(Britt's hand next to Finn right after he was born) Finn Ricker Weaver joined us a little sooner than anticipated! He was born on Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 11:48pm. He weighed in at a tiny 1 pound and 14 ounces, and was 13 inches long. His arrival 14 weeks before his due date was a bit dramatic, and even a bit traumatic, but he is thriving in the NICU at Mercy hospital in Oklahoma City.
Wednesday morning started out much like any other morning on hospital bed rest. Vitals, breakfast, put the baby on the monitor for an hour, watched the endless “Judge” shows on FOX after the morning show goes off. But for some reason, I was extra weepy this Wednesday morning. Just couldn’t stop crying. Sad. Sad because I missed my kids. Sad because I felt “trapped” and “stuck.” Sad because I missed my husband. And sad because I missed Stillwater. Not really anything specific, and I had TONS of visitors, but it just wasn’t the same. I had hit the bed rest WALL, and I couldn’t get over it. Shortly after lunch, I had started to feel better. Gotten a few pep talks from my husband, and a few excellent messages from a fellow twin mom who endured 63 days of hospital bed rest while waiting on her twin girls, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my most prominent cheerleader outside of my family. I had given myself a few pep talks as well, and I was looking forward to Skyping (is that a verb?) in to LifeGroup that night with my newly discovered favorite technology! Things were looking up! I knew I could do this!
So, a little before 7, I had all my stuff set up to receive a call, and like magic there were all my Lifers in the Dyson’s living room, right there with me in the hospital room! While it was a bit awkward, it was so good just to see (albeit grainy) them and to hear them! So, life group started. We watched the DVD, answered the questions that went along with the message from the week before. People told stories, we laughed… And then it happened.
At first, I was feeling a bit crampy, which was not at all unusual. Then, I felt a “little” gush, much like I have for the past several weeks. I thought it was no big deal, didn’t feel it had made a mess, and I was determined to be in on the rest of LifeGroup. But, after the small gush, I started feeling not so good. So, about 7:40, I texted the one person I KNEW had their phone out during group, and said I was signing out, I *might* have an issue and I would call to check in later. I felt another “gush” coming on, so I made a mad dash for the bathroom. Barely made it, but thankfully, this “gush” was in a toilet! Only it was bright red. And there was A LOT of it!
I made use of the nurse call string that’s in there. Luckily, my nurse was right outside my door, and she was right in to help me. She took assessment of everything we saw, and asked if I thought my water had broken. I had no idea. She was concerned that it might have, but there is no way to test it with all that blood. The blood overrides the test for amniotic fluid, so the only way to tell is to wait and see. So, she gets me back in bed, calls my Doctor, and hooks up the monitor. The Doctor says we won’t do anything different tonight except monitor the baby all night, and hook me to a bag of IV fluid “just in case.” She had said the baby would react a certain way on the monitor if the fluid level was too low, and we would just watch for that, then do a sonogram in the morning. She also said I could not panic until she panicked, and if she did, I would be able to read it all over her face. I then called Britt (about 10 after 8), and I was not really concerned and didn’t think he should come. He knew I had had a bad morning, and he wanted to be there, so he arranged care for the kids (who were still at church), picked them up from church at 8:30, and was on the way by about 9. At 9:40, while checking on me and the baby, my nurse said to me, “What time is your husband coming?” I thought to myself, “How does she know he is coming?” But, just glanced at the clock, and said he should be there In about 15 minutes. After she left, I thought it was strange, since I wasn’t sure he even NEEDED to be there. Made me glad he was going to be there soon!
Britt arrived just before 10 – and he was glad about that because the main doors close at 10 and he wanted to make sure he was there before he had to wander in the back way. We sat and talked for a long time, watching TV and just getting caught up. About 10:30, there was a lull in the conversation, and we were both just listening to the heart tones of Finn on the monitor. When we noticed some very big decelerations, and they were very close together, we exchange one of those “What should we do now?” looks. I said we would wait for it to happen again, and then I would call the nurse.
No need for that! At 11:01, my nurse came in, sat on the edge of my bed, put her hand on my knee and said, “Sweetheart, we’re going to have a baby.” I nodded as though I understood, even though I didn’t really. And then she said, “Like RIGHT NOW!” And then I saw the panic. And within seconds, 4 other people were in my room. I heard the charge nurse on the phone saying we would have a baby by 11:20. People were putting the compression boots back on my legs, taking off my street clothes and putting me in a gown, putting warmed IV fluid on the pole at a much faster rate, taking my blood pressure, shaving me in preparation for surgery, and so on and so on and so on! Britt and I exchanged a harried glance, and I said, “Go Call My MOM!” He went out to the hall to call her, tried his parents and his sister, then came back in, was thrown a package of paper scrubs, and told to put them on. Next thing I knew, I was being wheeled down the hall to the operating room. As we crossed the threshold, a nurse called out “Time in, 11:09.” Wow. 8 minutes from the time I was told I would be giving birth.
Once we were in the operating room, it was a pretty typical scene. Several NICU people were huddled around an isolette in the corner. The anesthesiologist was ready to administer my spinal. Nurses were scurrying about with their tasks. I soon saw my doctor arrive. One of the nurses was helping to position me for the epidural. The first 3 tries failed (ouch). Then, the secondary surgeon stepped in to get me in position. Tries 4, 5 and 6 failed, too. (OUCH). The last time finally worked, and we might still be there if not for this doctor. He was so patient with me and he was even helping the anesthesiologist. WHEW. It was past 11:30 at this point, and I was worried about Britt being out in the hall and no one telling him what was going on.
Once I was numb, they let him in and got started. I was not worried about this process as this was my 3rd C-section, after all. Britt saw Finn as he was delivered being put in the isolette. I finally hear his tiny cries, and Britt asked if I could see him. Britt could because he was up higher and sitting upright in a stool, but I could not see a thing; they didn’t hold him up and show him to me the way they do on TV!
Once things were stable enough with Finn for transport, Britt followed the NICU team down to the NICU wing with Finn, and there I was waiting to be closed up. Apparently, from what I learned at the end of surgery, my water had indeed broken, the placenta had abrupted (pulled away from the uterine wall), and there were LOTS of blood clots in my abdomen that had to be cleaned up. My doctor even mentioned that he thought about taking my uterus for a few moments as well, but thank God they didn’t do that! Once I was closed up and stable, I was headed back to my room. My first thought was, WHEN do I get to see my baby?!?!?
My nurse told me as soon as I had feeling back and quit throwing up I could go. They checked on my basically every hour on the hour. I was ready to go at 3:30. She came in at 3:30 and told me if I took a nap I could go. When she came in at 5, it woke me up, and she let me go. It took some time to get me up and in the wheelchair, but my sweet husband wheeled me down to see my baby. I looked at him for 2 minutes, and then asked to be taken back to my room. When I got back in bed, I asked for a sick sack, Britt handed me one, and I promptly threw up! I knew I had to not throw up to see my son, so I held it in all that time.
Thursday morning, after a whirlwind morning of nurses, stats, Anesthesiologists checking on me (I guess my back was a MESS from holes and bruises – he said it was the smallest epidural space he had ever seen), a lactation consultant meeting, pumping, and moving rooms, I finally got to see him again. Precious, perfect and TINY! And so our NICU adventure begins. While we are waiting for the day to take Finn home, we will continue to pray for him, his nurses, his doctors, our family and friends and to shine God’s light through this whole situation. It has been a crazy ride, with no end in sight, but we know it is all for the Glory of God!
