On Tuesday, November 11th I was admitted into Vanderbilt Hospital because my blood pressure was 140 over 100. Ryan went home to get our bags and my nurse hooked me up to pitocin. Well, twenty minutes into being hooked up to the pitosin, about 10 doctors and nurses come rushing into my room. The next thing I know I am being hooked up to an oxygen mask and being given a shot in my arm. Keep in mind that Ryan is at home getting our bags so I am kind of freaking out! The doctors were talking about doing an emergency C-section but things eventually calmed down.
Come to find out, my nurse hooked my pitocin line up to my IV line. The pitocin was suppossed to be set at 2 cc's but she hooked it to the IV line which was set at 125 cc's!!!! She left me on this outrageous level for 5 minutes before she realized what she had done. Needless to say, I was not a big fan of hers the rest of her shift!
Tuesday night, I decided it was time for an epidural. To make a long story short, they poked my back 7 times before they got the epidural line in right.I stayed on the pitocin from noon on Tuesday to 3 pm on the following Wednesday before they decided to do a C-section. I was so drugged up that I barely remember anything from the operating room.
When I woke up, I was in a dark room by myself. Come to find out, I had a seizure after the boys were born so they admitted me to the surgical intensive care unit. I had not even seen my boys and my family could only come during visiting hours. I stayed there overnight and was readmitted into the labor and delivery room where I continued to receive medication for seizures. That Thursday I had to have 3 brain scans done to make sure that there wasn't anything wrong from the seizure. I personally think it was from the overdose and being on too many drugs but who knows!!! At approximately 5 pm Thursday, I was transferred to a regular post pardom room where I stayed until Sunday November 17th. Here is the picture when I first got to meet Braden
Here is Reed before he was hooked up to a million things!
Little Braden that weighed as much as a sack of sugar!
This was taken the Sunday when we were released from the hospital 
About Reed:Reed is doing well. He is hooked up to a lot of monitors to make sure that everything is functioning like it should. He has good days and bad days but here lately he has been doing really well. It is a lot of trial and error to figure out what works best to keep the least amount of work for his heart.
This picture is when Reed was in a subatmospheric box to help regulate his breathing. He is no longer in this box. 
The next breathing option they tried was a breathing tube. You can see that his sweet little face is swollen. This is due to all of the fluids they have him on. It looks like he got in a good fight and punched in his left eye! 
This is what Reed is currently on. It kind of looks the worst but is the best thing for him and the least invasive. We call this his dinosaur mask. This is the CPAP and it helps open up his lungs and make breathing easier for him. His saturation levels have been really good on this. 
Braden better be ready when Reed gets his new heart because Reed is weighing about 6 1/2 lbs where Braden is just over 5 lbs! Reed is a fighter and we just continue to pray for his heart to come soon. We also want to pray for the family that will be making such a difficutlt decision to give such a gift in their time of grief. God is good and we know that He is watching over our boys every day! 
The next breathing option they tried was a breathing tube. You can see that his sweet little face is swollen. This is due to all of the fluids they have him on. It looks like he got in a good fight and punched in his left eye! This is what Reed is currently on. It kind of looks the worst but is the best thing for him and the least invasive. We call this his dinosaur mask. This is the CPAP and it helps open up his lungs and make breathing easier for him. His saturation levels have been really good on this. Braden better be ready when Reed gets his new heart because Reed is weighing about 6 1/2 lbs where Braden is just over 5 lbs! Reed is a fighter and we just continue to pray for his heart to come soon. We also want to pray for the family that will be making such a difficutlt decision to give such a gift in their time of grief. God is good and we know that He is watching over our boys every day! 
Reed is waiting for a whole heart! The team of doctors has decided that a heart transplant will be a better option for him that the 3 stage Norwood procedure. We have been praying this whole time that Reed will be able to do all things like his brother and we believe that God is answering our prayer just a little different than we had planned. When Reed receives a heart, he will have a whole heart instead of half of a functioning heart! PLEASE pray that a heart will become available soon for our little fighter. He is on the top of the list at Vanderbilt!!!!
Braden in his bed. Doesn't he look so small in his bed! 
Here is Reed's sweet nurse, Jessie. She has requested to be with Reed each day that she is working. Reed is already stealing women's hearts!!!
Here is the open area after. Ryan, Zach Crawford and my dad installed these hardwood floors in 3 full Saturdays. This was not an easy task but it turned out great! 
This is a picture of a bookshelf that dad built to hide some pipes that were in the wall. I love having extra storage. 
This next picture was after dad redid the entire wiring. This was huge task for him because this old house had some crazy wiring going on! He installed 12 can lights and track lighting. This made a huge difference because before all we used were lamps. Here was a storage room before with an old cast iron bathtub in it. There was not any plumbing for a bathroom and dad installed all of this himself! I'm telling you my dad is a man of many talents!! 
Here is the bathroom after. Ryan installed the tile floor and I helped grout it. This bathroom was much needed considering our house only had 1 1/2 baths before this. 
Here is the den area before:
The den area after! Dad built these columns to go around the existing metal poles. These stairs had ugly green carpet on them before and now here they are after! Ryan and dad knocked these out on one Saturday. I think they turned out really good. 
The shower theme was chocolate! They had a chocolate fountain, cupcakes, cookies, mints, etc... The table and decorations looked so cute.
This is me at 35 weeks and 4 days. This sweater is stretched to its max!
The next day, I had a shower given by the math department at Belmont. I got so many thoughtful and practical gifts! A lot of these ladies I have known since I was 5 yrs. old because my mom taught here for 20+ years. They are all like family to me. 
