It seems forever ago we were impatiently waiting for our littlest girl to arrive. She is now 8 days old and doing wonderfully, despite the crazy labor that brought about her arrival and the strange disease (
Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia, or NAIT) she was born with, not to mention the way that disease was discovered.
Warning: Detailed Labor Story that may be boring to some and too much information for others.
Labor:
I was induced Saturday December 4th at about 9am. I wasn't thrilled with the idea, but being 2 weeks late, I felt I had pushed things as long as I would be permitted to wait. The Pitocin took immediate effect even at the lowest levels, but our little girl wasn't liking it, so the nurse had to continually shut off the Pitocin drip and see if the contractions would continue. After a number of hours back and forth with Pitocin, the midwife suggested we break my water and see what happens. This seemed to be the trick, but at 7cm things stopped progressing.
The next several hours are fuzzy to me, mostly because the pain was intense and I was exhausted. I cannot begin to count the number of times that I mentally gave up. Despite my own weakness, God pushed me further and used those around me to give me the strength I lacked. Allen was an amazing comfort during what would be my most difficult labor of the 4. And Judy Bufford was a lifesaver, as Allen needed to be with me more and more, she was able to support him and to be extra support for me during the truly trying moments (including a pillow when I couldn't sit up anymore, and my cold cloth provider when things got really rough :-) ). By this point it was the first hours of the next day and everyone was tired. I was 9cm and still only 85-90% effaced (which for those that don't know is the key to being able to get that baby out).
Realizing that I may not at this point have the energy to push, I decided that at the slightest twinge of a "need" to push, I was going to try now and not wait for 10cm and 100% effacement. After some of the most insane pushing I have done, and for way longer than I have been used to in the past (I have been blessed before to not have very long in the pushing phase) we were able to welcome Serafina Faith into this world. Despite her low heart rates throughout labor and very low heart rates during the last hour, she was strong, healthy and alert when she finally joined us.
Labor story over.
Once she was here we moved to the Postpartum room and tried to get some much needed sleep between feedings. We did the normal after-baby-arrived-family-visits and the typical nurse checking-in visits. During the first few baby checks Serafina was consistently cool, despite the efforts we were making to bring her up to 98.6. They checked her blood sugar, and found she was at normal, but her heart rate was also low at times (as it had been during labor).
Suspecting these were signs of an infection they took some small blood samples. The first would be cultured for 48 hours to see if anything turned up in the infectious category. The second sample was to check her white blood cell counts to see if they were up in an effort to fight off something in her system. Shortly after the second sample was processed they found something very unexpected, perfectly normal red and white blood cell counts, but off the charts low platelet counts. Her cultures were still processing, but this new news was concerning.
We would now journey with her to the NICU, where she would ultimately stay for the next 5 1/2 days. Once there, the nurses set to work placing two IVs and a few sensors to monitor heart rate, oxygen levels, and other needed facts. During that night they would begin two antibiotics and a platelet transfusion. Then, in the next days they would monitor her platelet counts, ultimately diagnosing her with Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia or NAIT. The platelets given to her Sunday evening (the 5th, her birthday) would be enough to combat the bad antigens and allow her own immune system to take over in destroying these unwanted antigens that were eating up her platelets.
She came home Friday late morning, 6 days after being born, and is doing wonderfully. She is eating well, sleeping well (for a newborn :-) ) and per her doctor visit this morning, is gaining weight well. The doctors have informed us that she should never have this problem again, now that we have overcome it. Since the ultrasound done on her head showed no signs of brain bleed (the leading concern with NAIT), she should be a normal kiddo from here on out.
Lesson Learned:
What does all this mean? For me it has been an incredible reminder that God is in control and He is the provider of ALL things, including strength and health. This past week was filled with weakness, and lack of health, but now we sit at home, physically well and spiritually stronger. God got us through this tough week and now we can look back and see His hand in each moment. God is good all the time, even in moments where we find ourselves asking, "When?" or "How?" or "Why?" He is good!
