Brian Marcie Adrie

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Happy Easter

Posting about Easter in September. Clearly I am really on top of things.

Adrie was exactly one week old on Easter. It's crazy to look back and realize how much she has changed. I wish I would have done more for Adrie on her first Easter, but I was still just trying to function at that point. Luckily for her, Trevor and Dayna made her an Easter basket. They also gave her the outfit in these pictures. The treats in the basket turned into excellent nursing snacks.

My Mom was great once again and brought us up dinner since I was still too paranoid to leave the house. Another great meal, not a surprise.

Happy Easter little babe.

Monday, August 15, 2011

SVT Baby

I blog this just to have the memory. I'm sure Adrie will want to read about it some day. If it were up to me, I would just forget the whole thing. Not an experience I enjoyed or want to relive. I'm sure part of it was being a new mom with zero sleep didn't help...

When Adrie was around 12 days old, Brian noticed that her heart was beating pretty fast. He could tell just by putting his hand over her chest. We thought maybe we were just being paranoid parents, but we wanted to be sure. Brian called his dad (Scott) and he and another doctor came by our house. They both listened to her little heart beat and said they couldn't count it, it was beating so fast. They recommended heading to her pediatrician to get her monitored. Of course by the time we got there, her heart had slowed. She said we should still head over to Primary Children's Hospital just to be sure. Off we went. I cried the whole way.

12 days old. Around 12 a.m. and yes I was as tired as I look

They monitored her over night and her heart stayed steady. I'm pretty sure that they thought that we were just the typical new parents, but we knew that something was wrong. They sent us home that next day, with a stethoscope this time, and life went back to normal.

On our way home. It was snowing so we made sure she was warm. Cute baby

One week later, Brian came home from work and he noticed that something was wrong. She was really lethargic. We could hold her up and her arms and legs would just dangle. He listened to her with our new friend the stethoscope, and counted over 300 beats per minute. Just to be sure, Brian's dad came by again (thank heavens for this man). He agreed with Brian and off to Primary's we went again. Scott came with us so he could listen on the way.

When we arrived, Brian and Scott took Adrie in and I parked the car. I think I wanted to delay watching what they were going to do to my brand new baby. When I got in there, she was already hooked up to the monitor and they were working on her IV. I looked at the monitor and it read 336. My heart sank. 336 beats per minute. That is over 5 beats per second. The next few hours were kind of a blur. Mostly because I was crying so hard that it literally was blurry.

What she had was Superventricular tachycardia, or SVT. You can google it if you want a scientific explanation, but basically it is a rapid heart beat that she could not get down herself. They tried vagal maneuvers to get it down (ice pressed hard against her face, tipping her upside down) and the ice worked for a minute, but she went back into SVT a few moments later. They tried a drug that usually works, nothing. Eventually after several attempts of both the vagal maneuvers and the medicine, they decided they would need to shock her heart. Yes, that is with the paddles. The took us up the the PICU where they would try shocking her heart and then she would need to stay there. They had to bring in a crash cart in case they couldn't get her heart started back up. Luckily for Brian and me, a nurse distracted us during this time. They had to shock it twice for it to work. It was over before we even realized they had started. Unfortunately, the shocking only kept her out of it for a minute. They finally used a different medication that worked.

Overnight went well, considering. Adrie was able to get some sleep. Her parents? Not so much. They had a parents area where we could go sleep, but I couldn't stand the thought of not being by my baby girl. The nurses were great though, and brought in a couch for Brian and I to share. I think it's the first time in our lives that we were both so grateful to be so small.

The next morning I was able to feed her and I was so happy to get to hold her for a minute. During her feeding though, the monitors started beeping like crazy and I watched as her heart beat got faster and faster. The nurses and doctors came rushing in and wanted to try the ice again. Since I was holding her, they thought I should continue to hold her and hopefully keep her relatively calm. They brought the ice over and basically smother her for 10-15 seconds. Up until that point, I had never heard her cry like that. I lost it.

The ice brought it down for just a minute again. They eventually had to up the dosage to get it steady. Once it was down, they wanted us to stay in the ICU for at least 2 days, and then move to the floor for a couple more. Adrie was such a good baby in the hospital. All the nurses loved her because other than her heart, she is a pretty healthy baby. They loved to hold her and feed her because she was so good at it. They had a baby next door to us that had some neurological problems and couldn't figure out how to eat. It made me realize that although Adrie's situation is less than ideal, we were not the worst case by a mile.

My sweet baby. So concerned

My first Mother's Day was spent in the ICU and while I was sad, there were a couple of neat things that day. We were sitting in the ICU that Sunday morning and in walked two men dressed in suits. They were there to see if we wanted the Sacrament. I was surprised by how touched I was by this. It was such a calming experience to know that we weren't alone. How grateful I was for the Priesthood during this whole ordeal.

Happy Mother's Day

My brother Brian and his family stopped by, unfortunately while we were gone to get things from home. They left a flower plant for me for Mother's Day and an elephant stuffed animal that Bennett picked out for Adrie. It was such a fun surprise to come back to.

Later that day, my parents came up the hospital to bring us a home cooked meal. I told my Mom that she didn't really get how Mother's Day is supposed to work. She didn't care. By this time, we had figured out that Adrie cannot have dairy which means I cannot have dairy. My Mom made sure that my whole meal was made without dairy. We had steak, strawberry salad, baked potato, green beans, and rolls (I did have to omit the roll). It was the best meal I had ever eaten. They left shortly after to go back and do dinner with my brothers and their families. I was sad to see them go. Everything just seems better when my Mom is around. We love her and were especially grateful for her that day.

The next few days were pretty uneventful. FINALLY! We stayed a few more days and they did a lot of tests but finally determined we could go home. I was happy and nervous. It was a little reassuring to be able to see her heart rate at any given time. We have to do medicine 3 times a day at specific times. Adrie doesn't love the medicine, but she is getting better at it. It is working (knock on wood) and we pray it continues to do so. I have to remind myself when I get irritated that medicine time sometimes interferes with nap time, that it's okay because she is doing better.

We are hoping this is something that she will grow out of, if not, there is a surgery that they can do when she is around 3 or 4. We are so blessed to have such great hospitals and modern medicine around us. We wouldn't have this sweet baby girl if it weren't for them.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Adrie Rose

I am not a good blogger. I know this, but I wanted to make sure and write about Adrie's debut before it's forgotten forever. Adrie is now over 3 months old. The newborn clothes are packed away and the thighs get chunkier with every feeding (hers, not mine. Okay, maybe mine too). I want to remember as much as possible from this time. As everyone has told me, it goes too fast. It truly does.

Fair warning, this will contain stories of her birth. We all know what this entails.

My original due date with Adrie was April 14th, but the doctor changed it to April 16th. I think he must know how much pregnant girls like to have the date pushed out. Anyway, on April 15th I had an appointment, during which I was informed that I still had some time to go. Joy.

One of last picture of me being pregnant. A few days before I had her

I went and got a pedicure since I've been told it can help induce labor. There were 3 other pregnant girls that had the same idea. I told the little lady to get this baby out. I think she had the magic touch because I went into labor the next day...

We woke up Saturday morning and I was just feeling a little "off". I wasn't having contractions, but I just hadn't felt myself. We cleaned (fine, maybe Brian did most the cleaning), had lunch, and went for a waddle around the neighborhood. During our walk I started having some pain that I hadn't had before, but it quickly went away and we finished our walk. That night I was having some contractions, but they weren't very painful and still pretty far apart. And then, that's when it happened...

I peed my pants.

Well, at least that's what if felt like. I was sitting on the couch when this warm sensation I couldn't control began. I jumped off the couch and told Brian my water had just broken. Here is our conversation:

M: "I think my water just broke."

B: "Are you sure?"

M: " I have water running down my legs, get me a towel- I can't move!"

B: (As he's running to get the towels) "You're wearing my sweatpants."

So having my water break was just like I imagined. People always told me that it's not like it looks in the movies- you know, with a burst of water. Um, hello. That's EXACTLY how it was. With every contraction was more water. I changed my pants 3 times before we left for the hospital. Oh the drive to the hospital...

I want to say that I love my doctor so much. He is the BEST! The only downfall? He is 25 minutes from my house. Which on a normal day, not so bad. On a day with contractions just a couple minutes apart? Well, let's just say that I said some words I'm not entirely proud of. Luckily we were on the road about 10:30 p.m. so traffic was not an issue. Brian drove fast, but I did request he run a red light on the way. In my defense, there were no cars. When we got the the hospital, the parking lot was empty. We got out of the car and I just stood there. I was having a contraction and more water was pouring down my legs. I told Brian that I couldn't move right then and for him to go get a chair to wheel me in. Then came Brian's shining moment.

The entrance to the Woman's Center has two sets of automatic doors. The first set opened. The second set didn't. Brian, in his almost-new-dad frenzy, tried prying open the second set of doors. I watched from the parking lot thinking, "What is he doing!?!" He then realized that next to said doors, there was a doorbell for after hours. Convenient. The nurse asked what was going on from the speaker and Brian responded, "Can you send down a wheelchair? My wife is in the parking lot. She can't move, and she's gushing stuff." Nice. Interestingly enough, I made it upstairs before the wheelchair made it down. I guess I was in a bigger hurry than they were.

The nurses got a good chuckle out of "gushing stuff".

Once upstairs they led me to room to change and get hooked up to the monitors. A nurse followed me with a towel to wipe the water trail. There really is no pride in pregnancy. I remember the nurses telling me to change into a gown and I was thinking, "What?!? I am dying here and you want me to change?" I wasn't at all dramatic. They hooked me up to the monitors and I was really enjoying the strong contractions. The first nurse checked me and said she only thought I was dilated to 1.5. WHAT?! That's what I was at my doctor's appointment the previous day. She was having a hard time checking my progress so she asked another nurse to step in. The second nurse checked and thought it was a 2. My doctor was luckily there delivering another baby, so he stopped in before heading home for the night. He checked me about a half hour after the nurses and said I was at a 5 or a 6. At this time I was ready for some meds. Oh what? The anesthesiologist is in surgery so I can't get an epidural? Great...

I was hooked up to the monitors and the nurses seemed to be getting a little anxious. Brian could tell they were worried, I was surprisingly calm. I knew they would do what they had to do to get her here safely. They were getting a really low heart rate and they weren't sure if it was from me or from the baby. They decided that they needed to attach a probe to Adrie's head to get a more accurate reading. This poor baby. The nurses could not get it attached. Finally after several attempts, they called the doctor back in. They explained the situation and he headed back to the hospital. The doctor got the probe attached (his first try- I seriously love him) and they all sat in the room and watched the monitors. After discussing everything with my doctor, we agreed that a c-section would be best. Adrie's heart rate started to drop with every contraction and she had a bowel movement- both things could mean she was stressed.

I was wheeled into surgery just a few minutes after making the decision. Being in the O.R. was a pretty surreal experience. Not at all how I had imagined having a baby. I was able to talk with the anesthesiologist and he was letting me know everything going on since I couldn't see over the curtain. I told Brian that I wanted him to just start taking pictures so I wouldn't miss anything. I remember feeling really swollen and weird- I think I gained as much from the fluids right then as I did my entire pregnancy. My eyes and face got really puffy. Next thing I knew, a baby was crying. I remember asking, "Is that my baby? Is she here?"

Adrie Rose Southworth

1:40 a.m. 6 pounds, 10 ounces, 19 inches long.

Our wait was over.

When I first heard her cry. I couldn't believe she was actually here

She has always been such a sweet sleeper. I could just watch her for hours, and maybe I do

She loves to cuddle. We had some great naps during our stay

Adrie showing off her dimple, crazy hair, and milk face

We are just in love with this baby girl. She is so sweet, and so happy. I think she takes after Brian in more than just her looks. These past few months have been crazy (2 emergency trips to Primarys- another post for another day) and many sleepless nights. We have really tried to concentrate on soaking up every baby moment. I never want to look back and wish I would have spent more time just being with her.

Brian loves his girl. Since I had a c-section, I had to be wheeled off to recovery shortly after having her. Brian stayed with Adrie and they were able to spend some quality time together. I am so grateful that he was able to take so many pictures since I missed some of it.

Some pictures from that night...