Progress again. Chandler is doing good. On Easter he was taken off the ventilator and put on the C-Pap. That same day his heart rate started to drop randomly. It would usually come back up quickly. The Dr. felt that he had reflux, but was trying different things to help. Nothing seemed to be helping. Then they ran labs cause he didn't seem to be feeling good. The labs came back negative. The baby that had shared his minimal stimulation room for almost 4 weeks suddenly passed away, so he got moved out into level two, which is good but his heart rate would not stablize. After a few days they ran labs again and this time they came back positive for infection which turned out to be a urinary tract infection so they started antibiotics. This still did not seem to help his bradycardia. Finally they started him on a medication for reflux and it seems to be helping. So today he got taken off the C-Pap and put on a nasal canula. I get to hold him every time I go see him, which is now every three hours. I pretty much live at the hospital, but I am enjoying the time I get to spend with him. He now weighs about 4 lbs and 10 oz. He is so long, over 19 in. He cannot fit in preemie clothes, the sleeves are like 3/4 sleeves. so now we gotta buy bigger clothes.

Chandler is over a month old now so I decided to go back to the beginning. On the night of Friday March 5th I went to bed like any other night after a typical day. I woke up right around midnight with fluid running down my side. I wasn't really sure what had happened so I went to the bathroom and cleaned myself up. Jimmy was up getting ready to leave for work, so I told him what had happened. I didn't want to make a big a deal about it still not sure and partly in denial so I just told him not to go to far away. I went back to bed and I started having contractions, not real strong but consistant. About a half hour later I felt another gush of fluid. I called Jimmy, he in even more denial than I, told me to take a bath and try and get some rest. By this time I was pretty sure what was going on, but still not wanting to face reality decided to to wait a little longer. By the time I had another gush of fluid I was having contractions about 5 minutes apart. I called the hospital and of course they wanted me to come in, so I called my mom and dad who came right over. My dad stayed with my kids and my mom took me to the hospital. When we got to the hospital they checked me and confirmed that my sack had ruptured. The hospital we were at did not have a NICU so they did not want me to deliver there. They called for Aerocare to transport me to Lubbock. When I arrived in Lubbock Jimmy, my parents and Jimmy's parents were there waiting. When they did an ultrasound they determined that the baby was transverse so I would have to have a C-Section. The Dr. wanted to put off the delivery as long as possible so the baby could get the steroid shots needed to mature his lungs. By eleven o'clock that night I was having strong contractions about 3 minutes apart. They did another ultrasound to check the position of the baby and saw that he had moved to where his butt was above my cervix. The Dr. felt that we could try for a breach delivery. They took me into the operating room just in case. I was dilated to a 6 so they started pitocin. They tried three times to start and epidural then I started pushing. It wasn't long before I knew there was a problem. His legs and body came out fairly quickly and easily, but his head would not come out. It seemed like forever that the Dr.'s tried toget his head unstuck. It was very stressful and you could feel the tension. It was the worst pain I had ever experienced. They were trying to stretch me and they wanted me to be still. I remember thinking if they can just get his head out the pain will all be over. Then suddenly they decided to do the C-Section. They quickly put me under and even as I was breathing in the anesthetics I prayed it would work quickly because the pain was unbearable. I obviously don't know alot about what happened at that point. My doctor said she had me open in four cuts. She cut right through the muscle and everything. They somehow got the baby back up and out. When babies are born they are graded on a scale called apgar. At one minute after Chandlers birth he was a 0 on this scale which meant that he had no heart rate, no respirations, blue all over, and no response to pain. At 5 minutes he was a 1 and at 10 minutes he was a 2 which is the highest score. We know that he is a miracle and we are so blessed to have him in our lives and our family.

Update and New Pictures

Chandler continues to improve. They were able to remove his ventilator and he now has a new tube called a C-Pap that blows oxygen up his nostrils. He is doing really well on that. He had an ultrasound done and they found that his Hydrocephalus had not gotten any worse so that is wonderful news. His heart rate keeps dropping so they are trying to get that figured out. He has hypothyroidism, but they say that is typical with premies. As you can see in the pictures he was able to get dressed one day and looked so cute, but he got too cold and had to strip down and get back in the warming bed. He is doing good with his feedings.