Alexander Ray Brown

born: 1/26/2012

weight: 8lbs 5 oz

length: 20 3/4 in

The morning of my 35 week doctor appointment I woke up to get ready for the day and I realized I felt totally different; the baby felt totally different.  I even told Brian that I was much more comfortable all the sudden because I could walk normal.  Previously Alexander had been so low he was already engaged in my pelvis ready to go..... it was uncomfortable and caused me to waddle awkwardly.  So there was a big difference when I could actually walk again.  At the doctor we found out that it was because Alexander had flipped and was now breach - meaning his head was up by my ribs.  So for the next few weeks they just kept checking his position until week 37 a C Section was scheduled for January 26th - making me 38 weeks prego when I would have Alexander.  The baby and I were both healthy - a c section was scheduled purely because of his position.  My Mom flew in the night before the c section. 

So the morning of Thursday, January 26th, Brian and went into the hospital at 7am to get prepped for my scheduled 9am cesarean.  I had no idea what to expect since I had a normal vaginal birth with Zachary, so I was just along for the ride.  I loved my CRNA (nurse anesthesiologist) she just chatted to me the whole time about her kids and when she had a c section.  After I had my spinal and they had just started the c section Brian finally came into the OR.  It was so surreal when I heard Alexander cry when he was pulled out because I couldn't see anything.  Then Brian left my sight line too to cut the cord and take photos of Alexander and what not.   Alexander was breach - his head was was under my left ribs and he was laying flat on his back.  So he had to be pulled out by his feet and as he was being pulled out Alexander breathed in a ton of amniotic fluid.  He completely saturated his lungs (which are like sponges) with liquid so he could not breathe well (he was basically drowning in his own lungs).  They swaddled him in some blankets, finally brought him to me on their way out of the OR and told me to kiss him on his head (I didn't even get a chance to look at him) and they were gone - straight to the NICU.  Brian of course went with Alexander.  They finished stitching me up, I went to recovery room where Dr. Jones introduced herself and told me Alex was in the NICU, and then they wheeled me by Alexander as they were taking me to my room.  I don't even remember seeing him - it was for like 2 seconds and things were crazy.  So I was then sent to my room in the mama baby unit and I had to wait until I was 12 hours post-op to go see Alexander.  So I just sat in my room watching the clock waiting for it to turn to 9pm.  Good thing I had decided before Alexander was even born that I was most likely going to pump instead of breast feed because that became my only option and the one and only thing I could do for my baby.  So my alarm was set and every three hours I pumped, labeled, and then the nurse then put the breast milk in the freezer.

At 10pm that night I got out of bed (all by myself thank you) and into a wheel chair to go see my little Alex. Brian wheeled me there.  Alexander had on what is called a bubble pap to help supply him with oxygen - like the CPAP breathing machine.


On the bubble pap.  The thing on his arm is stabilizing his IV and the tube in his mouth went down into his stomach to release any air that might get trapped in his stomach and also to feed him TPN's and Lipids - tube feedings.  He couldn't have breast milk yet.

I was stuck in a wheel chair and they NICU beds were high so I could barely see Alex and, on top of that, the nurse told me sick babies don't like to be stroked it irritates them - so then I was nervous to even touch him.  While Brian and I were visiting they got Alex's chest x-ray back and they discovered he had a pneumothorax - meaning he was trying to breathe so hard so fast that he had popped a hole in his lung and all the air from his lung escaped into his chest cavity.  You can read about it here on wiki. We left the NICU and Brian took me back to my room because Dr. Jones (Alex's neonatologist) was going to try to extract the air with a syringe but telling us that they may have to intibate anyway and put in a chest tube.  Dr. Jones called me in my hospital room early early that morning to let me know they did have to intibate him, put him under sedation, and put in a chest tube.  A little while later at 4am my nurse came in to remove my catheter - which was a huge deal for me because that meant I'd be able to get up later that morning and walk so I could go see Alex.



All tubed up.  Intbated, IV, chest tube, stomach tube and arterial line through his umbilical cord.

That morning my goals were to eat (all day the day before I was on a liquid diet which drove me crazy because I knew I would need calories to help my milk come in and since all I could do for my son was produce and provide breast milk I was way concerned about that), take pain meds, and get out of bed to take a shower before I went to go see Alex.  It was important to me to get out of bed and get going - Alexander gave me a lot of motivation.  That's kind of how it became for the next 2 days.  Brian went home to sleep, I pumped every three hours, then Brian came back to the hospital, checked in on Alex, then came to check on me and help me get ready for the day, then we would go see him together.  Once he was intibated we tried to stay away for a couple of hours at a time hoping that the next time we'd see him there would be improvement.  Alexander would try to suck on his tubes like he would a binky.  No one but me and Brian were allowed in NICU - so no one saw Alexander.  He was a baby we kept talking about but no one had ever seen. 

Saturday night Dr. Jones decided that the best thing would be to have Alexander transferred to Fresno Community hospital.  She called the NICU director there, Dr. Rajami and discussed Alexander's case and he agreed that it would be good for Alex to be transferred to his facilities.  They have a brand new state of the art NICU with machines and procedures that they just didn't offer here in Visalia.  That night at 6:30pm he came himself with the transport team.  They got Alexander all ready to transport.  They let me Mom in the NICU while we were in the process of getting him into the transport teams gurney/machines.  She finally got to see our little Alexander.  We met everyone on the transport team and were very impressed by them.  Dr. Rajami  was amazing and said that his goal was to get me to be able to hold my baby as soon as possible.  We felt good about the transfer.  We decided I would wait until the morning to be discharged from the hospital so Brian gave them a head start and then went up to Fresno to make sure Alexander got there ok and was settled.  Alexander had already improved by the time the team had gotten to the hospital.  They put him on a special ventilator that just was the perfect thing for Alex.

The next morning I was discharged, Brian picked me up, we dropped by the house to say hi to Zach and to grab my breast pump, and we went straight to Fresno.  We were so blessed to have Alexander transferred there.  By the time we got there Alexander was already doing so much better.  They had taken him off sedation, brought down his blood pressure medicine (dopamine which is really bad stuff for a baby to have through an IV) and decreased the amount of oxygen he needed.  And just a little while after we were there they decided the chest tube was no longer needed, removed it and bandaged the sight up.  So much closer to being able to be extibated - take out his breathing tube.  The facilities were so nice, Alexanders nurses and doctors were amazing.  I'm so happy he was sent there. 



Chest tube out - you can see the bandage under his left arm pit - he got stitches.

Monday was a big day for all of us.  Alexander was extibated and Brian and I got to hold him for the first time.  He was still on oxygen but it was non evasive nasal thing;. 

Tuesday was just as big of a day - the stopped giving Alexander TPN's and Lipids because they were going to let him eat.  I was holding him getting ready to breast feed him and he took out his stomach tube himself.  He just pulled on it and it slipped right out.  Perfect!!  One less tube.  Plus then he did really well breast feeding so everything was looking good.  I just brought in more breast milk whenever they needed it and they kept it in the fridge and freezer there. 





Every day had goals.  We never asked when he would be coming home - we just dealt with one day at a time.

This is what my freezer looked like at home and whenever the said they were low I packed most of this up in my little cooler bag and took it to them.

discharged and getting buckled in for the ride home