It was a cold winter night in December of 2013 when Parker Lee decided to enter the world. I think at this point I had been in labor for a grand total of 23 hours-just 1 hour away from a cesarean. My husband was crunching away on Fritos, if I remember correctly, as I was nearing the end of my labor and he on the end of consciousness. At this point Casey was no longer allowed to breath, speak or touch me. Needless to say, it was a little tense in the Pruis Labor Suite at this point. A lot went on in that room and I promise you it was nothing short of the best scene out of the Exorcist. Casey has since been sworn to secrecy as all abiding husbands should be.
The delivery was much like a scene out of a movie. I was pushing, for what seemed like HOURS, and our doctor entered just in the nick of time to deliver our baby. I know I uttered a few profane words along the lines of WHERE THE <BLANK> IS THE DOCTOR?! Reflecting on that, I sure hope I was the only one in labor at that point... Turns out he had to put a plow on his truck. Naturally I had to give birth on the first snowstorm of the season.
People do not say it often enough...OB Nurses are amazing and do much of the "dirty" work when it comes to labor and delivery. As far as nurses go, mine were top notch! Parker came out "normal" - color, crying, and reflexes. He was a rather large baby weighing in at 8 pounds 9 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. If you asked us, he was beyond normal. He was absolutely perfect. It was and will always be one of the happiest moments in my life. I will never forget when the nurse gave me my sweet baby boy for the first time.
I was in recovery for a while and after the excitement and guests left I was able to shower and recuperate from the chaos that was labor and delivery. As I walked into my room and saw that bed in sight, I saw a pink little bundle of baby next to it. Oh yeah, I had a baby... Terrified does not even begin to describe how I felt.
Who put that purple hat on him? Is he supposed to look like that? Is this the same baby I saw two hours ago? Is he hungry? Will he tell me if he's hungry? Oh wait, he can't talk. I wonder how quickly he can learn sign language? Shoot...! Where are those nurses?! At the end of the day I ended up wheeling that baby to the nursery at 3AM for a little "how do I take care of this lovely crying bundle of joy" tutorial. They giggled, but were more than willing to show me the ropes.
As a new day approached I took my new son to my husband and decided to try to rest before the next round of visitors were due. All of the sudden my husband screamed for me. Parker turned blue and appeared to not be breathing. He rushed him to the nurses. They assured us that it was probably just fluid from delivery as he seemed a little raspy. As a precaution they would watch and monitor him in the nursery for a while. After all we were new parents and by time Casey got Parker to them he had already turned back to his normal shade of pink.
His pediatrician came in shortly after and witnessed what he referred to as an "episode".
Solemn faced he entered our room and told us what he had witnessed and believed it would be within Parker's best interest to be transferred to University of Iowa's Hospital for treatment. He made a quick call on a not so easy situation. I will always be grateful to him for being so quick on his feet that day. It is a pure blessing that he was even there at that moment in time to witness Parker's episode.
Not more than an hour later the NICU Transfer Team arrived to take our son. It was, what I believed to be at the time, one of the hardest things I've ever done. I handed over our newborn son to complete strangers, trusting that they would save him. We had no clue what was wrong. Nurses told us this never happens. Gee, that's great. What happened to our normal baby? Everything changed in a second. Little did I know that one second everything changed...it would be forever.
I do not think there was a dry eye in the nursery on that not so normal winter day.
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