It's 11:25am January 29th, 2015 and I am seconds away from giving birth to my first son Jayden Michael Hamman. The nurse is telling me to wait to push because the doctor isn't in the room yet. Jayden is on his way faster than we thought. My doctor arrives and quickly sits down on the bed and gets ready for the last push.
Jayden is born.
My husband Michael moves towards the end of the bed to cut the cord as we had planned. The doctor however quickly clamps and cuts the cord; and hands him off to the nurses. I knew something was really wrong; he wasn't making any noises. This isn't how it was suppose to be. No more than 10 seconds has passed and there are now 5 more nurses from the NICU (Neonatal intensive care unit) working with Jayden. I finally hear Jayden cry out and it terrifies me how long it took. A nurse walks over with Jayden and I hold my baby boy for the first time. No longer than 20 seconds pass with him in my arms and they take him away to the NICU. As Jayden leaves the head NICU doctor tells my husband and I that Jayden is born with a cleft palate, and due to his cleft palate he inhaled a lot of fluid during birth.
Two and a half hours pass by before they okay me to leave the labor and delivery room. I leave on a bed and they take my husband and I to see Jayden in the NICU. They have him on oxygen, a feeding tube through his nose, and several cords monitoring his breathing and pulse. Along with a cleft palate Jayden was born with a small chin, small tongue and his uvula wasn't developed correctly.
Four days pass trying to lower the amount of oxygen Jayden needs and trying to find a way to feed him without a feeding tube. During this time the doctors inform us they don't have the specialists at the hospital to help him with his cleft palate and they will have to transport him to St Louis Children's Hospital on Monday. Monday comes and we say goodbye to Jayden as a team of doctors and nurses strap him to a gurney and take him to a helicopter headed for St Louis.
Our journey has just begun...
3 comments:
So happy to read a post!! You wrote that beautifully!! So glad they're taking good care of him up in St. Louis!! Love you guys!
This is aweseome! Thank you for sharing so much with us about baby Jayden. He is so precious.
We will pray for your family. Your baby is precious! When my oldest child was born, she too, needed to be rushed to St. Louis Children's Hospital's NICU. She's now an adult. They do a beautiful job caring for the babies there. God Bless You.
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