Lucas's First Day

Hello Everyone,

I decided to start this blog for my family and friends who have been so caring and supportive during this hard time. Our first child, Lucas, was born prematurely on April 27th 2012. I was only 24 weeks into my pregnancy. I am currently still in the hospital recovering, so I am on some pretty strong medications...I apologize for my grammar in advance.

Just to give you a quick background of who we are, Ryan and I live in Warner Robins, GA. Ryan is from TN and I am from AL and that is where our immediate families live currently. Ryan is a mechanical engineer, and I am a medical assistant. We just celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary the day before Lucas was born.

 We were on vacation in California with Ryan's parents and we were at the end of our trip in San Francisco when I noticed some spotting around lunchtime on Thursday the 26th. This is not the first time it had occurred. It first happened two weeks prior, although mild, it came with some cramping at that time. I called my doctor at that time and was advised that because it was not significant spotting, to just lay back and rest and if it stopped within a couple of hours, I was fine and can continue about my business as usual. It stopped quickly and nothing more was done or said by my doctor. When it happened in San Francisco on Thursday afternoon, I followed the same protocol. I did not call my doctor at first...just got to the hotel room as quickly as I could and it stopped soon. No pain or cramps this time either. I had assumed that I had just overdone it with walking too much during the trip (lot of walking and riding down bumpy roads) so even though I was worried, I didn't think it was a big problem. However, the next morning, it happened again and I began feeling some pressure down low and I knew that something was wrong.

Ryan took me to the nearest hospital which is St Joseph's Queen of the Valley hospital in Napa. They took me back immediately and began treatment. Turns out, the pressure I was feeling was actually contractions. Having never had a baby before, I had no idea that's what I was feeling because they didn't actually hurt at that point. They put my on some meds to try to stop them. Then the scary part happened. They did an ultrasound and found that my membranes (amniotic sac within the uterus) was actually bulging through my cervix (which was obviously dialated) into my vagina. We could see on the ultrasound that Lucas could actually even put his foot through the cervix. The umbilical cord would go through at times as well and come back out as the baby moved. Lucas was also in a transverse position (laying sideways across my abdomen) facing down.  This was very alarming to my doctor because we were not having any luck stopping the contractions and they were actually becoming stronger very quickly. My doctor said that the contractions WILL break my water at any point, and as strong as they were getting, he was thinking it could even happen within the hour. My original option upon arrival, before seeing the ultrasound, was to just wait and keep him in there as long as possible and buy some time to give the steroids a chance to strengthen his lungs and time for him to grow. BUT after seeing the ultrasound, the fear was that when the water does break, the umbilical cord would get pulled down into the vagina first and basically suffocate Lucas before they could get him out. The chance for that outcome was all too likely. We opted to go ahead and do a c-section quickly before the water has a chance to break because that would allow the doctors time get him out in a controlled manner and have the neonatal team ready to go. And I could tell the last few contractions before the operation were very intense...it wouldn't have been long before the water would have broken. According the ultrasound, Lucas was measuring at 25 weeks (even though I was only 24) and around 2 pounds. But these things are not always accurate.

The c-section was performed and I handled it well. Lucas even tried to cry when they got him out. I heard a few very faint precious cries. I was very medicated, so I was pretty much too "out of it" to feel much emotion at that time. We were told by the neonatologist prior to surgery that there would be a chance that Lucas would be too small to intubate to give him oxygen. If that were the case, we would have lost him immediately. Luckily, they were able to intubate him quickly and testing of the blood gasses showed that he most likely was not deprived of oxygen at any time. He weighed in at 1 pound and 11 ounces (although we were originally told wrong in the OR due to a lot of chaos). They worked on him for a while, getting his vitals and getting his lines in and hooking up to machines. We soon got word that he was doing as well as can be expected and that he would be eligible for transport to San Francisco soon.

 During the procedure, the doctors also discovered that I had what is called "placental abruption". This is where the placenta separates from the uterus. It was about 40% separated at that point. They also found evidence that this separation had started prior to the trip. It probably started when I had that first bout of spotting two weeks prior which was left undiagnosed. Doctors told me that this premature delivery was going to happen, whether we came on vacation or not. They knew that I was worried I had walked too much and caused this. They made it a point to tell me over and over again that this was not my fault and there was nothing I could have done to stop it. In a way, we're lucky that my symptoms occurred when they did, because we were supposed to get on a plane and fly home the very next day. If this would have happened on the plane, who knows what would have happened. Emgergency landing? What if it was too quick? Lucas would NOT have survived, and I could have bled out from the placental abruption as well. Talk about scary.

So that was Lucas's first day of life and the story of how he surprised us all and became my little vacation souvenir. Please continue to pray for Lucas, myself and husband, and our families as we learn how to cope with our emotions and find ways to handle this situation when home is clear across the country. Thank you all for your support and prayers again. I'll be out of the hospital tomorrow and will get to go see my son. I can't wait and I am so proud of him. He really is a fighter.