Post 10 - A Series of FORTUNATE Events (part 2)

So after finally getting to see my sweet preemie, Mason, I go into a recovery room. Because of the snowstorm the day before and the change in Barometric Pressure (not kidding here) there were a lot of births at night and during the day.  So - all the high risk rooms were FULL.  I was totally fine with this except that I had the world's worst headache and chalked it up to the terrible lighting. I wished I could take meds right away but they said I had to wait till I was assigned a nurse.

We were joking and chatting with the nurses (we are such a funny couple) and nurses would come in and not be able to stay because they wanted to keep talking to us, seriously this is so true.  I was put on the 5th floor because that is the only place for me and I am a little sad because the 4th floor is the NICU floor, but oh well.

We go see Mason one last time and head up to our rooms.  I am texting back and forth with 10 people and Nathan is constantly rolling his eyes.  We get ready for bed and I BEG to eat. I hadn't had food all day.  She sneaks me the most delicious chocolate pudding I have ever eaten in my life.  Thoughts of Bill Cosby run through my head. Nathan hasn't eaten either so he leaves (at 10pm) to get McDonald's. 

The Anesthesiologist, the 2 OBs that operated on me, and the Pathologist, came in and told me we needed to have a little chat.  I start crying (I blame the headache) they found out from the tests on the placenta that my placenta had a bacterial infection and that if Mason was born any later he could have died.  I lost it. How could this have happened? They have no idea.

To cheer me up they brought me this fun package since I guessed the birth weight right!  I had no words.  I was stunned, in shock and in a LOT of pain...headache not incision.  

Nathan comes in and almost drops his food. My face must have been so scary. I tell him what happened and he went down to go check on Mason one last time.

We finally get to bed at 12:15am.  I can't sleep but Nathan was sawing logs next to me.  I have a terrible dream about not paying the XCEL bill and wake up, and immediately check online. I paid it, but woke Nathan up. Then I started yelling at him about something dumb and the nurse walks in to check on me. While she is doing this Nathan started seizing.  I SCREAM, and try to jump out of bed. 20 people storm in and try to help Nathan. He was having a Grand Mal seizure. I am screaming trying to get him to come out of it but they pull me and the bed out of the room. The hospital manager is trying to put me down the hall but I refused. I get out of the bed and almost rip the IV out. They are pinning Nathan down (8 men) and trying to medicate/sedate him to get him to stop. I call Nathan's dad to come. Its 4am and snowing. 

They are trying to talk to Nathan to get him out of it and I am totally calm and talking him through it.  He is screaming at them, pulling IV's out, kicking the needle guy off him, it was the scariest thing I have ever been through.

They finally sedate him but there is blood everywhere. They take him to the ER. I am now feeling the foolishness of getting out of bed just hours after major surgery.  I just start crying.  

I tell them to call the chaplain. Nathan needs a blessing.  They get a hold of the Aurora SP and his son in law. They are there.  While everyone is cleaning everything up some nurses talk to me and are criticizing me for having 5 kids. They are passing judgement and I was getting so frustrated.  Then an LDS nurse from another floor comes to me and was saying what I needed to hear.  She said that kids are a blessing, and that they are lucky to have me and my husband who I obviously love if I was willing to risk my life to safe his. She said that as mothers we always take the blame or try to protect out of nature. I unloaded everything I was feeling and then she offered a prayer. It was so amazing.  I felt a weight lifted.

Nathan's dad arrives, with the two Aurora people and I said go to the ER and work your way up.  So they gave Nathan a blessing in the ER, Mason a blessing in the NICU, and me one in PP Recovery.  It was just so much all in one day.

Nathan was in the ER until 4:30pm.

My best friend came to be with me for the whole day. She came at 10 and left at 8ish.

I couldn't have gone the whole day alone. I was so worried about Nathan, Mason and everything that happened. She came with me to the NICU and took pictures for me because I had a spinal headache, she was just what I needed. It was such a blessing. She also got to hear the nurses tease me about Nathan needing attention so he had a seizure. Haha. They also asked if he was a large man because the "rumor is 8 guys couldn't control him - he must have been huge" I got such a laugh at that.

The next day I got a blood patch. It worked for 1/2 the day.

The kids got to come and meet their brother.

I was too boring for them.

 It was such a hard experience for Lucas. He really, really wanted to hold his brother.

 Scarlett kept saying "My brotha is so teeny like a dolly"

Juliet, she had no idea. She just stared.
Here is a comparison:

She looks HUGE compared to him!
9 1/2 months apart and still worlds apart in size.

The kids went home and Ben and Danielle babysat while Nathan rested so that Grandma and Grandpa Witte could come.  It was such a surreal chain of events.

At least we were already in the hospital, at least Mason wasn't in the room - again so many blessings and miracles that all came into play.  I felt like all of the heartache, pain, stress and frustration was so we could truly see how lucky we were for these 2 days...and that Mason was okay.

The next day it was time for me to leave.

It was so incredibly hard to leave my baby at the hospital.  I had so many feelings and the spinal headache.
I was frustrated with myself and had to work through so much.
Nathan could barely walk himself, he was practically overdosed before getting to the ER and then the pinning down gave him bruises in places he has never had before.

I wished I could stay but the NICU team assured me that I was going to go home and recover, Mason was going to grow and eat and get himself ready to join us in a few weeks. When it was time for him to go home, I would be fully recovered and ready to give him 100%.
Comforting? Yes. What I wanted? No.

We waited to tell people because I needed to wrap my brain around what just happened.
I needed time to find out about Mason's possible conditions, I needed to find out more for myself.
I am doing much better now. Nathan is back to work now too.
It's just hard to not have my baby in my arms, but in no time he will be here!