I was planning on writing a 21-month-old update for Zoe in the middle of March, but as I’m sure most of you know, it didn’t happen because Zoe’s baby brother decided to enter the world seven weeks early. Before going into Cole’s entrance into the world, here’s a couple of pictures of Zoe that I was going to include in her update post:
Kirk and Zoe pose before the Alston and Bird, LLP Corporate Cup Run. Apparently, Zoe felt her tiger should go for the run as well.
Zoe hangs out in her ride for the run.
One of 1st warm Spring days, I filled up the water table outside and Zoe had a blast; the water table now has a beach added from her sand box complete with rocks that she’s found lying around in the yard. She decided that the hat completed her outfit.
Cole’s Entrance into the Big, Wide, World:
At around 24 weeks of my pregnancy, I was diagnosed with placenta previa. Basically, Cole’s placenta attached to the lower part of my uterus instead of the upper part and ended up covering the entrance to the birth canal. No biggie – I was going to schedule a c-section a few weeks early so there wouldn’t be any complications, and the doctors said to expect spontaneous bleeding as I got closer to my due date. With every bleed (I had 2 after I was diagnosed.), I called the doctor and then went to the hospital to make sure everything was A-OK. The 1st one was scary (Kirk and I were in DC at the time), but after 6 hours of IV fluids and strict instructions to stay off my feet, we were allowed back to the hotel. The 2nd one happened around 3:30am on Mar. 13th. I called the MD, who then said call for an ambulance, which I did. After being admitted into the hospital, I was told that I would be staying until at least Mon because the MD wanted to do a couple of steroid injections to help speed up Cole’s development, just in case. Everything was honky-dory; the MD was allowing me to get up to use the bathroom, and they were getting ready to take me off the monitors and send me to the special maternal care ward when I started bleeding again, but this time, it was coupled with regular uterine contractions. The nurse gave me terbutyline to help slow the contractions down, but I started bleeding again (it’s now around 12am, Mar 14th.) The MD said enough is enough and decided to do an emergency c-section. By the time the nurse called Kirk (he was at home to get some good sleep and to help with Zoe), it took the MD 30 minutes to bring Cole into the world. Here are some pics of Cole’s first few weeks:
Cole weighed 3 pounds, 13 ounces at birth. Because he was 7 weeks early, he had to have some help breathing (contraption around his head) with bubble CPAP for about 48 hours, received his fluids by an IV for about a week, and hung out in an incubator for about a week and a half.
Yeah!! No more CPAP. The white “stickers” are leads for his heart monitor; the “heart sticker” is to make sure his bed stays warm enough, the tube coming out of his mouth is a feeding tube, and the white wire coming out of his umbilical stump is his IV.
Amy holds Cole for the first time.
Proud parents. Cole is no longer in the incubator! He also is taking all of his feedings from a bottle or the breast, and only has his heart rate monitor and pulse oximeter leads.
Uncle Corey meets Cole for the 1st time.
Filed under: Baby's 1st..., Excursions, General, Movin' & Groovin', Weekly updates | 3 Comments »