Belated Updates

We apologize for the lack of updates here. Life got extremely busy and complicated the last two months of 2021, and now I have the pleasure of summarizing it all!

In November and December I had weekly ultrasounds and weekly Non Stress Tests. All located in Portland or Salem. We decided that the boys and I would go live with my wonderful sister Rebekah for December in case anything changed suddenly and I needed to deliver sooner. Well, I did not. 

Needless to say, we got through the frequent trips to and from appointments with little change. Isaiah continued to be healthy and active, the only real concern being his CDH. A slight amount of fluid near one of his lungs was watched and measured rigorously. It never changed. 

A few days before Christmas Brick arrived and we all had a wonderful holiday. The 26th of December he and I kissed Adam and Eli goodbye, gave Bek big hugs, and drove to the Ronald McDonald House at Legacy Emmanuel in Portland. We unpacked and settled in, grateful to be a short walk to the building where we would have our son and where he would be in the NICU. And then...

Monday the 27th. It was very much one of the days Grafield warned me about. Early afternoon, less than 24 hours until my induction time, one of the doctors at Legacy called me. 

No pediatric ECMO beds available. No one believed he would need ECMO, but in case of emergency it was safest to have it available. They still wanted us to deliver the 28th, but could not accommodate us there. 

"But! OHSU has ECMO beds! So we're sending you up that crazy hill to that 3D maze they call a hospital." 

I have nothing against OHSU other than the fact that it was SNOWING and they wanted us there that evening and the roads up that hill are already hazardous! I was very stressed about the whole situation. Especially with our rooms at the Ronald McDonald house being on the legacy campus. Visiting my baby just became a 10-20+ minute drive each way. Doable but not what I was mentally prepared for. In fact, 2021 was just the year all my plans got thrown in the paper shredder, so really we were just continuing that trend. 

But we got up the hill, managed to find our way to the L&D ward, and got settled in. The night doctors and nurses got all the paperwork and formalities our of the way and were great. Based on how my body was doing they decided to let us sleep and start the induction around 5am. I proceeded to let them know that while I had never had an induction, this was my third baby and my body knows how to have babies. Adam was born in 6 hours, total. And Eli was 3 hours. I know inductions are different but I just had the feeling that I needed to have them on edge for sudden changes. 

5 am,  Tuesday the 28th of December, 2021. They didn't start me right on pitocin, instead opting for a Foley balloon. I'm not going to describe details but wowie! Going from no contractions to a lot of them like that wasn't my favorite. But it worked. The balloon progressed me enough to where they could start pitocin safely. As contractions started to pick up (within a half hour) I opted for my first epidural! 

Now, I love the experiences of childbirth I had with my first two. But oh. My. Gosh. I seriously missed out! Epidurals are amazing and glorious things! 

Anyway, after the epidural, they broke my water and we kept chugging along. I was still only at about 4-5cm by 8:45am. The nurse decided to do some side laying hip stretches during my contractions. As they helped me onto my left side Isaiah relaxed a lot. I have been telling people my whole pregnancy that he hates me being on my back, and right then I had hard proof! Haha! The doctor came in and checked me at around 9am. 6cm. "We have time!" Hip stretch. Uh-oh. 

I don't know what exactly happened. But there were suddenly doctors and nurses everywhere. Apparently Isaiah's heart rate dropped A LOT and they wanted to put a better monitor on his head. As they were trying to do that one of the doctors started telling me that if he didn't improve in a few minutes they'd have to take me in for a C-section. And then another doctor said "she's at ten!" And then the nurses said NICU was there and ready and the doctors told me to push! One contraction later and Isaiah came into the world at 9:15am! They kind of-sort of laid him on my stomach to clamp the cord and let me cut it. I got to rub his head a bit before they whisked him away to the resuscitation room to be intubated. 

As the doctors and nurses were tending to me they told me I went from 6 to 8 to 10 in less than a minute. I can't say I didn't warn them! 😁 

Brick stayed with Isaiah much of that first day. I had an elective procedure at around noon, and was taken up to maternal recovery right after. When I was feeling better and waddling around my room that afternoon, Brick wheeled me down to the NICU to see our baby!

For most babies, crying at birth is good and desired. For CDH babies it really isn't ideal. The stress on their lungs can be detrimental. Well, Isaiah came out wailing the best he could! He fought the nurses and doctors as they got him all hooked up to the monitors and machines that would save his little life. Once he was sedated and safely on his isolation room, everyone begun to say how amazing he was doing. 

The first day, the oxygen he receives started at 100/100 (meaning he was getting all his oxygen from that). By the evening, he was able to tolerate, and honestly did better, at 30/100!! That's pretty incredible for a less than 1 day old CDHer! 

Now, on this the first day of 2022, he has continued to maintain amazing stats and keeps everyone happy with his great condition. He has moments when he struggles, but his O² has stayed steady at 40/100 and he calms down fairly quickly from hard moments. 

Highlights of his days so far! 

-December 28th 2021 is the 49th anniversary of my Grandpa Paul Gould's death. There have been moments throughout my life when I have felt close to him, but sitting beside my fragile and strong baby boy that first evening I felt in my heart that Grandpa Gould was watching out for his great grandson. ❤️

-On one of his monitors there are two blue numbers right on top of each other (oxygen saturation I think?). For normal babies they are usually fairly equal, 100/100 or 97/96 for example. CDH babies hardly ever get equal numbers. The first day he had a 15-20 point difference and they were happy with that. During one of my visits, I was cradling his head and holding his hand, and I just started to sing. For some reason Hotel California was in my head, so I slowed it down and sang it like I would a lullaby, if that makes sense. When I finished the song, his nurse came in.

"How'd you do that?!"

"Do what?"

She pointed at the screen behind me. His oxygen saturation numbers were equal. 98/98. 

I told her I sang him the song and she laughed. "I'll have to brush up on my Eagles!" 

I texted my Dad immediately, so happy that my years of listening to those songs with him was helping my baby. 

-To perform his corrective surgery, he will be on his right side. So on his second day of life they did a test to make sure he could tolerate it. Remember how I said he hated me being on my back? Well apparently it's not his preferred position too! He loved being on his side! The nurse said it was the best his stats had ever been! Ever since they try to make sure he is slightly turned and he loves it!

-Since he was doing to well, they thought they would try and do the surgery Thursday. After a few discussions among the doctors and with us, we all decided to wait until after the New Years weekend. Our surgeon wants everything to be as perfect as it can, and to be able to be on duty the days following the surgery so he personally can keep an eye on Isaiah. 

Oh, and our surgeon? His name is Dr. Raphael Sun! We all got a good laugh out of our baby having his surgeon's name as his middle name on accident! Dr. Sun specializes in congenital abnormalities and is pioneering the CDH program here at OHSU! We are so blessed to have him on our team! 

My Izzy Bear is so sweet and strong. If his surgery goes well on Monday or Tuesday, we are hoping and praying he continues to gain strength upon strength. My mama heart aches to hold him, but I am patient. Thank you all for your hope and love and prayers! Happy New Year!