Nico is here and is 1 week old!

This post and a couple others to follow are reposts from my other blog, at Miracles Can Happen, but I wanted to begin with the beginning: Nico's birth.

Posted Wednesday, December 10, 2008
I can't believe my baby is a week old already. I am sorry I'm a little late in posting since little Nicholas was born, but it has been wonderful, crazy and scary all at the same time. We were in the hospital longer than anticipated, but thankfully we came home healthy and as a bigger family than when we left. So here is my birth story.

It was a traumatic day, but Nicholas and I both survived. I checked into the L&D at 5:30 am Wednesday morning. They put me on pitocin at about 6:00 am and I began having contractions right away. However, these contractions did not hurt, so I was riddled with anxiety then. At about 9:30 am the OB came and broke my water. I was only 2 cm dilated at that point and I began feeling my contractions much more. The contractions began getting much more intense and were less than two minutes apart, and before long I was in desperate need for an epidural. So, at 3cm and 11:30 am I was given the epidural which was a welcomed relief for a little while. It was a very strange feeling when my legs began going numb, but slowly the extreme pain began slipping away. I was able to take a short nap after the epidural kicked in, but soon enough I began feeling back spasms, which happened to be synchronized with my contractions. Over the next hour, these cramps, or spasms, began getting more intense and we realized that I was feeling my contractions again. Since my contractions had gotten painful enough to feel through the epidural, the anesthesiologist was called in to give me a little more. At 4:45 pm, I was told it was time to push. Silly me, I thought, when I was told it was time to push, that I would be having my baby soon. Instead, I was pushing for over three hours! Throughout the entire 3 hours and 8 minutes of pushing, I was still able to feel the intensity of my contractions in my back. I knew from the pain, when I was supposed to push, without anyone indicating it to me. I thought my baby boy would never come out! The doctor kept coming and going from my room and each time he was in there he told me to keep pushing. Part of me just wanted him to say it was time to do a c-section, but no such luck. Ed was so great throughout the entire day, but especially during the pushing. He really was a great coach and at one point, was even promising me chocolate cake once our baby arrived. Throughout the entire day of labor, the fetal heart rate looked great. There were no dips that shouldn't occur and no indication that something was wrong. However, when the baby finally crowned, the doctor and nurse told me to stop pushing. I was in disbelief as to why I had to stop when I could look down and see the baby's head half way out of me! Just seconds later, the doctor commanded that the nurse call for NICU to come down stat! Ed and I had no idea what was going on. I felt absolute relief once the baby came out of me! The doctor cut his umbilical cord himself, which was an indicator that there was something wrong, and he was whisked away by the NICU staff. The first thing I noticed was that I did not hear any crying! That scared me to death, and all I could do was cry and repeatedly ask what my baby was not crying. The NICU staff called Ed over and he was able to see some of what was going on. Ed told me later that I do not want to know what he saw, or was told, right now. I was able to see the bottom half of nicholas's body from across the room and he looked very pale. In addition, I could see some of the NICU staff giving him CPR. Finally, once our baby boy was taken out of the room to the NICU, the doctor told us that when he was born, he had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. This caused him to have an extremely low heart rate, was not breathing, and was grey in color. His overall APGAR score was a 1out of a 10. He got the 1 only because he actually had a heart rate. It was explained that before he was taken down to the NICU, Nicholas did start breathing, but he was still given a ventilator which was helping him continue to breathe.

Overall, while this was supposed to be a wonderful and happy day for us, ended up becoming what could probably be considered the scariest moment of my life. Our little baby boy was taken from the room and I had yet to even see him. It was finally two hours later when we were given the green light to come meet our newborn baby in the NICU. The doctor told us that he had gained color and had established a steady heart rate, all of which was great news. This did not take away from the fact that when we were able to see and meet our child for the first time, it was through a glass window. The most beautiful thing I ever seen in the world was laying in an incubator with a tube going down his throat and wires attached to him in various places. I immediately began crying. This was partly because I was so happy to see him and grateful that he was alive, and the other part was so scared and upset of what had happened. I was worried about the possible brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen and of course his ability to breathe on his own. Ed and I visited him again later that night, and his prognosis looked a little better than it had just a few hours earlier.

The next morning the NICU doctor came to my postpartum room and informed us that they were going to try taking the ventilator out so he could breathe on his own, and that overall he was doing great! He had a great night and all of his tests were looking good. In addition, the doctor told us that he was ordering a brain sonogram to see if there was any brain damage, and the results indicated that there was nothing wrong! That morning when we went to visit him we were astonished to see his ventilator was already out and he was successfully breathing on his own! This was thrilling to see. Finally, the nurse asked if I wanted to feed him. Of course, since he was taken to the NICU he was given formula to eat since I was still not allowed to hold him. From his incubator bed I was able to hold and feed him! Every visit was uplifting and consisted of more good news of Nico doing better. Later that day one of the IVs he had attached through his cord was taken out and Friday the other one followed. In addition, on Friday he was moved to a different pod within the NICU. This pod was designed for less critical cases so it was a happy move for us. On Saturday we were able to "room in" which meant that Nico was able to stay with us in the room with NICU staff stopping by to check in with us. Then on Sunday after the circumcision we were able to come home! That evening we had a birthday party/welcome home party in honor of Nicholas Edward W!

Nicholas is an amazing baby. I cannot believe how much I love this little guy. He is absolutely beautiful and so perfect in both mine and Ed’s eyes. Every time I look into his little baby blue eyes I see an angel sent from heaven. After trying to conceive for two and half years, I now understand why God wanted it to take so long for two little pink lines to appear; He wanted us to have this perfect and wonderful baby. Being pregnant at any other time would have changed that. He is such a happy baby, he has a great appetite, and is a scheduled pooper! I knew that Nico was a miracle baby due to IVF, but now he is truly a miracle and a gift from God.

I wanted to thank everyone for your prayers during this time. Our infertility and everything that has occurred to get us to this point is truly a testament that God hears our prayers.

Here are some pictures of Nico from his week of life!