not to us

Burke Michael Goodwin

Monday, September 29, 2008

Noonish (See the following story!)

4 lbs. 9 oz., 18 1/4 inches

I had hoped to come to you with some really cool 3D ultrasound pictures this afternoon.  Obviously, our course headed in a different direction!!

I was scheduled for a random ultrasound to check Burke's size and amniotic fluid this morning.  Since Mike had to work, I dropped Ruby off at Kirsten's house, and headed to my appointment.  I got to the office at 11:00 a.m., but my appointment wasn't until 11:15 a.m.  They were running a little behind, and I was called into the exam room at 11:25.

The ultrasound tech looked at Burke's head and headed onto his abdomen.  As soon as I saw the heart, I knew something was very wrong.  It was moving very slowly, and it was also moving in an odd manner.  I know that I'm not a medical expert, but I've had 20 ultrasounds by this point.  I know what it's supposed to look like, and it looked wrong.  The tech tried to get a reading on the heartbeat, and it was going so slowly that she couldn't even get the peaks she needed to find the heartrate.

She decided to move on and check fetal weight and amniotic fluid, but I really felt like something was wrong with the heart.  She confirmed that Burke was weighing about 4 lb. 8 oz., and he had 16 oz. of amniotic fluid.  When she went back to check the heart, it was no better.

She asked me to wait a moment, and she left the room.  I knew she was going to get Dr. Harrison, and I knew it wasn't good.  I called Mike and told him to make sure he was right next to his phone.  Then, I called Kirsten and made sure she could keep Ruby a little longer than expected.

Dr. Harrison came in, and I could tell by the look on her face that things were not good at all.  We got a reading on Burke's heart, and it was only beating 49 beats per minute.  She said she wanted me to go straight over to L&D, and she even wheeled me over herself.  (The poor thing was huffing and puffing by the time we got over here!  I'm a heavy load!)  I called Mike and told him to get on his way.

When we got over here, the nurse didn't believe that the thuds she was hearing on the monitor were Burke's heart.  I tried to tell her that we had just watched it on the u/s machine, but she called Dr. Harrison into the room.  Dr. Harrison reiterated that what we were hearing was, in fact, Burke's heart.  She had just watched it on the ultrasound machine, and something was very wrong.

They told me that I was going to head into an emergency c-section right away.  As they were inserting my IV, I called Mike and told him he needed to get up to labor and delivery as soon as possible.  The anesthesiologist came in and explained that they were going to have to do an emergency spinal block.  They had me sign my releases, and Mike walked into the room in the middle of all the hoopla.

They threw a pair of scrubs at Mike, and they started wheeling me to the operating room.  They performed my spinal block with only a couple of zaps, and had me lay down.

Literally, within 60 seconds, Mike was sitting by my head, Dr. Harrison was saying that Dr. Chua needed to be in the room ASAP because she was "crashing" and he would be here in less than a minute, and then all of a sudden I heard a cry.

They let me look at him really quickly and then took him over to be assessed.  He cried a little bit, then stopped crying, and Dr. Chua confirmed the heart arhythmia.  They got him crying again, and they brought him over to let me give him a few kisses.  Then, they took him off to the NICU.

They wheeled me into the recovery room, and the clock read 1:00 p.m.  In a matter of two hours, I had gone from unloading groceries to having a son.

Things are going very, very, very well.  Burke is on the CPAP, which is a machine that forces air into his lungs.  The really good news is that he's not using any extra oxygen, though.  They've done an EKG, and no one seems alarmed.  We haven't gotten a report of the findings, but, for now, I'm assuming that no news is good news.

Burke has been able to be off the CPAP for short amounts of time (like to get a bath and be held by his mommy.)  Overall, he's doing amazingly well.

Thank you for all of your prayers!  We'll keep updating as much as possible.  The hospital internet connection is very slow, and the room has been very busy.  We love you all.  Thank you for helping us pray Burke to this point.  We can't wait to introduce him to you all!!