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Home › Diaries › June's › January 2, 2000

June's Diary Entries

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January 2, 2000


And baby makes four!

Ryan was not due to arrive until January 10th, 2000. Some complications arose on the December 22nd. The baby had stopped moving. For two days he did nothing more than squirm.

On the Wednesday before Christmas, I called the assessment unit. They sent me in for a stress test. "Looks OK," they said. "Good heartbeat, little movement." Then they sent me for an ultrasound. Little movement, fluid was lower and he had stopped his practice breathing.

After waiting for hours, a doctor comes out to say, "Sorry, I can't take the baby out tonight -- I have no room. You'll have to come back tomorrow."

I was shocked and emotional. We went home and I quickly packed and wrapped the rest of the gifts knowing I would not be home for Christmas.

Next morning still no room.... "Not to worry," they said. "Go home, and come back on Boxing Day." I showed great concern and asked that maybe they should redirect me to another hospital. They reassured me it was not an emergency.

By that afternoon, I had a violent case of the flu. By 11:00 p.m., we realized our furnace was broken. My son was by now coming down with the flu. We huddled in front of the fireplace while we waited for someone to come and fix the furnace.

1:30 a.m. It is now fixed, and my contractions have started. Far apart, but painful.

I decided to wait it out. For Christmas Eve, they stay irregular.

My daughter comes down with the flu. Dinner is cancelled.

Boxing Day. Now they are regular. I call and they say, "Come in to stay; we have room."

Every time I had a contraction, his heart rate would drop to 60. They wanted him out fast, and they couldn't get me to dilate fast enough without stressing him out. They were just about ready to do a C-section when I hit 10 cm (this was 3 hours after I got there).

They get the vacuum, and I push 4 times, and he is out. The cord was about 4 feet long, and the placenta fell apart. He weighed 5 lbs. exactly and was so skinny.

Finally, after four days in special care they let us go. We came back two days later with Jaundice. For two days we were back and forth for Jaundice. One day after New Year's, we were readmitted. He went to phototherapy and he is down to 4 1/2 lbs. We are home once again tonight.

So good to be home. He still needs extensive blood work to answer some questions, but things are looking good. The other kids are thrilled and fight over who gets to hold him. I'll let you know what his blood work tells us.

I'm thankful for the best present of all this Christmas .



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