Thursday, November 27, 2008

Delivery Story

Here is my terrible labor and delivery story:
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!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Family of Four

I will update later with the whole labor and delivery story. Here are a few pictures of our boys until I have time to update with all the details.
I am holding Reed and Ryan is holding Braden.

Brothers! As you can see below, Reed is the fatter one of the two! Braden weighed 5.08 lbs and Reed weighed 5.9 lbs. Reed's hair is also darker than Bradens and his head is bigger:-)
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!!!!
Here is Braden on his first night at home!
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!!!
Profiles of the brothers. I think that they look a lot alike here.

Thank you for all of the prayers on our behalf. We know that God has a great plan in store for our new family of four! God is good!

Friday, November 14, 2008

Here are a few pictures of Braden. I have not seen Reed yet, only pictures since he is still in the NICU. Please keep them all in your prayers especially Reed.


Thursday, November 13, 2008

Keeley is still recovering, so keep her in your prayers. Also, say a special prayer for Reed that everything will continue to look o.k. for his surgery next week. He was having tests done today.

The babies are here!

The babies came by c-section around 3:30 yesterday afternoon. The babies are doing great. Reed weighs 5 lbs. 9 oz. and Braden weighs 5 lbs. Reed was immediately taken to the NICU and hooked up to all the appropriate monitors. Everything is still on track for his surgery next week. Keeley is doing better now. She obviously had a long labor, then ended up having a c-section. She had a ceizure right after delivery, so they did several tests last night and I believe everything came back fine. Keeley was staying in ICU overnight then they will move her to a normal room today. She will get to go see both the babies today, too. Please keep them all in your prayers.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Still in Labor

Well, it's been about 24 hours and they finally broke her water a little after 1:00 p.m.

Still in Labor

As of about 8:00 this morning, Keeley is still in labor. She is dilated to a 3cm. Keeley was able to sleep for a few hours last night.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

In Labor

Keeley is in the hospital. They checked her in after her appointment this morning. Everything is going fine. They gave her an epidural around 9:45 p.m., then another one around 10:45 p.m. because she was still feeling pain. We can't wait to meet the babies tomorrow! Hopefully, we will have pictures of 2 precious babies soon! Say a prayer for both babies and Keeley!

Sunday, November 09, 2008

38 Weeks!!!!!

Yes, we have already decorated for Christmas. This was Ryan's idea since the boys will be here any day now! I was not going to set up much this year but he wouldn't let me get by with that. So on Halloween night, Ryan with the help of my parents put up all of my Christmas decorations including my X-mas village.
I have made it to 38 weeks!!!! We went in this morning for another ultrasound and everything still looks good with the boys. We will go back Tuesday and see if they can stay even longer! I am so blessed to have carried them this long and I know it is because of all of the prayers being said for us!

Most people say that it looks like I stuck a basketball under my shirt. It must look like something because people sure do like to stare!
Here are our new stockings of our soon-to-be family of 4!
The Christmas tree which just finished getting decorated.
I have posted some other blogs so be sure to scroll on down. I am trying to get caught up before the boys gets here.

Remodel Project

I owe a HUGE thank you to my dad for these past 5 months. My dad retired in May and started working on remodeling our downstairs in July. He did such a great job and we absolutely love our downstairs now. Ryan helped out on the weekends and nights when he could. This is a picture after they had been mudding drywall one day.

This first picture is after they knocked out walls. You can see where the ugly green carpet starts and stops...that is where walls used to be. This is the open area/office area before: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.
Ryan is already enjoying watching the Titans play in our new space. Thanks dad for all your hard work and time spent doing this for us. I know that we will get much use out of this especially when Reed and Braden get here!

Past Showers...35 weeks pregnant

Laura Karkau and Mandi Terry hosted a book shower for me on October 23. What a great idea for a shower! Reed and Braden received tons of great books and I cannot wait to be able to read these to them! 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.
Here is one of the blankets that Joyce knitted for the boys. The other one coordinates with this one but it is blue with a yellow border. I cannot imagine the time that went into making these and I greatly appreciate them!

Another handmade gift was knitted booties for the boys. These are so cute and so tiny. Joan started making these when she found out we were having 2 boys. I cannot wait to put them in these cute little shoes!

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Updates and Requests

Well, I am currently on moderate bed rest. I went to the doctor this past Tuesday and Reed measured 5 lbs 14 oz. and Braden 5 lbs. 2 oz. A doctor that I do not normally see said that we should go ahead and deliver since I was 37 weeks and 2 days and the boys growth was slowing down some. I didn't really agree with this but who can argue with a doctor. Well to make a long story short, we went to the hospital and they put me on monitors and an IV. Before they were going to induce me, Reed's cardiologist along with my normal doctor that I have been seeing agreed that we would be better off waiting since I am the best incubator there is for these boys.
Reed needs to be placed on medicine for a week before they perform his surgery. If we would have delivered this past Tuesday, he would have had surgery today b/c the surgeon is going to Kenya tomorrow. So, if I can keep these boys in me until Sunday or later then that would be perfect for Reed's surgery since his surgeon will be back Monday, November 17th.
I am not going to the doctor every 3 days to get ultrasounds done. We went today and everything looked great for both boys. The do what is called a BioPhysical Profile(BPP) which is where they check blood flow through the placenta, heart rate, movement, breathing, amniotic fluid, etc... They both scored 10 out of 10. We will go back on Sunday to have another BPP. Please pray that Reed and Braden will hang in there until next week. Thanks and sorry for the long post with no pictures!! My camera is already packed in our hospital bag:-)