Dylan Randall Corning

Dylan Randall Corning

Born September 28, 2009

8:18am

5 lbs 12 oz 19 in

Big sister Lily's first reaction to meeting her baby brother

Dylan and Daddy



Our first photo as a family of four

Mommy and Dylan

Lily holding Dylan

We arrived at the hospital at 5:45 this morning for my scheduled cesarean section at 37 weeks 1 day. After some brief paperwork, we headed into Triage, where I was hooked up to the monitors and prepped for surgery. They drew some blood for labwork, started my IV, and of course took my blood pressure. My blood pressure was high, 147/95, but it was still acceptable. After being in triage for awhile, they took my blood pressure again, only to find that it had gone up to 170s/110s. Another repeat measure showed 170s/100s. This was a big surprise to everyone because I've had such great blood pressure throughout the entire pregnancy. Since my blood pressure was so high, the doctor asked for a urine sample; it showed that I was spilling protein in my urine -- that means that I had preeclampsia! God has perfect timing. If I had to develop preeclampsia, the day of my scheduled delivery was certainly the best day for it to happen!

Since we were already there to deliver the baby, the preeclampsia diagnosis didn't change my treatment plan too much. But it did mean that I have to get magnesium in my IV for 24 hours after delivery to prevent siezures. So we went to the Operating Room, where the magnesium was started in my IV and the anesthesiologist administered my spinal block. The combination of the mag and spinal made me quite nauseous. Dusty was brought into the room after I was settled on the operating table, and surgery began. Dylan was born at 8:18, crying loud and clear. When the nurse first showed him to us, my first thought was how big he looked! He weighs 5lbs 12oz, and he's 19in long.

The nurses cleaned him up and brought him over for Dusty to hold him. We oohed and ahhed over him for a couple of minutes before the nurse took him to the nursery so he would be able to stay warm. (The operating room was very cold - I was shaking.) While the nurses were transporting me from the OR to the recovery room, Dusty stopped by the nursery and found out that Dylan was being given a small amount of supplemental oxygen due to low saturations. It is common for a slightly early baby born via c-section to have some excess fluid that didn't all get squeezed out during their trip down the birth canal. So Dylan was breathing a little rapidly and needed a little bit of oxygen. The hospital's policy is to allow babies like this to stay in the regular nursery for up to six hours; if they haven't improved enough to no longer need oxygen by that time, they have to go to the NICU. Well, Dylan did great! He improved quickly and was able to come to my room at about 11:45 this morning.

We had a great surprise in all of that - one of Lily's old primary nurses from the NICU was the transport nurse who took care of Dylan in the regular nursery today! It was really nice to see Nurse Laura again, and of course we knew our baby was in good hands. Nurse Heather, another of Lily's primary nurses, came to visit us today as well.

Dylan has been a sleepyhead all afternoon. He would rather sleep than eat, which is normal for the first 24-48 hours. He had his circumcision done a little while ago, and the doctors told us that he didn't cry at all!

Lily loves her baby brother and enjoys holding him; she's also very interested in how we take care of him, like when his diaper needs to be changed. I think she's going to be a fantastic big sister. I am feeling fine. I'm not allowed to get out of bed because of the magnesium, but I've been able to move around in the bed fairly easily, shifting weight and moving Dylan around. I'm not in any pain; the pain control from my spinal block is supposed to work for about 24 hours, and the nurse also had me take some Motrin this evening to take care of any inflammation or additional pain that may sneak up on me. The magnesium will be stopped around 8:30 in the morning, and that is when I'll be allowed to get out of bed and start moving around.

We are so very blessed by this new little boy!

Thank you all for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers today - we really appreciate your love and support.

Fever

Lily has some kind of yucky fever bug right now. It started in the wee hours of the morning on Monday; she woke up crying during the night with a high fever. We gave her some medicine and a lukewarm bath to cool her down, and she went back to sleep awhile later. She woke up a couple of hours later drenched in sweat and the fever was gone. We thought we were in the clear.... But the fever started coming back mid-day. I gave her another dose of medicine and laid her down for a nap. She woke up a couple hours later and it had spiked to 104! A quick trip to our wonderful pediatrician's office revealed that it's probably not flu. A CBC showed an elevated white count, and her chest x-ray indicated mild bronchopneumonia, although she's not coughing. Lily's lungs are difficult to diagnose with new illnesses because of her history of chronic lung disease. But since the flu test was negative, and she's obviously fighting something, Dr. D decided to be aggressive treating her lungs first. If she's still spiking a high fever after two doses of an oral antibiotic, we'll start Tamiflu to cover that base as well (since the rapid flu test doesn't catch all cases of flu).
So we really don't know WHY she's sick. She's just sick. Poor baby girl... Hopefully she'll be back to normal within a couple of days.

Prenatal Visit - 36 Weeks

I had my very last prenatal visit yesterday, and everything looks fine. I had one day of elevated blood pressure with some swelling in the last week, but things have returned to normal since then so there's nothing to be concerned about. My ultrasound was fun; I saw the baby's face straight on instead of just his profile, so that was cute. My NST was relatively dramatic because of course Dylan wasn't moving a whole lot (he never does in the morning) and there was a different doctor in charge of the monitoring part of clinic. This particular doctor was very conservative and hesitant to use the buzzer to 'wake him up;' so my NST lasted nearly 45 minutes before that doctor was satisfied with Dylan's movement.

My own doctors let me know that if all is going well, I may be able to be discharged from the hospital at the end of post-op day 2, which would be late Wednesday afternoon / evening, instead of waiting until Thursday - great news! We'll have to wait and see how I'm feeling, of course, but I'll probably be happy to skip one night of sleeping in a hospital bed.

All is well, and we're gearing up for the big day!

Fishing Trip

Daddy and Lily went fishing a few weeks ago while Mommy was at a baby shower. They had such a good time! Lily caught several fish; if you ask her about it, she'll tell you that she caught a daddy fish and a baby fish. Dusty said the first thing she said when they opened the container of worms was, "Oooh look, it's a baby snake!"

Reading with the Kids

Ande and Gideon were playing at our house a few weeks ago when Dusty got home from work. As soon as he walked in the door, he had all three of the kids crowded around him, asking him to read this book - Sleeping Beauty!

Prenatal Visit - 35 Weeks

I had another prenatal visit on Monday. They did another growth scan with my biophysical profile this time, and it showed that Dylan now weighs about 5 lbs 5 oz, which is actually more than my own birth weight of 5 lbs 2 oz! His weight is in the 33rd percentile. It looks like he has a little bit of hair, although it's hard to tell how much from the ultrasound. Everything else continues to be normal... I go back on Monday for one last visit with the docs and another BPP.
Less than two weeks to go!

Prenatal Visit - 34 Weeks

Lily and I visited the OB's office again on Tuesday for another biophysical profile. The ultrasound was really cute this time - Dylan was wiggling his fingers and toes, and bringing his hands up to his mouth. The NST was perfect; I brought ice water this time to keep him moving so they wouldn't have to prolong the test with the buzzer. I don't mind if they have to use the buzzer, but I knew that I had a limited amount of time with having to keep Lily occupied in her stroller. So ice water was my trick; poor little Dylan always starts squirming when I drink something cold.
Laura took my blood pressure since I was there anyway, and it was good. My c-section is officially scheduled with the hospital, and we're pretty much all set. I will see the doctors again for two more visits, with BPPs at each one, and the following week is Baby Day.

At home we're pretty much ready for Dylan to arrive. We still need to paint the Cat in the Hat, but if we buckle down and do it, it can easily be finished before delivery. I want to clean the upholstery on the chair in the nursery, and that's basically all that needs to be done. Dylan's clothes are all put away in his dresser, the crib is set up and ready to go, and I picked up some bottle nipples just in case we need them. Now if only I could wrap my head around the fact that I'm not going to get a full night's sleep for months...

Galveston 2009

We went to Galveston a couple of weekends ago when Grandpa Doug was visiting. We went down the beach to a quieter area and had a nice time playing in the water, although it was very hot out there in the sun! Lily enjoyed the sand but wasn't too keen on the saltwater and waves. After hanging out at the beach we visited downtown Galveston for some ice cream and window shopping. It was a fun trip!

Yes, that's Lily's wagon in the Gulf of Mexico!