Welcome Home Baby Henry

On July 12, 2013 at 7:55 in the morning, Henry Matthew Waterman joined the world.  The labor went fast. Due to placental complications, I had been on bed rest for a few weeks and had been seeing a maternal fetal medicine specialists to closely monitor the pregnancy. On Thursday, they decided it would be best to go ahead and induce and scheduled me for the following Tuesday. Dr. Stevenson, our OB, did an exam and gave me the green light to walk around, etc. to try and naturally encourage labor. That night, we went to dinner (had eggplant parmesan per the old wives tale that it helps induce labor) and to Best Buy and apparently that is all that it took. I was having pretty regular contractions by midnight, but thought that I would try to sleep and go in to the hospital in the morning (you know, the whole labor at home thing). When I woke up at around 2:30 am, the contractions were pretty close together and very strong. We called the doctor, packed a bag and headed to the hospital. From there, everything went very very fast. In fact, so fast that the doctor was not yet to the hospital when it was time to push. The nurse did everything in her power to get me to wait, but by 7:30 am, I pretty much accosted one of the residents that stopped by to check on me. After asking her if she had previously delivered a baby (which she responded she had - but, based on the lack of detail in her response, this might have been her second), we started pushing. Dr. Stevenson arrived a few minutes later - just in time for little man's arrival!!

 

We knew baby Henry was going to be small because he was not getting the necessary nutrients during the "growth" period in the womb. The placenta was working fine until later in the third trimester, so his development is good (i.e. all organs, brain, etc. developed), he just wasn't able to experience the rapid growth that happens in the last few weeks because the placenta was basically giving out. They expect him to do just fine outside of the womb and expect him to catch up in his growth - which is good, because at birth he weighed in at 4lb 10oz....so he has a way to go!! [Spoiler alert - I will post another entry about his one week check-up appointment, but he is making great progress on catch-up growth. He put on an impressive 1/2 lb since leaving the hospital. The kid was hungry!]

  

Here is our little guy making his arrival:

 

 

 

 

A few hours after his birth, baby Henry was having issues regulating his glucose levels. This is normal with smaller babies and so they had to give him some glucose to try to jump-start his system. It did not work and so, after being alive for 8 hours, baby Henry was admitted to the NICU. This is, by far, the hardest thing Matt and I have ever had to go through.  It took four attempts to get his IV started and he was hooked up to numerous monitors.  He handled it much better than his mom - who was crying the entire time. It was just horrible and there are no words to express the anxiety that consumed the next four days. As most of you know, I am a huge breastfeeding advocate and so I stayed in the NICU for pretty much the entire 4 days feeding him every 2 hours and pumping in between. The doctors all agree that it is best for the baby, but the NICU makes it very difficult for breastfeeding - mainly, because the hospital discharges mom after 2 days. This means that there is no where to stay in between feedings. Even though we live less than 5 miles from the hospital, there is not much time to drive home and then back when you are nursing every two to three hours (not to mention, it would not have been that safe considering I had not really slept). We were lucky enough to have nurses that let us hang out in the post-partum room until they needed it and then were able to room-in with baby Henry the night before he was discharged. There were, however, so many families with little ones in the NICU that had been there for weeks. It really makes us realize how blessed we are that Henry made such a fast recovery.

 

Here are a couple pictures of little man. The first IV was in his arm, but the vein gave out after a few days and they had to put it in his head. It looks worse than it is. I was there when they put it in and he did awesome.

 

 

 

We were lucky enough to have Granny D and Hayley to take care of David. They did a great job of keeping him entertained and bringing him to visit mom and dad. He got to meet baby Henry at the hospital, but was a little intimidated by all the monitors and IV. Even with that, he was so sweet and loving to Henry and was so excited be a big brother. We have been so impressed with how great David has been through the entire process.

 

Couple pictures from the last night before he got discharged from NICU when Henry stayed in the room with us. You can tell how much happier he looks...

Finally, Henry made it home!!