Sawyer’s Story (part 2)

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Sawyer’s Story (part 2)

November 23, 2010 at 9:38 pm | Posted in father, mother, NICU, parents, pregnancy, transient tachypnea | 6 Comments

The morning of November 17th we drove to the hospital. It was all going according to plan – we had even packed a bag. The previous two emergency c-sections Evan had to leave the hospital to go get our things.

It took a few times for the doctors to get the epidural correct but before we knew it I was being wheeled into the operating room. I remember the doctors calmly talking about their day during my c-section. There were three people in the operating room with me and Evan. In contrast, Jake and the twin’s birth were both crowded and far from calm. At 1:52 our beautiful perfect baby boy was born.

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We all went to the recovery room together. I could not help but to think back to the recovery room after Jake was born. Evan and I were there without our baby. We did not know if we would ever see Jake alive again. Now, here we were holding our full term 8 lb, 1 oz. baby boy. Not only could we both hold him but I was able to feed him.

We all left recovery and went to our hospital room together. I did not want to let go of him. Two hours after being back in the hospital room I tried to feed him again. His color seemed to change. We asked a nurse to come in the room and take a look at him. She said that she needed to take him to the nursery to check him out. The nurse came back a few minutes later to tell us that he was being admitted to the NICU for transient tachypnea.

My brain could not process what was happening. Our baby (who still had no name at this point) was perfect. He was a full term baby. He was 8 pounds! Jake was 14 weeks early so of course he would go to the NICU. I had even thought there would be a good chance the twins would go to the NICU. How could our full term singleton possibly be in the NICU?

Several doctors and nurses explained to me that transient tachypnea was very common. It is extra fluid in the baby’s lungs which would normally be squeezed out when the baby went through the birth canal. During a c-section there is no squeezing so the fluid was still there. I heard the words but it still did not make any sense to me. This could not possibly be happening.

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Hi Lanie – I’m learning about your experiences and my heart goes out to you. I wish that reliving Sawyer’s very short time with you will sort things out for you and bring you a measure of acceptance – because acceptance is what is required of you; you cannot change the past. I am just so grateful that you have Evan and Alyssa and Fletcher!
Have a happy Thanksgiving. And please keep writing! Thank you.
Love, Cornelia

Comment by Cornelia Levine— November 23, 2010 #

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Thanks for sharing these experiences, and the photos–which we’d not seen before! You’re very brave to let us in on everything, and we’re thinking of you, as always.

Comment by eden— November 25, 2010 #

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Thank you for writing. Thanks for sharing the beautiful photos of your beautiful son. You are an amazing mom and woman!

Comment by Kristen— November 30, 2010 #

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Your story is heart breaking. Thank you for taking the time to talk about your experience, I hope that writing about your loss is theraputic, and I hope you know that you are helping inform other women who could potentially be in the same position. It infuriates me that these types of serious risks are not discussed up front with pregnant women. Thank you again, my heart goes out to you and your family.

Comment by vbaccommunity— December 20, 2010 #

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[…] across this blog about a mourning mom who lost her baby to transient tachypnea. You can read her heart breaking personal story here. What is really upsetting is that the doctors and nurses describe this as a common condition. So […]

Pingback by Transient Tachypnea: Common (but secret) risk of a C-section. « VBAC Community— January 25, 2011 #

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[…] you Samantha Murphy for remembering Jake and Sawyer. Samantha recently started a writing, Remembering Miracles. She writes to “ keep the […]

Pingback by Remembering Miracles « A Mourning Mom— November 16, 2012 #

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A Mourning Mom