Welcoming Finley to the World Part 1

My induction started Wednesday, October 3rd, at 5:30 am and by 6:30 am the Pitocin was up and going.  My doctor came in around 7:30am and I was at 4 cm so she broke my water, this was when all the fun began.  She did tell me there was some light meconium in my water, so we would have a few extra people in during the delivery to suction out any excess fluids.  My contractions got quicker and more painful almost instantly after she broke my water.  I was practically begging for my epidural around 8:30am.  The nurse had to run fluids through my IV for a while before the epidural could be started but by 9:30am I had the epidural and the rest was smooth sailing.  The nurse checked me and I was already at 9cm, but my doctor was in surgery so she left me for a while and said that we would have a baby by lunch time. 

After the Epidural Kicked In

Glad I Wasn't Feeling those Contractions

At 11:00am she came back and said we would start pushing and if we were close we would stop until my doctor got there.  I pushed a few times and she said we are definitely ready, so at 11:05 the doctor came in and got ready and 2 pushes later at 11:15am came my sweet Finley.  I got to hold him right away as he cried before the special team came in to suction his fluids and clean him up.  He weighed 8lbs 11oz and is 20 1/4 inches long. 

Daddy Cutting the Cord

He was having a little trouble with his lungs and breathing since he swallowed some of the fluid with the meconium so he was taken to the special care nursery so they could monitor his breathing.  He ended up having to get a tube down his throat into his stomach, and a CPAP machine to help push the oxygen into his lungs.  He had a catheter put into his umbilical area so that they wouldn't have to poke him each time he needed blood drawn.  He also has an IV where he is getting hydration and monitors that are keeping track of his oxygen saturation, BP, and heart rate.

 

 

On day two Finley started off by improving well and got down to 30% oxygen (21%, room air, being the goal).  But at 8:00pm we found out the CPAP machine had caused a small pneumothorax.  The CPAP was removed and they put what they call a hood over his face with 100% oxygen to try and resolve the pneumothorax.  They continued taking chest xrays to monitor it's size.  Around 11pm Finley's breathing had worsened so they decided to put in a small chest tube to suction out the air.  The procedure went well but they decided to transfer him over to the NICU at the Children's Hospital at 3am on Friday, where they had more resources in case he needed them.  So I rushed back to my room and requested my discharge so that I could go be with him.

On arrival at the children's hospital they did there own chest xray's and tests and continued to monitor him.  Around 6am we decided to go home and get a little rest so that I could continue pumping since he is still not able to nurse.  Later in the day they figured out that his chest tube placement needed adjusting and after that his breathing continued to improve. They did an echocardiogram to check for pulmonary hypertension which he did have so they put him on oxygen and nitrix oxide.  His breathing slowly continued to improve.  By Friday night they were able to turn his oxygen down to 50%, where it had been 100% since they found the pneumothorax. 

 

 

Over the weekend and through Monday he continued improving.  He did have jaundice so they put him under the bili-light.  This is nothing new to us, since we dealt with this with Brady.  On Sunday they started feeding him 10cc of my breast milk through his tube and since he tolerated that well on Monday they started feeding him my milk through a bottle.  Since his xrays had improved they sealed up the chest tube and it was taken out on Monday evening.  They also shut off his nitrix on Monday since his breathing has improved.  His umbilical catheters, where they were drawing his blood, was also removed on Monday evening.  We are so excited that things are moving in the right direction.