Rebecca Leigh arrived at 7:15am on 3-10 weighing 8lbs 9oz and 20 1/2" long. 
I started labor with my water breaking at 9:40pm on the 9th. After four hours things didn't seem right to me and I wanted to go to the hospital. It was about 2:30am and the fog was so dense you couldn't even see two feet in front of the vehicle. By 5am it had lifted enough we were able to call ahead and leave the house (we had good heart tones of 140 range and I was 3 cms dilated). The drive to the hospital was 1/2 hour (had to go to Covenant where my Dr had rights). When we arrived everyone kind of treated me as a normal laboring person instead of someone who'd had 2 sections. A half hour after arriving they finally got the monitor strips on me the heart rate was in the 190's. as I was being wheeled off to the OR her heart rate dropped to 70. On the table I felt what I thought was my uterus rupturing...what a horrid searing pain! I then was out under general.
When I woke up Tim told me I had ruptured and that Rebecca was outside the uterus when they cut me open. She was white as a sheet and they couldn't get her stabilized in the NICU and were calling for University of Michigan's NICU to come get her. The weather was still so bad down where they were coming from they couldn't use a helicopter. They had to drive to get her and they finally arrived at 10:30 and were able to stabilize her and head back for Holden. She qualified for a trial treatment called a "Cooling Cap" to bring her brain temperature down.
This is the diagnosis they gave her when she was born: Perinatal Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. As it stands right now: She's off the cooling cap (it is only something that works for 72 hours). Her CT was good, her cranial ultrasound was normal, she can suck on a pacifier, move her fingers and toes (she gripped our friends finger when they visited her on Sunday evening, and she gripped her daddy's finger with her toes this morning). She is breathing on her own above the ventilator, she is on a daily dose of Phenobarbital to control seizures she was having, she has to have occasional Morphine as she is starting to not like the vent tube. Some Drs that talk to us sound grim and not encouraging, and others are more positive and encouraging, saying it is a one day at a time thing. She will be having an MRI done in 5 days so maybe they will know more then. Right not it is a minute by minute thing. The waiting is terrible. She is a many ways MUCH better than when she first got to Holden but yet she so very far from being home with us.
I finally got to come home today after a long lonely and EXTREMELY painful stay that included a NG tube. (GAG literally) It was so weird to be driving home without the baby tonight. The house is so quiet. :*( I haven't even seen her in person yet. :*( Hopefully I will be well enough to go visit her tomorrow. I know it is going to be hard but not seeing her is even worse. I won't be able to hold her but I can touch her foot or hand.
I'm pumping and freezing my milk for her for when she's well enough to have something other than fluids and electrolytes.
We just need lots and lots of prayers that whatever part of her brain that was affected by lack of oxygen would miraculously heal itself, and that she can be a testament to the power of our Almighty Healer. Also prayers for Tim and my self's emotional well being would be very helpful. This is by far the hardest thing we've ever been through.
The name Rebecca is of Hebrew origin and it's meaning is "to bind" and also means "refreshed". The Bible verse that goes with the name is Psalms 23:1-3. Learning that she was joining our family bound Tim and I together in an extremely difficult time and we believe that she will be refreshed in body mind and spirit from her traumatic birth.
Blessings in Christ,
Alison
I started labor with my water breaking at 9:40pm on the 9th. After four hours things didn't seem right to me and I wanted to go to the hospital. It was about 2:30am and the fog was so dense you couldn't even see two feet in front of the vehicle. By 5am it had lifted enough we were able to call ahead and leave the house (we had good heart tones of 140 range and I was 3 cms dilated). The drive to the hospital was 1/2 hour (had to go to Covenant where my Dr had rights). When we arrived everyone kind of treated me as a normal laboring person instead of someone who'd had 2 sections. A half hour after arriving they finally got the monitor strips on me the heart rate was in the 190's. as I was being wheeled off to the OR her heart rate dropped to 70. On the table I felt what I thought was my uterus rupturing...what a horrid searing pain! I then was out under general.
When I woke up Tim told me I had ruptured and that Rebecca was outside the uterus when they cut me open. She was white as a sheet and they couldn't get her stabilized in the NICU and were calling for University of Michigan's NICU to come get her. The weather was still so bad down where they were coming from they couldn't use a helicopter. They had to drive to get her and they finally arrived at 10:30 and were able to stabilize her and head back for Holden. She qualified for a trial treatment called a "Cooling Cap" to bring her brain temperature down.
This is the diagnosis they gave her when she was born: Perinatal Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. As it stands right now: She's off the cooling cap (it is only something that works for 72 hours). Her CT was good, her cranial ultrasound was normal, she can suck on a pacifier, move her fingers and toes (she gripped our friends finger when they visited her on Sunday evening, and she gripped her daddy's finger with her toes this morning). She is breathing on her own above the ventilator, she is on a daily dose of Phenobarbital to control seizures she was having, she has to have occasional Morphine as she is starting to not like the vent tube. Some Drs that talk to us sound grim and not encouraging, and others are more positive and encouraging, saying it is a one day at a time thing. She will be having an MRI done in 5 days so maybe they will know more then. Right not it is a minute by minute thing. The waiting is terrible. She is a many ways MUCH better than when she first got to Holden but yet she so very far from being home with us.
I finally got to come home today after a long lonely and EXTREMELY painful stay that included a NG tube. (GAG literally) It was so weird to be driving home without the baby tonight. The house is so quiet. :*( I haven't even seen her in person yet. :*( Hopefully I will be well enough to go visit her tomorrow. I know it is going to be hard but not seeing her is even worse. I won't be able to hold her but I can touch her foot or hand.
I'm pumping and freezing my milk for her for when she's well enough to have something other than fluids and electrolytes.We just need lots and lots of prayers that whatever part of her brain that was affected by lack of oxygen would miraculously heal itself, and that she can be a testament to the power of our Almighty Healer. Also prayers for Tim and my self's emotional well being would be very helpful. This is by far the hardest thing we've ever been through.
The name Rebecca is of Hebrew origin and it's meaning is "to bind" and also means "refreshed". The Bible verse that goes with the name is Psalms 23:1-3. Learning that she was joining our family bound Tim and I together in an extremely difficult time and we believe that she will be refreshed in body mind and spirit from her traumatic birth.
Blessings in Christ,
Alison
and congratulations on the birth of your beautiful baby girl. She will bring you so much joy. 
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