Obviously, Henry is in the NICU at Primary Childrens Hospital. He was born on Friday, March 23, the same day as his older brother, but under much different circumstances.
I (liz) was down in SLC for one of my weekly fetal ECHOs to check Hank's heart and body for any excess fluids. The cardiologists thought they saw a little more fluid than usual, so they sent me up to maternal fetal diagnostics at University Hospital to have a full ultrasound. There was fluid found, but not a lot. The bigger concern was Henry's size. They thought he hadn't been growing to well. So, after discussion amongst many doctors and some risk assessment, they decided to take Hank that day. I was 30 weeks along.
They scheduled my C-section for 9:30 that night and Steve made his way to Salt Lake. The c-section was a piece of cake and Henry was born around 10:15 pm, 45 minutes later than Drew's birth time. They took Hank away though the window, even before I got to see him. Steve saw him though. He cried a little, and was a wiggler. Once they stabilized him in the NICU at the U of U, they transfered him to Primary Childrens NICU.
He did pretty well over night. I was told he was "vigorous" and fairly active. He was put on a ventilator and given surfactant to help develop his young lungs. Antibiotics were also started, pretty standard. His heart rate was pretty slow, in the 50s and 60s, so they decided to wait on any surgery for pacemaker placement.
The next morning, things had changed a bit. Henry was doing okay with the ventilator. He was also on room air and doing well. His platelets were low and his blood clotting factors were off, so he recieved quite a bit of platelets through his IV. He also got some other products called fresh frozen plasma.
They decided that since his heart rate hadn't changed, they wanted to go ahead and do the surgery for his external pacemaker. Henry is too small for the internal pacemaker, so for the external pacemaker they do a small incision place the pacer wires on the heart and close it up. And that they did.
After the surgery, Henry has had a rough go. They gave him a paralyzing agent for the surgery, along with sedatives that he had been getting to keep him comfortable, and he was not super responsive for the whole rest of the day. A bit worrisome for me. Also, his breathing got worse and his oxygen levels went down. He had been on an oscillator respirator which esentially gives him fast, tini tiny breaths, almost like panting. This is very gentle on his lungs, but his body is constantly pulsating with the rate of the oscillator. They turned this up to 100% oxygen which did not help to much. They also added nitrous oxide to try and help. They decided to raise his blood pressure with a drug called dopamine and that did seem to help some.
When we checked on him that night around 10:30, his coloring was much better. He sure is one sick little guy. Tough though.
Sorry about the book. I will try not to write so much next time. I have pictures on my camera bur haven't uploaded them yet. I will post them when I do.
Posted from my iPad
4 comments:
Write everything you want. You may not remember it later, and this is for you, too! Thank you for the update.
Oh my Liz - I was trying not to cry while reading this. I will keep little Henry in my prays. It's amazing how strong those little babies can be!
Write everything you can. It doesn't matter if it is long or not. If you feel it is important than it is. Good luck. I hope Henry continues to do well. Congratulations on baby #2
Oh my goodness Lizzy! Congratulations to you on a precious little one and I'm so sorry for all he (and you) have been through. Take care. He sounds like a strong little fighter and he has a wonderful mom to help him through it!
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