For those of you that knew what was going on, thank you so much for all your prayers, support, and encouraging words. Even though Brooke hit a little speed bump on her way into the world and I had some trouble recovering in the hospital, knowing that God was in control of Brooke's healing helped us to keep in high spirits and just look forward to the day she was going to come home.
To those of you that haven't even heard the news until now, I am so sorry! As you can imagine, it has been crazy around here, and every time I get a spare moment, everyone insists on my "resting"...so I haven't had a much of a chance to get on the computer.
Here is a look at the last few weeks...if you don't want to read the whole story from our stay at the hospital, feel free to just look at pictures.
**********************************************************************************
Sunday, November 16...we finally finished Brooke's room! Here are some pics... (the pink looks a little off in the last picture).
*********************************************************************************
Monday, November 17...Carlton was involved in an accident when another guy ran a red light and hit Carlton in the intersection. Thank you, God, that he was okay! I don't know what I would have done if he was hurt the same week Brooke joined us!
Monday, November 17...Carlton was involved in an accident when another guy ran a red light and hit Carlton in the intersection. Thank you, God, that he was okay! I don't know what I would have done if he was hurt the same week Brooke joined us!
*********************************************************************************
Wednesday, November 19...Happy 29th Birthday, Carlton!
And...Wednesday, November 19, I was 37 weeks pregnant. My last pregnant picture...I ended up gaining 19 pounds (much better than the 40 I gained with Mason!!) If you never saw me in person, I was all out front this time.
**********************************************************************************
Thursday, November 20...
I started the day off with dropping Mason off at preschool and coming home to make banana bread. Carlton had requested some, so I thought I'd make him some along with some for all of our neighbors and for the Whites (some power food for packing). Sorry to those of you I was making it for...it never made it your way!
After a couple batches, I put the rest of the mix in the refrigerator to finish when I returned. I left for my routine 37 week appointment with my OB.
My doctor said I was 4 cm dilated already and since I was having a c-section, that meant I had to head straight for the hospital. She didn't want me to go into labor, avoiding the possibility of hurting the scar tissue from my first c-section. You should have seen my face! I was in shock.
I called Carlton (who was an hour away for work) to tell him to meet me at the hospital. He started laughing and I started crying! My list of stuff I still had to do popped in my head and not to mention...I didn't finish the banana bread! I know...silly! But for those of you that know me really well, you know that I like to have everything organized and prepared before big things like... oh...say, having a baby :)
I headed to the hospital after a quick trip home and when I was checked agian, I was at 6 cm. My contractions still weren't painful and my water had still not broken. Regardless of that, I was progressing so quickly, so she bumped me in front of another c-section, and at 4:49 PM, Brooke was born.
Before the surgery, the nurse gave me too many fluids so I was shaking uncontrollably during the spinal. I also felt like this throughout the whole delivery and for 30 minutes after. Not fun. (I have a point...)
A couple hours later, the nurse practitioner for the babies at the hospital, came to my room to tell me that Brooke was being moved to Level 2 NICU. She was having difficulty breathing and they needed to check it out. It turned out that she had fluid in her lungs and could not control her breathing on her own. That would explain her weird-sounding cry after they pulled her from me...Carlton said she sounded like a goose...poor Brooke :(
I went to visit her that night, but I don't remember much of that...just that my nurse thought I was crazy for wanting to get out of bed so soon after a c-section. But she was very sweet and took me herself. She actually remembered being my nurse when Mason was born 3 1/2 years ago!
That night, I only slept a total of 2 hours...30 minutes and then another 1 1/2 hours after they gave me some Benadryl...didn't sleep all day Thursday or Friday so a total of 2 hours from Thursday morning to Friday night. (I have a point...)
**********************************************************************************
Friday, November 21...Under the oxygen hood, Brooke was able to be weaned down to 45% (we breathe 21%). And due to her immature lungs, they gave her cerfactin which also helped get them working a little better. Also, the doctors put in an order for her to have an echocardiogram. It appeared that there may have been some variances in the shape and structure of her heart. 
For me...on Friday around noon, I started getting a terrible headache. It continued to get worse throughout the day (but would get a little better if I laid down, turned out the lights and was alone...no talking, no tv). When my parents came to visit me that evening, I sat up to give my mom a hug and it was the weirdest (painful) feeling...I immediately felt like I was in a tunnel surrounded by water. My headache grew stronger and I couldn't hear much...just a bunch of mouths moving with mumbling coming out. I went to visit Brooke in the NICU and couldn't understand a word the doctor was saying. I think Friday night was the first time that everything really hit me...everything that was happening with Brooke.That night, I asked for some Ambien to help me sleep, thinking maybe having only 2 hours of sleep in 40 hours was contributing to the headache and how emotional I was becoming. But then, about 11:00 PM, my sleep was interrupted by this jerk (the respiratory therapist) wanting to show me how to do some respiratory tests! This couldn't wait until daytime?! Between not getting sleep, being on Ambien and pain medication and having this headache (which worsened from doing the test), I was SOOO angry! He could sense my annoyance with him and he was frustrated with me, so he just walked out the door, leaving me holding this thing, not giving me further instructions on what the heck it was for. I called the nurse in to complain and I started hyperventilating and crying. She called the guy back in plus another nurse and they all just stared at me, telling me to calm down and not understanding anything of what I was saying. Apparently this lasted for an hour and then , I called Carlton at home, continuing to hyperventilate and cry on the phone. This lasted 30 minutes. He didn't understand anything I was saying. I don't remember much of this...just that one minute I was talking to Carlton and the next, I woke up at 7:15 the next morning thinking the whole 1 1/2 hour incident lasted maybe 10 minutes!
**********************************************************************************
Saturday, November 22...For some reason, Brooke went back up from needing only 45% oxygen under the oxygen hood to needing over 80%. So, they gave her the CPAP to give her oxygen. She soon got back down to 48%.
The results from the echo came back, and thankfully, it showed that her heart was fine. She just had pulminary hypertension which is common in preemies and would fix itself.
Mason was able to meet Brooke for the first time today. He was very excited to see her but was shy once he saw her hooked up to the iv, the oxygen and all the monitors.
For me...I talked to an anesthiologist on Saturday about my headache and it turned out I had a spinal headache. This meant that when they did the spinal, it caused a leak in my spine giving me an excruciating headache. Remember how I said I was shaking uncontrollably during the spinal? I wonder if this caused it. Anyway, he offered a blood patch to take the headache away, but the downside was that if he made an error, the leak would grow, causing the headache to be much worse and there would be no way of fixing it. I would just have to wait for it to close by itself. To avoid this possibility, I chose to think about it and wait to see if it got any better. Room service brought us a "Congratulations" cake for Brooke. We told Mason it was a birthday cake for Brooke so we had a little birthday party for her in the room. He was so excited, but then got very upset and kept telling us "No, not yet!" when we started singing Happy Birthday. He thought we should wait for Brooke to come to the room for the party. We ended up opening the door so that she could hear us from the NICU singing to her. (and he thought it would be fun to wake up all the babies.)
********************************************************************************
Sunday, November 23...Not many changes for Brooke on this day. My parents went to visit her and ended up catching her awake. Carlton and I still hadn't even seen her awake. My mom took this pic...
For me, I continued to have horrible pain from the spinal headaches and it was so hard for me to go to the NICU to see Brooke, so I asked the anesthesiologist to go ahead and do the blood patch. They had to draw blood from my arm and then insert it back into my spine to fill the leak. Again, not fun. After the procedure, I was told to lay flat on my back for 4 hours. But the anesthesiologist came back after almost two hours and asked me stand up to see if it worked. I had been having back pain from the procedure and was finally getting comfortable when he asked me to stand up. I only got to a sitting position, but I could tell that the blood patch did work.
When I laid back down, I had this horrible stabbing pain where the pressure had been from the procedure. So I thought...great, I traded a horrible headache for a horrible backache. When the nurse came in a couple hours later, she suggested that I put a pillow under my back. When I rolled over so she could put the pillow in place, she found that I was laying on a clip from my new IV...exactly in the spot it had hurt so bad from the blood patch! It turned out that when the anesthesiologist's assistant put in the new IV (to draw blood...didn't hook into an IV drip), he didn't tape it to my arm so when I sat up, the end with the clip found its way onto my bed and I laid on it. I felt much better after we figured that out!! Sunday night was great...I was able to turn lights on and watch tv while sitting up!
**********************************************************************************
Monday, November 24...When Carlton went to visit Brooke Sunday night, he saw the nurses had enclosed her in the incubator. He was nervous at first that something else went wrong, but they said that it was only because the noise bothered her a lot and that anytime the phone would ring or a baby would cry, her respiratory rate would go sky high again. This pic is taken from Monday, the 24th...4 days in the NICU so far. We still had not seen her awake, but we were able to sneak this shot of her holding my finger.
For me... I woke up feeling fine, but then about an hour later, the headache came back. I was being discharged that day (was supposed to be discharged on Sunday but they let me stay because of the headaches). A doctor told me to go home and take two excedrin. I did... and poof! The headaches disappeared!! Anybody know why they don't give you excedrin in the hospital??**********************************************************************************
Tuesday, November 24...During one of our visits to see Brooke, we finally got to see her awake! The nurses were continuing to wean her off oxygen. Also, you will see in the picture that the nurses had to tape the tubes in her nose. She didn't like them very much and kept taking them out.
**********************************************************************************
Wednesday, November 26... The NICU called us that evening and told us that Brooke was completely weaned off the oxygen so we were allowed to hold her the next time we came in! We, of course, went back that night to see her and hold her. We were only allowed to hold her twice a day for 20-30 minutes each time (between the two of us) but we were excited to take what we could get! They also said that we could bottle feed her the next day and they would then start weaning her off her IV fluids. 
Itchy...
Gassy...
*********************************************************************************
Back at home, Nana (my mom) helped Mason make these turkeys...one for daddy, one for mommy, one for Mason and one for Brooke.
And later in the day, Daddy and Mason started to decorate for Christmas!
Just another pic of Brooke...
**********************************************************************************
Coming soon...Brooke's pics at home.
*********************************************************************************
Thursday, November 27...Brooke had her first meal today, on Thanksgiving. She started out with 5 mL (1/6 of an ounce)
Back at home, Nana (my mom) helped Mason make these turkeys...one for daddy, one for mommy, one for Mason and one for Brooke.
And later in the day, Daddy and Mason started to decorate for Christmas!
Just another pic of Brooke...
**********************************************************************************
Friday, November 28...8 days in the NICU so far, but we were just so thankful that Brooke is doing so much better and that we get to hold her.
Coming soon...Brooke's pics at home. 