Blake Wesley

So I stopped using this place for blogging like I wanted to. Mostly because I feel like nobody reads it.. but I feel like I need an outlet right now.. where I can talk (type) about what's going on without it being a Facebook status. I feel like that's not good enough. A quick blurb about our son isn't enough.. it doesn't do my sweet newborn boy justice.

Sunday mid-morning, we were on our way back from church when we made the decision to check into labor & delivery to be on the safe side. I was having more frequent contractions, as well as pelvic pressure. There was also the lack of movement, when Blake had always been a very active baby. When I got to L&D, they checked me in and hooked me up to the monitors. My doctor happened to be the on-call OB for the weekend so he was already there. After watching the monitor for a while, he didn't like how Blake was reacting. A couple of hours later showed the same results and the doctor decided to admit me into the hospital. At about 5pm he went ahead and broke my water. A few hours later I still had not dilated more than the 4 or 5cm that I was at the week before. The issue was that they couldn't give me pitocin to induce labor as long as the baby's not reactive because it can make things worse. Hours later nothing had changed so the doctor came in to discuss a possible c-section. He checked me one more time before making that decision, and turns out I was almost fully dilated with little to no cervix left. The doctor decided to try having me push just to see if they could get anywhere.

At 11pm I started pushing. At 11:28pm, Blake Wesley Trombly was born. He was 11 lbs 1 oz.

Immediately they noticed something was wrong and took him to the nursery. We were able to see him for about a minute before they took him to the nursery and put him on oxygen. We later found out his blood sugar was 8 when he was born. After a couple of hours in the nursery, he was still having to be on pretty high levels of oxygen to keep him breathing, and he was 'grunting' to breathe.. meaning he was making very unpleasant noises while the muscles in his body basically overworked to pump his lungs. At one point the nurse (who was amazing, by the way) decided to see if I could hold him for a second while she prepared to do something (I don't remember what it was) and when she picked him up, he spit up blood. Immediately they decided it was too fresh, and more than the amount of blood that would be considered normal from delivery. The hospital contacted the local children's hospital to arrange having him transferred.

Just after 6am on June 11th, the transport team from the children's hospital arrived. They spent about 2-2 1/2 hours there running tests and prepping him for transport. They brought him to our room before they took him and explained everything that was going on. They really were phenomenal. They had sedated him to allow his body to relax, and they put him on a cpap machine to help him breathe and force the oxygen into his lungs at a steady rate. Jeremiah followed the ambulance to the hospital while I stayed behind and my mom came to stay with me. Our awesome neighbor, Sonja, stayed at the house with Matthew.

Because I was recovering well and my diabetes was under control, my doctor allowed me to be discharged by that evening. By 7pm on June 11th I was home with Matthew.. which I think was the right decision since Matthew already seemed pretty upset by everything that was going on. He avoided me like the plague, which hurt, even though I understood.. but I was hormonal and had already been crying for more than 12 hours. :(

Jeremiah's dad, John, flew in from Colorado last night and stayed with him and Blake overnight at the children's hospital. I got about 7 hours of sleep and brought Matthew and my mom in to see him this morning. Matthew acted a bit distant initially but ended up holding Blake's hand and touching him a bit. It'll be a bit of an adjustment.. not only having a baby brother, but having a sick baby brother. We are working hard to make sure he still gets the attention and love that he needs.

As of right now, Jeremiah and I are at the Children's hospital. My mom took Matthew to the movies, and she's going to take him home where Jeremiah's dad will take over since she has to go back to work tomorrow. We are going to both stay the night here tonight while Matthew is safe with his Poppy.

Blake is doing okay. He is still considered "critical" and has plenty of hurdles to overcome, but we know he will. His lungs need to mature and adjust so that they can properly oxygenate his body without the assistance of a machine. He'll still have to learn to eat, and right now they are switching him from IV fluids to an actual nutrition infusion, along with small feedings through a tube 4x a day. They are still doing tests to rule out issues that may have caused him to spit up blood, which he hasn't done since yesterday morning.

Our little guy is a fighter, and he's got so many people rooting and praying for him. We are lucky to have the support of our family and friends and we appreciate every gesture and kind word that is passed our way. We are leaving our baby boy in the hands of God and the amazing doctors and nurses here at Cooks.