A Really Long Story

Today is Dalley's third birthday and I can't believe it. I can't remember what life was like without him yet it seems like just yesterday that we had him. This post is really long but I realized that I haven't ever written down the story of his birth and I wanted to do it because the details are starting to get a bit foggy. Dustin and I will talk about our delivery plans for this new baby and he will remind me of things with Dalley that I totally can not remember. I wanted to record it before I lose it altogether so Dalley will know the details some day.

First of all the were a few events leading up to my delivery that I know the lord had his hands in. I was going to a mid-wife in Panguitch and at the very end, due to a few scares that never panned out, they sent me to Cedar to an OB. At the time I didn't understand why we had so many false alarms, but knowing now that Dalley needed advanced medical care I believe the Lord had a hand in getting us over to Cedar. If Dalley had been born in Panguitch, we probably wouldn't have him now.

I was scheduled to be induced on Friday, February 29th. I thought it would be fun to have a leap year baby, but on Wednesday, February 27th I was getting ready to go to work and my water broke. I wasn't sure what was really happening so I called every woman I knew who had had a baby to confirm that is what happened. Nobody could tell me so I waited until 8:00 when the doctor's office opened and they told me to come in. I went and got Dustin from work and we headed to Cedar. After that my memory gets a little foggy. I know they gave me pitocin after a while but I never progressed. I remember my mom and dad coming and just sitting there visiting with nothing much happening. As the day went on nothing much changed but the contractions started to hurt. I know that I never progressed farther than a six but when I finally got to a six they gave me the epidural. After that my blood pressure dropped really low and they had to give me epinephrine. The nurses kept checking me and finally around 4:00 in the morning the Dr came in and said we had to get the baby out right away so he would have to do a C-section cause the baby was stuck. They took me into the operating room and I don't really remember the delivery. Dustin watched the whole thing and said he couldn't believe how hard it was for them to get the baby out. He said they basically beat the crap out of me and I had a lot of bruises to prove it afterward. They showed me the baby quickly then they had to rush him to get care. They told me he had swallowed the merconium (or whatever it is called) and had to be on oxygen and I could see him in a few hours. Every few hours they would come in and say he wasn't ready to be off the oxygen yet. I began to get frustrated. I had a lot of visitors who got to go to the nursery to see him but I still hadn't. I didn't get to see my baby for 12 hours after he was born and when I did see him I couldn't hold him. I still believed that it was no big deal, because that is what they kept telling me. Late that night the pediatrician came in and told me there were problems with his heart and lungs and they needed to rush him to St. George. He showed me an x-ray that showed his heart on the wrong side of his body and a large mass that appeared to be pushing it over. As he was talking to me he was so calm about it that I thought it was no big deal. He told me later that at that point he didn't think my baby was going to live. They let me, Dustin, Celeste, and my mom go in the nursery to see him as they got him ready for transport. My doctor told the nurses that Celeste was Dustin's mom so they would let her in.They finally let me hold Dalley before they took him away. The emergency transport people brought a disposable camera and took pictures of us and they took pictures of him on the transport and in the NICU, it is kind of neat to have those pictures.

My Dr. wouldn't let me leave the hospital because I had the C-section so Celeste and my mom went to St. George with Dalley. My brother Shawn and his friend met them at the NICU in St. George and gave him a blessing. Tom Simper and Doug Hansen two guys I used to work with came to the hospital and helped my brother Rowdy give me a blessing. I barely slept all night long.The next day was one of the hardest days of my life. Dustin's sister came and took him to St. George but I had to stay in Cedar at the hospital. Dustin and Celeste kept me posted on the progress. Dalley was having seizures that they couldn't explain and he had a bad infection which they thought was the mass on the x-ray. They took him for an MRI and discovered that his kidneys were also having issues, they are connected so instead of two separate kidneys he has a horseshoe kidney. They had him on a lot of meds and they had to put a tube in him to assist his breathing. It was really hard to hear all the news and have to stay there in that hospital even though there was nothing I could do in St. George.

Dustin's mom came to stay with me and my friends Claudia, Christa, and Tom came to check on me. It was hard for me to be social. The nurses had me pump but it felt weird since there was no baby to pump for. The doctor checked me in the morning and told me I couldn't leave yet and he would be back at 7:00 that night. I was determined that no matter what I was leaving that day. I got everything packed and was not taking no for an answer when the Dr. came. He finally showed up around 8:00 and released me. Dustin's mom took me to St. George. The hospital arranged for us to stay in a room just down the hall from the NICU. It was nice to have a free place to stay but there was no bed just a couch and a chair. I couldn't sleep because my incision hurt so much. I also had to pump every two hours and then take the milk to the NICU to go in the freezer. I pretty much didn't sleep the entire time we were there. The first two days Dalley was unable to breathe on his own and they had him on feeding tubes but as the days went on he got stronger and he quit having seizures. By the second day all of our family went home and it was just Dustin and I left. It was pretty boring but we got into a routine. We would spend the whole day sitting there with him. I usually would sit with him most of the night since I couldn't sleep anyhow. By the fourth day they took him off the meds that kept him asleep and took the breathing tubes out. I was able to try to nurse him and I was glad that I had the lactation specialist there the whole time. She was really helpful. He got better everyday and by the sixth day wasn't on any more meds just oxygen. On the seventh day they let us go. I was never so happy in my life to be able to go home. I called my mom and she came to St. George and followed us home.They sent us home with a list of five specialists that we were going to have to see and he had to be on a heart monitor and oxygen but at least we got to go home. I was scared to death going over the mountain because right before we got to the summit the battery on our heart and oxygen monitor died. I was afraid something was going to happen and we wouldn't know it but we made it home fine.

We had to keep him on the oxygen for a month but it seemed to go by quickly. We took him to all of the specialists and he checked out just fine. He has a few issues that he will always have to deal with but at least we know now that they aren't life threatening. These days you would never know that he has the issues that he has. He is a healthy active kid. He is a little on the skinny side and a bit small for his age but we can deal with those things. He is such a joy in our lives, and we are so blessed to have him with us.