Reagan's Story Part 3

Catch up on Part 1 and 2 if you missed Reagan's story from the beginning.

At UAB the NICU is designated into levels and then "step-downs" as the babies improve. The day Reagan was born we started off in the highest level. There is one nurse per baby because the babies are such high risk. When Reagan was born we all assumed that she would be dependent upon a ventilator at all times. Due to the good Lord above and those wonderful steroid shots she surprised us all. We made it thru the first day and night without needing a thing! It was truly a miracle in itself. We were told over and over how amazing it was that Reagan was never on a ventilator or any type of breathing machines for help. Side note: We give all praise to HIM!!

The first few weeks were blurry. Since I had to have a c-section I couldn't drive so TC, my parents or his parents would drive me up about 8 am everyday. We had unlimited access to her so we could sit in the nursery with her the entire day. In the very beginning we really couldn't even touch her because she was so sensitive. Her skin was basically see thru and the nerve endings were so close that when we touched her, it physically hurt her. I would barely stroke her back and it would make her flinch. I remember those being some of the hardest times when I just wanted to feel her.

 I would take a book or a magazine and sit in a chair beside her isolette everyday. One of my favorite NICU doctors would always find me there and would laugh saying I was going to stare a hole into her. We started off fairly well in the beginning. Each day in the NICU is a roller coaster ride. You think things are great and then your world gets turned upside down in seconds.

 About the second or third night a resident came up to my hospital room for me to sign a paper giving consent for a spinal tap. It was so incredibly scary to allow them to do this to my 1 pound baby, but I knew for her health she needed it. I think I cried the whole hour until they called back and told me she had done well and was resting.

 Our first major scare was when they discovered she had somehow contracted MRSA. This is a VERY scary thing and can kill adults easily. It's basically a type of "staph" that does not respond to antibiotics. The day this was realized we instantly got moved to an isolated nursery of only other babies who are infected as well. (We still don't know how she got this?)

 At one point Reagan was on four different antibiotics at one time. There are only 4 that they can give to such small babies and usually they are on only one at a time. Reagan wasn't responding to the first two very well, so she was on all four at one time. This was a scary moment because if she did not improve there wasn't many other options.

 A daily struggle with babies this small is the blood counts. Their bodies are so small they do not make new cells quickly enough. Reagan was about two weeks old and TC and I were spending the night in a hotel room in Birmingham. A doctor called us about 1 AM. They needed us to verbally approve Reagan getting a blood transfusion. I freaked out and told them I could be there in 5 minutes and the Dr. informed us it would have to be now and they couldn't wait. Of course we agreed and raced to the hospital. By the time we got there she was fine and had her blood transfusion completed. She was literally see thru that night when we left her and when we got there about 2 AM she was a total different color. We couldn't believe the improvement from those couple of hours and a little bit of blood.

One of our daily struggles with Reagan was her feeding tube. They would tape it to the side of her mouth or place it down her nose and tape it to the side of her nose. Somehow she would rip it out over and over. She would also rip out her IV's frequently. They would have them in her hand, on her feet and sometimes in her head. She still has tiny scars from them to this day.

I can remember them giving me the smallest syringes of breast milk and I would get to put it thru her tube. We would be so proud when she would take 4 or 5 cc's. If you know anything about amounts that is practically nothing but it would fill her up!

The babies would get weighed on nightshift and each day if we weren't there I would call to see her improvement. Sometimes it was nothing but sometimes it would be an ounce or two. There were a couple of times she had digestive problems and we would have to stop her feedings and start from scratch again. I think the day she drank her first full ounce of milk I sat there and cried. She was actually drinking from a bottle and drinking a whole ounce of milk.

 TC and I were there the first day she got to move to an open crib. This was a very proud moment for us. She looked like a real baby just really tiny!! She was only about 3.5 pounds when they moved her to the open crib. We dressed her in the tiniest premie clothes we could find and they still hung off of her.

There are plenty more small issues that we overcame while we were there. It ended up being around 6 weeks when we came home on Dec 20, 2009. Just in time for Christmas!! On the day we brought her home she weighed approximately 4lbs and 3 ounces. She was too small for her car seat so we had her stuck in there with blankets around her. I remember TC and I being scared to death, but we figured it out like all new parents do! What a miracle story I have to tell… ALL THE GLORY TO GOD!

Reagan's Story Part 2

Read Part One if you missed it to catch up!

So the Ultra sound was around 6:30am. They wheeled me into the delivery room about 6:45. It was packed!! There were 2 doctors, 3 residents, the anesthesiologist, a NICU doctor and about 5 nurses. Reagan had her own team of people there to work on her as soon as they pulled her out. Before going in we were warned that she would not cry and that we would not be able to hold her. We were under the impression she would immediately be taken away from us and rushed to the NICU for the doctors and nurses to check her out. We prayed daily for her lungs and their development, but we knew she was going to be tiny, therefore most likely needing a ventilator and breathing machine.

The c-section felt crazy, but I was so worried about Reagan I wasn't even concentrating on it. TC likes to tell the story of the anesthesiologist pulling him up by his collar and making him watch Reagan being pulled out. (He is not one to look at things like that). He got queasy and had to sit back down!

As they pulled out Reagan I remember asking if she was OK? I vaguely remembering people talking and then hearing the tiniest little cry ever!! She was CRYING!! I can remember TC and I looking at one another completely in shock. She was doing so well they wrapped her in blankets and handed her to TC. He was getting to hold her and he brought her over to me. I remember looking up at him and seeing him crying. She was so tiny in his arms I could barely see her in the blankets and he was a nervous wreck holding her.

He didn't get to hold her long before they took her down the hall to the NICU, but it was something neither one of us ever expected. She weighed approximately 1lb 13ounces.

I was wheeled into recovery and TC walked with Reagan as far as he could. He was eventually allowed back into the NICU to see Reagan again.

I can remember asking over and over if she was ok? If she was alive? Was she breathing? Everyone kept reassuring me she was fine, but I didn't believe any of them. After about 5 hours from my c-section I got out of the bed and got into a wheelchair. I made TC roll me down there to see her for myself.

When he wheeled me thru the doors, the nurses did a double take. They could not believe I was up and moving, but I was determined to see her. In the back of my mind I needed to see she was alive and well.

The first time I saw her tiny little body I remember just crying. I remember thinking Oh God please save her, let her be a fighter. Please let her live. I repeated Lord please let her live over and over and over. I would sit for hours in the NICU watching her tiny lungs go up and down.

My first time to see her
she looked like this!

2 Days old. 

That was one of the scariest times of my life. It is a feeling I would not wish on my own worst enemy. Part 3 will be our experience in the NICU!

Reagan's Story Part 1

This blog is for Reagan, so here is her story on how she came into this world! 

I have always known since I was a little girl that I wanted to be a momma. TC and I were shocked and excited when we found out I was pregnant. Things went smoothly in the beginning. I wasn't very sick and I LOVED every bit of being pregnant. We had normal ultra sounds and everything looked great. Around week 28 we went in for the 4D ultra sound where you get to see what the baby actually looks like. It was amazing, but we didn't get great shots. Luckily the ultrasound tech said we could come back the next week. 

A week rolled around and TC was busy with his new job. I had taken off work early for the appointment on a Thursday afternoon. Luckily, mom and dad decided to come with me at the last minute. We went in for the ultrasound and the tech rushed thru it. We got some shots of Reagan's face, but nothing great. The nurse came out and said the Dr. would see us in a minute. A little confused, we sat down to wait. (This is where we should have been suspicious looking back, because I wasn't scheduled to see the Dr. that day.)

My doctor, Dr. Mentel, came into the room. I really can't remember what he said because the tears started pretty quickly. Something was wrong with my baby and we didn't know what. I couldn't even call TC, mom had to do it for me because I was hysterical. The doctor immediately admitted me to the Labor and Delivery unit at DCH. He started giving me steroid shots to develop Reagan's lungs and try to figure things out. I was hooked up to the fetal heart monitor for 3 days straight. From Thursday afternoon to Sunday afternoon I laid in the hospital bed and watched her heart rate on the monitor. We thought at the time we were going to have a c-section right then and there and knew she would be in danger. 

I was released on bed rest that Sunday afternoon with a follow up appointment the next Monday with my regular doctor. At this point I was 29 weeks pregnant. Too early for a baby to come!

That week I was referred to a maternal fetal medicine specialist at UAB. They dealt with high-risk pregnancies on a daily basis. Upon that first ultrasound there, we realized my placenta had not formed correctly. Basically, the cord is suppose to come in from the top and the blood is suppose to flow around the placenta. Well, mine had formed on the side, therefore, Reagan wasn't getting good blood flow and the nutrients she needed to grow. In doctor's terms, she was a "failure to thrive". 

Every other day I would go for an ultra sound in Birmingham or in Tuscaloosa. It was beyond nerve racking. At any point in any of the ultrasounds that she looked distressed it would be an immediate c-section for her safety. I was on bed rest and couldn't drive and TC had a new job. He went to as many appointments as he could make, but there were a lot of times that dad would take me. I think he was there so much the nurses would get confused whether he was my "sugar daddy"and the daddy of the baby or my actual father!! 

Doctor's appointments continued for about three weeks. I was 32 weeks pregnant when we went to the specialist at UAB. Reagan didn't look great on the ultrasound and he was admitting me to the hospital. I was in tears and begging to return to Tuscaloosa for delivery. He looked at me and said absolutely not, this is a world renowned Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and this is where you need to be. 

I was admitted and put on the heart rate monitor. I was started on another round of steroid shots to develop Reagan's lungs. You can only get one shot every 24 hours, so this took 3 days since I needed three shots. 

After the third day of steroids I was told I would get an ultrasound that following morning.  TC, his parents and my parents had not left my side. That night TC stayed with me, his parents stayed in a hotel close by and my parents drove back to Tuscaloosa for the night. On the morning of November 6, 2009 we had an ultrasound at about 6:30. The doctor said my amniotic fluid was very low. That meant we were having a baby that morning!! 

Right before my c-section

TC waiting to be told he could come in!

Birthday Weekend Update

Reagan had an absolutely fabulous birthday weekend. Her 3rd birthday was at the Tuscaloosa Barnyard and it was PERFECT!! She was in heaven and absolutely loved it. Kami at Tuscaloosa Barnyard is awesome. She had all the activities under control and kept the kids busy. We had so many of our closest friends and family there. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. So incredibly thankful for this miracle baby who turns 3 tomorrow. She is the center of my world.

Before the party started.

Loved those chickens.

She was so excited when
Anna Claire got there! 

Boatride

Bottle feeding the animals.

Emma Grace loved it! 

Baby Grey at his first birthday party to attend!

Our cousin JoLee Camille

Feeding the goats.

Anna Claire and TC fed the turkeys 

Holding the bunnies and chicks

Riding the pony!

Ready for us to sing!

Sister LOVES cake!

Bill and Grey.

Grandmother, Grandaddy and Janice! 

She LOVES Grey!

Allie Hunter helping open present

3yr Old Pictures

Last week we had Reagan's 3 year old pictures scheduled. I was a nervous wreck because I just KNEW she was going to be awful and not smile. For those of you who know her well, you know she is the queen of the stink eye. She will stare you down in a heartbeat. Therefore, I did what most moms do in time of crisis. I bribed her… Yeap, I offered candy, toys, cookies. I didn't care what it took.

My bribery paid off because I am so in love with all these shots. My photographer Mary Keeley has taken Reagan's pictures from the beginning. She couldn't believe the shots we were getting. Reagan was being awesome and posing and smiling perfectly. I don't even know which ones we are going to blow up for the wall. Maybe all of them…

SO without further ado, here are just a few of my favorites.