Yep. It’s true. On July 23 we welcomed little Rodney Hammer Harper into the world a whole 9 weeks and 5 days early.
On the 21st (Wednesday) we went in for what was supposed to be a regular old checkup. I’d been swelling a lot but otherwise I’d been feeling just fine. During the entire pregnancy I’d had extremely low blood pressure so I was really surprised when the nurse told us it was in the 140s. They had me give the usual urine sample and tried my blood pressure again and it was still really high and then they found out that there was a pretty high amount of protein in my urine. At this point I’m thinking I’m going to quit coming to my doctor’s appointments because it seems like they always find something wrong. Dr. Horsely came in and told us that he was sending us up to labor and delivery again and that we might be doing an emergency c-section. I had a severe case of pre-eclampsia but since I was only 30 weeks along they were hoping they wouldn’t have to deliver him yet. It wasn’t until we got upstairs that we started to realize how bad things were. I thought it would be like the last time they sent me upstairs, I’d gown up, get monitors strapped to my stomach and be monitored for an hour before they sent me home again and we could go out to dinner with Tony and Ginger like we’d planned. Wrong! I was right about the gown and the monitors but they also threw in an IV and a catheter with a shot and a blood draw to top it off.
Apparently Logan doesn’t deliver anyone earlier then 32 weeks so they were trying to get me stable enough to transfer down to McKay Dee. To do this they gave me Hydralzine and Magnesium by IV. Now the Hydralazine was no big deal but I hope you never have to have Magnesium! The Hydralazine was to bring down my blood pressure and the Magnesium was to prevent the seizures that I probably should have been having since my blood pressure had been going up this whole time. Everyone was running around so fast that no one really explained what was going to happen with the Magnesium so I was completely unprepared for the side effects. I’d been crying so I couldn’t breath through my nose anyway but then it started to feel like my whole body was on fire and then I started to get really nauseous. I had just enough time to say that I was going to throw up but Nolan managed to get a bowl for me in time. After throwing up I wasn’t so nauseous but I still felt on fire. The Magnesium took half an hour and then they called in an ambulance to take us down to McKay Dee in Ogden. During all of this Nolan had been on the phone with both of our parents and they all got there before it was time to go. My dad and Nolan gave me a blessing and then the ambulance crew arrived. I almost felt bad for them. Nothing like having the county Fire Chief (a.k.a their boss’s boss) meet you in the hall and tell you that “this one is special” to add to the pressure! But they did a great job and got us down to Ogden quickly and safely.
Once we got down to McKay Dee they put me back on Magnesium but it was a much lower dose so I just felt warm, tired and a bit disconnected. We met with Dr. Ahlstrom who told us that he was going to keep me on the Mag, monitor my blood pressure every hour, monitor my urine output for 24 hours and do blood work twice a day. While we were still in Logan they gave me a steroid shot to try to help the baby’s lungs develop but they needed 48 hours to get the full effect from the shot so the goal was to keep my blood pressure at an acceptable level for those 48 hours. At this point they walk a fine line because the only way to help me is to deliver the baby but the longer they can keep him in the better his chances are.
At this point it was almost 9 o’clock and we were wiped out! They put me on a liquid diet in case we had to go into surgery so after some chicken broth I tried to get to sleep. Needless to say neither of us really slept that night. With the monitors on we could constantly hear the baby’s heart so any time the pulse changed just a little bit it made me nervous. Also, the blood pressure cuff wasn’t very nice to me. They never took it off my arm and it would automatically go off every hour. It was also the tightest cuff I’ve ever had so it was pretty impossible to sleep through that.
The next day we had an appointment with another specialist and we had another ultrasound where they figured out that while our little guy was 30 weeks along, he was only measuring about 27 weeks which told us that I’d started getting sick a few weeks earlier. Later in the day one of the ladies who works in admitting came to tell us that there was going to be an issue with our insurance. For some reason McKay-Dee is considered an out of network provider and we were going to be responsible for 60% of our entire stay plus however long the baby would have to stay in the NICU! Not an exciting prospect! This was pretty frustrating because we didn’t realize this when they were transferring us down there and it wasn’t like anyone had even asked if that’s where we wanted to go. Normally I’m the one who handles all things insurance but since I was in la-la land thanks to the drugs Nolan got on the phone with insurance to try to figure things out. Both Nolan and the very nice admitting lady worked with insurance and got things figured out. Since it was an emergency transfer our insurance was going to cover McKay-Dee as if it were an in-network provider but once I was considered stable, we’d be responsible for everything else. They also agreed to cover an ambulance transfer to one of their hospitals so we talked with Dr. Ahlstrom and found out that he also covers patients at Ogden Regional and while he wasn’t happy about me being transferred, I was considered stable and there’s no way we could afford to pay 60% of what it was going to cost to have us there.
So at around 5 o’clock we took our second ambulance ride to our third hospital in two days. That night things stayed the same as before. Mag on the IV, blood pressure checks every hour, monitors strapped to me to keep an eye on the baby, more blood work and very little sleep. The next morning our very funny nurse decided to prep me for a c-section (just in case) so that things would be less hectic if we had to go in. Our last blood draw was a 2:30 along with one more urine protein check. The next time the nurse came in we knew right away that the results weren’t good because she was all decked out in surgical gear.
Let me give you a quick bit on the protein. When we went into our regular old check-up my protein was at 5. Now I’m not sure exactly what kind of measurement they use but on anything over a 3 they rush you into a c-section because high protein means your kidneys aren’t doing so well. Since I was only 30 weeks they wanted to try to wait for the sake of the baby. With my very last labs my protein was up to 12 and there was just no way that they could wait any longer.
They pumped more drugs into my IV and Nolan got all gowned up and away we went. Nolan got hassled when he decided to stand at my head and watch instead of sit down. Fainting is pretty common in husbands during c-sections from what I hear. Nolan did an awesome job in keeping me talking to him so I wasn’t thinking about what was going on behind the curtain and our little Rodney was born at 4:52 pm on July 23rd. After the baby was out I started to feel a lot of pressure in my chest. The doctor told me he could give me something for it but it would knock me out. At this point I wasn’t’ responding and was moving around so much that the doctors couldn’t close me up so Nolan made the executive decision and they put me under.
The next thing I remember is waking up in a much nicer room with LOTS of people. My parents, Nolan’s mom, all of my sisters, Dan, Shawna and Tara were all there and I was barely coherent. The drugs that had put me under were trying to keep me there and they had decided to keep me on the Mag for at least another 24 hours. Nolan showed me pictures of the baby that he’d taken and a video and it was making me so frustrated because I just couldn’t focus on them! I don’t remember much more then that except that I was starving and that I wanted French fries! My mom was kind enough to share her fries with me and after that I was gone.
The next day (Saturday) is pretty hazy too. Stupid Mag! I know we had visitors but I can’t really remember who they all were. Nolan went back and forth between my room and the NICU to check on the baby and bring me pictures. Rodney was doing great though. The 2 days gave the steroid plenty of time to work and he was breathing on his own. He was in an isolette to keep his temperature up since he was only 2 lbs. Poor little guy had almost no fat on his body to keep him warm! They finally took me off of the Mag Saturday night and I started to come out of it.
Sunday morning I was finally feeling alive enough to try to take a shower. After that I finally made it down to the NICU and got to see and hold my little man for the first time. Nolan took video of it but since I looked like I’d been run over by a train that will have to stay a family only video.
We spent the next two days sleeping and going down to the NICU. They discharged us Tuesday evening and while it was nice to be going home it was horrible to have to walk out of there without our baby.
It’s been seven weeks now and we’re finally getting close to bringing our little man home. The first week in the hospital he had to go on the nasal canula to help bring up his oxygen stats for a day and then the ventilator to help teach him how to breathe deep enough. After being on the ventilator for a day he went back to the nasal canula for another day or so and since then has been breathing fine on his own. They had him on a TPN solution for a while through an IV until his stomach could handle breast milk and then they fed that through a feeding tube. Eventually they started to let him try a bottle twice a day and the rest by feeding tube. A little while after that they started giving him a bottle with every feeding, whatever he didn’t take through the bottle they finished through the tube and about a week or so ago they took the feeding tube out completely. This whole time they’d been fortifying the milk to help him gain weight faster and they quit doing that about 4 days ago to see how his weight would do on what he’d be eating at home. He was gaining weight pretty consistently with the fortifier and that has slowed down now without it but he’s still gaining a tiny bit every day.
As of this morning he was 3 lbs 13 ounces and doing very well. We’re hoping to be able to bring him home in the next week or so. If there’s a silver lining to any of this it’s that while he’s been in the hospital it has given me a chance to recover from the surgery and get ready to baring him home. I can’t even begin to describe how blessed we’ve been. The first day of this whole ordeal Dr. Horsely told Nolan that there was a very good chance he’d have to choose between his wife and his child in the next few hours and an even greater chance that he wouldn’t be given the opportunity to choose. Somehow Nolan ended up with a healthy and recovering me and a strong, healthy baby. There is no doubt in my mind that our Heavenly Father has been watching over this baby. He’s been a blessing and a miracle since the very beginning. I’m so thankful that my dad and my husband could give me the blessings that I needed and for all the thoughts and prayers that have been sent our way through this whole adventure.
