local ones were busy...(we were the fourth transfer of the evening.) We got into GR at 2 AM. It took them 6 hours to get us to there once they decided that we should be transferred.  The thought of the helicopter ride suddenly made much more sense.  

The rig wouldn't 'fit' into the ambulance bay in the children's wing...and so they parked at the regular ER entrance and a security guard took us through the hospital to get over to the children's hospital. I was 1 week post C-section and I was trying to keep up with a security guard and 2 EMTs rushing through a maze of corridors.  They should have put me on the stretcher with M!

We were met by a team of drs and a nurse.  They were so friendly and caring.  It was great. Although, I am glad M had only been around for 7 days...I had to give his life story to numerous drs, fellows and interns as they tried to piece everything together. M drank another 1.5 ozs of formula.  He was already looking better as they had been pumping him full of fluids since they got his IV started.

It was 4 AM but the time we were finished with the drs and nurses.  M had settled down and we sat down to rest for the rest of the night.

By noon, they had turned down his IV and stopped the antibiotics.  He was taking a bottle every 2 hours...he wasn't drinking much but he was at least eating again.

The dr told us that babies do this sometimes.  Heart babies get in an arrhythmia and stop eating.  Her guess was that he got dehydrated and his heart got a bit off and he went down hill quickly because as soon as he was hydrated, everything went back to 'normal'. But, it could have been the other way too...his heart got wonky and so he stopped eating and got dehydrated.  It was crazy how quickly it happened and how quickly he went downhill.

The discharge instructions were to feed him every 2 hours round the clock and follow up with our pediatrician. We were discharged Sunday at noon. It was a crazy weekend! We headed to Holland to pick up the other 3, as they were enjoying some time with friends.

Just a side note:  It took 3 weeks before he'd pick nursing back up again...and truthfully, I liked bottle feeding him because I knew how much he was eating...I still worry at 6 weeks old that he's eating enough (and he's over 12 lbs now)

Meeting M & His First Day

M's first picture in the nursery.  After the whirlwind in the delivery room, he was whisked away to make certain that all was well.  In this photo, he was just having the routine monitoring done.

In the second picture, he is having his first EKG. The results came out a bit funky and so he had another one the following day...and another one a few weeks later at the cardiologist office.  Thankfully, he has PACs and so they are 'clinically insignificant'. But, he looks tiny with all those wires attached to him.












After I was back in my room and they returned M to me, Mom and Dad brought the kids over. They were suppose to be out celebrating their 44th anniversary, but I don't think that they minded the change of plans.  M was a fun 'present' to celebrate instead. By the time, Mom got back to the house to get the kids and Dad, I had M.  So, they went home, had dinner and then came to the hospital to welcome the newest member of the family.

Everyone came back on Saturday...plus G'ma Daron and Aunt Stacey joined the party.  It was a bit of a zoo in the afternoon. However, somehow Aunt Stacey got missed in pictorial evidence of her visit.

Welcome to the world M!

M's birth story...

Friday, March 20th started out normally. Jut left early. The kids and I cuddled and watched a bit of tv, had breakfast, cleaned the upstairs and had our school lessons for the day.  I even squeezed in one of my science activities for my college class.  I had my second NST scheduled for 3:30.  Jut came home at 3 and I left for the drs office.

I get to the office and he had just been called away to deliver a baby. So, I wait for a half hour and Abby (the nurse) comes out to at least get me started. She can't get much of a reading. So, she gets Deb the midwife. She can't find much with the NST either. So, she gets the ultrasound.  The beat was slow and then would speed up and the computer was having a difficult time giving a reading. The dr came in about then. He listened via the Doppler for about 5 seconds and told me to head over to the hospital to the labor and delivery floor. They'd hook me up to the NST and we'd go from there with a probable VBAC.

I go, call my mom and Jut (at 4:45), go through admitting, head up to the floor, gown up and then everything went crazy. The baby's heart rate was 70 beats/minute. All of a sudden, I have an oxygen mask on and an IV running with fluids. The nurse says something about this not being a VBAC but an emergency section and she pops her head out the door and I hear, 'Get the dr here now!" Dr comes and says something about baby's heart rate being a little too low and making everyone nervous ("baby is giving everyone a little heart burn", were his exact words, I think) and asks if I'm okay with a C-section. I agree. The dr goes into the hall and tells someone, 'Get whomever can get here the fastest!' There was a bit of chaos regarding my wristband because they didn't give me one at admitting and they couldn't give me any medication without one. A nurse says 'You have someone coming? If not, they are going to miss the delivery! You had better call.' she hands me my phone. I call Jut again. It is 5:23.  He and Mom are in the parking lot. They keep giving me pills and things to swallow and pushing fluids through my IV. I have the anesthesiologist asking me questions. The nurses are talking to me. Jut arrives and surgical apparel is thrown at him.  It all seems very surreal. Then, we are off.  As we leave, the dr asks me if I have all my undergarments off.  But, I still had on my bra (the nurse told me it was okay to leave on initially)...so they creatively had to take it off over the IV pole. I heard that it got caught in the wheel of the bed and was flapping after us for a bit as we went down the hall. The dr wheeled me down the hallway and bumped into everything. He obviously didn't have tons of expertise driving a bed. As we were entering the doors to the surgical room, a nurse came running after us with the consent papers that I needed to sign. Chaos...that is what I remember.

In the delivery room, the dr held me while the anesthesiologist administered the spinal.  There was a very nice surgical tech named Shannon that gave me warm blankets and was very reassuring about all that was happening.  The OR was filled with people.  Jut said that the dr came out in the hall while he was waiting to enter and said tersely to a nurse, "Get every available person inside that delivery room right now!" He (the dr) wasn't as calm about everything as he was presenting to me...but I'm glad he presented a calm face to me.

As soon as the numbness, took over, the surgical staff got to work delivering the baby. They had the surgical screen so high that Jut almost missed them pulling M out, but the anesthesiologist told him to stand up really quick...so he did.  It was 6:05.  Less than three hours after kissing my other kids goodbye and telling them I'd be home before supper, I had a baby.  It all happened so fast.

M was screaming as soon as he was free.  Dr told us that we had another boy.  I was a bit surprised.  I was so certain early on that it was a girl and I told Jut while we were waiting that it had to be a girl because the boys were much less stressful deliveries.  It was a wonderful to hear his screaming upon delivery because things were so tense.  The pediatrician looked at him and said, "His color is good. He's screaming. He'll be fine." They whisked him away to the nursery very quickly.  I got a 5 second peak at him (without my glasses on) before they took him away...no pictures...no welcome to the worlds...no beginning cuddles.  Not as peaceful and calm as I would have liked...I got much more time with E when she was born via C-section, but he was okay and that was the important part.  They stitched me up and wheeled me back to my room.  It was a crazy couple of hours.

Crazy Day

Baby has decided to make life interesting.  It all started last Thursday.  For some reason, the baby developed an irregular heart beat.  Dr didn't seem too concerned.  It was missing about every third beat, but he just scheduled a non-stress test for Tuesday (yesterday) and seemed fairly nonchalant about it.

Yesterday I went in for my NST.  They had me hooked up for a LONG time.  I could even hear the missing beat.  So, then dr decided to take a peek at baby via ultrasound.  No surprise that the baby measured big...about 10 lbs.  The irregular heart beat continued as he checked out the heart.

He told me that he'd consult with a specialist in Saginaw and call me in the morning to know the specialists' recommendation.  I am just shy of 38 weeks and so induction carries some risks (especially with my VBAC status).  But, he led me to believe that I would probably be induced today.

So, we came home and made some frantic attempts to prepare for baby...like choosing a name, doing the laundry, cleaning the house, packing overnight bags for everyone etc...all the while trying to 'enjoy' our last night as a family of 5.  Crazy times.

This morning, I took E up to a homeschooling academy that we may utilize next year.  Our plan was to visit for the entire morning.  By 9:30, I had talked to the dr's office and they were sending me to see the specialist this afternoon in Saginaw.  So, I waited for the specialist office to call.  They called around 10.  They could see me at 11:45 today.  I was in Mt. P, which is a good 25 minutes from home.  It is an hour drive to Saginaw from our house.  Consequently, we had to leave our observation pretty much as soon as I received the call.  E was so disappointed.  There were even tears.

So, we ran home.  Jut arranged for a sitter to come watch the kids.  We zoomed over to Saginaw.  Thankfully, we were able to find the building without too much trouble.  They saw me over their lunch break.  The nurse started the ultrasound...and the dr came right in.  He did a very thorough examination of the baby.  He was great.  He showed us what he was looking for and what looked 'normal'.  He explained what would be abnormal.  He spent probably about an hour with us.  It was very nice to know that we were being 'squeezed' in but he spent time with us like he had all the time in the world for the consult.

In the end, he told me to cut all forms of caffeine out of my diet.  The baby's heart was structurally sound.  There didn't appear to be any problems at all with the structure.  The irregular heart beat might correct itself before birth or within 2 weeks of birth.  It is really doing a half-beat when it 'misses' a bit.  The top is contracting but for whatever reason, the bottom isn't.  It also isn't doing it all the time.  For a bit of the ultrasound, it went into a 'normal' rhythm.  That was nice to hear too.

I have to be monitored every three days.  The fear is that the heart will start going crazy and beating at 300 beats/minute, which would make an induction a necessity, but otherwise, he thinks to let things progress naturally.  He agrees that the baby is about 10 lbs already but he didn't seem concerned about the weight.  He says that you get concerned about weight when the baby is 10% of Mom's weight...so this baby has several pounds to go before that is a concern.  (Although, I personally think that 10 lbs is big enough!)

Jut and I had a nice leisurely lunch on the way home.  It was nice and relaxing.  We've been trying since Valentine's Day to have a date and it hasn't worked...but the 'emergency' appointment created a perfect opportunity, especially since we got such an encouraging report from the dr.

It was nice to go home and return back to the 'normal' of just waiting for baby.

ER visit #3 for C

Well, yesterday hit another mile marker in our family history.  C had his 3rd trip to the ER...more visits than the other two combined. He tried to bite off his tongue when he fell off the couch.  No stitches...just pain and lots of blood.  It took 10 minutes to me to know whether he still had all his teeth.  Thankfully, Jut pulled in the driveway as I finally figured out where all the blood was gushing from and he swept him away for his 3rd ER visit.  I am so thankful that none of them have been for anything serious!

X is 5!

X is 5!  My oh my!  He is my sweet boy, even if he's not my little guy anymore.  He has a tender heart and is always the peace maker.  If birth orders are correct, he is my middle child in every single way. He's my reliable, dependable child that is will always help when asked...even when he really doesn't want to.

He still LOVES Star*Wars.  His new love is Lego*s.  If you combine the two, he's in heaven.  He doesn't understand why Santa won't bring him sets that are for 7+ (or older).

He's started loving the tractor this fall.  He would ride with G'pa in the combine all by himself...or just go out and check on him working.  He talks about when he gets his license how much he's going to help G'pa by driving tractors.