It's been exactly one month since we welcomed this little miracle into our lives. It wasn't the smooth natural delivery I had envisioned. Houston wasn't by my side to hold my hand while I pushed. They didn't put him on my chest so I could snuggle my brand new baby boy. This little guy made his appearance over 8 weeks early. My water broke on a Saturday night. We went to the hospital here in Elko. I was started on magnesium (yuck!) then flown to Salt Lake City early Sunday morning. The magnesium successfully stopped my contractions. I was also given 2 steroid shots to speed up little man's lung development. I was moved up to the postpartum and I spent the next 5 days there in the hospital on bed rest. Poor Houston had to go back to work the Monday after I was put in the hospital. Roman was at 31 weeks gestation. Our goal was to keep him in until 34 weeks.
Unfortunately after 4 days Roman's heart rate started dipping. They started me on magnesium again and the dips lessened so they took me off. I wasn't able to eat while I was on magnesium. Once they took me off and I was able to eat Roman's heart rate started dipping again. My doctor decided to do a c section because the dips were caused by him putting pressure on his umbilical cord. It turned out the cord was wrapped around his neck. Unfortunately Houston was too far away to make it in time for delivery. He made it about an hour later.
Our sweet boy made his appearance at 2:52 p.m. on July 22nd. He weighed 3 lbs 7 oz and was 17 1/2 inches. He came out screaming so no need for any ventilation or oxygen. He has been a strong boy since that first minute.
He spent 3 weeks and 6 days in the NICU at St. Mark's Hospital. The staff was amazing. Roman being in the NICU was so hard for all of us. The NICU does what is called Cluster Care. Roman was fed, changed and his vitals were checked every 3 hours. We were encouraged not to bother him in between so we spent a lot of time driving back and forth to the hospital.
For the first 3 weeks Roman was in an isolette (which is basically a baby incubator) because he wasn't able to maintain his own body temperature. While he was in it we were only allowed to hold him twice a day. We looked forward to those times with our little man so much. It was so hard to see him in that little box but not be able to hold him.
Roman was able to come out of the isolette after about 3 weeks. Once he was in an open crib his last hurtle was getting all of his nutrition by mouth. Up to that point he had been relying heavily on his ng tube. It was like one day a switch flipped and he decided he was going to eat from the bottle all the time. The day they took out that ugly tube we almost cried. Once he mastered that it was just a matter of making sure he kept up his progress.
He was discharged on August 18th. Less than a month after he was born. All of the doctors and nurses we talked to before he was born told us to plan on being there until around his due date which was September 17th. He came home a month before we expected.
We were lucky enough to have Houston's brother Cameron and his wonderful wife April to stay with during all of this. They live about 10 minutes from the hospital and they opened their home to us. Having a home to go to between feelings and at night made a world of difference for us. I don't know what we would have done without them.
To say we are happy to be home is the understatement of the century. We have an amazing support group of family and friends that got us thru with their love and support. We are so blessed that our baby is so healthy. Being in the NICU and watching the other babies struggle really puts things into perspective.
We are going to enjoy watching our little super hero grow so much!
Here are a few pictures of our journey.
The look of love on daddy's face 💙
Meeting Cooper for the first time.
And Nixon.
First time he got dressed.
No more tube!
