Lucy's birth story begins on May 20th, 2013.
We woke up early to arrive at Tacoma General Hospital at 6am for an 8am scheduled c-section. The boys stayed behind at the house with "Uncle Craig" to wait until they could meet their little sister at the hospital. Being our third child we were pretty nonchalant about the whole "business" of delivery. We didn't even have a name for her at this point! After being checked in and given a pre-op room my vitals and blood work were taken plus my IV was inserted. We met our surgical nurses who came in to ask me what kind of music I wanted to listen to in the operating room since they have Pandora. Boy times have changed! We also got to meet our very lovely post-op nurses Joanne and Beth.
At about 7:15 I walked into the operating room and was given a spinal block. Once I was all ready to go the doctors came in and so did Josh to get the c-section underway. Aside from getting sick from low blood pressure and slight discomfort and pressure the c-section went well. Josh and I both made the decision beforehand that this would be our last child so while in there the doctors performed a tubal ligation.
At 8:23 am we heard our baby girl cry for the first time. While I was being "put back together" and she was being cleaned off Josh and I just fell in love with her from afar. Josh asked me about the name and I said that she looks l
ike a Lucy and he agreed. Throw in two middle names for good measure and we were proud to be blessed with Lucy Elizabeth Lynn Callon. The Elizabeth comes from Josh's Grandma's name and Lynn pays homage to my middle name, which also happens to be the middle name of my Mom and Josh's Mom as well.
After being cleaned off, the nurses let Josh hold Lucy for a bit and took some pictures of the three of us. The nurses were also nice enough to take lots of foot prints and even printed her foot into her baby book. The nurse taking care of Lucy made a comment in the operating room about Lucy needing to "cough something up" but both Josh and I thought nothing of it. After I was all stitched up we were taken to the recovery room to monitor both mine and Lucy's vitals. Once there I nursed Lucy right away and she latched on wonderfully (which is something I am hugely thankful for later on). Once again both nurses made note of Lucy's grunting and breathing. For good measure they called down to the NICU to have one of the nurses come up to take a look at her breathing. One of the nurses assured me it was nothing, but she wanted to be on the safe side. Once the NICU nurse came and took a look at her they started measuring her oxygen levels and percentages. She opted to take Lucy down to the NICU for a couple of hours to monitor her levels while I stayed in recovery. Josh joined Lucy down in the NICU.
After about an hour or so I was ready to be taken to my own room for recovery. The nurses were nice enough to take me down to the NICU first where reality set in real fast. They wheeled my bed right up to Lucy, who was receiving oxygen from a nasal cannula. The head nurse in the NICU gave me a run down of Lucy's situation. I didn't really understand what she was saying to me. Once she left Lucy's own nurse was able to break it down to me in laymen terms. Lucy was in respiratory distress and would need to be in the NICU for atleast two days to monitor her and to figure out why she was in distress. They also were going to give her an IV to keep her hydrated and blood sugars normal. At this point I just broke down and started crying. Even one of my post-op nurses was crying. After regaining some composure I was wheeled to my room, without Lucy in tow. The nurse who was crying apologized profusely for leading me to believe that Lucy was just fine. She was so sweet and I wasn't even angry at her to begin with. The next several hours were agonizing for me. While I had support from my family and Josh, I felt so alone. This was supposed to be the time where Lucy was to room in with me and I would get to nurse her and Josh and I would get to enjoy our baby. Nurse Shirley was kind enough to bring me a breast pump and was very attentive to my emotions at the time. At one point I broke down crying and she decided right there to wheel me down to the NICU to see Lucy. I am not sure if I got to hold her at that point as my memory was kind of fuzzy from the anesthesia and pain meds but I do know it made a world of difference. Seeing her there, being well taken care of was very reassuring.
Once 8pm rolled around during our first day in the hospital I was ready to get up and itching to get down to the NICU. Once my catheter was removed and I took those first brutal steps I hopped into the wheel chair and was wheeled right down to the NICU. There I got to see my precious daughter and the lovely nurses taking care of her. They gave me the opportunity to nurse Lucy again and set up a little station for me to do so. Having her latch on again gave us both a glow. It was at that point and through that first night that I came down to the NICU every 2 hours to feed her that I realized how grateful I was that she latched on in the first hour of her life!
Through Lucy's first day in the NICU she had several test done to see what could have caused the respiratory distress. The doctors wanted to rule out infection, but the results took upwards of 24 hours so she was given premptive does of antibiotics. Her original platelet count came back incredibly low but the nurses assured Josh and I that the test could be incorrect and that they were retesting. Of course the nurses were right and her platelet levels were fine.
On Tuesday morning Lucy was take off oxygen and transitioned fr
om the NICU to the Intermediate Care Nursery. Her lab results came back with no infections and her breathing seemed to be fine. She spent that day and night in the ICN having her oxygen saturation levels monitored without breathing assistants. While she was still a patient of the ICN, she was cleared to room in with me on Wednesday afternoon with a projected discharge date for the next day. She received her first bath in front of me and we spent most of the day nursing and visiting with family and friends.
On Wednesday evening I had Lucy sent back down to the ICN to have her breathing checked out again, since it looked like she was having difficulties. After a quick oxygen saturation check she was deemed fine and returned to me. During the early hours of the morning she had her bilirubin levels taken as she was looking a bit jaundiced. That morning her results came in and her levels were high. She was immediately given a "bili blanket" and her discharge date was pushed back even more. I was discharged early Thursday afternoon. The hospital was nice enough to give me a complimentary room while Lucy was still a patient of the ICN. Thursday evening was rough. I was not fully informed of Lucy's bilirubin levels and was exhausted, couple that with the fact that I couldn't take Lucy home, I broke down several times. Josh and I decided it would be best for me to come home for awhile while Lucy received double light therapy.
On Friday morning I came home empty handed but eager to see the boys. Joey was not happy that I didn't bring Lucy home with me and Van wouldn't even look at me, let alone engage me. It took a couple of hours for him to warm up to me again. I think he was mad because I was gone for so long. I spent the day with the boys and Andrea was nice enough to brave Memorial Day traffic to take me back to the hospital for the evening to visit Lucy. It was good to see her and reassuring that while under the lights she was warm and sound asleep almost 24/7. We stayed long enough for me to nurse her and hold her briefly.
On Saturday I got up early to cook the boys a pancake breakfast and we opted to do a "picnic" on the living room floor. It was nice to be able to spend that time with the boys before I headed back to the hospital for the night. Holly picked me up and drove me to the hospital and spent most of the afternoon with me. Lucy's bilirubin levels came down enough to completely remove her from the lights. I received another complimentary room and was grateful that Lucy got to room in with me. There was talk about discharging her in the morning, but it was more likely going to be the late afternoon as long as the bilirubin levels stayed down.
On Sunday morning Lucy's nurse informed me that she would be discharged in the afternoon. A short while later she called our room with even better news. The doctors saw no reason to keep her as an ICN patient and wanted to discharge her immediately as long as I got her bilirubin levels checked in a couple of days. Making that phone call to Josh was bittersweet. "Would you like to come pick us up and take us home?"
The official diagnosis of Lucy's extended NICU stay was Tachypnea. Essentially, since she was not squeezed out of the birth canal not all the fluids in her lungs came out which caused her not to transition to regular breathing once born. After that cleared up, her later stay was a result of hyperbilirubinemia or Jaundice. Josh and I are so grateful for the care and love Lucy received while in the NICU and ICN. The nurses she had were amazing and they helped us to get through the tough parts and joined us in the exciting parts. We definitely felt the love.
