Samuel's Story

I started this blog after Samuel was born and I need a place to record his story. I kept a written journal during his first year of life, too, but it doesn't have pictures!

Samuel was born February 13, 2007. He was 6 lbs 13 oz and 19 3/4 long. We took him home weighing about 5 lbs 8 oz. He was such a little guy! Just looking at these photos brings back so much of the emotion of that day.

Scott and I had been trying to have a baby since July 2005. I'd suffered two miscarriages before getting pregnant with Samuel and my pregnancy with him was rocky at best. I failed every stinking test they gave me and had almost continual bleeding throughout the 9 months. But that little one was a fighter!

The week before Samuel's birth I went for a regular check up. Everything looked fine. It was a Thursday. On Saturday I woke up and knew something was different. I didn't feel Samuel moving very much. In fact, I hardly felt him moving at all. I spent that Saturday morning drinking OJ and trying to convince myself I was just having an anxiety attack. By noon we were at labor and delivery to be checked.

It took some time, but Samuel eventually started kicking again. The nurse looked at me like I was crazy and sent me home. Monday we went back for another check up with the doctor. He did an ultrasound and told me that my fluid levels were dangerously low. This is why I'd felt the dramatic decrease in movement. Samuel needed to be born soon or we'd risk losing him. I checked into the hospital that night to start the induction process.

Things went well over night. The initial part of the induction was not very painful. I was nervous, but ok.

They started the pitocin at 5 a.m. and my doctor broke my water at 7. I say broke my water, but there was hardly any water to break. I didn't even notice it. (If you've had a baby, you know this is NOT normal!)

From 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. I labored steadily. Each hour dilating a cm more. Things looked good.
At 10 a.m., I got an epidural...and a nap! :)

Around 1 p.m. Sam started to show mild signs of distress. His heart rate was erratic and neither he nor I was making a good transition into the last stage of labor. I started shaking and developed a fever. We were not in good shape.

At 2:30 p.m. our nurse came in and we started getting ready to deliver. I was at 10 cm - barely. Dr. Gayle arrived at 2:55 p.m. and Sam was born at 3:07 p.m. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, what happened between 2:45 and 3:07 would scare Scott and I to death.

Almost immediately after Dr. Gayle arrived, I had some meconium staining. In regular people talk, Samuel had his first bowl movement before being born. This is definitley not good! Because he was already engaged, Dr. Gayle used a vacuum to help him out. I remember clearly being told..."Jenny, you have to push now. He has to come out now."

And there he was.

Struggling to breath and blue.

I am not exaggerating when I say...I thought he was dead.

I remember thinking this is my worst fear coming true. I watched as the nurses started working on him and heard the seriousness in Dr. Gayle's voice as he gave instructions. They brought him over to me for about 2 seconds to see his face and then took him to the NICU. I would not see him for another 5 hours and I wouldn't hold him until the next day.

When they told me he was alive, I breathed a sigh of relief. I'm glad now that I didn't know all the horrible things that could have been wrong. At that point they didn't know if it was his heart or his lungs. The only obvious thing was that he was very, very sick. All I knew is that he was alive.

They took me to a post partum room and we waited. Finally at 6:30 Scott and I called the nursery and asked for an update. Why we waited that long is a mystery to me. I think we were intimidated. If this happened to me again, God forbid, I'd be down there knocking on the nursery door. But, when you are a first time parent you don't know these things.

A nurse practitioner came and told us that Sam was critical. He had a bilateral nemothorax. Basically when he passed the bowl movement he swallowed some. Then when he was born and took his first breath of air the particals of meconium in his lungs exploded his lungs. The bottom quadrants of both lungs were busted. They were giving him some oxygen and waiting to see how his body began to heal. He also had a fever, which meant 4 days of blood draws to identify the cause. Essentially, she told us to sit tight we were going to be there a while.

We asked to see Sam and she took us to the nursery.

This picture is the first time I touched my baby. I was so scared of all the cords and monitors. I could tell you he was beautiful and later I would see that he was...but right then he looked horrible....like he'd just been in a huge fight.

Scott and I were surprisingly very calm. We'd been through so much together with the miscarriages that we treated this like the next hurdle. God provided the strength that we needed to get through that first day.

We were told that they had taken a first x-ray and could see the air in Sam's body. We'd have to wait until midnight when they would do a second x-ray to see if it was getting better. We sat in a rocking chair by his incubator for most of that night. They told us that we couldn't touch him because it would cause him stress. So we sat. And we watched. And we prayed.

Dr. Steiner, the neonatologist, met with us that evening. He was a Godsend. He was very calm and caring and carefully explained Samuel's situation. He would come to be a very a good friend to us.

At midnight they did a second x-ray. Things were worse. They told us to wait until morning. They planned to take another x-ray at 6 a.m.

At 6:30 I called the NICU and was told that we couldn't come into the room. The last x-ray was even worse and they had called in a respitory specialist.

Things felt so out of control. My mind couldn't keep up with the information.

When the x-ray was worse the staff didn't know what to do. Samuel's behaviors were good. He wasn't showing signs that he was getting worse. In fact, he seemed to be improving. His oxygen levels remained steady. However, the x-rays were awful. The respitory therapist suggested taking the x-ray from a different angle. She was right. That x-ray showed that the air was moving and being absorbed by Sam's body. However, it was right over his lungs. This is why the x-ray looked so bad. It was initially taken looking directly down at Sam's body. From the new angle, they could see that his lungs were healing on their own. FINALLY...good news.

Dr. Steiner told Scott and I that we could probably hold Sam that afternoon and maybe nurse him the following day.

And we did.

The top picture on this post is our first family picture together. February 14, 2007. What a great Valentine's Day present.

Things steadily improved. They never did find a reason why Sam had the fever. His blood work (and mine) were good. He remained in intensive care until Friday. Then he got to come to our room.


Dr. Gayle stopped by for a visit. Sam was the 4,832 baby that he delivered. He's a good doctor and a good friend.

We were released on Saturday! Everyone was ready to be at home.



Samuel's lungs continued to get stronger. We've battled bronchitus several times, but the doctors don't know if this is a result of his broken lungs at birth or not. Other than that you'd never know that he almost died at birth. He's a happy, healthy kid.

Samuel's name was taken from the bible. In 1 Samuel God tells us of Hannah and how desperately she wanted a child. The bible tells us that God heard her prayer and opened her womb. Throughout my journey, I could relate to Hannah.

1 Samuel 1:27
I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.

Thank you, God, for Sam and the happiness that he's brought to our lives!