Amyah's Birth Story and 10 Day Adventure in the NICU

Amyah's Story:
How she found her way to our home.

Day 1
Monday, May 10th
I woke up at 2:30 am from a hard contraction. And, like the night before, I continued to contract into the late morning. The contractions, similar to other nights during the last week, didn't stop. They were more uncomfortable than before. But, they also weren't getting any stronger than the first one I felt at 2:30 am. I figured it was going to be just like the other nights/days I had already endured and that the end was no where in sight. Because I had gone through so many sleepless nights, I was desperate to get the baby out of me. I really thought that at 36 weeks and 6 days she would have no problems. After all, Susie was born at 37 weeks and was perfectly healthy.

The contractions, like before, faded away by the time I was ready for the day and had taken Tyler to school (he's in PM Kindergarten). I was bummed. I knew that if I didn't have that baby today, the pain would start right up again as soon as I drifted off to sleep that night, just like it had been doing all week. I bounced on my exercise ball all morning long to try to progress my labor. I laid down to take a nap at about 1 o'clock. An hour later, I woke up to more hard contractions. For some reason sleep seemed to bring on the contractions this time around.

At about 3 o'clock, I decided to head down to the hospital. This time I went by myself because I really didn't want to waste any more of Kevin's time. My doctor was on call that day. I thought maybe he would have more sympathy for me than any of the other doctor's at the practice since he knew what I had been going through for the past week (basically an entire week of mild labor). I was put in the labor triage room. The nurse checked my cervix. This time it was a definite 5 cm. However, I honestly couldn't believe I was only dilated to a 5. Seriously! I had been contracting almost constantly for the entire weekend and I had only changed by 1 cm. The nurse contacted my doctor who told her to hold me for an hour, then check me again. He wanted to see some progression. I knew there would be absolutely no progression in 1 hour. If I had only dilated 1 cm since Friday, how in the world was my body going to dilate anymore during the 1 hour trial they put you through.

As I lay in the triage room watching the most uninteresting TV shows, my contractions got stronger and stronger and more consistent. I started to think, "Maybe this is it! Maybe my body is actually going into full-blown labor! Finally!" But, when the nurse came to check (it was close to 5 o'clock by this point), I was still only dilated to 5 cm. I broke down crying. "How am I ever going to sleep? What am I supposed to do?" I sobbed to the nurse. I could tell she felt really bad for me. She left to talk to the doctor. The next thing I know, my doctor came walking into the triage room. He grabbed my hand, and said, "I think you've suffered long enough. You're contractions have been coming consistently every 2-3 minutes. Let's break your water." Although my contractions really hurt at the time, the biggest feeling of relief settled over my body. I could not wait to be done with the contractions. I called Kevin and told him the good news. :)

The nurse wheeled me down the hall to the labor and delivery room. I wanted to wait for Kevin before getting the epidural (they still scare me after having it done 3 times). Kevin finally got to the hospital just before 6. The kids were with him and I was able to give them each a kiss and a hug before they left with Grandpa Mark to take our 2nd car back home. As Kevin and I waited, we started discussing names. We still hadn't decided on a name. The day before, Kevin told me he wished we could some how incorporate my name into our baby girl's name. While we sat in the labor and delivery room waiting for the anesthesiologist, I got on Kevin's iPhone and searched names containing "amy" in them. We found the name Amyah. I clicked on the name, then started reading all the meanings of the name. I loved the way the name sounded, and I loved the meanings. It seemed perfect.

It wasn't until a little after 7:00 pm when the anesthesiologist finally showed up. He administered the epidural. At about 7:30, my doctor came in. He checked my cervix--I was actually at a 6! Then he broke my water. I was completely dilated in just over an hour. The nurses set the room up quickly. And, after pushing for only about 2 minutes, our sweet Amyah was born at 8:55 pm.

I could instantly tell something wasn't going right with Amyah. The nurses seemed to be concerned about something. They let me hold her for a few minutes to take pictures. Then they whisked our baby away to the nursery to check her out. She was grunting, which meant something wasn't right with her lungs. Kevin followed closely behind. I had to wait in my bed until my epidural wore off enough for me to get into the wheel chair. By the time I finally made it to the nursery, Amyah had an IV in her arm and a nasal CPAP mask on. Because she was a bit premature, her lungs were collapsing with every exhale. After being treated with the CPAP for an hour, Amyah still was grunting. The pediatrician was about to administer surfactant, which is used in the lungs to prevent collapse after expiration. At the very last moment, he decided to flip Amyah onto her belly and see if that helped. It did, and the surfactant was never administered. Amaya was put on oxygen for the remainder of the night and into the next day.

At about midnight, I finally crawled into my very uncomfortable hospital bed. Kevin went home to sleep.

Day 2
Tuesday, May 11th
I woke up, chowed down on my scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon (by far the best meal I ate at the hospital during my stay). Then I headed down to the NICU to see how Amyah was doing. Her lungs appeared to be doing great. She was sleeping, and continued to sleep until the evening. Kevin and the kids visited a few times throughout the day. At about 7pm Tuesday night, she had her first feeding. She drank about 20ml. It felt very awkward to hold a baby connected to monitors and with an IV in her arm. Mark and Janae were visiting during her first feeding. They took the kids home to put them to bed, and Kevin stayed with me for a couple more hours. Ryan and Brittney also visited that night. Amyah slept for another 12 hours (until the next morning).

Day 3
Wednesday, May 12th
I headed straight to the NICU as soon as I woke up on Wednesday morning. I was hoping to hear that she had eaten well all night long. But, she hadn't. Like I already stated, she had slept for 12 straight hours. I fed her another bottle at 7:30 in the morning. This time she ate just as poorly--only about 20-25ml. Throughout the day, she continued to take each feeding every 3 hours. But, the amounts she was consuming were no where near the 60ml they wanted her to intake.

I was discharged from the hospital at about 4:30 pm. We went home, at dinner time (I was dying to eat some normal food). I headed back to the hospital to feed Amyah again at 7. Then Kevin and I returned together at 10. Each time she consumed no more than 30ml. But, she was eating at each feeding, which we thought was hopeful.

Day 4
Thursday, May 13th
Kevin and I arrived at the hospital and were told the doctor had ordered a feeding tube for Amyah. At this point, we thought we were seeing progression and didn't want to jump the gun on the feeding tube. We decided to give her one more day to figure things out. I went to the hospital for each feeding during the day. Amyah was eating approximately 30-35ml at each feeding (still not even close to the 60ml they expected of her). We decided to switch her to high calorie formula that night and made plans to meet with the doctor the next morning to discuss the situation.

We had more visitors on Thursday night. Rachael and Jonathon came to visit and hold our sweet Amyah.

Day 5
Friday, May 14th
We arrived at the NICU at about 9 am. The doctor was waiting to talk to us. He used her birth weight to calculate the amount of calories Amyah needed each day to grow and regain her health. She was consuming only half of what she needed. We finally decided to administer the feeding tube. The plan was to bottle feed each time, then make up the difference with the tube. Each time they wanted her to consume 51ml. We waited until her next feeding. The nurse put the tube in. It was a horrible experience. It took about 15 minutes and 3 tries up her nose until the tube finally made its way to the correct location. Amyah was mad!

When everything was finally in place, I tried to feed Amyah, but she would not eat. We couldn't help but notice how bizarre it was that she refused to eat as soon as the tube went in. She continued to refuse the bottle all day long, and had to be fed by tube for every feeding. And, because they were pumping so much formula into her belly, she was completely overwhelmed with volume and was spitting up all over the place. That night at her 10 pm feeding, she finally took some from the bottle (only about 12ml). Then she spit up all that plus much, much more. We were so disgusted as we watched her crash and burn, all the time questioning whether it was the feeding tube that was causing her all the stress.

The nurses and doctors told us over and over again how normal it was for a baby born at 36 weeks to appear as though they were doing great at first. But, because they have to work so much harder than a full term baby to make all their different parts work (lungs, digestion, sucking, etc.), it is really normal for them to spiral downward after a few days. This all made perfect sense. However, the problem we were having was how it all occurred at the very same time the feeding tube was administered. We had little faith in the feeding tube because it seemed as though it had started all the problems. We decided to give it another 24 hours before we made any changes or even possibly had her transferred.

While this was all going on, Amyah's O2 saturation levels kept dipping. She ended up back on oxygen for the next 24+ hours. The nurse, once again, told us this was very normal because just as the feeding had declined, O2 saturation levels also tend to decline after a baby has worked itself to the max.

Friday was the darkest, most difficult day. We were all dealing with Amyah's downward pattern in our own ways. Kevin was angry and untrusting of the nurses and doctors. I was so emotional. I could hardly keep my tears back on Friday. I didn't know who to believe or trust with the care of our baby. It was a hard day.

Day 6
Saturday, May 15th
I arrived at the hospital at about 8 am to check on Amyah. She was doing no better or worse than the day before. She was so sleepy every time I tried to bottle feed her. Most feedings she only took in about 7ml. She was wiped out. At about 8:45 am, I left to go to Tyler's soccer game, and returned to the hospital immediately after. I fed Amyah a bottle. She actually ate quite a bit, but it took a while for her to get through the bottle. As I was burping her, she completely exploded with spit-up. Probably the majority of what she had just been fed. By this point I had started to question the formula we were using. Since switching, she had gotten so spitty. I had the nurse contact the doctor, and we decided to move her down to a mid-calorie formula (but still not the same as the original).

All day long, Amyah continued to mostly sleep, eat very small amounts from a bottle, and mostly take food in by the tube. I attempted to feed her at every feeding, with little to no success. It was all getting very discouraging. I honestly couldn't imagine her ever coming out of her "comatose" state. By the end of the day, I felt as though I had finally succumbed to the feeding tube process. I knew I just had to have faith in the nurses and doctors. This was, after all, the sort of baby they dealt with every day in the NICU. It was time to just start playing the waiting game. I just hoped it would end sooner rather than later.

Day 7
Sunday, May 16th
I got to the hospital at about 10 am, just in time to start Amyah's feeding. After another unsuccessful feeding, and another pile of spit-up, we decided to put Amyah back on the original formula we had started her on. We also decided to start feeding her by bottle only every other feeding and feeding her by tube completely on the other feedings. It was very apparent that she needed her sleep. We were hoping that by allowing her to intake food without any work, she would more quickly build up the strength to start doing it on her own.

At around 2:30, I received a call from Amyah's pediatrician. While checking up on her, he noticed a heart murmur. He ordered an echo-cardiogram to be done on her heart. The echo-cardiogram was sent up to a cardiologist at Primary Children's Hospital to be analyzed. Heart murmurs are really quite common in newborn babies, caused by a hole in the septum that every baby has prior to being born (it's there so the blood being pumped in the heart can bypass the lungs until the baby is born). However, the hole in most babies' hearts closes very quickly after birth. Amyah's wasn't closed yet, which isn't alarming. However, it needed to be looked at and monitored until it does close. I understood this new information regarding Amyah's health was nothing to fret over, however, as I watched her sleep and refuse food all day long, I began to get very, very scared. It just seemed like things were never going to go right. I really needed to see some sort of progression.

Day 8
Monday, May 17th
I went to the hospital at my normal 10 am time to feed Amyah a bottle. When I got there, she was awake and bright-eyed! I learned she had taken 36ml in her middle of the night feeding. This was a vast improvement from the days before! I started to feed her a bottle, and she finished 50ml in less than 30 minutes! Wow! Things were looking up! We still kept her on her every-other feeding schedule to continue to allow her to rest. But by the end of the day, she had consumed almost 60ml at every feeding! She finally had hit her turning point. I went to bed on Monday night feeling so much more at ease with the situation. Still, however, I was unsure of how slowly or quickly they were planning on weaning her off the feeding tube.

Day 9
Tuesday, May 18th
I called the NICU at about 8 am to check on Amyah's progress and to find out when she would be eating next. She had done great overnight! The pediatrician was there and I spoke to him. He suggested trying to feed her every feeding by bottle and told me if she did well, we could probably take her home the next day! I got to the hospital as soon as possible. She chugged her first bottle in less than 15 minutes! One down, seven more to go... Each bottle she drank like a champ. She took in everything by bottle overnight. My only worry was that she had lost 10 grams that day (due to all the energy she was using to eat). I was so nervous they wouldn't let me take her home because of the weight loss. Of course, I wanted what was best for her. But by this point she was eating so well, it seemed like the best place for her was our home, surrounded by her family who loved her.

Day 10
Wednesday, May 19th
I woke up at 7:30 am and instantly called the NICU hoping the doctor was already there. No such luck. I left a message to have him call when he arrived. At 8:30 am, I called again. Still not there. We still hadn't heard from the doctor another hour later. I headed down to the NICU to be there in time to feed Amyah at 10 am. I walked into the NICU and was greeted by the nurses and pediatrician. "You ready to take her home?" they asked. I fed Amyah her last bottle at the hospital while we waited for Kevin, the kids, and Mark to show up for our going home celebration. We were finally discharged from the hospital a little after 11 am. All three kids squeezed into the back of my car. We played "I Gotta a Feeling" by Black Eyed Peas...or as Susie calls it "the good night song". It was definitely going to be a good night with our sweet Amyah at home. Oh, it feels so good to be at home again.