Baby Blessing/ Michael's Story

 Today, Michael received his baby blessing. It was such a sweet experience. Russell gave the blessing, his dad and my dad, my older brother, and one of my brothers-in-law stood in the circle while one of my younger brothers held the microphone. It was so humbling to see all of those men standing around my sweet boy with one purpose, to give him a blessing. Hearing Russell bless Michael was surreal. I always listened to baby blessings in the past thinking they were so sweet but to hear the baby blessing for my boy...it was amazing. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family who participated both in person and in thoughts and prayers today. Happy blessing day, Michael. We love you. 

Michael's blessing made me think of just how lucky we are that he is even here. He truly is a little miracle baby. He's fought so hard to be here at home and it has not been easy to say the least...for him or Russell and I. I realized that I hadn't ever told Michael's story and decided now would be the perfect time as I reflected on his life up to this point, today. On October 8 I received a rather frantic phone call from my OB/GYN about a 24 urine test he had done for me over the weekend because I had begun to have terrible contractions the Friday before. He explained that my protein levels were dangerously high and that if he could not get them to go down then he would be inducing me the next day. He told me I had to go check myself into the hospital immediately for observation as he was surprised that I hadn't started having seizures at that point. I hung up the phone and felt so helpless. "I"m not ready yet." I kept telling my coworker (and basically second mother). She reassured me I was and told me she would drive me to the hospital if I didn't feel up to it. After almost 48 hours in the hospital they released me on bed rest.

He scheduled me for induction on October 24. I was dilated when I arrived at the hospital, they induced me and 8 long, painful hours later I asked for an epidural. Immediately following the shot I felt sick and became only half coherent. I could see and hear everything that was going on after this point but I could not make my body respond. My oxygen levels dropped drastically and I kept going in and out of consciousness so they put an oxygen mask on me. The nurse said that Michael had moved and the Fetal Heart Monitor was no longer picking up his heartbeat. She tried to adjust it...and kept adjusting it. She looked for several minutes for his heartbeat before turning to another nurse and telling her to call the charge nurse immediately. The charge nurse arrived and looked for several minutes for his heart beat. Finally after several minutes she found it, very faint and irradic. I was crying but I could not voice my concern. I just kept looking at Russell who I could see was equally as concerned but kept squeezing my hand and speaking words of reassurance. The charge nurse came back into the room, I hadn't noticed her ever leaving. She looked at Russell and said, "I've called Dr. Barnett, he wants her in for an emergency c-section." Another nurse said, "His heartbeat is getting slower and more faint." 

I closed my eyes, when I opened them up I was being wheeled into the O.R. I couldn't see Russell, I kept asking for him and in my morphine induced state started panicking. Finally Russell showed up in scrubs with Dr. Barnett and a man from our ward who was the on-call OB/GYN. They ended up having to velcro one of my hands down and Russell held the other. Within minutes of his arrival, Dr. Barnett had Michael out. The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck several times and he was blue. I closed my eyes and when I opened them Russell was holding Michael next to my face saying, "Honey, here he is, he's beautiful." I cried.

While I spent the next several hours in a recovery room, Michael had a hard time keeping his oxygen saturation levels up. The nursery told Russell that his saturation levels should be in the high 90's, his were in the low 70's. They took him to the NICU. He spent 2 weeks there fighting to get out. He had ups and downs, the Dr's told us they didn't think he would be home for at least a month and even then we would probably have to take him home on oxygen. After several Father's blessings from Russell and blessings of healing and comfort from Russell and my dad, and feeling completely defeated and at times hopeless they finally told us they were going to start Michael's 24 hour trial period. If he could stay off of oxygen and do well we could take him home. We tried not to get excited, they had started a 24 hour trial twice before without any luck. When they told me that they were getting his discharge paperwork together I broke down crying with the nurse. Everyone there knew how hard this was for us. We had lived at the hospital for the last 2 weeks coming to feed Michael every 3 hours, they all knew us well and were pulling for Michael. She hugged me and we embraced for almost a minute before I realized I had to call Russell and tell him the news because he was at school. 

We're so blessed that Michael is here, his Dr. has told us that we will always have to be cautious of his breathing, and had to put him on breathing treatments until she orders otherwise. He has only had a few incidents of not breathing well since we've been home. Today was one of those days. Every time I see him struggle to breathe and his mouth turn blue my heart drops and I get butterflies in my stomach. I think back to the NICU and try to speak words of encouragement to him. He is a blessing, and it is a true miracle that he is home with us. He continues to struggle a little bit but he is so strong and brave. I love him, we all love him. He is most definitely our life.