Muriel in the NICU

Muriel has been in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) since Thursday evening.  She had a dedicated nurse Thursday night, as she was expected to have a number of challenges, none of which surfaced thankfully!  Muriel has been doing so well, in fact, that she has had not needed the ventilator and is instead getting by with the help of an air pump and mask, which forces some pressure through her nose and into her lungs without Intubation.  

Even so, her Oxygen saturation is below what would be expected as normal for a newborn without her challenges (floating between 60 and 80 percent), and regular blood gas tests have shown that her CO2 levels are above normal and rising.  Possibly related her lungs contain some fluid and she is being put on diuretic drugs to help "dry her out".

The NICU allows us to visit whenever we like, but limits the number of vistors two, one of which must be a parent.  Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Kate all visited today, and we had to take them one at a time to see Muriel.

We managed to get a room reserved at the Ronald McDonald House next the to hospital.  We are allowed to stay as long as Muriel is in the hospital.  This place is so amazing it deserves its own post, which I will work on next ;)

Happy Birthday Muriel!

Thursday evening - we have been in labor all afternoon.  As the contractions started getting more serious we elected for the Epidural.  Our OB explained that if Muriel shows any signs of trouble with the contractions we would be whisked into surgery for a C-section, and that having the Epidural in already would be an advantage. Megan was so exhausted from the long night, labor, and building stress and she was happy to get some relief and the ability to relax.  That was all that was needed, apparently, because in less than two hours she went from 4cm to 10cm and we were ready for a baby.

Muriel had no trouble at all with the contractions, and was head down with no complications.   A normal delivery was accomplished with no less than twelve specialists in the room, all prepared to deal with the worst. To the surprise of all, she popped out nice and pink and even let out a nice loud cry!  No need for the "ECMO" (Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine, no need for the ventilator, in fact nothing special was done for her in the delivery room against all expectations.

Grandma and Aunt Kate showed up just after the event and helped us get settled in the recovery room.  Muriel is now in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) where the cardiology team is performing echo cardiograms and other assessments are being made.  We will meet with the doctors in the morning to discuss her state and start making plans.

Surprise! Time to be born!

We have been traveling to Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn (Chicago) twice a week since the beginning of January so Megan can be evaluated by stress test, echo cardiograms, and to meet with the cardiology and MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine) teams.  On our regular Wednesday afternoon appointment during her stress test, Megan had a contraction and the baby's heart rate dropped.  This was actually to be our last Wednesday appointment, as a few weeks back we chose Monday April 2nd as the inducement date.

The "deceleration" was enough to convince our OB that the time had come.  We are two days shy of 39 weeks, so basically full term.  He doesn't feel that waiting until Monday has any real benefit, and that any sign of trouble at this point is enough to get things moving.  So we aren't allowed to leave!

We are checked into the labor and delivery ward expecting to receive the first drugs around 3AM.  The first drug, Cervitol (a prostaglandin), dilates the cervix to prepare it for labor.  Later in the morning Pitocin will be administered, which will begin labor.  Birthday should be 3/29/12!