Love Comes Early

Introducing our little miracle...

James William de Leon, IV.

Born on Thursday, July 28th at 11:44am, weighing 2lbs., 7.5oz., 14 inches long...and we love love love love him!

Here's how it all came about...

As you know from my previous posts, I got admitted to the hospital for pre-term labor. Well, that had pretty much subsided. No contractions, no changes to my cervix. I could've gone home if I argued hard enough. But, we decided that the hospital was the best place to be and so I stayed. For several days, there were decelerations in punkin' noodle's heart rate when I was being monitored. They seemed to be increasing more and more each day, but not by much...maybe 1 deceleration every 6-8 hours or so. I was told that perhaps the umbilical cord was wrapped around Punkin's leg and that every time he kicked or moved, the cord would get compressed, which caused the decels. I was getting bio physical profiles (aka bpp's) every day and they were fine. I was actually scoring an 8 out of 8 on them each time, but we still couldn't figure out what was causing the decels. I wasn't even worried about pre-term labor anymore because I knew I didn't have any of the signs. But, these decels I just could not understand.

On Wednesday, I told Dr. Fabulous that something just wasn't right. He said that we were in the right place and that we'd continue to monitor. I made up my mind that day to just let go and trust in the Lord. Wednesday night's monitoring went fine and I actually took a break from it for a few hours to get some sleep. Thursday morning arrived and I woke up early to start being monitored. I ordered breakfast and we began monitoring for 30 minutes. With two minutes left before monitoring was over that morning, there was a decel. So, Dr. Fabulous said that we'd monitor continuously just to be safe. When he left, my nurse came in to tell me that I was being taken upstairs for another bpp. Jim and I went up and everything was fine, until there was a decel right in the middle of the bpp! I was completely freaked out. It's one thing to see a decel on the monitor, but to see it as an ultrasound was another thing. I tried to remain calm and reminded myself that I was being monitored and that's that. When we got back to my room, I told Jim to go ahead and go home and that I'd call him.

My nurse hooked me back up to the monitor. Breakfast was sitting on the tray and I told her that I wasn't going to eat it. I said that I'd order lunch instead and while I waited for it to come, I'd just stay being monitored. I needed to calm down from the bpp anyway. So, I laid back and was being monitored and about 30 minutes later, a decel happened. My nurse came in my room and we both stared at the monitor waiting for punkin' noodle's heart rate to go back up. It didn't drop that low, it was in the low 100's, however his baseline was always in the 145's. At this point, she's putting the oxygen mask on me, calling the charge nurse, increasing my fluids and I'm turning from side to side trying to find a better position for punkin'. I'm extremely stressed and freaking out and I remember the charge nurse on the phone with the doctor saying that it was a six minute decel. Six minutes is a long time and while it did seem like forever, it also seemed very fast. Within seconds, there were nurses in my room and all I can hear is the charge nurse talking to Dr. Fabulous and letting him know what was going on. Next thing you know, I hear...'get the OR ready.' I looked at my nurse and she calmly told me that we're going to have this baby and that there's going to be a lot of people in my room in a few seconds. Punkin's heart rate went back up to the 160's and I was relieved. I grabbed my phone and called Jim with a quickness. All I managed to say was, "get back here asap!" All the people in my room kept asking if I had eaten anything and my nurse and I both said no. I'm so glad that I hadn't eaten, especially since we were now headed for an emergency c-section. The Lord was definitely guiding my decisions! I started shaking uncontrollably while I changed into the gown and next thing I know, I was in the operating room. I was crying, shaking and was absolutely terrified. Everything was happening so fast. There were two anesthesiologists and while one was giving me a spinal, the other let me hug him as if he were my husband. Dr. Fabulous was on his way still, but his partner got there and Dr. M gave me a hug as I cried. He reassured me that everything was going to be fine. The anesthesiologist was wonderful to me, he seriously talked me through the whole c-section procedure. Jim showed up just in time and he was there for about 1 minute and then we heard, 'baby's out!' which was then followed by the sweetest little cry. Jim immediately started crying and gave me a kiss...I teared up and was still in shock. After a couple of minutes, they brought James to us and his eyes were open and checking everything out. He was so alert and calm. Sigh...hello my love. He was headed to the NICU and I was wheeled into recovery. Jim was trying to get a hold of our parents, but nobody was answering. Go figure. He finally got a hold of them and was in and out of the recovery room telling me what their reactions were, etc. By 1:3opm, I was back in my room and trying to process what just happened. Dr. Fabulous told us that the umbilical cord was wrapped around baby James's head and neck, which explains the decels. I spent the rest of the day and night resting and Jim was in and out of the NICU visiting with baby James and taking pictures. I had to wait until 6am the next day before I could see him and the minute I was allowed to get out of bed, I did...and we made our way to the NICU to visit with our little miracle, thanking the Lord every step of the way for this amazing blessing.

I cannot thank the Lord enough for guiding our decision to stay in the hospital to be monitored, to not eat anything that day, for the kind nurses and doctors who were by our side, for baby James to be safe and for Jim to be able to make it back to the hospital in time. It's a gratitude I will never forget.

After many prayers, tears and hopes, I am now a Mommy.