the story {personal...very}

As many of you know, Granger is here!!!  Granger Otto was born on Friday, May 6th at 9:14 p.m.  He weighed 9 lbs 3 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long.  We are already madly in love with him!!!  As many of you also know, the delivery of Granger didn't go as planned.  Just to try and get everyone on the same page, here's the story (minus a few details)...


Basically...started contractions on fri morning at 4:20am. Went into hospital w 5 minute apart contractions, but only dilated to 4. So epidural later...broken water later...contractions were about every 2 minutes, but slowly dilating more. Around 7:30 pm, I was ready to start pushing (brogan only took 3 pushes!) everything was just slooowwww. So 1 1/2 hrs later he was almost there & he turned crooked. So his head wouldn't fit bc it was like he was looking to the side. But then he really just stopped.  Nothing & all the monitors were beeping like crazy. 

 It turns out that in that last 4 minutes, I got a tear in my uterus...first time my dr has EVER seen this in 15 years of practice! (It happens about 1 in every 10,000 births.)  So when I was pushing, the pressure needed to push out the baby, was being released through the tear in the uterus. Also a mass of blood was released, forming about a 11 cm wide hematoma. (None of this was discovered until 24 hours later.)


Back to baby. When he did come out, he was not breathing, and he was blue. This condition of oxygen deprivation during delivery and comatose at birth is called hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy...HIE.  Granger also was showing signs of having seizures.  So, he had severe HIE.  A rush of nurses & the neonatologist dr came physically running into the room. I could just hear hollering & craziness. David was ghost white. I instantly starting feeling the uterus pain (not knowing what it was) and I was literally experiencing shock. They rushed Granger out to the NICU (Neonatal ICU) to help him. Not long after they came to tell us he would be flown to Austin to be at the highest level NICU. What in the world??? I wanted a baby to come home with me!  (Sadly, we've never taken a baby home with us from the hospital when I've been released...we've had to go back to get them from the NICU every time.)  This 4th baby was supposed to be easy-sneezy and nothing to it!...but God had other plans for us. David & his parents went to Austin while my parents stayed with me.


About 5 minutes after he was born, the neonatologist (he's actually from the Austin St. David's hospital) started what is known as "cooling."  I could try to explain this miraculous method, but instead, I recommend that you click on this link and read the article.  It's amazing.  HERE  As you can see from reading the article, Granger is EXTREMELY fortunate that the on-call neonatal dr knew to start this cooling process immediately.  Without the cooling method, Granger's chance of...I don't even want to go there.


Next day, worst pain of my life. I was clearly emotional from my baby & husband being away. But the pain in my pelvic area was unbearable. The nurses kept telling me that it was just sore muscles from pushing. It could have been. But my dr could see the pain. I sat in bed & cried & cried. It hurt to breathe...to raise my arm...to sit...anything & everything. We first thought it could be a kidney infection, but that came back normal. I had been given morphine & felt immediate relief. I could at least sit or talk without crying. I still couldn't roll over or get out of the bed without shaking in pain. So they got me an ultrasound. The tech & I instantly saw the mass of fluid surrounding my left ovary. Then I went for a cat scan, where they discovered the hematoma, that was caused from a tear in my uterus (spontaneous rupture.) So I'm on lots of meds. They think it will repair itself & the blood will slowly absorb into the body...that is where the pain is from. Could take 1-2 months!!! If I didn't have a newborn in the NICU I wud have stayed in the hospital & had the surgery to fix everything now. David has to push me in a wheelchair bc walking is causing the worst pain. Every step with my left leg sends a shooting pain up to the spot. I know...wah, wah, wah, right! ;)  It is actually slowly, but surely starting to feel better.  The more I don't move or stay put, the better I feel.  But staying in bed isn't really an option for me right now!  ;)

Back to Granger... His tests have shown that he did suffer a brain injury. This could mean such a range of things that we won't even know until we get to that stage in life. We are hopeful that the brain was "repaired" with the cooling treatment, as talked about in the attached link. There are still many options that may arise over Granger's life due to the HIE...he could have ADHD, be slow to develop in some areas, not walk well for a while, have short term memory problems, etc. Literally, it could be 1000s of things, but our prayers are for minimal or none at all! He's already trucking along on the right road!  They had told us that some children suffering through this type of trauma, might take 2 months to learn to swallow and take a bottle.  Granger has accomplished that on week one!!  He's also regulating his oxygen intake and his body temperature on his own.  It's been amazing how we've celebrated his tiny miracles each day, such as opening his eyes on Day 5, taking a bottle, and pooping!  Never would have thought that I'd be having to say prayers that my baby would poop or just open his eyes!!!  He still hasn't cried, and it feels like an oxymoron to even wish that we'd hear it just once!  I'm afraid, he'll actually cry and then never stop!  ;)  AHH!!!!

So, for now, everything is a waiting game.  He will just be closely monitored as he develops, especially in these next couple of years.  Only God knows Granger's future and the plans He has for him.  We'll continue to meet with the neurologist and other possible therapists to make sure Granger is getting the best care that he can receive. 

I want to thank so many of you that have sent your well wishes and prayed for us.  The outpouring of support from our friends, family, people in our community, and strangers has been a true blessing.  We are so fortunate to have the support system that we have.  And we are truly thankful to both sets of grandparents who have helped with the big boys and our family over these past 8 days.  We're also thankful for the girlfriends that have helped out with the big boys and me during the delivery and first few days of Granger's life.  We could not have done it without any of them. 

I will continue to update Granger's progress from time to time on here.  Most of my updates are on my personal Facebook page, so friend me if you'd like to follow along.


{LOTS of pictures to come!}