Birth Story and NICU Journey

With a planned induction for August 16th, I thought I had more time to prepare for our babe. Sienna was born at 40 weeks, and Tessa came at 39 weeks. I fully expected to make it to my induction date this time around. 

Disclaimer: This post is in partnership with Atrium Health, however, all opinions are my own. 

But on August 5th, I woke up around 6am and quickly realized my water was leaking. My water broke with Tessa and contractions never kicked in, so I figured I had some time and waited to see what would happen. I let Joe sleep in a bit more, before I calmly woke him up with news that - surprise - our baby would be joining us that day. I called my practice – Atrium Health Charlotte OB/GYN - to notify them that my water broke, and the nurse told me to head to the hospital later that morning. We cleaned the house, packed our bags, did some laundry, and dropped the girls off at camp. We grabbed breakfast on the way to the hospital and checked in at CMC around 9:30am. Still not in labor. Triage confirmed my water did indeed break, and admitted me to L&D.

The L&D rooms at CMC are great, as they are large enough to move around in and equipped with furniture for Joe to comfortably settle into. The on-shift doctor checked in with me, and we talked about my birth plan - which was to hold out on Pitocin and possibly forgo an epidural. It was a long day of nothing happening! A sweet nurse hunted down a peanut and then a labor ball for me. I bounced for hours as contractions slowly and irregularly began. Around 4pm the doctor used Cytotec to get contractions going. Things picked up a little, but hours passed. We decided to start Pitocin, so I opted for the Epidural right before it. Around 9pm Pitocin began and active labor kicked in shortly after. As my doctor was about to head into surgery for a C-section patient, one of the midwives came in to assist in delivery. With a supportive team around me, Roman was born at 11:32pm!

The excitement in the room when baby was held up, and Joe announced it was a BOY, was everything we had hoped for! I was SO SURPRISED. We had no name ready and were a bit shocked that after two girls, we had a baby boy. 

About two hours later, the nursery staff came in to check him out. She noticed his breathing was rapid and called for the Levine Children’s NICU team to come take a look at him. Everything from here is a bit of a blur. Joe went with “baby boy Flaminio” to the NICU where they took a chest x-ray, started antibiotics, drew labs, and put him on oxygen.

I was moved to a postpartum/recovery room. I sat there alone, no husband, no baby. Joe sent me updates and came to the room around 3am. When the nurses came in for my vitals around 4am, I asked them to bring me to the NICU to see my baby. Sleep deprived and hormonal, I was emotional seeing him all hooked up in there. 

Later that morning, Joe and I returned to the NICU and got to hold him. We talked names, but I was still so tired, I couldn’t think clearly. After several more hours, we finally arrived at “Roman”, which meant “strong/powerful”. 

The nurses and doctors were wonderful in explaining what was going on, and what they were monitoring with him. Fluid in the lungs (likely from a quick birth) caused him to work hard to breathe and he needed a little extra help. 

Roman’s time in the NICU was full of ups and downs though. I wasn’t remotely prepared for the rollercoaster of emotions navigating this postpartum, and thankfully received tons of support as I shared what was going on with him. I was so worried about him, and felt lost in my recovery room without a baby by my side.

Joe went home to be with the girls. I pumped, and walked the halls to the NICU every 4 hours to bottle feed Roman and talk to the nurses. He had worked so hard to breathe initially, he burned up his glucose supply and struggled to get those levels back up.

What we thought would be a 24 hour stay, ended up being a six day stay. I documented how lonely this time was in my postpartum room, because I couldn’t take the Fresh 48 photos in our hospital room like I had planned. 

I stayed admitted as long as I could, but with zero complications myself, I was eventually discharged Saturday, August 7th. The NICU staff was able to get me a room on their floor that night, so I could stay by Roman’s side, hopeful at the time he could still come home with me the following day. But that night he struggled to eat enough, and the NG tube was placed again, setting his discharge back. On Sunday, August 8th, I had to leave, and he had to stay.

Our transition home was full of mixed emotions. While I was so happy to see my girls, I didn’t have the joy of walking in with their baby sibling. At this point, they didn’t understand what was going on - I went to have a baby, but didn’t bring the baby home. Tessa struggled deeply with me being gone a few days and with me coming home. She clung to me and became upset if I did anything other than cuddle with her on the couch. And thanks to a mix up with the company supplying my breast pump, I had to manually pump every 3 hours (his feeding schedule) for my first day home (until we went back to the hospital and I rented one for the remaining days).

Over next few days, we visited Roman after dropping the girls off at camp. A nurse showed me how to “check in” my milk at the NICU. I walked in each day with bottles of milk, carefully labeled. I walked out each day with empty bottles and another print out of labels. During our visit Monday afternoon, the doctor OK’d me breastfeeding him while I was there. Roman latched and nursed great from the start! I was so happy to be able to nurse him during our short visits until he was discharged. Atrium brought over their lactation consultant for me to ensure we were set up for breastfeeding success.

While we visited, we also received news that his newborn screen was normal for Cystic Fibrosis. This meant he did not have elevated IRT levels at birth. Of course we had the cord blood collected, and awaited the confirmation that his newborn screen was accurate.

Roman continually progressed getting his glucose levels up to where they needed to be. The heel pricks became less frequent, the IV removed, the NG tube removed, and he was ready to come home on Wednesday, August 11th!

While completely unprepared for this journey, we are so relieved Levine’s Children’s Hospital was there to support us and take care of our little guy.