Little Z's Helicopter Ride

I finally had a chance to get on the internet and post an update on our little family. I'm grateful to my sister for hijacking my blog to do an initial update. ( :

Well, Little Z as he will now be known on my blog decided to be very well behaved and come exactly when I wanted him to! I have been saying that he couldn't come until after church on the 30th because I had some things to take care of as Primary President in our ward. But, he also had to come before the first so we could get our tax credit! Ha ha! Sure enough, at dinner on Sunday night I started feeling like my back was going to rip apart every 10 minutes or so, a sure sign of a baby on the way.

I always have back labor no matter the baby's position and when it gets to be more than I can stand I head to the hospital. Sadly, this time I misjudged when to go to the hospital. We needed to be there early enough to get antibiotics as I tested positive for Group B Strep. I did get a dose, but not early enough and we're not sure if that has come into play with the problems Little Z is having or not. But, the good part is that this was my shortest labor- only about 6 hours- and he was born about 2 hours after we got to the hospital! I was rather cranky about the whole thing. I guess being in labor in the middle of the night is just not my thing. I haven't had an epidural before, but I was just not in the mood to deal with anything this time and I wanted to just march in there and tell them I was done and to drug me up! It was pretty much too late though, so I had to go without. I was apparently kind of funny this time about letting everyone know just how much I was hating the pain and agony of the back labor, but thankfully it was over quickly.  ( : Little Z is quite a vigorous little one- he had the cord all wrapped around him and had a death grip on it with his little hand. It took a fair amount of untangling before they could hand him over to me.

He seemed to be just fine the first day and I was anticipating going home with him the next day. Then his labs came back looking a little funny. Then he wouldn't stop gagging and spitting up everything. So, they did an x-ray of his little tummy and that looked kinda iffy. There were several things combined and the fact that our small town hospital didn't have the equipment and expertise to figure out what was wrong that forced the decision to send him to another hospital. Sadly, he had to go over 2 hours away from our home and they wanted to just fly him out to be safe. There goes a good $12,000! Here he is in the fancy little isolette they use on the helicopter:

 Me saying goodbye:

 Out by the helicopter- that thing was huge!

 Loaded in the back of the helicopter on the left there:

As my mom and I drove back to my house to prepare to go to the other hospital the helicopter flew right over head and took my baby away. SNIFF!!! Clearly not the best day of my life. Waaaaah!

The Professor and I drove out that night and went in to visit him. It was 2:00 in the morning before we finally went to bed and I hadn't really slept in 3 days! I was quite the zombie. Luckily I got to sleep last night except for waking up to pump milk, so I've almost been human today. Pumping is NOT something I enjoy, but I'm hoping to make the breastfeeding work out this time, even if only for a short while. With Little Z's tummy problems he really needs to get breast milk if at all possible! 

At the end of the day here we do know a little more about how he's doing. They feel like he's had some kind of infection somewhere, and he's on antibiotics and will have to be for several more days. But, it's not too serious and they don't need to do a lumbar puncture or anything scary like that. They did a special scan with contrast dye in his stomach and intestines today and said everything looks really good. So, we ruled out an intestinal blockage/twisting/narrowing problem. Tomorrow I think the plan is to try to feed him and see how he does by now. (He's been on IV only for 2+ days now.) We'll see if this thing clears up on it's own or if it's something else. They've had a suction tube in his tummy and it isn't bringing up all the gross stuff it was for a day or two, so that's promising. 

Well, gotta run back over to the hospital to see him before bed. Here's one picture of him from today:

Poor kid has an line in each hand, stuff on his tummy and feet, wires going everywhere and a tube down his throat. He likes to try to suck on his throat tube. ( : Hopefully we'll get that yucky thing out tomorrow and he'll be ready to try to eat!

Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts sent our way. He really is doing OK, we just need to figure out what's been causing his tummy problems and make sure his infection goes away. It's funny to see him in the NICU with wires and medicines and such all over when 2 days ago I just had him in my arms with nothing hooked to him and slept with him in my bed all night at the hospital! 

Thankfully through the Ronald McDonald house they arranged a place for us to stay and everyone has been very kind and helpful out here. It really hasn't been too traumatic and maybe in a week or so we'll be home! I've got my mom taking care of the kids and my little sister there to help entertain them, and we're so grateful to have her around to keep the home fire burnin'. 

I hope everyone is having a great New Year! As mine started out so rough I'm sure it can only get better. ( :  The Lord has blessed me with a great recovery from this birth and I'm so thankful for that. This is the first time I've been able to sit down after having a baby without wanting to bawl! I know the Lord is there for us and everything is going to turn out OK.