Swimming and The Buddy Dog

Thomas started swim lessons on June 7th, while Karly was still in the NICU.  Talk about a hectic schedule.  We were so blessed to have Michele off work and able to help with the kids!

 

 

 

 

 

Thomas has always been a little nervous about swimming on his own and I was grateful that we decided to do lessons at Snell’s this year with Miss Colleen as his teacher.  Thomas loves her and has really blossomed this year.  He is now swimming across the pool all on his own!

The day before Thomas’s first swimming lesson a little white dog showed up on our porch.  Not having a lot of time, we ignored the dog figuring it would make it’s way home.  The next morning we found that it had slept there.  Now, feeling sorry for him we gave him some water and several hundred Scooby snacks.

As if I didn’t have enough to do before returning to the hospital I decided it would be a good idea to give the dog a bath and a hair cut.  He didn’t have any tags and Michele, the kids, and I were seriously considering trying to convince Dave to let us keep him.  We named him, “The Buddy Dog”, after our beloved dog Buddy who also came to our family looking pretty ragged as well!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did I mention that I have absolutely no idea how to cut a dog’s hair?

 

 

Not a bad job…

In the end Michele and the kids saw one lonely sign for a lost white dog.  Since we know the pain of losing a pet Michele called.  As it turns out his name was Spike.  When his owner came to get him she was especially excited about his awesome haircut!

Happy Day!

In the middle of everything else, our first baby girl turned 3!

We celebrated with a family trip to Chuck E Cheese’s and a Tinker Bell birthday cake!  The kids were a little out of sorts, feeling sad that mom and dad hadn’t been home, but we all made the best of it and had a fun time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Noelle is such a special little girl, she has brought so much joy to our home!  As a belated birthday tribute, the top 10 things I love about Noelle!

1.  She ends every sentence with, “right mama?”  As in, “I’m a good girl, right mama?” or “If I eat all my dinner I get ice cream, right mama?”, and so on all day long!

2.  She loves to sing and dance and has many songs memorized.  One of her favorite activities is blaring the music in Thomas’ room and having a dance party!

3.  She is a daredevil,  she’s not afraid of anything!  Brave and courageous and two good words to describe her.

4.  She loves to eat!  My kind of girl!

5.  She loves taking care of her babies, as you have probably seen in pictures already.  We have always told her what a good mommy she is but she always replies that she isn’t a mommy.  Finally, the other day she told me that she was calling the baby’s mommy and I figured out she’s the babysitter!

6.  She is not a big fan of TV, except for Caillou. 

7.  She loves to have her picture taken and will totally cheese for the camera and will cry if you’re trying to take someone else’s picture.

8.  She loves “tomboyish” activities and “girly” things too.

9.  She is selective about when and if she wants to hug and kiss you and it makes me laugh.

10.  She talks CONSTANTLY!

And one more,

 

  she can rock this look!

The NICU

Karly started out on CPAP to help her breathe for the first 2 days.  She was then placed on oxygen by nasal cannula.  Her left sided pneumo and very small and was not detectable on her chest x-ray the next day.  The right sided one was larger but continued to improve and she was taken off of the oxygen the next day. 

 

 

 

 

 

During her stay Karly went under the Bili lights several times, she likes to sunbathe like her Daddy!  Here she is with a heel warmer on getting ready to have her blood drawn and doing a few leg lifts.

One of the first things you learn as a nurse is to NEVER leave a family member in the hospital alone.  This is especially true if the person in question does not talk.  This meant Dave and I spent almost every waking hour at her bedside.  Taking short breaks to visit with Thomas and Noelle, to eat, and occasionally sleep.  During this time we got a ton of help caring for the older kids from friends and family.  We were especially grateful because they passed around the barfing flu to each family they stayed with! 

Karly also had many special visitors in the NICU:

Grandpa Hi

Grandma Coba

Grammy

Auntie  Big Sister

Big Brother

And of course, Mommy and Daddy!  Don’t you love how AWFUL we look! Ha ha

We were very blessed that Brother Lindsey and Brother Winsborrow also came to visit several times to give Karly priesthood blessing when she was in need.

Karly Ann Mertz

The OR was what I remembered from my two previous c-sections.  I was very upset that Doctor Rine, who delivered both Thomas and Noelle, would not be there, but the on call doctor seemed nice and knowledgeable.

After a little trouble getting the spinal in and an extended time getting through the scar tissue, baby Karly Ann Mertz entered the world at 3:44 pm. 

Then came the dreaded silence.  No newborn baby cry.  I did what every mother would do and promptly started throwing up profusely in between repeating, “She’s not crying.  Why isn’t she crying?’  Dave did his best to reassure me but I could see the fear in his face.

They started working on her in the delivery room but quickly moved to an outer resuscitation room that could be seen through a window.  They soon called a code blue and more and more people piled into the little room to help. This was my first image of her as I looked on from the operating room.  Dave moved in out out of the rooms, checking on Karly and trying to console me.  I was in and out of sleeping due to the meds and throwing up over and over (I know, too much info).  Dave got right in and started helping the nurses and doctors care for Karly.  He said he actually grabbed a stethoscope off of someone’s neck so he could listen to her lungs!  That’s so Dave!  He told me later that the whole time he was thinking in his head how he was going to explain to me that our baby had died… so sad.

Karly was born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, she was blue and for those of you who might be interested her apgars were 4 and 6.  She had bilateral pneumothoraces (collapsed lungs).  She also has an epulis, which is a benign tumor of the gum.  If you google this word please know that hers does not look anything like the pictures you will come across.

Karly was rushed to the NICU and I was taken to recovery.  Dave followed Karly, along with the rest of the family who had been anxiously waiting in the hallway as they saw all the people rushing in and out.

Our day had changed dramatically.  This was something I had not expected.

Karly Ann Mertz

May 28, 2010

3:44 pm

5 pounds, 2  ounces

18 3/4 inches

The Wait

We arrived at St. Joseph’s around 12:30 am on Friday, May 28th.  Here we are in admitting.  Reminiscent of Noelle’s birth we are both in our work clothes.  Dave because he was at work and me because I was too huge to fit into anything else! 

One of the first things I want to express is that I was not worried at all about having the baby at 35 weeks and 4 days.  Noelle was born at 36 weeks and her birth went well and she was healthy and beautiful.  Dave, on the other hand, was very worried.

So, when the on call doctor told me that I was too early and that they were going to try and stop my labor I was disappointed.  We were told the plan was to hydrate me, watch the baby, and hopefully send me home.  When we got to the hospital my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart but I was only dilated to 1 cm and the baby’s head was still floating. 

Hydration did not stop the contractions so the next step was to give me a shot to stop them.  It worked for about an hour and then they came back.  The on call doctor still said he didn’t feel comfortable doing the c-section with me being early so he would call my doctor at 7:00 am to discuss what to do.  It was about 4:00 am and we all decided to try and get some sleep.

It was at that point that I think we must have been so quiet that everyone forgot we were there.  Neither of my monitors were picking up very well, the alarms kept ringing and ringing but no one came to check on me or fix them.  I just kept adjusting them myself trying to get a good tracing.  Being a nurse I didn’t want to be an “annoying patient” on my call light all night long.

At the 7:00 am shift change our new nurse was someone that Dave and I both knew because she used to work at County.  It seemed that she did not remember us though.  When I asked if they had contacted my doctor she laughed and said that he was not on call that no one was going to call him.  She treated us like we were totally stupid!  I was so frustrated!  This is what we were waiting all night for!  At this point I had already been there in labor for 7 hours and they had no plan for me!

Finally, the day shift doctor came in and said that seeing as how my contractions would not stop they had no choice but to do the c-section.  They had one previously scheduled for 8:00 and I would be after that.  Then they shut the door and didn’t come back for hours!

When our poor representation of a nurse finally came back she said they had several emergency c-sections that were more important than I and that I was being pushed back.  So, I continued to labor with no end in sight.  They continued to give me approximate times and then those times would come and go without anyone coming to tell us what was happening.  We were all losing our patience and I was STARVING!  I was so hungry and I knew that I have a habit of throwing up for at least 12 hours after the baby is born so I begged for some ice chips or a popsicle while I waited and waited but they said no.

Finally at 3:00 pm, 14 1/2 hours after I arrived at the hospital they wheeled me to the OR.

The Night Before

May 28, 2010

I think I have been putting off writing this post because I’m not sure where to start and what to say.  Life has been an emotional roller coaster since May 27th when I went into labor.  Our family has experienced joy, pain, anxiety, compassion, gratitude, relief, and many more feelings that I don’t have the words to describe.

Here is my best attempt to tell Karly’s story, I’ll post it in sections because I’m wordy!

I was scheduled to work my last stretch of nights Wednesday, May 26th thru Sunday, May 30th.  When I did my schedule I thought this would work out fine, giving me 18 days off before Karly’s c-section was scheduled.  On Tuesday I had a PALS class for work and as I sat in class I just wasn’t feeling well.  I was sweaty and light headed and about an hour into the class I called Dave and told him I wasn’t going to make it.  I really wanted to go home but the class is mandatory for work and is difficult to schedule so I stuck it out for the whole 8 hours and went straight to bed afterwards.  The next day I called in sick to work. 

Then Thursday morning I woke up having contractions. This had gotten somewhat common so I started drinking water and trying to relax.  Dave had worked the night before so I sent him to bed knowing that if today was the day he would need some rest first.  Michele was working from home that day so she kept me company while I waited for the contractions to stop.  And they did stop.  So, I headed upstairs to take a nap since I planned on going to work that night.  After all, I was only 35 weeks pregnant, the baby shouldn’t be coming yet!

I only slept about an hour before the contractions woke me up again.  I wasn’t sure what to do.  I knew the contractions weren’t strong enough to be true labor but I also knew I couldn’t go to work again.  I called the doctor’s office and had them write me a note taking me off work from that day forward.  Around 4:30 Michele and I went to pick up my doctor’s note and get the kids from the babysitter’s house.  My contractions continued.

After picking up the kids (this part is so ridiculous) Michele and I took them to Target to each pick out a gift for baby Karly.  We had promised them we would and if today was the day we needed those gifts!  At Target my contractions were getting worse and I had to stop walking a few times to get thru them.  We picked up a fast food dinner for the kids and headed home to wake Dave up for work. 

Once we got home a new kind of trouble started.  Noelle said she didn’t want to eat her dinner, if you know Noelle, saying she isn’t hungry is not common.  While we sat at the table and my contractions continued, Noelle headed upstairs to find her beloved blanket.  She soon returned without the blanket saying she had thrown up in her bedroom!

Stupidly, I sent Dave off to work saying that if I needed to head to the hospital during the night he could just come home then.  Noelle continued to throw up many, many times.  To her credit she did learn quickly to throw up into a bowl or run to the bathroom.  Thank goodness for small miracles!  My contractions continued and at about 10:30 I told Michele we should go to bed and get some rest because who knows what the next hours would bring.  About 30 minutes later I knew that it was time to go. 

We quickly packed a bag for Thomas and Noelle to spend the rest of the night at my mom’s house and called Dave to tell him to meet us at mom’s so we could head to St. Joseph’s together.

The End of an Era

May 26, 2010

Thomas is in his last week of preschool at Snell’s.  I try not to be sad as the kids get older because I think it is exciting to watch them grow and have new opportunities, but finishing preschool seems like such a life changing event!

Here are a few pictures from his class presentation today

Prego!

May 23, 2010

Here we are after church , I thought we should make sure and get some pregnancy pictures before the baby came…

 

 

 

 

End of the Season

May 22, 2010

Thomas had his last T-Ball game today.  He had such a fun time learning to play this season.  We were blessed to have been on an awesome team that had really fun and dedicated coaches.  Thomas really enjoyed playing catcher and getting to run around all the bases when he was the last batter.  I’m looking forward to next year already!

Noelle’s favorite part of the season was playing with Grandpa, Grandma, and Pop at the games and eating candy!

Hockey Hock

I totally hate when you read someone’s blog and they start off every post with an explanation of why they haven’t posted in forever.  So, I’m not going to do that, just know that there will be many posts following this one!

On May 5th, Dad got us tickets to watch one of the Stockton Thunder Hockey team’s playoff games.  Dave, Michele, Thomas, and I had a great time and it’s a good thing the tickets were free because we spent a small fortune at the concession stand!

The game was really fun, there were more fights than I have ever seen before.  The highlight was when a hockey puck (or hockey hock as Thomas calls it) flew into the crowd and hit the man sitting directly behind us in the chest!  It was so scary!  It’s a good thing Thomas was already sleeping on our laps when it happened!