ScrumpyDaddy

Here is Matt in the first NICU at the hospital where he was born before he was transported to Children’s Hospital.

Transporting Matt to Children’s NICU.

Matt at Children’s NICU.

Here is Matt getting his EEG.

After Matt’s surgery to have his nasal passages unblocked. He now has stents in his nose to help his nose heal and help him breathe while it is healing.

Abby and Zach came to visit Matt. Abby came Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday. Zach only came Friday and Sunday. Abby was very excited to see Matt yesterday without his breathing tube.

Matt without his breathing tube.

Mommy got to hold Matt for the first time yesterday for about a half an hour.

There has been many things that have happened with Matt in the past couple days since we posted. We have been posting updates on Facebook for those of you who are friends with us, but we wanted to do another blog update for those of you who are not on Facebook.

Surgery:

Matt had his surgery at 3pm on 10/13 to open his blocked nasal passages. The surgery went very well, though it took longer than they anticipated. They took Matt down a little after 3 to the OR and he didn’t come back up for several hours. They did keep sending someone up to inform me of where they were in the surgery. I received and update when the surgeon began the 2nd side and then again when the surgeon decided to make the openings bigger than he originally did.  The surgeon had to open his nasal passages more than he initially thought in order for the stents to fit properly. Matt will have the stents in for 2 weeks to make sure everything drains properly while the opened passages heal. He has a followup appointment in 2 weeks to have the stents removed.

MRI:

After Matt was finished with his surgery they took him for an MRI of his brain. They are concerned due to his head being small and want to check his brain function. We have not received the results of the MRI and most likely will not receive them until Monday.

EEG:

Matt also had a EEG yesterday, 10/14 to check his brain function as well. They put sensors all over his head and had it watch his brain waves for an hour. Again, we don’t have the results of this test yet either and will not have is until Monday at the earliest.

Bowel Biopsy:

In Matt’s first 24 hours of life he was having problems with his bowels. His belly was swollen and he was not having any bowel movements. Obviously, this concerned the doctors as with newborns they need to pass meconium in order not to become jaundice. Normally they are able to do this with the food they receiving from nursing. In order to check his bowel functions they performed a barium enema to make sure they were functioning the way they should. As soon as they gave him this he had a bowel movement and then continued to have them. He then had 6 bowel movements in 24 hours. The doctors were very encouraged by this, but they still wanted to be absolutely sure everything was working well so they did a bowel biopsy. For the biopsy they take a small piece of tissue to test for what is called Hirschsprung’s disease. They performed the biopsy yesterday and today we received the results, which were negative. His bowels are fine and functioning the way they should. This means now he can starts feeds. He would be given small amounts of the breast milk I have been pumping through a feeding tube. They planned to start this today, but were unable to. They now plan to start the feeds tomorrow. We will see how it goes.

Removal of Breathing Tube:

Since Matt was done with his surgery they have been talking about removing his breathing tube. Since arriving at Children’s they have had him on the lowest settings for the breathing tube. He has been on room air with the respirator just providing backup and pressure when needed. They were going to remove it yesterday, but were unable to do so since he was still too sleepy from all the sedation he had the previous day for the surgery and MRI. They then stated in rounds this morning they would remove the breathing tube today. All day long I waited for them to remove the tube. We really wanted one of us to be there to see how he did. Unfortunately, they had a new patient come in today, which was taking most of the time of the nurses and doctors to get that patient in and settled. My in-laws and Abby came in to visit Matt this afternoon after Abby’s soccer game and the tube was still in. We left the hospital to get Abby home and give her and Zach dinner about 4:30pm. After the kids were in bed we called for an update and they notified us they took the breathing tube out at 5pm. We just missed it. Ugh! Anyways…they said he is doing great. He is breathing room air with no support and is very comfortable. Hopefully he will have a great night of breathing on his own and they won’t have to put the tube back in for the rest of his stay.

Other items going on:

They are running genetic testing on him to try and find a cause for why he was so small when he was a 39 1/2 week baby when he was delivered. I personally don’t really like the genetic doctors that I have seen there. They really aren’t conveying well exactly what they are doing and possibly looking for. They aren’t as personal as the other doctors either and are very clinical. This comes off as blaming the parents since it was a combination of our genetics that created this child. They also did not like my answer that I didn’t have the genetic testing done during my pregnancy, which they didn’t state, but I could see it on their faces. Hopefully it will get clearer when they have the results of all the blood work they have sent out as to what they are looking for and what that means. Not really sure when those results will be in though since it takes time to read and compare all the chromosomes of the body.

We can’t wait to see him tomorrow now that the breathing tube is out. We will really get to see his face. They also bathed him tonight so he is all cleaned up from his surgery. We plan to post some pictures of him tomorrow on the blog if we get the time to get the pictures off the camera.

Thanks to everyone for all the love, support, and prayers.

** Edited on 2011-10-12 around 10:30PM to include additional details, fix up a few details, clean up grammar, and correct Oxycontin to be Oxytocin (auto correct had modified it to Oxycontin…)

Matthew Connor entered the world at 7:50pm Oct. 11, 2011. Weight – 5lbs. 10.5oz, length 19 inches.

The last couple weeks have been quite interesting, which led up to a very interesting labor and delivery. In the last couple weeks I experienced false labor a few times before going into actual labor. I had never experienced this with either of my other children. The first time was on a Tuesday morning when I began having contractions every 10 minutes for a good hour, but
then all of a sudden they stopped. I felt bad because I had Dave work from home that day thinking we might be going in later to have a baby. I went to my doctor appointment that Thursday and found out I was only 1.5cm dilated and 50% effaced, which is where I had been the week before. No progress was very disheartening. When you get it in your head that today is the day to have the baby and you don’t it really makes you not want to do anything the next day. The next time was a Monday evening where I had contractions every 10 minutes for over 2 hours before they fizzled out. Then again on Sunday after that, again for about two to three hours. Then finally yesterday, Oct. 11th I began having contractions at 6:40am and they continued throughout the day and increased in intensity.

I called Dave home around lunch time so that he was home and ready to leave for the hospital when it was time. At that time my contractions were still around 10 minutes apart so Dave worked from home for a couple hours. Around 2pm we took a walk and my contractions were getting closer together. They were now around 4.5 minutes apart so we called the Dr and he said
to head into the hospital.

We headed in around 2:45pm. Traffic wasn’t too bad considering President Obama was in the South Side at the time we were heading in. Nothing blocked our way. When we got there we went up to labor and delivery and went to an observation room to have my contractions checked, timed, and to see how far along I was. We waited about 15 or 20 minutes before the doctor came in so that he had a good baseline for the contractions. The contractions were still about 4.5 minutes apart and when the doctor checked me I was still only at 2cm and 50% effaced, which is what I was at my last appointment on Friday. Despite the contractions I was having, they weren’t doing anything for me to progress the labor along.

The doctor gave us some options on how to proceed, but since I was 39.5 weeks along we decided to stay and have a small dose of Oxytocin given to kick start the labor more. They moved us to a labor and delivery room and began the IV fluids and Oxytocin. The contractions were getting more intense from this and closer together. Things were starting to progress.

The contractions were getting to a point they were curling my toes with pain so I decided to be comfortable. Around 6:30 pm I got an epidural. I definitely got much more comfortable after that. The doctor then came in to check on me and see what progress we had made around 7:15pm. At that time he said I was now 5 cm dilated and he broke my water. I knew things would then start to progress even faster, but I thought I would at least get through the Pens game that was on TV before the baby came. Dave and I had put the Pens home opener on while we waited.

This is when things began to get interesting. Since I was now numb and could not get up to use the bathroom I called the nurse in to catheterize me. I didn’t want to wet the bed. Ha ha ha! When she was done and my bladder empty I started to get a weird and intense feeling. This was now around 7:30pm or a little after. Not exactly sure on the time. I then told the
nurse that I thought I had the urge to push. The nurse called in a another nurse to check my progress since the Dr had actually just stepped out of the labor and delivery unit for a moment. When the nurse went to check me she said the head was right there and not to push until the Dr arrived.

The feeling I was having was the greatest urge to push I have ever experienced. With Abby, I couldn’t feel anything because of the epidural being too high and the doctor had to tell me when to push for her. With Zach, I could feel when to push, but it was not as urgent of a need. With both Abby and Zach I pushed for about 20 minutes. With Matt it was almost impossible not to push the urge was so great. The doctor came while the nurses were running around trying to get everything ready for Matt. Obviously, they were not expecting me to go so fast once my water broke, since I had only been at 5 cm about a 1/2 an hour before that. None of the usual stuff had been set up yet. The doctor confirmed it was time to push. Two pushes and Matt was out. Fastest delivery in my book. He pretty much fell out of me and the doctor caught him. I am so glad we went in and stayed and that this didn’t happen at home or in the car. I can’t even imagine.

The doctor had to work fast as the cord was wrapped around his neck, so again Dave could not cut the cord. Guess he will never experience that. They put Matt on my chest and that is when my heart dropped. He was blue and not crying. I thought he was dead. They rushed him over to the side and started cleaning him off and out while the Dr checked me. It felt like forever until I heard that first cry out and then he started to turn pink.

They continued to work on Matt and get all kinds of mucus out of his nose and lungs. I guess because the delivery was so fast the contractions didn’t work on getting some of that stuff out of him as he was being pushed, at least that is what the nurse said at the time. Things seemed to be going OK and I heard him cry out a couple more times. The nurses didn’t seem anxious while working on him. Dave was over with Matt getting pictures. They told us that he was 19 inches long.

Then things went critical again and Matt stopped breathing and started turning blue. The nurses in the room called in other nurses and got in touch with the NICU. Dave came back over with me as we watched helplessly as our baby boy stayed blue and was given oxygen by mask and chest compressions. I thought he was dying and that we wouldn’t be going home with our third child. It is the most awful feeling in the world and there is nothing you can do about it, except pray. I wanted to just cry. Dave just kept holding my hand and trying to comfort me. The tears were on the brink, but Dave kept me together. I don’t know what I would have done without him. He is my rock.

This was the 2nd time this month I thought one of my children was dying. Zach had given us a scare when he fell at home on a toy while running around with Abby and stopped breathing. He too turned blue and we called 911, but while on the phone with 911 he started breathing again and turning pink. The medics checked Zach out and he has been fine ever since.

Two men came into Matt’s room and I recognized one as being the doctor that put my epidural in. The one doctor then put a breathing tube down Matt’s throat and he started turning pink again. They stabilized him and then took him to the NICU to find out what caused this and what was going on.

This is when the waiting began for us to see Matt again and get some answers. To distract ourselves we continued to watch the 2nd and 3rd periods of the Pens game. The Pens did not disappoint me and won the game. Though I do have to say I was not very happy with Fleury. He needs to learn to stay in the goal. He gets my heart pumping so fast when he goes out to get
the puck and leaves the net wide open. I didn’t need more reason for my heart to pump any faster than I already had.

We waited for an hour with no news from the NICU on Matt or his condition. The nurse, Eden, was wonderful and tried to make us as comfortable as she could considering what was going on. I just kept sending up prayers to be with Matt, help him through this and give the doctors answers. Dave then called over to the NICU for an update. We were told he was stable and doing well, but they were running some test and doing x-rays and would let us know when they had the results and more information.

Again we waited! That is the hardest part because you don’t know what is going on, you can’t see your child and know he is OK, and all you can do is pray and try to distract yourself to make the time seem to go faster. Another hour passed and still no news. Now it was after 10pm. Dave called over again to see if there was any more information. They said again he was doing well and that the doctor was on the phone about another child and would call us when she was done to let us know what was going on with Matt. The doctor didn’t call and another 20 minutes passed when the doctor actually came to our room to explain what was going on and what they wanted to do. The doctor told us that Matt’s nasal passage was completely blocked, which explained why he wasn’t breathing at first and why he stopped breathing again when the nurses were cleaning him off. Babies are nasal breathers and have a hard time breathing through their mouths. They tried to pass a tube through his nose, but they couldn’t get it through even using the smallest tube. They did an x-ray, but it was inconclusive as to what was wrong with Matt’s nasal passages. The doctor felt the best option for Matt was to move Matt to Children’s hospital where the pediatric ENT specialist could perform a CT and any other tests they felt were necessary to figure out what was wrong with Matt. Unfortunately, this meant that Matt would leave the hospital where I was and I couldn’t go with him. I was not due to be discharged yet since I had just had a baby several hours before.

We of course decided to do what was best for Matt and they made the arrangements to move him. Before he was moved though, we were able to go to the NICU to see him. We spent about an hour with him. We couldn’t hold him, but we could touch him and look at him and just have him hear our voices. He had a full head of hair and his skin was so soft. He looked so small. We hadn’t actually gotten his weight before so we asked the nurse and found out that my speculations were correct and he was quite small. He was only 5lbs 10.5oz. I had thought at first he
was small, but Dave had said I was just used to Zach and not a newborn yet. I was right, he was small and had a very small head. He just looked so fragile, but it was wonderful to be with him and be able to touch him and have him hear us and know we were with him. I just wanted to stay with him and hold his hand through everything. I am sure he knew we were there.

About an hour after we got in there the transfer team arrived from Children’s Hospital. They got Matt all hooked up and moved onto their stretcher and off he went. Away from Dave and I and out of our hands. Not that we could do anything, but at least he was right here and in the same place as us. It was a very weird feeling letting him go like that. I definitely had a fear like we would never see him again. We went back to our room, which they had actually changed to be the room where Zach was born, and tried to get some rest. We did check before really sleeping to make sure Matt made it to Children’s and they confirmed he did well with the transport and was doing fine. Everything would stay the same for the night as it had been here. They wouldn’t start their actual work up of him until the morning since he was stable and reacting well.

Now that Matt was settled I did start pumping since I was planning on breast feeding Matt, but was unable to do so due to his nasal issue. I look forward to when Matt is all better and we can get to normalcy and I can start breastfeeding Matt. You always expect things to just go well and everything to be normal because it was before. It really shocks the system.

Now we are waiting for the results of the CT scan that was performed today and for the ENT to let us know what the game plan is. Dave is with Matt today and arrived at Children’s Hospital around 9:30 this morning and he says he looks good and is doing well. Once we get pictures off the camera we will update the blog with pictures of our Mighty Matt.