Our Sweet Ella

As most of you know, we have a new member in our family! :) Ella Ann Swenson was born June 9, 2010 at 3:45 PM. She was 7 lbs. 2 oz. (my biggest baby yet!) and 19 inches long. The past two weeks have been quite the adventure with this little one, definitely filled with lots of unexpected news and stress, but fortunately things have calmed down now and we are adjusting well to life with three kids! Here's the story of our sweet little girl:

I was originally due June 16th but had no intention of waiting that long. I tried for two weeks to put myself into labor, doing just about anything strenuous or stressful that I could think of! But unfortunately, it hardly did a thing. I sat at 2 cm's and 75% effaced for 2 weeks, and finally decided that I was done. So my doctor agreed to induce me on June 9th. We got to the hospital at 7:00 AM and the nurse got me started on pitocin and penicillin (because I was Group B Strep positive). My doctor didn't want to break my water until the antibiotic had been in my system for 4 hours, so I went until 12:00 laboring on my own. Really, it wasn't that bad, but I decided I wanted my epidural before it did get bad! So I got that around noon and the doctor broke my water at 1:00. When he did, he discovered there was meconium in my water (meaning the baby had had a bowel movement while still inside of me). For those of you who don't know the health hazard of this, the baby can get it in their mouth and inhale it when they take their first breath. I was worried at first, but the doctor reassured me that when her head came out, they would suction it really good before allowing her chest to come out. I trusted him and didn't worry. When she was born a few hours later, they made sure to suction her really well and took her to the baby nurses quickly so they could check on her. Her circulation wasn't very good (her skin looked grayish-purple) and she needed oxygen. We all assumed she'd swallowed some meconium so the nurses took her off to their transition nursery to monitor her for the evening - I didn't even get a chance to hold her.

Once I was ready to be moved to my recovery room, they took me in a wheelchair to see her. It was so hard to see her hooked up to monitors and oxygen, but again, I trusted the nurses that she would be fine and tried not to worry. Later into the evening, the nurse from the transition nursery came in to tell me that they needed to put her in the NICU. She wasn't doing poorly, but she also hadn't turned the corner yet like they'd hoped she would. She told me to get some sleep because they wouldn't need me to feed her tonight - something I was quite relieved about. I was so exhausted, don't ask me why, because my labor was a cakewalk compared to Tyler's!

We headed down to the NICU in the morning to see her, and she seemed to be doing well. She was still on oxygen and hooked up to monitors, but they let me hold her and feed her. We continued visiting her off and on throughout the day, and Greg was able to give her a priesthood blessing which I was grateful for.

The next morning (Friday) was quite the day. I headed down in the morning to feed her and the nurse said her labs (bloodwork) weren't looking so good - they were indicating that she had some kind of infection. She also told me that she was working way too hard to breathe. I went back to my room to call Greg, and he rushed up to the hospital to talk to the doctors. They said that something more was going on than just meconium - if she had swallowed meconium, she would have been almost better at that point, not worse. They also told him that if she kept breathing at that rate, she could potentially pop a lung. So they decided to intubate her and put her on a ventilator, while also giving her some meds to help her lungs slow down and function better. In order to do this, they also had to sedate her so she wouldn't have anxiety about having a tube down her throat. So Greg came back and told me what was going on, and I couldn't help but bawl. The whole time I'd been trying to stay positive and not worry, and here things were getting worse. We were supposed to take her home that day, and now the doctors were telling us it could potentially be another week until she would recover. We were both crushed. I was released later that day and when we got home that evening, I couldn't even stand to look in her nursery. I was so worried about her and devastated that she wasn't home with us. Fortunately, a good night's rest did miracles and I handled the situation a lot better the following morning.

She was still intubated when we got there on Saturday, but they said she had improved enough over those past 24 hours that they were going to remove the tubes and take her off the ventilator. We were really excited and hopeful that she would be able to come home soon. That day, they let me try feeding her again, but she was just too weak so most of her feedings were done through a feeding tube. We still got to hold her though, which was so nice since we weren't allowed to when she was intubated.

As of Sunday, she had improved enough to move her from NICU 1 (the room where the most high-risk patients are) to NICU 3 (the room where the more stable patients are). She was still on oxygen, but they were weaning her down at a fast pace which was great news. She was also eating better that day - not even requiring a feeding tube. The doctors were really impressed by her improvement and hopeful that she could go home in a couple days, which of course had us excited. Starting that night, I slept at the hospital so I could feed her. My room was tiny - it seriously felt like a jail cell and I slept miserably. But it was fun to get to spend more time with her, even if it was in the middle of the night! :) I felt so behind on that "mother-baby" bonding time since, up until that point, I'd only been able to hold her a handful of times.

As of Monday, she was still weaning down off her oxygen really well, but her bloodwork was continuing to show signs of infection. This worried the doctors so they wanted to continue her antibiotics for a total of 7 days (until Thursday). Once again, we were crushed. We were hoping to take her home on Tuesday and now it was Thursday at the earliest. Greg was using PTO at work up until this point, and once we realized it would still be a while longer, he decided to head back to work so he didn't waste it all. This made life a little stressful since I still had to go to the hospital during the day to feed her, and I couldn't take the boys with me. Fortunately, I had wonderful neighbors and family members who were willing to help us out. Thank you to all those who helped with our crazy kiddos!

On Wednesday, the NICU called and told me they were going to discharge Ella the next day once her antibiotics were done. We were thrilled that things were finally going as planned! So we headed over Thursday morning with everything we needed to take her home, only to find out that she actually had one more day on her antibiotics. Crushed again! But I knew deep down that if she was going to come home, I wanted her to come home as healthy as possible. So we waited yet another day, and fortunately Friday really was the day! We got to bring her home finally! She is still on oxygen and on a monitor that tells us if her heart rate or respiratory rate gets into an unhealthy range, but so far, so good! She is doing great and is seriously such an angel baby. She hardly cries and I wonder if it's because she's been through so much, and is just grateful to be home where she isn't being constantly poked and prodded.

The whole experience was definitely different than anything we've gone through. While it was extremely scary at times, I felt so calm the majority of the time. I think the Lord really helped me out, and I know that help also came through the prayers of others, so thank you so much. When the nurse discharged her, she began talking about just how sick Ella had been and when I looked at the discharge papers, it listed her problems as "respiratory distress and respiratory failure." The doctors never told us about the respiratory failure - one part of me is a little bugged by it, but another part of me knows it would have only stressed me and Greg out beyond belief. So I guess I'm grateful I didn't know how dire the circumstances were. On top of that, when I took her to the pediatrician yesterday, the doctor was looking over her paperwork and said, "Oh yeah, this was the really scary baby." In the end, the doctors concluded that she most likely contracted Group B Strep from me, which can be fatal to newborns. Hearing these things makes me realize just how lucky we are to have her and how much the Lord blessed us through the whole ordeal. The thought that we could have lost her sickens me and I really am just so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that gave us the opportunity to still have her here. We are so blessed.

Thank you again to all of you who prayed for us, helped with our kids, offered kind words, and brought us dinner. Originally, the ward set up 2 dinners for our family and we ended up having 6. The outpouring of love that people have shown us has truly been astonishing and we are so grateful. I posted a few more pictures of our sweet Ella below, and I'm sure I will have more updates to come! -Ash