Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Tuesday, August 9th
Stockton seriously is a little trooper. Our little champ was taken off dialysis yesterday and they removed the tubes out of his stomach. They also removed his urinary catheter. YEAH!!! He no longer has any tubes! He did really well on the high flow oxygen yesterday so he is on a normal nasal cannula now. He also had his first feeding today! He will eat through a nasogastric tube until they feel he can eat orally. I got to change his diaper today. We are so happy. Love you Stockton!
Monday, August 8, 2011
Monday, August 8th
Today Stockton is doing rather well. Like before we are taking a few steps forward and a couple steps back. Stockton is stable and wakes up whenever he wants to. He is off of dialysis and his kidneys are perfusing very well. He finally had his umbilical line taken out today and we are so happy. They have told us since last Thursday that it would be taken out. Stockton has had some problems with tachycardia. His heart rate shoots up to 180 or so for just a minute then comes back down. His blood pressure has also been borderline high but they have been giving him some medicine to keep it down. The cardiologists met today and decided that Stockton would be put on Propanolol to keep his heart rate and blood pressure down. Unfortunately, this medication he will need to be on until his next surgery in a few months. They placed a nasogastric tube in him today so that they could administer the Propanolol. It is kind of sad to think about because that medicine is the first thing that his stomach has had in it. They also said that he may be able to start feedings tomorrow! Stockton has been doing really well on the CPAP machine and we are going to try the high flow cannula again tonight. We pray and hope that he can go to a normal cannula tomorrow. He really hates the huge prongs up his nose. They were also able to take an IV out of his foot. We are so blessed to take these few steps forward but we still have a long road ahead of us. Please pray for him and keep him in your thoughts. I truly think we all gain strength through positive thinking.
PICTURES!
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| Probably a picture of me in between contractions. |
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| Life is easy! |
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| Welcome to the world tough guy. |
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| Daddy got to change the first diaper. |
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| The first time I got to really hold our son. |
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| Seth's first time holding Stockton! |
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| We love you little guy! |
Introducing Stockton Seth Watson!
My Labor
Mr. Stockton was scheduled to come into the world on August 1, 2011. We felt comfortable having my mother fly in on the 29th. I was even a little hesitant to have her come 2 days early because I didn't want to waste her time. Luckily, she was here! Around 9:00pm on the 29th I was having some minor contractions. They were pretty consistent so we decided to go to the hospital. Under our circumstances I wasn't sure how fast I would go into full labor so we drove 40 minutes to St. Luke's. Once again they said I was 1-2cm dilated. I was so worried that he would come and we wouldn't have time to get to the hospital. They sent us home and I didn't have any contractions on the way home. Once we walked into the house I ate a little food and I took a little shower. We got home around 12:30am so we were really tired. That night there happened to be a bull frog outside of our window. It was so loud. It kept me up and my contractions started again. I did not sleep one bit and my contractions were every 15 minutes. I did not want to wake Seth because he was so tired. I took a bath and they seemed to calm down but once I got out they started again. I went to lay down in bed because I was just so exhausted. I just closed my eyes but then a contraction would come. I got up and decided to just get ready for the day at 5am. Seth woke up around 8am and my contractions began to come a little more frequent. Once Seth was done getting ready I told my Mom that I guarantee this baby will be born by 4pm today. My contractions were 3-5 minutes apart and I told Seth that we had to go once again. We got to St. Luke's about 9:30am I was dilated to 6 centimeters. They admitted me and they asked if I wanted an epidural. In Texas they have to check your blood before you get an epidural. The anesthesiologist decided that he would just give it to me early. I was so thankful. The epidural started to work and I could feel my legs getting a little numb. By this time it was about 11:30am and I was just waiting to be completely dilated. Dr. Kirshon, my OB/GYN, was not on call so one of his associates was called to deliver me. Around 1:30pm I started to feel my contractions come back. I called the nurse and the nurse anesthetist came and gave me more pain medication. He told me to call him in 30 minutes if it didn't work. Well, I continued to feel my contractions very strongly because they added a little pitocin to my IV. He gave me another narcotic and another medication through my epidural. He told me that this was the most he could give me in this time frame. The pain did not stop so they stopped the pitocin. They did a few tests on my body to see where the epidural was working. I could not feel hot/cold on my legs, arms or chest. I could feel my contractions and all of the pain down below. I have to tell you that this was excruciating. I seriously thought I was going to die. They told me that my body created a "wall" against the epidural and it just wouldn't work. I was so scared that I couldn't do this naturally. Around 2:30pm I could feel the urge to push. The doctor was no where around and she was not even in the building! Can you believe it? I literally can't remember what I was saying but I remember yelling and screaming at all the people in the room. I could laugh about it now but I was telling everyone to "be quiet" or "shut up." Around 2:50pm the urge to push just became so strong. We were all just waiting for the doctor to come and I kept telling them time after time that I had to push. I couldn't wait any longer. The nurse let me begin to push and the doctor came in, FINALLY! Stockton was so low that I only pushed for 5 minutes and he was out! Relief! They let me hold him for just a couple seconds and they brought him out of the room. He was beautiful, he took my breathe away. He is amazing. We just love him. They immediately put two umbilical lines in so they could start with his prostaglandin (PGE). After they were done getting him all set up they told us he was 7.7 pounds and 19 1/2 inches long. They brought him back to me in an incubator and he was so calm. He just looked at me for what seemed like forever. They quickly took him and Seth up to the cardiovascular ICU at Texas Children's Hospital. I was able to see him a few hours later and he is so beautiful. We are so grateful that he is finally here and we can share these precious moments with him. We love having a son and we are over joyed that he is doing well. We love you baby Stockton!
Mr. Stockton was scheduled to come into the world on August 1, 2011. We felt comfortable having my mother fly in on the 29th. I was even a little hesitant to have her come 2 days early because I didn't want to waste her time. Luckily, she was here! Around 9:00pm on the 29th I was having some minor contractions. They were pretty consistent so we decided to go to the hospital. Under our circumstances I wasn't sure how fast I would go into full labor so we drove 40 minutes to St. Luke's. Once again they said I was 1-2cm dilated. I was so worried that he would come and we wouldn't have time to get to the hospital. They sent us home and I didn't have any contractions on the way home. Once we walked into the house I ate a little food and I took a little shower. We got home around 12:30am so we were really tired. That night there happened to be a bull frog outside of our window. It was so loud. It kept me up and my contractions started again. I did not sleep one bit and my contractions were every 15 minutes. I did not want to wake Seth because he was so tired. I took a bath and they seemed to calm down but once I got out they started again. I went to lay down in bed because I was just so exhausted. I just closed my eyes but then a contraction would come. I got up and decided to just get ready for the day at 5am. Seth woke up around 8am and my contractions began to come a little more frequent. Once Seth was done getting ready I told my Mom that I guarantee this baby will be born by 4pm today. My contractions were 3-5 minutes apart and I told Seth that we had to go once again. We got to St. Luke's about 9:30am I was dilated to 6 centimeters. They admitted me and they asked if I wanted an epidural. In Texas they have to check your blood before you get an epidural. The anesthesiologist decided that he would just give it to me early. I was so thankful. The epidural started to work and I could feel my legs getting a little numb. By this time it was about 11:30am and I was just waiting to be completely dilated. Dr. Kirshon, my OB/GYN, was not on call so one of his associates was called to deliver me. Around 1:30pm I started to feel my contractions come back. I called the nurse and the nurse anesthetist came and gave me more pain medication. He told me to call him in 30 minutes if it didn't work. Well, I continued to feel my contractions very strongly because they added a little pitocin to my IV. He gave me another narcotic and another medication through my epidural. He told me that this was the most he could give me in this time frame. The pain did not stop so they stopped the pitocin. They did a few tests on my body to see where the epidural was working. I could not feel hot/cold on my legs, arms or chest. I could feel my contractions and all of the pain down below. I have to tell you that this was excruciating. I seriously thought I was going to die. They told me that my body created a "wall" against the epidural and it just wouldn't work. I was so scared that I couldn't do this naturally. Around 2:30pm I could feel the urge to push. The doctor was no where around and she was not even in the building! Can you believe it? I literally can't remember what I was saying but I remember yelling and screaming at all the people in the room. I could laugh about it now but I was telling everyone to "be quiet" or "shut up." Around 2:50pm the urge to push just became so strong. We were all just waiting for the doctor to come and I kept telling them time after time that I had to push. I couldn't wait any longer. The nurse let me begin to push and the doctor came in, FINALLY! Stockton was so low that I only pushed for 5 minutes and he was out! Relief! They let me hold him for just a couple seconds and they brought him out of the room. He was beautiful, he took my breathe away. He is amazing. We just love him. They immediately put two umbilical lines in so they could start with his prostaglandin (PGE). After they were done getting him all set up they told us he was 7.7 pounds and 19 1/2 inches long. They brought him back to me in an incubator and he was so calm. He just looked at me for what seemed like forever. They quickly took him and Seth up to the cardiovascular ICU at Texas Children's Hospital. I was able to see him a few hours later and he is so beautiful. We are so grateful that he is finally here and we can share these precious moments with him. We love having a son and we are over joyed that he is doing well. We love you baby Stockton!
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Post Op Day 5
Tomorrow I am planning on updating this blog in detail. Today we are going to spend some time with our daughter and I am thinking about sleeping at home to catch up on my sleep. Last night we went to dinner and came back around 10:00pm. Stockton's oxygen levels were starting to head into the mid 70's so they tried to reposition him to see what was going on. Stockton became really agitated and his oxygen levels dropped to the high 40's. This was very scary because his lips and body started to turn purple. The respiratory therapist put him on high flow oxygen and they used the ambu bag to bring him back to the 90's. With Stockton's heart condition a normal oxygen saturation should be around 85. Stockton responded very well to the oxygen until early morning. The doctors put him on a CPAP machine and that is where he is today. They did an x-ray of his lungs and noticed some fluid build up around his lungs and they also discovered that his left lower lung lobe had collapsed. Since they discovered this they have turned him and the fluid and lung have since re-expanded. We were supposed to start nasogastric tube feedings today but we have been set back. Our goal is to get him back to the nasal cannula and far away from being intubated. Ugh! This is truly a roller coaster. All of this is up to Stockton and up to his precious body. We continue to pray for him and we hope we are headed in the right direction again.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Doing Well
Stockton continues to do very well. He is off quite a few medications and we are trying to get him off the breathing tube. They have done a few breathing trials and he is doing really well. The concerns we have are about his kidneys but he is on peritoneal dialysis which is normal for a post open heart surgery. They will continue to monitor them closely and the doctors said that they will rebound soon. We continue to be at his bedside almost all day. We have caught up on some much needed sleep and we are doing well. Stockton is such a trooper and he has started to open his eyes. He is rather sleepy but when he hears Mommy's voice he tries to become alert. We sing to him, talk to him, read him books and touch him as much as we can.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Our baby is here!
Wow, I have never been so physically and emotionally drained in my entire life. We know many of you are concerned and we want to update you all. We literally have not had any time to sit down since our baby boy was born. Here is a quick update. As I have more time I will update each day one step at a time.
Stockton Seth Watson was born on July 30, 2011 much to our surprise. He is the cutest thing ever! We were waiting to do the surgery until he was about 7 days old. Well, Tuesday morning he took a bad turn and was in critical condition. We literally pleaded and cried to Heavenly Father to save our baby. He had some fluid around his lungs that was making it hard for him to breath. This was not his fault. The fluid was IV nutrition that was inserted through a PICC line in his right arm. So the doctors intubated him and that is where he stayed the rest of the day. Because of this episode we were scheduled for surgery today, Wednesday. He went in this morning at 8am and we just got news at 3:30pm that he is out. The surgery went perfectly and there were no surprises. We have not been up to see him because it takes awhile to get him all set up and cleaned. We felt calm and comforted by our Heavenly Father all day. I can not tell you how much the Lord has helped us these last few days.
We know many of you are concerned and want more information. I would love to talk or e-mail each one of you but that is just not possible. When I have a minute to myself I am running to the bathroom or going to downstairs to pump. I love you all and I am so grateful for all you. Stockton is a trooper and we feel so blessed to have this angel in our lives. Keep praying for him and our family. Thank you.
*We have so many pictures of our little guy but at the moment I don't have my camera cord.
Stockton Seth Watson was born on July 30, 2011 much to our surprise. He is the cutest thing ever! We were waiting to do the surgery until he was about 7 days old. Well, Tuesday morning he took a bad turn and was in critical condition. We literally pleaded and cried to Heavenly Father to save our baby. He had some fluid around his lungs that was making it hard for him to breath. This was not his fault. The fluid was IV nutrition that was inserted through a PICC line in his right arm. So the doctors intubated him and that is where he stayed the rest of the day. Because of this episode we were scheduled for surgery today, Wednesday. He went in this morning at 8am and we just got news at 3:30pm that he is out. The surgery went perfectly and there were no surprises. We have not been up to see him because it takes awhile to get him all set up and cleaned. We felt calm and comforted by our Heavenly Father all day. I can not tell you how much the Lord has helped us these last few days.
We know many of you are concerned and want more information. I would love to talk or e-mail each one of you but that is just not possible. When I have a minute to myself I am running to the bathroom or going to downstairs to pump. I love you all and I am so grateful for all you. Stockton is a trooper and we feel so blessed to have this angel in our lives. Keep praying for him and our family. Thank you.
*We have so many pictures of our little guy but at the moment I don't have my camera cord.
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