Drew's Birth Story (so condensed)

Drew’s due date was March 8th, 2010. Friday, March 5th I started having contractions. They were pretty steady at 7 minutes apart. They would last all night, only to disappear during the daytime. This also went on Saturday and Sunday night as well. So, needless to say, I was EXHAUSTED. Monday, my due date, the contractions were continuing at 7 minutes (but super mild) throughout the morning. We went to my 40 week appointment at 12:30pm, where I was 2cm, “effacing,” head down (as I had been since 30 weeks), and they stripped my membranes

Justin, Parker and I went to lunch, where contrax were still 7 minutes, but more intense. Still manageable (walking and talking, and driving) but definitely uncomfortable. After lunch we went to the grocery store. By this time it was about 3pm. After an hour of walking around grocery store (hey, I didn’t want to have to shop again for a LONG time!) my contrax were 4-5 minutes apart, and taking my breath away/it hurt to move. Jsutin had to drive home. We called the midwife, and she said to call back at 2-3 minutes. Pretty much as soon as I hung up with her, they moved into that range, so I called my mom, and she came to get Parker. We were at the hospital an hour later, and by this point the contrax were coming every 2 minutes, and I was trying not to scream through them. Was immediately admitted, it was around 6pm.

The nurse checked me, and I was at 4cm. I caved, and asked for the epidural at that point, because after 3 days of not sleeping, and the intense pain, I just wasn’t able to catch my breath between contractions. I got the epi at about 8pm. My spine is slightly curved, so it took the anesthesiologist awhile to get it placed correctly. The whole time I am hunched over, I was whimpering in pain – not from contractions, but there was something VERY solid in my ribcage, and it was almost more uncomfortable then the needles at that point.

Yay, no more contractions! About 9:45pm, the midwife came in to break my water. She did, and told me to not expect to deliver before 5am. So we called my parents, and told them not to come yet, that we’d call them when I was further along (they live 10 min away, and my younger sister would watch Parker while I delivered so my parents could be there). Midwife then did an exam, and immediately called for an ultrasound machine. I knew something was up, and asked why. She was hesitant to say anything, but finally said that she thought baby was breech. I was confused since he was head down that morning…. And for the past 10 weeks. Just as they wheeled a machine in, the doctor who owns my practice (a physician/midwife collaborative practice) walked past my room. He asked what was up, and came in. Looked at ultrasound, and confirmed that in the past few hours, my baby had indeed turned breech (yeah, that solid object in my ribs? A head). He looked at me and said “I’m prepping for a c-section now, I’ll be back for you next.”

Well, I immediately burst into tears, because that was the LAST thing I wanted. We called my parents, and they were able to make it just in time to give me a kiss. Justin suited up, and got ready to come into OR. The docs/midwives kept reassuring me that baby would be fine, and I would get to see him right away, and he’d come right back to our room, etc.

Fast forward to me in OR. The epi is working – I cannot feel contractions. I CAN however, feel the needle tests they do on the outside of the skin to see if I’d feel incision. And boy did it hurt. So I was told that I’d need general anesthesia. Cue tears. I knew Justin couldn’t come in at that point. I had to actually stop them, and tell them to remove my tongue ring – if they had intubated me with that in, that could have been disastrous!

Apparently there was a communication breakdown, and Justin was brought into OR mid procedure. The doctor flipped and kicked him out. Terrific.

The next thing I know, I am waking up and everything was foggy. But I DID understand that my baby was taken to the NICU, and that he was 7lbs5oz, 20.5inches. I was taken from recovery to Maternity, and DH went to NICU. I was pumped full of morphine, and stayed high for the next 2 days. Everything is still a blur. By Wednesday Drew was diagnosed with Pierre Robin Sequence, but the neonatologist had never treated it before, and wasn’t sure how to proceed.

We encountered many issues with the NICU at our hospital. They were unable to provide Drew with the Haberman Feeder (a special bottle for cleft palates) and my mother had to go to another hospital to get one. No one on their staff - save ONE nurse who looked about 16 - had any experience with PRS, and even that was limited. They did not do any testing normally associated with PRS and even let us know that out of all the babies in the NICU, that Drew was "of lowest priority." Good job saying that to his parents! Idiots.

He was released from the NICU to us on Friday, only to be admitted Tuesday March 16th into Johns Hopkins Medical Institute for testing and surgery. His preliminary results show he has failed his sleep study, although the final results won't be in until Monday. If he HAS failed, his team of specialists (Plastics, Opthamology, ENT, Genetics, Pulminology, Pediatrics, etc) will schedule him for a tongue-lip adhesion (yup, you heard right - they will sew his tongue to his lower lip) at that time.

If you are interested in learning more about PRS, here is one website you can check out: http://www.faces-cranio.org/Disord/PierreRobin.htm

And here is a picture of my beautiful son!