Monday, September 17 (Day 2)

We will fill this in later.

A quick highlight: We found out Julia will have surgery on Tuesday.  At 12:30 AM on Monday Sara was able to see Julia again after the doctors were happy with her blood pressure levels. She also held Julia for the second time later in the day.

Sunday, September 16 - After Julia's birth

We will fill this in later when we have time.  Unfortunately we are exhausted at the end of the day and are falling behind in updating everyone.

As a quick highlight:

This day Eric met with the pediatric surgeon over a telelink (similar to Skype/FaceTime) and Sara had complications with high blood pressure even after birth.  Julia did well after birth, but had a hard time regulating her blood sugar levels.

Sunday, September 16 - Baby Pictures

Baby Julia after birth showing off her omphalocele, really she was just crying because it was bright and a lot of people were poking a prodding her

Doctors and nurses are checking her over

She really liked to stick her tongue out after delivery

Julia and her mom

The lights from the room were bothering her, so dad was trying to shield her from the lights while taking pictures

Julia and her dad

8 pounds 10 ounces

After we held her she got her leads put on (body temperature, heart rate, etc)

Dad was holding her hand while they were assessing her on the warming bed

Down in the NICU one of the nurse practitioners, who has seen plenty of omphaloceles, pushed her bowel back into her belly and showed us the membrane inside of the umbilical cord.  In the picture it is the pink portion that she is pointing to.

Julia sticking out her tongue at everyone

After I returned to the NICU she had been bandaged up and had breathing tubes in her nose to help her breath.  The nurses said she had stridorous (squeeky/laborous) breathing so this was just room air to help her breath while adjusting to life outside of her mommy's belly.

She also had a small tube in her mouth with very mild suction to pull anything out of her stomach (air and liquid) to ensure there was no pressure on her omphalocele in preparation for potential surgery.

One of the nurses also gave her a pink bow in her hair :)

After one of the shift changes they switched her bandages to a bag to keep her omphalocele from drying out.  

Here is a picture of her bow and all of her hair, which is very very soft and her dad calls it 'whispy'

She really likes her pacifier so they were trying to prop it up using rolled burp rags to help her keep it in her mouth

It didn't work super well, but she didn't mind giving up and taking a nice nap

Sunday, September 16 - Baby Julia Born (Day 1)

Shortly after midnight, our plans changed. I had a contraction around 12:30 and I had to call the nurse because during that contraction, my water broke. I had high amniotic fluid levels which was part of my being uncomfortable and when my water broke, I instantly felt my skin relax. They checked me again and I was dilated to 4 cm and the baby had dropped significantly. Contractions came on quite a bit harder and faster almost immediately and they started prepping for delivery. I asked for an epidural so we started that process. They had to push a bag of IV fluid through before I could get the epidural and of course my IV blew. They switched it out and it actually went in much better that time. I had to get my blood drawn again to make sure my platelets hadn't dropped too much (I had found out earlier if they dropped too much, I wasn't going to be able to get an epidural- not good news to someone beginning labor who wants an epidural). Luckily, my platelets were staying somewhat consistent so I was able to get the epidural. I had gotten a sudden headache during labor, I at one point just said, my head is going to explode. My blood pressure was still high so they were a little concerned. By the time the epidural was in, it was probably about 2:45. I was having pretty painful contractions and they were coming pretty fast. I finally got laid down and was getting some relief from the epidural and within about 5 minutes, I said I was starting to feel some pressure that I needed to push before long. They checked me again and I was to a 10 and pretty much ready to push. I pushed through 3 contractions with just my nurse in the room and then she had me stop and wait for the doctor to arrive.

The room started filling up with the doctor for me, nurses for me, the NICU doctor, NICU nurse practitioner and 3 or 4 NICU nurses. Once the doctor came in and got ready, I pushed through one full contraction and then started out pushing through the second contraction until the baby's head was out and the doctor said to stop pushing. Once the baby's head was out, the doctor basically pulled the baby out the rest of the way to be able to control the umbilical cord and omphalocele a little more. The baby came out crying and looked pretty good. Eric announced that it was a girl! Julia Marie Shook was born at 3:08 am. They put her on me right away and Eric was able to cut the umbilical cord (about 12 inches away from her belly). We reminded to doctors to clamp really high for her cord, because the surgeon told us that the number one complication related to an omphalocele is that the doctors accidentally clamp too close and could clamp/cut part of her bowel that is inside the umbilical cord. Shortly after delivery, they took her over to the warming bed and the NICU team looked her over. She got 8 out of 9 and 9 out of 9 for her APGAR scores. She looked good to the NICU team and they got her all wrapped up. The on-call NICU doctor (neonatologist) said it definitely looked like an omphalocele to him. We were then able to hold her for probably 20 minutes between the two of us. This was exciting because we weren't sure if we would be able to hold her right away, and if we could hold her it would only be for a few minutes. While we were holding her the NICU team looked very relaxed, which we took as a good sign. They took her to the NICU and Eric was able to go along, which again was exciting because we were told that Eric would need to stay out of NICU for about an hour while they ran assessments.

 We will continue adding to the posts today and tomorrow, which will now include pictures of Julia so keep checking back. For now here is a family picture with Sara, Eric, and Julia.

Saturday, September 15

Saturday, September 15 I was tired today and tried to do some napping on and off throughout the day. My blood pressure was still high and the doctors decided that they would induce me tonight. I was able to eat until 2:00 PM today, which was nice because I actually had an appetite. I spent most of the day trying to get some rest, getting lots of blood pressure checks, getting blood drawn, and being checked on by the nurse. Eric had went home and brought up all of the Harry Potter movies and we were preparing for a Harry Potter marathon throughout the induction process – he even brought popcorn for tonight. I also got to take a shower today which felt pretty good at that point. After 2:00, I couldn't eat or drink anything because I was going to begin the induction process at 4:00 PM. Of course, the doctor who was going to put the Cervadil (beginning medicine of the induction) was in a delivery at 4:00 and didn't get into me until 5:45, I was getting pretty hungry again at this point. The doctor who placed it actually brought in a sonogram machine because she couldn't feel the baby's head at all and wanted to make sure it hadn't flipped and the whole induction process would have been pointless. Luckily, the baby was still head down, just really high, so we proceeded. I had to wait for 2 hours after the Cervadil was placed before I could eat - in case I started having any contractions that led to labor. So at 7:45, I was finally able to eat some dinner. The boys came up and visited me for a little while, I think Parker was a little scared of me being hooked up to and IV and monitors while in a hospital gown. My mom came along and Eric's parents who had drove in late Friday night. Around 8:30, my nurse suggested I could take some Ambien to help me get a better night's sleep since they would start pitocin the next morning shortly after 6 am. I took the Ambien and pretty much fell right alseep. Eric was able to get some sleep too. Around 11:30, I woke up and couldn't get comfortable and kept needing to get up and use the bathroom. I think I was driving the nurse (and probably Eric) crazy, each time I'd get up or move, the nurse would have to adjust my monitors because they would lose track of the baby. They did check me to see if I was making significant process and if the baby was coming soon. Unfortunately, I was only dilated to 2 cm and the baby's head was still really high. I was having contractions that I could feel, but weren't super bad and not very consistent. I continued feeling uncomfortable and figured my nurse, Eric, and I would just be having a long night ahead of us.

Friday, September 14

The following 5 days were basically a blur so I apologize if some of the things end up out of order.

Friday morning, I woke up and still wasn't feeling well. Eric had a meeting at 10:00am and so I tried eating breakfast and resting a little extra, but by about 10:30am, I called the office to see what they wanted me to do. They wanted me to come in and get monitored and looked at again. I texted Eric to let him know they wanted me to come in and to meet me at the office. I walked over to the hospital (by myself!) and Eric came over and met me at the office. By 11:30, I was hooked up for a NST and still feeling terrible. The baby had was not being very reactive and I was having a few smaller contractions. The doctors weren't too pleased with how the baby was looking or how I was looking. My blood pressure was still running higher and a few numbers were hitting their concerning numbers for pre-eclampsia. They sent in a lab guy to check my blood for platelet counts and liver enzymes. These results were both within the normal range so that was good to hear. After being hooked up for about an hour, they sent me to get an ultrasound to check and see how the baby was looking. The baby was doing fine, nothing too concerning, but they just weren't happy overall with how I looked and how the baby was responding during the NST. So they sent me up to labor & delivery and said we would probably just do the induction tonight instead of waiting until Sunday. As I was being wheeled up to labor & delivery, I told them all that I had finally done it- I walked to the hospital to have a baby and to make it even better, Eric met me there and so I walked to the hospital by myself to have a baby. :) We said it would only be a better story if there had been snow on the ground. Everyone smiled and we had a good laugh about this as we headed up.

Once I got up to labor & delivery, they got me all settled in. They attempted to hook up an IV, which took 3 times and 2 people and all 3 were definitely the most painful IV attempts I have every had. I tried to sleep for awhile and get some rest. Eric ran home and got our hospital bag and told the boys that we'd see them in a few days. Luckily my mom was here through all of this so we didn't have to worry about where to take the boys. I had blood work done a few more times that afternoon and my platelets were starting to drop a little bit. I was hooked up to a monitor to keep an eye on the baby. The nurse kept a close eye on my blood pressure which was still running high. Mid-afternoon I was starting to get hungry and asking about food- I had only had ½ a piece of toast and a little oatmeal for breakfast that morning. They weren't sure if I would be allowed to eat because of the induction and I think they were a little concerned about the possibility of a C-section if I didn't progress well enough. Finally around 4:00pm, they said that they were just going to monitor me for the night and see how I did, then probably do the induction the next night. I was excited about this because they meant I was able to eat something for supper that night. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. I was monitored all night and received lots of check-ins from the nurse. I was still not feeling well and fairly uncomfortable, but tried to get some rest that night. I slept on and off through the night with lots of check-ins from the nurse and trips to go to the bathroom. By morning, I think I was more exhausted than I had been the night before.

Thursday, September 13th (The beginning of delivery)

Eric and I went in for my last appointment today.  The baby passed the BPP and the non-stress test without any problem.  The NST was a little less reactive than they would like though, so they watched a little longer just to make sure.  They didn't seem too concerned about it.  My blood pressure was a little concerning, I normally run in the 90s/50s, but today my blood pressure was 130s/80s.  I also wasn't feeling very well, but we weren't sure if it was me getting sick, going into labor, or just in general, uncomfortable at almost 39 weeks pregnant.  They doctor gave us instructions for going in for our induction on Sunday night, but said she wouldn't be surprised if she saw me prior to that going in on my own.  They sent me to the lab to get blood drawn to check for other signs of pre-eclampsia since my blood pressure had risen so dramatically in just a few days.  They did leave me with instructions to call the next day if I still wasn't feeling well or if any other symptoms came up.  We headed out from our appointment, went and got blood drawn, and then stopped for donuts and coffee (or chocolate milk) to celebrate our last appointment.  The doctor called and said my lab results were normal and did not show pre-eclampsia. The rest of the day, I took it pretty easy and tried to relax to help my blood pressure.  I still wasn't feeling great, but was hoping a good night's sleep would help.