It's a Big World, Mason
The Journey of Two Geeks and a Baby
Progress Report
It’s been 10 days since Mason was born, and 10 days into his stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. In less than two weeks he has made major strides: No longer is he under a Bili light to combat jaundice, he’s off his oxygen canula, he’s regulating his temperature on his own so he’s in a crib instead of an isolette, and he’s feeding regularly on bottles. They’ve also taken him off his IV so the only tube he has is one used for feedings when he’s not eating by bottle.
He smiles when he sees us, and he opens his mouth wide already when he’s hungry. His farts rival daddy’s and he is ornery as they come.
The doctor will soon be increasing his bottle feedings from twice a day to more, likely every eight hours. Once Mason is comfortable with that, they’ll talk about sending him home. The nurses estimate that he’ll be home by next weekend, but we don’t have any firm dates yet.
The experience so far has been exhausting and rewarding. Mason has phenomenal progress every day we see him, and we’re spending as much time as we can at the NICU, which means we’re getting very little sleep. That’s ok, though. I plan on sleeping once he goes off to college so I should be fine until then.
Thanks goes out to everyone providing support for us through the preemie experience. You have no idea how grateful we are.
Mommy’s perspective
The day was supposed to be a routine (somewhat) doctor’s visit and ultrasound. I had been on bedrest due to high blood pressure, and so I wasn’t surprised that my blood pressure was high on the first doctor’s visit of the day. I wasn’t surprised when they made a big deal of it at the ultrasound, and had to advise them that yes, I knew I had high blood pressure, and no, this wasn’t helping said blood pressure.
What I wasn’t expecting was for events to start escalating from there. Before I knew it, I was told to report over to the hospital for a 24-hour monitoring session. I called Tim about it, but I didn’t think it would be anything drastic. We had already been through something similar the week before, and I thought it’d probably end up just being monitoring again. Plus, we were still two months out from the due date. Neither of us thought at any time up to this point in the day that there was a chance of Mason needing to be born right then. No way, no how. Up until this point, the doctors’ wanted me to control the blood pressure issue with bedrest alone.
I knew something was up when a little later at the hospital, the nurse came in with a phone, and handed it to me. It was my doctor, telling me that I had HELLP syndrome, and that they were readying the staff for a C-section. First thought? Oh my goodness…
I called Tim, and he did make record time to the hospital. I’m pretty sure our facial expressions matched as we made eye contact. Oh my goodness… And just a short time later, Mason Christopher Gourley was born. :)
It’s certainly been a roller coaster of a past week. But seeing how far Mason’s come along in the NICU, and seeing how many people have stepped up and helped us, really makes me feel fortunate. Thanks to all of you, from the bottom of my heart.
Daddy’s Perspective
Just like any other day, Thursday started out normally. There wasn’t any indication that the usual mundane routine would suddenly be turned on its head. But that’s how these things go: It’s sudden, sharp, and takes the breath out of you. I felt like I was ripped out of one reality and forced into something both scary and absolutely amazing.
Instead of working from my home office, I spent the day at my desk at the OKC Coworking Collaborative since I was going to give a presentation there that evening for our local Ruby users group. Lori had a doctor’s appointment and an ultrasound scheduled that I was regretfully going to miss since I was saving my time off, so we decided to do our own things this once.
I gave my presentation without any indication that anything was going wrong. The presentation was well-received and generated some fun back and forth discussion. But as I got on I-35 headed back home, I got a call from Lori at the hospital.
“Tim, you have to get here NOW”, she said.
Starting to get concerned, I asked, “Why? What’s wrong?”
“They are going to do a C-section.”
I found out just exactly how fast the Mustang can go after that. Well, not exactly, because I’m fairly certain it goes faster than the speedometer reads.
I got to the Norman Regional Healthplex in record time, even before the anesthesiologist, so I didn’t miss the operation. Lori was being prepped for the surgery and her doctor explained what was going on.
At her visit they didn’t like her continued high blood pressure and the lab work ordered confirmed that she was experiencing HELLP Syndrome. The only cure would be to deliver the baby. So at 9:22pm on August 12th, 2010, Mason Christopher Gourley was born nearly 2 months early. He weighed in at 4 pounds 15 ounces and was 18.5 inches long.
Both Mommy and baby are doing wonderfully, and Mason is still in the NICU as he continues to grow strong enough to come home. He’s a strong kid and already is as stubborn as his parents.
It’s been a roller coaster already, and I know it’s not going to let up. But this experience has been both the most amazing and frustrating thing we’ve ever gone through and I look forward to every little step along the way.
About
Mason Gourley was born on August 12th, 2010 at 9:22pm, a whole two months early. This blog is dedicated to the journey two geeks are taking in raising their first child.
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