Padraig's Story

Written a couple of days after his birth...

On Friday the 11th we went in for an u/s and found that the cord was near his neck. I freaked out and we tried to get the Drs to do something early but were told that I would probably end up with 2 amnios which have risks in themselves. So we worried all weekend and went back on Tuesday the 15th. We had another u/s and this time did color Doppler, found a lot of cord again under his chin, around his arm and just everywhere. The Dr. decided to go ahead and send us on the 16th to get the amnio.

Wed. morning we got to the hospital at 6am. They did the amnio at 7, which BTW I had no anesthetic and did not hurt at all, I was so scared but it was so easy. The Dr. commented that he was glad we were doing it because there was a "mile of cord in there". He told us he doubted that the quickest test would come back mature because he was 35 weeks. But at 10 or so he walked in with a big grin and said we were good to go.

I won't bore ya with all the section details lets just say it was long because I had a lot of scarring from the last one. At 11:40 Padraig was born 6lb 3oz, 18 in., with the cord wrapped around his neck once if we had waited the week, I don't think the outcome would have been good. They again said there was tons of cord. Plus the Dr. said my uterus was too thin to have labored so its good I didn't.

Padraig was taken with daddy to the NICU where they watched him. He did great and just needed warmth. He came in to recovery and started nursing like a champ. My recovery was great, this time they gave me a PCA so I was much better off. The first night went well. Padraig was good until about 5am the next morning. He had a spitting session and they whisked him off to the nursery where he apparently went blue. They told me that he went to NICU for blood sugar levels. I was a wreck because I couldn't go to NICU until they removed my Foley. They were delaying it every way possible because of stabilizing Padraig. They came in and had me pump and changed my meds before they finally got the Foley out at 8. I practically jumped out of bed to get down there. He was in a warmer with all these wires and stuff attached made my heart break. I did get to feed him and just hold him for awhile. To make a long story short, he stayed the entire day in there and was finally back with me in the evening. He stayed good for the rest of the stay!! We were released on Saturday.

Since coming home Padraig had to go to get weight checked that Saturday and Sunday because he lost too much in the hospital. Then on Monday we went back to see the Dr. He was back to 5lb 11oz. On Wednesday evening he stared the spitting again, so we took him back Thursday and we are now trying Zantac for Reflux. He also has an Inguinal Hernia so we are in the process of scheduling surgery for that. All in all he is the most precious little guy ever. He sleeps a lot more than the other two ever did which makes it easy for me J .

In the meantime, Keara developed a fever of 104 last week and is now on antibiotics, doing better. Kai just started his fever Sunday and is on antibiotic too, still has his fevers but he is a great sick kid. I developed a fever Sunday as well. Went in and had cervical cultures and labs. I am on antibiotics too and just barely hanging on. The upside is all my weight will be gone by the time this is over. Jason is a saint for sleeping on the floor and taking care of kids, me, house, laundry, everything! Keara is a little mama to Padraig and Kai is the cutest. He walks over all the time and in the highest pitched voice says "hey there". Then he softly kisses the back of his head. He truly loves him.