Averie Jane Dexheimer

Ready to go home from the hospital

As with most blogs I start to regularly contribute to, I tend to become forgetful and my weekly updating turns into sporadic updating and soon after, an abandoned site full of good intentions.

Two more months have gone by. This pregnancy, although not officially verified, was the fastest pregnancy in the history of mankind. She was pregnant with Hayden for about three years and two months if I remember correctly. The last couple of months consisted of basically the same symptoms as before. Random vomiting, sore joints, puffy feet, etc.

It had been a relatively healthy pregnancy despite these ailments until we got closer to the end. Mom's blood pressure had become increasingly elevated for the last couple of weeks. We had twice weekly doctor's appointments for the last six weeks. One in Portland and one in Tillamook. The afternoon of the 1st, she had an appointment where they drew her labs and would call us the next day with the results. After the appointment in Portland, we made our weekly Monday afternoon drive to the coast. Since we left the office in Clackamas at 4:30, we hit rush hour and didn't get home until nearly 7:00pm. I had to work at 10:00 that night and remarked to some of my coworkers that I couldn't believe there was only 12 days left until the baby would arrive. I left work at about 9:30am the morning of the 2nd and went home to take a nap.

After I took Hayden to school at 11:00am, the nurse called and told Nikki that her results were elevated and that she needed to be admitted to Emanuel Hospital that same day to be monitored. If the doctors felt that her health was declining, they would have to take the baby immediately. We were a little freaked out and packed everything that we thought we might need just in case she had to give birth.

The thoughts started swirling. Was my wife going to be okay? Are we ready to bring the baby home?

We left the duties of watching our cat to our neighbor, who stopped by earlier that day to say she was worried she hadn't seen us all weekend and to offer to watch the cat when we did have to go to Portland. So we picked up Hayden from school, explained his future absences, and headed to Portland. We hit traffic on Hwy 26 at about 5pm and had to make our way to Gresham to drop off the five year old and double back to Emanuel. At some point during the car ride, I jokingly said to Nikki, "I hope this doesn't interfere with me watching the Blazer game tonight." I got evil eyes shot back in my direction. After all was said and done, we arrived at the hospital at 6:15pm.

We were put into a room and I watched the Blazers narrowly defeat the Denver Nuggets. The room was pretty comfortable (for me) and we were able to weasel free dinner (sub sandwiches) out of the hospital. After checking her vitals, the doctors decided that, based off the data they had collected, her health wasn't immediately in danger. They did explain that they wanted to hold her overnight and have her collect her urine for 12 hours so they could monitor her kidney function to make sure she wasn't slipping into the early stages of preeclampsia.

To the Family Birth wing we were taken to spend the night in a smaller, less comfortable room. We brought our laptop so that we could Skype with Hayden and tell him goodnight. After a few issues with the volume, we called it a night. I slept on a bed that was about 5 1/2 feet long. Problem is, I'm over 6 feet tall. Plus it was by a window and was drafty with only a thin hospital blanket. I'm sure Nikki was less comfortable with a giant baby inside her and being hooked up to an IV.

Morning came and after more blood was drawn and the urine was collected, we had to wait for all the labs to come back. When they finally did, it was around 10am and a few doctors came into the room to discuss the results of the lab work. They told us that everything was pretty normal considering her recent history but they were worried about the amount of protein in her urine. It was slightly over the range the want to see in pregnant moms and significant enough that they decided that they wanted to take her via c-section that night.

Whoa...12 days just turned into now.

They waited until the evening because Nikki had requested a certain doctor to perform the surgery. We started to notify the immediate family that our new addition was arriving tonight. More nurses and doctors started filtering into the room to discuss the operation and to prep her for surgery. They asked if she wanted her tubes tied. I tried to keep the mood light by being my typical smart-ass self. Joking with the nurses was how I dealt with my nerves and tried to keep Nikki at ease. She's been through this before, but her last experience was awful to say the least.

The last time she did this, it was preceded by 12 hours of labor and maybe an hour of sleep due to nerves. It was our first time so we didn't account for the constant parade of visitors that day. It allowed for no rest or relaxation and added to the stress of the situation. The operating room was somewhere in the 55 degree range. It was way too cold to have a pregnant woman in there. She was strapped to the operating table and was severely shaking due to the anesthetics. Two spinals and an epidural led to a slight fever after her first operation. All those thoughts were in her head as she prepared to go through hell again.

The anesthesiologist came in and discussed what he was going to do. Nikki mentioned her apprehensions about anesthesia and the doctor reassured her those things were unlikely to happen again under his care. I asked him (Dr. Pack was his name) if anyone ever called him "Pac-Man" to keep the mood light.

More doctors and nurses arrived to lead us to the operating room. Nikki elected to walk to the OR and I was directed to a recovery room, much like the first room we were in. They needed to give her the spinal and get her all situated while I got into my daddy scrubs. A full body suit, mask, hair net (yes, even baldies have to wear them) and finally a beard net completed my ensemble.

After what seemed like an eternity, I was finally summoned into the OR to be with my wife and welcome our baby girl into the world. It was a bright room that was bustling with activity. The OR attendants (there were about 10) were counting supplies (so they knew how many not to leave in Nikki) and getting ready to operate. The anesthesiologist noticed that I had my mask on upside down. I guess with all the nerves I didn't pay attention on how I put it on. After I got it on the right way, it was a few minutes until go time. I asked her how she was and she reassured me that she was okay and that she was already having a better experience than last time. The room was warmer, the people were nicer.  I later found out that she broke down into tears in the room before I came in there because she was scared. One of the nurses, Kate, (who would refer to me as Ryan all night) held Nikki in her arms and calmed her down while she received her spinal.

Hello world

The operation began after I took a pre-op photo of mom. All the sights, sounds and smells seemed familiar to me although there was no horrible 80's music playing this time. The doctors got down to business. Throughout the operation, I talked to Nikki and tried to keep her calm. She assured me she was fine and that she couldn't feel anything they were doing except for occasional pressure from the doctors pushing on her. To prove this point, about five minutes into the operation she asked me, "Have they started yet?" About 10 minutes went by when the doctor announced, "We're gonna have a baby here in about 28 seconds." When the time came (6:04pm), the anesthesiologist told me to stand up and look over the sheet and I caught the first glimpse of our baby girl. I think the first thing I said to Nikki was, "She looks just like Hayden." The doctors let the baby just kind of sit on Nikki with the cord still attached for two minutes. The doctor explained that they like to do this to allow extra blood and other nutrients to flow into the baby immediately after birth. They also don't stick the bulb syringe down the baby's throat to suck out extra amniotic fluid.

They moved her to a warming table where they monitored her breathing and put her briefly on a CPAP machine to help her. After she was warmed,

Not an actual Anne Geddes baby

she was moved to the scale to weigh in. Everyone in the room put in their guesses as to how much she would weigh. We told everyone that Hayden was 10 pounds so the guesses were in the 9 pound range. She surprised everyone by weighing in at 8lbs 1oz. She was finally wrapped up and taken to mom. I wasn't going to show Nikki the pictures I had already taken of her because I didn't want her to see the baby for the first time through my phone. Nikki was in love at first sight. She commented on how beautiful she was and the nurse offered to take a few family photos.

Nikki was closed up and cleaned off and transferred to a hospital bed. We all got matching bracelets while Averie was placed in Nikki's arms and she was wheeled into a recovery room. I thanked all the doctors and Pac-Man and we spent the next two hours looking at our newest bundle of joy. I kept asking Nikki how she felt and she was surprisingly alert and chomping down ice chips. Averie was measured, footprinted and monitored. This is where we said goodbye to nurse Kate, who was off at 7:30. It was probably the first time I ever hugged a nurse. After the two hours passed by, we were wheeled into the Randall Children's Hospital where they take all of their recovering moms and babies.

The final transfer was...interesting. The newest nurse's name was Ashley. She told us that she wasn't great at driving the motorized bed Nikki was in. Her nickname was "Crashley" because she got into many car accidents in Southern California where she was originally from. After she ran into the doorknob, I said, "they trust you to drive these things?"

Our room at the Children's Hospital was nice. It was big enough to be comfortable but there wasn't really anywhere comfortable for me to relax (which is the point, I guess). That night, Hayden was brought to visit with his Aunt Cari. He brought a home made painted sign that said, "Averie I love you." He kept commenting on how cute she was and he was even brave enough to hold her for a little bit. 

A proud big brother holds her for the first time

We were discharged three days later and we had nothing but a great experience during our stay. The nurses were excellent and tended to our every need (unlike last time). We've spent the last five days with Nikki's dad and sister in Gresham to help with Nikki's full recovery. Averie is doing quite well and tends to sleep for most of the day. Since she was born at 37 weeks and five days, she is technically considered a preemie so the extended sleeping is normal for her. She is a pretty calm customer (knock on wood) and already tries to roll over and lifts her head up frequently. Nikki is doing great this time and has commented how immediately connected she feels to Averie. She is able to be up and about and has been in minimal pain during recovery.

We will head back to our home at the coast on Sunday.