Friday, April 4, 2008

I haven’t been able to write for a couple days. The morphine they had me one would of made for an interesting email. For those of you that don't know, which I think everyone knows. Hunter Myles McKeen was born on April 1, 2008 at 4:29 PM. He was 12 inches long and weighed 1 pound 12 ounces. His gestation age was 24 weeks 5 days. This makes his life very critical. So, here's the story, plus some more pictures.

Contractions started on Monday night at 13 minutes apart. They were strong, but the nurses insisted that they were small and nothing to worry about. I was put on an IV drip to help with hydration. By Tuesday morning, contractions were more painful and were coming at 3-8 minutes apart. My doctor was paged and came to the hospital to check on me. I was dilated to 4 CM and was told Hunter was still breach. Hunter was so little. I was told that labor was moving very quickly. If he was born vaginally, he would not live through it and the doctor said emergency c-section was the best way. I was given the consent paper to sign and 10 minutes later, being rolled to the operating room.

Because of Hunter’s size and the delicate nature of this birth, my c-section is different than most. They had to make an INTERNAL incision from my diaphram to below my belly button. The external incision was the normal bikini line incision with most c-sections. They call it a classic c-section and I would never be able to deliver a child vaginally. Tim could not be in the operating room with me because they could not give me a spinal or epidural. I was given a blood thinner while on bed rest. If a spinal was given, it would carry a big chance of paralysis. I had to be completely put under for the surgery itself.

After I woke up, Hunter was already in the NICU, resuscitated, and waiting for me and his daddy to get there. After recovery with my awesome nurse Laurie, they rolled me into the NICU on my stretcher. It was there that I got to reach in and hold my baby's hand. When I reached my hand in, Hunter grabbed a hold of my pinky and held on for about an hour. After 2 days of the morphine pump, they have downgraded me to a couple pain killers. But, I have been out of it from the morphine until now. I am feeling human again - but really sore. Nothing compared to what Hunter is going through.

HUNTER'S CONDITION:

The first night in the NICU, Hunter developed a tear in his immature lung. This created an iron pocked between his chest wall and lung. This has since healed. He also needed two blood transfusions on his fire night to level out his blood pressure. That worked for a short time, but started to fail and his blood pressure dropped. They have since given him a drug called dopamine and this has leveled out his blood pressure and he is doing well. Also, Hunter was having problems with amount of carbon monoxide in his lungs. They have been playing with his oxygen level. This also seems to be going better now. He has jaundice and is sunbathing under some lights. He is on life support right now while he develops. He is so very tiny and has so much ahead of him. He is my angel, my miracle, and most of all my little fighter. Please continue to pray for him.