Birth Story: Luke Ezra Marozas Part II

I left you all with Luke's delivery and how amazing my medical team was. I still can't get over their support. So picking up where we left off, we delivered and got right to skin to skin time. To be totally honest, the thought of skin to skin time right after delivering grossed me out. All the stuff....but it went out the window after so much pushing. He was FINALLY here. WOO! He cried and cried which to me was good because he was getting all that extra stuff in his lungs out and getting all the oxygen and turning PINK. :) I got my time with him and then B. He REALLY loved his skin to skin time with B. He was quiet and sweet, and B was totally in love.

After some time, B ran to P. Terrys and got me a DOUBLE CHEESEBURGER AND FRIES. I didn't even hesitate to ask for the double. I don't usually order a double but Momma needed it after so long without anything to eat. He got back and the nursery was there to start taking all his stats. They went to take his blood sugar levels since I had high blood pressure the last stint of my pregnancy. First reading....zero. Um ok? Second reading... 12. On top of super low blood sugars, he was breathing too fast. They called down to NICU and asked what they would like to do. They wanted him down there immediately. He headed to the NICU, and Brian followed. I stayed back because I was getting moved to post partum. In my naive mind, I thought "Oh Luke will stay a night in NICU and then he'll be done there. Or maybe not even a night." Wrong. So very wrong.

I got moved over to post partum and immediately told my nurse that I wanted to go down there. She pushed me down in my wheelchair. I remember rounding the corner and seeing isolette after isolette of all these tiny babies. I was shocked. I had huge tears in my eyes. WHAT? Why was I here? Why are there so many babies here? They shouldn't be here either. We got to Luke's room and respiratory was there along with his nurse. He was SCREAMING and I lost it. He had an IV and all these wires attached to him. It wasn't fair. B was as usual calm cool and collected. He was very happy with Luke's nurse and knew everything that was going on.

Luke was started on a glucose drip to bring his sugars up. They told us..."Oh maybe 2 days and then he can go." That wasn't the case. He had to get his sugars up, eat well, and then tolerate weaning off the drip. It took him about 3.5 days to get off the drip and maintain. He was eating GREAT. And then guess what? JAUNDICE reared its ugly head with a vengeance. The whites of his little eyes turned yellow which is the last bit to turn and is bad. He was on photo-therapy for about a day. After he was turned off the BILI light, he then had to maintain those levels. But he did it. He was released on a Wednesday night to come home with us. We were ecstatic and at the same time nervous.

We had amazing nurses. They loved him and loved us so well. I remember we were walking down the LONG hallway with our Luke and all the nurses at the stations lit up because they knew he was finally going home. I had a huge lump in my throat. I wanted to take them all home with me. They always answered our many calls, our questions, gave us guidance, and assured us he was doing great during his stay.

Five days in the NICU. For us, it was FOREVER. For others, that's a walk in the park. All the mommas and daddies we saw who have their babies there for months....I cannot even begin to imagine; some even had their weights posted on their little incubators....1 pound... oh my word. What is crazy to me is that I have TWO friends who both had their babies born VERY early. One in the same hospital as us, and just a day before Luke arrived. They are still there getting him better and ready to go home. I don't wish the NICU on any parent. It's stressful and not where you want to be. But the people that work there are like no other. They are educators, friends, cheerleaders, and become your closest confidant. I am thankful for the many nurses we met and the neo-natologists who were AWESOME.

We kept our pictures of Luke in the NICU to ourselves. I will leave you with one as it was a private experience for our family and don't want to put Luke out there in his vulnerable state. Besides, nobody wants to see a sweet baby with all kinds of leads coming off of them. I know it makes me so sad. 

Looking at this picture, he has changed SO much. I can't believe he is already a month old!! We love him so much and can't imagine our lives without him. I hope you have enjoyed our story. I know we will have lots of stories for you to come as he grows older. He is a chubby boy and more than we could ask for.

A Birth Story: Luke Ezra Marozas

It's been a minute since I last posted. And there have definitely been some updates in our life. I love reading birth stories and hearing peoples' experiences. I hope you'll enjoy ours. I'll start from the very beginning.

I had a doctor's appointment on Monday, February 26th. It was a routine visit, and I was feeling pretty good that day at 36 weeks and 4 days. I went in and my blood pressure was high. They made me lie down on my left and rest and re-took it later. Baby looked great, but they didn't like my blood pressure. They were worried that I was on my way to pre-eclampsia. They allowed me to go home but not first without a trip to the lab to have blood drawn and do a 24 hour urine collection. They told me to monitor my BP the rest of the day. I don't know about you but if someone tells you that your blood pressure is high and that you just need to relax....it's not all that easy. Well my blood pressure continued to go up. I called the office twice and left 2 messages with my readings. They finally called me back and told me to head in to labor and delivery. I was freaked out. I had to stay 24 hours overnight and be monitored. My blood pressure did go down and was put on mild bed rest. I followed up with my doctor that Friday, March 2nd.

At that appointment, my doctor went over everything with me and asked me how I felt about an induction. At this point, I was 37 weeks and 1 day. She wanted it scheduled for the following Thursday night which is when I turned 38 weeks. It was all getting super real. I called my parents and let them know when they needed to start heading our way. We got confirmation the following Tuesday to come in Thursday night to start the induction process with Cervidil. They ended up being super backed up with lots of deliveries so instead of getting there at 6:30pm like planned. We didn't get in until about 10pm.

Our last picture as just us.

Some of the goodies for everyone who helped us. We also had gift bags for those nurses assigned to us. Don't forget your nurses, ladies!!

We got all checked in, and they started the Cervidil. Not sure if any of you have had this placed but ouch. I was thinking it was some type of suppository gel insert or something...no! It's essentially plastic. My nurse placed it. My body took to it right away and my contractions started. I took some mild pain medicine to rest because my contractions were on top of each other. At 2:30am on Friday morning, I heard a slight pop. My water broke. Um OK!? Brian was freaked out. I was laughing because they said that it (Cervidil) could send me into labor but it was unlikely.

Once my water broke, my contractions were super intense & on top of each other. I could not rest and had a long ways ahead of me. I called for my epidural and thank you Jesus for that. Fast forward to around lunch time...I was almost complete. It got really real and we were ready. Well...we had to wait a bit longer and started to push around 2ish. I pushed for about 3 hours. I hadn't had anything to eat and I was really exhausted. I remember looking at Brian and crying. My epidural wasn't working all that well; I was so exhausted and had zero energy. I wanted to waive the white flag and have them roll me to the OR for a C-Section.

They called my doctor and she came in about 6:30 or so. She checked me and said that she was going to stay and coach/push with me. I had had about an hour in between my initial pushing with my nurses and the time that Dr. Wang had gotten there. I must have gotten a second wind. We think his head was turned to the side instead of being tucked chin down so it was A LOT to get him out.

Luke Ezra was born at 7:49pm on Friday, March 9th. It was a crazy delivery and one that I, Brian, nor my doctor said they would ever forget. As soon as he was out, I was a sobbing mess. During his delivery was shift change so I got a whole new set of nurses. But everyone stayed and cheered me on and congratulated us. I remember grabbing their hands and thanking them because they were SO sweet and didn't have to stay. I have big tears in my eyes typing this because I just LOVED them.

Marozas Party of 3 + my SAINT of a doctor, Dr. Wang! To say we love her is an understatement.

Stay tuned for part 2 to come. As long as it took Luke to get out....he wanted to extend his stay at the hospital just a bit longer.