Living Healthier on a Budget April 18, 2017

On the Zarb Homestead I am growing my garden and growing my little ones too. I decided to make a change this year and try to get back to nature as much as possible. I started with ridding my house of “stuff.” My goal was to get rid of 80% of the stuff cluttering my house. I have been working weekly to achieve this with my goal of one (or more) trash bags out of my house per week. I am about 30% there but I will continue to my 1 bag rule weekly and hopefully end up with only have what is truly needed. I use the 80:20 rule. We only use about 20% of the stuff we own and rest is just stuff. Anyways, I decided since I am the gate-keeper to what comes into my house, and I am very picky since my deep clean, I want to my sure it is as healthy as possible. I also want to make sure it is good quality too, buy-it-for-life products are a big item on my shopping list. Junk out-good stuff in, but on a budget. I mainly purchase only organic food and organic on most of our “other” items. I have been researching each item I buy to find out if it is easier, or cheaper, to make it or purchase it. If I +purchase it I want to find the best at the best price. I thought I would try to share what I find weekly with you all. Take it or leave it, no worries. I am in no way paid to do any of the reviews and I pay for the products myself.

My journey starts at Trader Joe’s, aka poor man’s Whole Foods, I go weekly here to grab 80% of my grocery list. If you have never visited this place, close your computer and go right now but it is that awesome! My 80:20 applies to food too. 80% good healthy and 20% fun food. Let’s start with fun: Trader Joe’s Joe Joe’s! My husband has an Oreo problem and they are a must have in our house. They have been replaced with JoeJoe’s and we are not looking back. I honestly think Oreos are just okay, which is great for my waist line, but JoeJoe’s are amazing with real vanilla creme filling….yummy! Plus, they have special flavors throughout the year. Our toddler is also a big fan, which speaks volumes if this kid will eat them, he hates everything! I don’t recall the exact price but I think they are $2.99

Next is the healthy, but still delicious, Trader Joe’s Broccoli & Kale Slaw: A Complete Kit. My friend served this at dinner one night and now I am hooked. It is a crunchy blend of shredded broccoli stalks, shredded kale, and shredded radicchio. Packaged separately in the bag you’ll find dried cherries & dried blueberries, and crunchy, roasted sunflower seeds & slivered almonds. The traditionally tangy cole slaw dressing is just the right combination of flavors to wrap the veggies, fruits, seeds, and nuts together to create a unique salad. Inside every bag there are ample ingredients to make side salads for about three people. I make it about an hour before it is to be served. It only cost $2.49! 

Jasper River’s Birth Story September 23, 2016

There was only 5 more days left before Jasper would be overdue for arrival. I was super ready to meet our new baby. I was very tired of being pregnant and on top of that going to UT HiRoc weekly for my “gestational diabetes.” I was having to test my blood sugars 4 times/day and being on a low carb diet, all this was getting old. Side note: I never truly believed I had GD in the first place. I failed the one hour test and the 3 hour test but just barely. I am not one to eat a lot of sugar, I do not drink sodas, and normally eat a healthy diet. I recently found out that the oral glucose test is not very accurate and can give false positives if your body is not use to that crazy amount of sugar they make you drink. I had UT test my A1C, this measures your blood glucose over the last 3 months, and it was 4.5 (level of a non-diabetic.) The dietitian said that was better than hers and she agreed that I did not have GD but at that point I only had 1 week left of pregnancy so we decided not to do anything about it.

Despite my large belly, I was able to still be fairly active. I hiked 5 miles at Cades Cove the weekend before while Phil rode his bike with Little O around the loop. I was trying to get things moving a long; however, despite a few hard contractions it did not work. I tried all the old wives’ tales on how to naturally induce labor, except for the castor oil. I heard that would cause loose stools and that does not sounds pleasant during child birth. I went in for my weekly appointment and had an ultrasound and they said that the baby was getting very large and they would have to induce if he did not come on his own soon. As much as I did not want to be induced, I would rather do that vs having a c section. I agreed with them and was told to come in at midnight on Sunday to get things started.

My first baby was also an induction at Vanderbilt due to his heart condition so I thought I knew what to expect. I never wanted a hospital birth in the first place. I have always gone to Lisa Ross Birthing Center and saw midwives for my prenatal care. I have heard horror stories about hospital births. With my first baby I took all the birthing classes and was excited to see that Vanderbilt had a birthing tub and I was hoping for a drug free labor but once I arrived I was told due to his heart condition I was not able to move or use the tub. I ended up with an epidural and they would not follow anything on my birthing plan. My husband did not even get to cut the cord. I was so disappointment by that labor experience. I was excepting the same thing to occur at UT. I am happy to say I was dead wrong.

I had to call UT before we left the house to make sure they had the staff and the room to induce me that night. Thankfully they did and we were on our way. Phil and I arrived at UT labor and delivery at midnight on Sunday/Monday. There was only one other patient on the floor so it was a slow night for them, despite the full moon. My first nurse, Treva, welcomed us to our room for the night. She informed us on what was going to happen to get things started. Next, the doctors came in to check my cervix to see if I was dilated anything. I was only at 1 cm, I had been at 1 cm since my 37 week check, but my cervix was as soft as butter, so I had that going for me. They decided to try the folly bulb to get me to dilate however my cervix was high and tilted. Despite 3 doctors trying to get it inserted did not work and they decided to start me on pitocin. I have never had pitocin before and was nervous about it. I heard it can cause a very painful labor and to go with the lowest dose as possible. I did not even have to tell them I wanted to start on the low dose. They started me at 1 unit and slowly increased it 1 unit every 45 minutes until I was at 10 units then the increased by 2 units. It was working, I could feel the contractions starting but they were very manageable. If I laid on my left side it almost made the go away completely. This was a slow process but there was no rush.

My mother soon arrived while Phil got some sleep. It was also shift change for the nurses. My nurse Treva was being replaced by Rachel. You never know what you are going to get with nurses, some are great while others… not so much. Rachel came in an introduced herself and she smelled like lavender essential oil. This made me feel like I was in good hands and like minds. I honestly had not made birthing plan with Jasper. I did not think it was necessary since they are going to do whatever the want to anyways, like Vanderbilt. I quickly found out at UT this was not the case. I had dreamed of a natural childbirth with Little O and sadly was not able to achieve that. I had not recently taken any classes on natural childbirth and did not feel like I was prepared for it. The nurse advised me she prefers natural labor and would be able to help me during labor. UT also has a lot tools to aid in labor: birthing balls, walking (wireless monitors), aromatherapy,  showers, etc. I was super impressed with my options and decided I was going to try natural childbirth but was always open to an epidural.

It was 8:00 am when the team of doctors came in to check my progress. I had went from 1 cm to 4 cm and they decided to break my water to get things moving quicker. I guess when you have a large baby you also have a lot of water. The nurse said she had never seen that much water before, a bit embarrassing. With the water pressure gone it actually relieved some of the pressure. Contractions started getting closer and harder, fast. I remember this happening with Little O. I went from 2 cm to 8 cm within an hour. At this stage of labor I was still able to walk around and get up to use the restroom but it was getting very painful! I was doing my deep breathing to try to work through the contractions. A couple of hours had past and I was in a lot of pain. I was having back labor and could not find anything to relieve it. The contractions were so intense I could hardly move an inch without bringing on another one. I had Phil call the nurse, I needed/wanted the epidural.

After what feels like an hour, the pain relief team arrived. They are telling me what they are going to do but I honesty could not even open my eyes to see who I was talking to. They set up their area and tell me I have to get into a certain position to be able to insert the epidural. Negative, that was not going to happen. At this point, I was on all fours in the hospital bed and could hardly move. I told the nurse that I thought I was close and felt like I needed to push. I kept apologizing to the epidural team and was finally able to sit down. They got the catheter in place and then the nurse was asking me if I wanted her to check my progress. I was able to get onto my back and when she checked she called the doctors in. Jasper was coming and fast. It was go time! My epidural got put into place but never got the chance to even get hooked up.

We have all seen scenes on TV where the women is having a baby and people are holding her legs as she pushes. Well, it was just like that. My husband had left leg and my mom the right. They would count 3 sets of 10 and let me rest. When I would feel another contraction and I would start again. Pushing actually helped with the pain. The team of doctors where all around the room plus the nurses and my family. To say the least your privacy is out the window and you do not give one care in the world. Then I hear the room fill with a panic. As I turn to my left, my husband is no longer standing holding my leg but yet is holding onto one of the doctors before he hits the floor and passes out. All I could think was I can not hold this baby in any longer and he is going to miss his son being born. I had to keep pushing. My mother was able to get him a chair beside the hospital bed and he came to fast but was very weak. I had forgotten that in the mix of all that was happening he had not eaten in 15 hours and does not do well with blood. Nurse Rachel called to the nurses station for them to bring him a soda and once he was able to get some sugar he started feeling better. A minute or two later the panic hits the room again. This time it was the male doctor hitting the floor. I do not know what I have going on down there but men are hitting the floor. Thank goodness there where some women doctors in the room because one more push and out comes my screaming little Jasper. Total pushing time 10 minutes.

 

Jasper River Zarb was born at 11:27 am on 9/19/2016. His weight: 8 lbs 15 oz, this was his weight after 2 large pees all over the doctors and me. Length: 20.7 and Head Circumference: 14 inches. I did have a few requests once he was born. I wanted to delay cutting of the cord, no bath, no circumcision and uninterrupted skin to skin with my newborn. UT made sure I was able to get all my requests and it was communicated to everyone in the room. Once it was time to cut the cord my husband was still coming around but not enough to stand so my mom got the honors. After an hour of skin to skin the nurse came in to get his measurements and to give him a exam. He was prefect! I wish I was able to hold O after birth but I got about 30 seconds and he was rushed away to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.

We were off to the Mother Baby unit to recovery. My closest friend Maria was waiting on us there, she also happened to be my RN. Maria went over what to expect in mine and Jasper’s care for the day/night and we were able to get some rest.I was able to eat and get a change of clothes. It made all the difference in the world, I felt like a new woman. We had a few family members come visit but overall once nighttime arrived we where left alone. I never thought I would get any sleep in a hospital but I was only waken a few times that night to get my vitals and to check on my bleeding. Jasper had to get some blood draws to test his glucose levels since he was such a large baby and he also needed an ECHO due to his brother having CHD. Despite the lack of sleep the night before and the whole natural childbirth thing I was feeling great! Our stay was short because we wanted our of there ASAP. The minimum requirement is 24 hours and that is what we got. We both where discharged happy and healthy the next day.

 

 

Trading Harmful Chemicals for Nature November 18, 2015

Every since I had my son I try to reduce his exposure to harmful chemicals. This is easier said than done. I tried my best to feed him locally grown foods and super filtered water to drink. I have decided to rid my house of plastics and replaced everything with glass. I put away all my non-stick pans and only cook all my food in cast iron, but I still used a ton of harmful chemicals to clean my house.

I was introduced to Young Living essential oils a few months ago. I decided to purchase a starter kit and give them a try. I am very science based when it comes to phrase “natural.” I believe many things we think are “good” for us are a marketing scheme. I went into the essential oils with this same mind set. Thus, the reason for this post. I am trying out all the different products and will give my honest unbiased review of them.

I am 3 months in and I have had a chance to try many of their products and have come to LOVE most of them.

My FAVORITE product I have purchased from them is the Thieves Cleaner. Note: the cleaner doesn’t come in the starter kit but you do get a small bottle of the Thieves oil in the starter kit. The story of this oil is inspired by the legend of four 15th-century French thieves who formulated a special aromatic combination composed of clove, rosemary, and other botanicals they used while robbing the dead and dying and they did not get sick. Kind of  a creepy story but it is awesome oil to use to protect yourself this winter.

First off, I purchased this cleaner not knowing it is super concentrated. You use a couple of caps full of the cleaner and mix it with water for an all-purpose cleaner. With help from Pinterest, I learned I could use a empty Perrier water glass bottle and a spray top for any old cleaner to make my mixture. I no longer buy any cleaners from the store. This has replaced them all. It also made a ton of run under my sink where I had tons of different cleaners from bathtub to oven. Now I have one bottle now and it honestly doesn’t even go under the sink. I leave it on the counter because I use it all day long! I give this product an A+

If you want to purchase this cleaner I can purchase it for you at my cost, $22, or if you want to learn more about getting your starter kit check out this link

https://www.youngliving.com/vo/#/signup/start?site=US&sponsorid=3153149&enrollerid=3153149

Or go to https://www.youngliving.com/ to learn more about essential oil

Little O’s Update October 6, 2015

I haven’t written in the blog lately due to a number of reasons, main one being a mom to a crazy busy toddler. I wanted to update everyone on Little O’s progress. I try to keep everyone up-to-date on his Facebook page but it is only a sentence or 2. We have begun therapy. Tennessee Early Intervention System,TEIS, comes once a week, in house, to work on his developmental issues. They mainly focus on his speech. At 1 year old he was 40% delayed in speech, I am sure that percentage is higher now, thus causes other issues. He maybe all smiles one minute and complete melt down the next. He can not tell you want he wants, I am not sure he knows. I can say he is getting better but words are limited. His current vocabulary is: more, car, bye bye, see ya, go and yeah. No mommy or daddy, I get called by crying to come meet his needs. I am sure this will get better, I hope.

Medical wise, he is doing awesome. His heart is working great for him. He does have high blood pressure and it is controlled by meds. He is still skinny and short per the doctors percentile charts and is prescribed pediasure to help with weight gain. He has low iron and has to a supplement to help raise it but so far it continues to drop. He is due a check up next month for more blood work and his 2 year old visit. We also have a Vanderbilt appointment in November to see how he is doing. Just a small medical update on Little O.

We made it! Oryon will soon be 1 November 14, 2014

It is so hard to believe that we will be celebrating Oryon’s first birthday tomorrow (3 days early) Looking back at the past 2 years, pregnancy and birth, it was the hardest time of our lives. We never knew what the universe had in store for our little guy and honestly we did not know if we would ever have a first birthday to celebrate. “They” say, if heart babies make it to their first birthday then they should do just fine. I hope this holds true for us.

Here is me this time last year. The memories flood my head; I was so nervous. I was temperately living in Nashville, in case I went into labor before 39 weeks, we had to be close to Vanderbilt. I was told Oryon would not survive anywhere else, he had to be born there. My husband could not stay with me the whole time due to work and only came to visit on the weekends. I remember feeling numb, numb to everything and to everyone. I did not want to feel mainly because I did not know how to feel. How could I be happy but I was. I was so happy I would see my son soon but that also meant I may loose my son too.

I am SO HAPPY now! I wish I could have known everything would work out for us back then.

Heart Walk 5K -Knoxville September 8, 2014

Please join Team Oryon to help raise awareness for CHD. Did you know that 1 in 100 babies born have some form of CHD! 1 in 1000 babies will need life saving surgery to order to survive and that 1 baby was mine. What if it was yours? Let walk to support Team Oryon and help fund research to stop heart disease.

Research saves lives

The information for the walk is below. Please sign up on our page if you plan on walking. 

http://greaterknoxvilleheartwalk.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1090444&lis=0&kntae1090444=A93E7F38C295445684B9CDC386621F70&supid=412279807

HEART WALK Registration and Pre-Walk Activities Begin	9/28/2014 1:30 pm
Walk Begins	9/28/2014 3:00 pm

Fees:

Free: No Fees Walkers are eligible for a Heart Walk t-shirt once they have raised a minimum of $100.   World’s Fair Park’s Festival Lawn 934 World’s Fair Park Drive Knoxville, Tennessee 37916 General Inquiries & Event Sponsorship Inquiries Danica Clark danica.clark@heart.org (865) 212-6509 Donation Mailing Address American Heart Association ATTN: Greater Knoxville Heart Walk 4708 Papermill Dr Knoxville, TN 37909

First Video Blog June 23, 2014

Baby Z: Step Down Unit April 22, 2014

November 24, 2013: We moved to our new room on the 7th floor, Room 7303. We were so happy that Baby Z was getting better and we were hoping to go home soon. We now had some privacy because this room had a door vs just a curtain like before. We unpacked our things and met all the new nursing staff. The goal of the Step Down Unit is to teach you how to take care of your “special needs” baby while at home. The nurses there had many patients, 7-1, so they were there just in case you needed them. They would come in every few hours and take his vitals and asked if we needed anything but we were in charge of diapers and feedings. We were super nervous about taking care of this little guy. This was our first baby thus we were still learning how to do the normal baby things and on top of that, how to care for a heart baby. We had to weigh each diaper and record the weights on a dry ease board along with how much he was eating each feeding. We loved being able to do the normal parenting stuff. The sleep schedule: Daddy stayed up until 3:00 am with Baby Z then Mommy’s shift would start while Daddy got some sleep. We both ended up with about 3 hours of sleep a night. The first night Baby Z was sleeping so Dad thought he would sneak in a quick relaxing shower, wrong. I was awoken by the sounds of alarms going off and a room full of doctors and nurses. I was so sleep deprived I honestly could not comprehend something was wrong at first. Dad came out of the bathroom and had no clue what was going on either. A nurse came over to us an explain that Baby Z was having what called tachycardia. His heart rate was in the 250’s and if it did not stop they could give him a medication that may help but they wanted to wait to to see if it would go down on its own. After ten minutes, which felt like 5 hours, he was able to get down to normal range. I was so relived but the relief was short lived because once all the doctors and nurses left his room they had to come rushing back because it had started again. Alarms were screaming, his heart rate very high, and little Baby Z just sat there staring at us like he had no clue what was going on. He was able to fix it every time and did not need to medication. We had about 10 episodes that night. Super scary night for Mom and Dad. November 25 2013: The doctors say tachycardia can be common after surgery. They started a drip of  magnesium, his blood work showed it was low, and the cardiologist are put him on a medication for rhythm issues . Unfortunately, all this meant that we would be staying a few extra nights. He still had his chest tube in and so he was on Tylenol because they can be painful. That day, they started to wean him off the Oxygen and he seemed to be doing well with that. The new heart medicine was horrible. He hates it. One of the nurses said that some of the bigger kids says it can make their mouth numb. It took us forever to get it down him. Then once he had taken the medicine, he screamed for hours. It was a 2 hour ordeal and we had to give it every 8 hours. I was sleeping and Dad was on duty when I was awoken by the familiar loud dinging. The room filled up with doctors and nurses again. There was a new doctor on night shift and he wanted to try somethings that may help him come out of tachycardia faster. They put ice on his face. He was not happy about this. He screamed and it did not seem to be helping. After a few minutes they put in a rectal thermometer. They were trying to get him to bear down, not working. He was able to come out of it on his own after a few minutes. Just like the night before the alarms continued to go on and off all night. He had 5 episodes that night. November 26, 2013: Today was our hearing test just one more thing to check off our list before going home and thankfully he passed with flying colors. The day consisted of the normal: EKG’s at 4:00 am, Chest X-ray at 5:00 am, Meet new doctor at 6:00 am, Meet new nurses at 7:00 am, wait for the doctors to make rounds all morning to see what the plan for the day would be. Not much changed this day. I dreaded to see the sun set because when night fall came I did not what it would bring. I may or may not be awoken by alarms going off and my sweet little baby’s heart racing. I would sit and watch the monitors all day and all night long. It would drive me crazy just wondering if it would alarm. When Baby Z would move about it would make the sensors misread and it would ding. You never knew if it was a misread or a real issue until you ran and looked at the monitor. I was driving myself nuts. Dad had finished his shift for the night and now it was my turn. It was 4:30 am and I had just got finished feeding him and was rocking him to sleep in the rocking chair. It started, the alarms were going off. My stomach fell to the floor, not again. Dad awoke, in came the staff and they swept him out of my arms onto the hospital bed. I felt so helpless. After 6 minutes they decided to try the ice and try to get him to bear down, did not work. As always, he came right out of it on his own and acted like nothing happened. Unlike the previous nights this was the only time the doctors came in the room, no more attacks all night November 27, 2013: After the normal day of EKG, X-rays, etc the head doctor made his rounds. He was not happy that the new doctor placed the ice on his face that early. He said his orders were to only do this after 15 minutes of SVT. He told us to not let them do it if they try. We called him Dr. House. He got the job done and he wasn’t worried about hurting someones feelings. The plan for the day was to change his heat medicine to another in hopes it worked better for him and that he would like the new one better. Chest tubes came out this day and so did the Oxygen! I was so happy we were making some progress in the right direction. Night came and we were able to sleep because we had a normal heart rate all night! I was so relieved. November 28, 2013:  Happy Thanksgiving! I was so thankful for everything! Many people felt bad that we spent the holiday in the hospital. We were just thankful that we had our sweet little family all together. Today we got our first bath! It was not a tube bath just a sponge but still it was relaxing for him and he passed out afterwards. Mom and Dad had to take a CPR classes and we had no SVT all night! This would make 2 nights in a row and if we go SVT free tonight we get to go home! November 29, 2013: Things were finally winding down and we were checking things off the list before we could go home. We still needed to do the car seat test. This is were they sit the baby in their car seat and they have to stay in there as long as your ride home would be. The nurses watch their vitals to make sure they stay within normal limits. Since we lived 3 hours away, they decided to just do 1.5 hours because we would stop half way and get him out. I have no clue why but I was so nervous about this silly test. We put him in the seat and started the clock. It was not 3 minutes later the nurse comes in says “why are you felling.” His O2 stats were in the 70’s, not good, We made some adjustments to the seat, the newborn headrest was removed and we put in a booster pad, and that seemed to help. After 1.5 hours he passed! I was so happy and finally could quit stressing over it. If he did fell he would just have to have a bed like car seat that he lays flat in. Not the end of the world but something I did not want to have. We did not have SVT again so we get to go home tomorrow! November 30, 2013:  Going home today and now the real adventure begins!

Baby Z: Post Surgery PCCU February 26, 2014

Day 4 (November 21, 2013)

The hard part was over, now what. Baby Z had gone through open heart surgery and survived. Now we wait. Wait to heal and wait to hear if we would be home for Thanksgiving, wait on everything. We got a sleep room our first night in the PCCU, pediatric cardiac critical care unit. These are slim pickin’ and hard to get but we were so thankful for one. It had a queen size bed with a foam mattress and not much else. You had to check in at 9:00 pm and be out by 10:00 am. That room was meant for sleeping only and that is what we did. We awoke at 6:00 am and Mr. Z ran down the hall to check on Baby Z. He wanted to get there before to nurse change to get an update on how he did in the night and to also meet the day nurse.

Baby Z was still much sedated and did not move or open his eyes until late that night. He was still on all the medicines but he was very swollen due to all the fluids he received to increase his blood pressure from the night before. They added Lasix to get some of the fluid out of his little body but he still was not peeing enough, so they upped it more. This seemed to help and we were producing lots of urine by the afternoon. The scariest part as this time was the ventilator. I hated watching a machine breath for my baby. The night nurse advised me that they were going to start trying to wean him off of the vent and run some tests during the night. They would take him off for an hour and back on for 3 hours and continue until they thought he was able to come completely off. They draw blood at these times to see how our blood gases were doing and if he passed 3 blood draws he could come off. I was super excited to hear this news. By the time we went to bed we got the news he had passes his first test.

Day 5 (November 22, 2013)

Thankfully we were once again able to get a sleep room for the night. We awoke at 6:00 am and rushed down the hall to the PCCU. We walk into his room and see our baby with no breathing tube. He was extubated right before we arrived, we missed it 😦 He now had a nasal cannula that was giving him small amounts of oxygen.

We had big changes this day. They decided today they would let him try to eat for the first time ever. He had a speech therapist come to evaluate him and she thought he would be able to give it a try. We started with 5 mls of breast milk and he loved it! They also removed some of his IV medicines. It was such a nice feeling to start seeing things less stuff on him. That night we did not get a sleep room. We stayed in his room which had a fold out bed big enough for one person to sleep and a rocking chair. He did get one of the newer rooms that had its own private bathroom, that was nice plus. It was not comfortable by any means but we both were able to snuggle tightly on that bed and slept okay during the night.

 

I loved seeing less of theses. We are down to only 2 rows! There were 4.

Day 6 (November 23, 2013)

Not much happened this day. Mostly just waiting to see how he did without most of his IV medicines. They were able to stop all the medicines, even his heart meds, and waited to see how he would do. They also removed his Art line (a thin catheter inserted into an artery) this had to be done while a heart surgeon was on duty in case some happened since this line ran straight to his heart.  He was now on oral calcium, Pepcid, and Lasix and doing great! They were happy with his urine output and was able to get his urinary catheter removed and got to wear a diaper.

We once again slept in his room with him but we liked it much better because we did not worry as much as before when we were in the sleep rooms. It was not comfortable but we did not care. He had a flat screen TV and Mr Z, being an engineer, rigged it so we could control it via cellphone, so we had some entertainment. We still had our family coming and going the whole time so there was not time to get bored. Once everyone left, visiting hours were 9:00 -9:00, we relaxed and tried to sleep. Nurses came and went all night long but they really tried not to disturb you. We LOVED the nurses in the PCCU! 

This is his room in the PCCU

This is the view from the back were we stayed.

Day 7 (November 24, 2013)

Big day today! We were moving up to the 7th floor and mommy finally got to hold Baby Z for the first time since his surgery! What a relief! Baby Z would be moving to his own room. There we were excepted to do most of his care,unlike the PCCU, there was 1 nurse to 4 babies on the 7th floor. In the PCCU he had his own nurse, just for him. They rolled his big boy crib in the room were getting ready for the big move. We were so happy. Everything was happening so fast. The doctors did their rounds, they released him, we packed all our stuff, held Baby Z, the nurse packed Baby Z things and off we went. We were in his room before lunch time.

Baby Z, Surgery Story February 5, 2014

I didn’t sleep well the first night in the hospital without my baby. I just felt wrong. He was sleeping in his NICU with his nursing staff at his side while his Mom and Dad were in another hospital. I was now moved in the postpartum ward at Vanderbilt, exhausted and waiting to get discharged but that would not happen for another full day.  As soon as we were able to go visit him, we did. My nurses were not very happy with me because I was never in my room; I had more important places to be. Day 2 was spent in the NICU. In the NICU there were many rules to follow. Only 2 people in the room at a time, must wash hands before entering, you had to be buzzed in, and if you weren’t mom or dad you had to be “the list” to go back.  The whole day was spent letting people in and out to visit and anxiously waiting to hear from the surgeon hoping we wouldn’t miss him. We had no time when he would be by to talk with us just sometime in the afternoon.

At this point we still did not know what we were facing surgery wise. We didn’t know if he was going to be able to use his full heart with some alternations or were we heading down the half a heart, 3 open heart surgeries route.  It was late in the evening when his surgeon stopped by his room to talk. They let more than allowed amount of people in the room for this conversion. I apprehensively sat next to my husband awaiting my newborns fate.  He said surgery was going to be early the next morning and his plan was to repair his narrowed aortic arch and patch the hole in his heart. Once inside, he was going to have to measure the left side of the heart to see if it would be adequate in size to work. If not then we would have to have the first of a 3 part surgery series, the Norwood.

The unknown was killing us. We did not know what to say to each other let alone to our family and friends who were waiting in the hospital day and night with us. How do you act when you don’t even know if your baby was going to live or die? Exhausted, we both crawled into my small hospital bed and we tried to sleep as much as we could.

End of day 2

 

We had to be in his room by 6:00 am the next morning but we arrived earlier to spend some time with him. I was trying to stay strong but I could not take it any longer. I broke down once I knew it was really going to happen. I sat there rocking my sweet boy in my arms not knowing if I would ever be able to hold him again. My 2 day old son was about to have open heart surgery and there was nothing I could do about it. They said it was time to go to per-operation area and they rolled his warming unit onto the elevator and up into his little waiting area. There was no one around us, just husband and I alone with our little man. We once again tried to stay strong for him but once the nurses and doctors said they were ready for him and rolled him back, we both lost it. We stayed in the back until we could get a grip on our emotions. After about ten minutes, we headed into the surgery waiting room were our family was waiting. They all hugged us but we were emotionless by this time. I still had to go back to Vanderbilt to get discharged, anything to keep me busy. It took about 2 hours to pack everything up, shower and get my final checkup. We patiently waited by the cellphone for the surgeon’s nurse to call. She would call us every hour or so with an update and let us know how he was doing. The conversation was very short but at least we knew how surgery was going. We got a call stating that he was about to be out of surgery and to head to the surgery waiting room. I was not sure what to think. The surgery was supposed to take a lot longer than 3 hours. Did something go wrong, was he not able to fix it, did he code? I was a mess. We still were not out of postpartum ward but yet again I waved to my nurse and ran out the door.

 

Waiting to go back for surgery

We had a nurse at the Children’s Hospital nurse take us the long way to around were we would hear the news alone from the surgeon before having to tell our family what was going on. As soon as we sat down in the crowed waiting room, out came the surgeon in light blue scrubs. Very calmly, he said he was able to repair the aortic arch and patch the hole. The big news was he said that the left side of the heart measured adequate! We could have fainted. Our baby was going to have a whole heart! He said he would be in recovery then moved to the PICU within a few hours. We calmly, holding hands, walked to the elevators and looked at each other and lost our emotions once again but this time they were tears of happiness. We had been through so much together the past 9 months and finally we had an answer. We walked into the NICU waiting room just crying. Our family did not know what to think, good or bad? I was finally able to get it out what the surgeon had told us and hugged everyone. To celebrate we went downstairs and had lunch and ice cream. We finally were able to go back to postpartum and finally get discharged.

We waited at the PICU until they said we could go back and see him. We prepared ourselves for the worse. I knew he would be sedated and be hooked up to many machines and IV’s. They said he may even be hooked up to ECMO. This is a heart and lung bypass machine. We walk into his room; there he was, our sweet little baby boy. He looked so good! His nurse, Anna, was telling us about everything that was hooked up to him and why. She was working on him and we were just getting settled in then it happened, he coded. His blood pressure hit rock bottom, stat button was pressed and we were moved to the back of the room. The room filled with doctors and nurses and then in ran his surgeon. He asked the nurse what she did. He said he was too stable for this to happen. The nurse came to the back of the room to tell us what was going on. She stated that he was very dry. Once they started giving him lots of fluids and his blood pressure started coming back up. The alarms stated to silence and he was finally stable once again. She told us he would be very swollen the next day due to the fluid but in a day or two it would go back down. This was such a scary moment that we will never forget.

I have never posted this picture before but now I feel okay doing it. See that little thing laying on the PCCU bed, that is Baby Z. He is hooked up to a lot of stuff 😦

 

 

These pictures are scary to look at even now.

About 8:00 pm, our family was able to come back and see him, 3 at a time. Everyone was happy the way he looked. 9:00pm came and visiting hours were over.  It had been a long day and we were able to get a sleep room for the night. We gave our little man a kiss and went to bed. We slept very well that night. I do not know if this was due to exhaustion or relief. Whichever it was, it felt great.

That was the end of day 3