Rhett had his heart doctor yearly check up and while his valve leakage has fixed itself he is down to only one murmur and will always have early repolarization but while under the care of our pediatric heart doctor he gets checked often and should be fine and not give us an trouble. Although there is a possibility but hopefully unlikely. He is a healthy growing boy and as long as he is monitored and cleared he can do whatever he wants. We are going back in to do a repeat echocardiogram due a number that came up and they are thinking it is common thing known as the light bulb effect. When you touch a light bulb its hot but you can sit in a room with a light bulb and not be hot. With children their heart is so close to the skin where adults are further away so this gives you the light bulb effect. The one we had done last week showed his right ventricle to be hypertrophy so we are having a repeat one to make sure that's what it is.
Now to give some background information since I started blogging after I had my kids I will give details of Rhett's birth story. I have everything in their scrapbooks but you never know what could happen and incase of what I hope never happens a house fire and we loose the scrapbooks the kids will have their memories and story here.
Rhett Marvin Herrington
I had the girls which are 4 years apart and it so much adjusting going back to the baby stage after having a child who is dependent that I knew that we needed to have another sooner rather than later. It was hard getting pregnant with Mauri and after a lot of tears and wondering if I was ever going to be pregnant we finally got good news. So when Mauri was 9 months old we started trying again. Thankfully it didn't take any time at all and 9 months later came Rhett.
Here is a few pages I typed up from Rhett's scrapbook.
I am not a good pregnancy person I have had complications with each one. My blood pressure was up really high and several times throughout I had to go to hospital and if it didn't go down they were going to have to deliver due to safety concerns. My doctor told us to pray for December 26th if we could hold off to deliver until then it would be the best for all of us. That didn't happen after getting the results of my urine analysis she made the decision to take him the next day on December 20th. Which was close to the 26th so we were all thankful. I was supposed to be there at 6am and have my C-section at 8sm. My mom had the girls and were going to bring them at 7:45 so they didn't have to be there so long. The weather was bad that morning and it was sleeting also. When we arrived at the hospital the nurse said please tell me you are our 7am C-section I kind of laughed and we said nope its not us. She quickly came into our room and said well you are going to be because our 7am one didn't show up or even call to let us know anything. We were in shock and quickly called our family to fill them in we were going in early. Our family hurried and made it there at 6:45am. The nurses had to pump me fast with fluids antibiotics so that IV drip was on fast we got 2 bags in me in an hour. Then at 6:50 they came in and told us the girl showed up and I would be going in at 8. We waited and took a few last photos and then at 7:45 the came in and took me to the C-section room. My spinal was taking forever and the nurse that I had my head into finally said to the lady what are you doing and had another nurse call for the doctor when my doctor came in she said what going on what's taking so long? That's when I saw panic look on the nurse in front of me. That's when I got nervous and the lady said its in she can lay back now. As soon as I laid back I said I'm going to get sick which I never had in my prior c-section. Thankfully Nick walked in and I was relieved. He held my puke pan while I had to turn my head because I couldn't get up. That's when I felt something pinching me and I said have some pinching me on my right side. My doctor looked at me and said I was doing a test and your are not numb. Now its on my right nope back to my left I said. The doctor called told the lady who did my spinal that she needed to get this fixed and then called another man to come take over her job. Before she left she gave me medicine in my IV which I now know was
ketamine. Turns out I am deathly allergic to it and my body started shutting down. I don't remember what happened from then on.
Nick tells the story and now looking back I cant imagine what he had to go through. He said they were going crazy and trying to hurry and get the baby out while hearing get the crash cart she is cashing and people running and panicking every where they wanted him to get out and was trying to make him go but he refused them being in such a panic didn't have anyone available to push the issue. When took Rhett out they already had 3 NICU nurses waiting for him since he was premature and a boy. Nick said this is when it went from scary devastating. He said he had his wife whose body was shutting down and people working on her and he had his son who isn't breathing and the nurses are working on him also. At that point he thought this is it I'm going to loose them both what do I do whose side do I stand by? He was standing there in a panic.
While at this time it has been a full hour since I went back and after having 2 previous sections our family knew it didn't take this long so what was going on and why were there so many medical people running into the C-section part of the hall. Doors opening and closing medical people running in and out and that's when the panic set in with our families.
After working on Rhett they had him breathing with a bag they were pumping and they had got me back to life. All I remembering is seeing Nick to the distance and seeing 5 of him and asking him which one out of the was him. The nurse then said we have to take your son to the NICU take a quick peek so I got a little glance.
My family said they saw a nurse holding this baby while surrounded since ran beside while pumping the bag that was breathing for him.
When they got me all back to normal I went to the recovery room and they let me mom come in and she said Nick was pale as a ghost and after seeing her he feel to his knees with his head resting on the bed crying. He said he just prayed that's all he could do was pray. He didn't have to put on a strong face because my mom was there to take up the slack. She said he kept telling her no more, no more we will never have anymore kids and if Rhett was our first one he would of been an only child. Hearing him tell my mom everything was the first I knew about how serious it all was.
I got out of recovery and back to my room and the NICU doctor came in to give us an update of Rhett's situation. He was going to be put on a respirator and it was really touch and go and if it got worse they would have no choice but to transport him to another hospital. They kept coming in every hour and giving us and update because no one could see him until he was stable. Finally late that afternoon we got good news and said he is now off the vent and on a c-pap and we could see him if he continues to be stable with the c-pap. Now with a section you don't get up until the next day. I was not ok with the idea of people seeing my baby before me I remember looking at my mom in a panic with a room full of people and saying no one until me. She is my rock and my go to person so I knew if I expressed how I felt to her she would help me through it or work it out like she always does. I wanted to see him and I quickly said I'm going to go the nurse said no you cant go you have a catheter and your are still numb from your spinal, I looked at her and said so nicely...I am not asking you I am telling you and there is no way your are going to stop me, I will have my husband carry me if he has to or I can roll down there in a wheel chair and as upset as I am right now I can probably walk because I am that determined when it comes to my kids. She said let me call your doctor and discuss this with her because as a mom myself I completely understand. I looked at my mom after she walked out of the room and told her IM GOING no matter what my doctor says. The nurse came back to the room and said my doctor had cleared it and she would wheel me down there.
I remember all of the nurses saying to me he is a Hoss we are not used preemie babies being his size and that is what they called him from then on. I didn't know what to expect so seeing my precious baby boy who we have prayed for was laying there and at this point I couldn't hold him and at this point we couldn't touch him because any movement or touch could change him from him being stable to him unstable. All we could do was look and keep praying that he would continue t get better and stronger each day. We had a room at the hospital they let us stay there so we didn't have to leave and come back everyday It was ups and downs he would be doing better then he would regress and I felt it was like we were taking one step forward and 2 steps back. He had a feeding tube we couldn't feed him and so I pumped and they would feed him. He then had a stomach issue and they would only let him take a tiny amount and I remember him crying because he was hungry and the passy wasn't satisfying him and Nick had to leave because he was so upset over him and couldn't stand the fact that there was nothing we could do to make him better. Once that got worked out we came in one morning because NICU had hours that you could come and be with your baby. I remember them still this day 5am, 9am, 1pm, and 5pm. and 9pm. and the nurse told us he is on a touch and go basis right now because he has now caught pneumonia and due to hi condition already this wasn't good. After visiting him we went back up to our room opened the bible and just prayed our hearts out even more. I had a calmness about it I don't know why but I did while Nick was in panic mode and pacing. The Lord heard our prayer. Being in the NICU you experience bonds with the other parents that only they can share your worries and struggles at that moment due t they are going through them as well. We would celebrate when one of the other were at a point of bottle feedings or being stable enough to be held. We would laugh and joke saying the milk truck has arrived when we would all show up for the morning time with out bottles of pumped breast milk. We would rejoice when one got to go home and welcome the newcomers as they are embarking on a journey they didn't anticipate. That and prayer is what got us through it and we cant forget our family and friends who were there also. We walked in at one of our times and the nurse told us that today is the day we would get to hold him. Until then we hadn't been able to touch him then to changing his diaper and now we can finally hold him. Even though there were wires and they would beep and we would look at them for help what wrong now which usually ended up being a kinked wire or something we were just thrilled to hold him. We then got the news that they were getting someone to look at his heart and we went back into panic mode but it wasn't life threating but did need to be monitored so we were elated. He now has gotten off the cpap and on oxygen. They would slowly start to decrease it and then have to move it back up. A lot of ups and downs again. I still wasn't able to breast feed because they needed to know exactly how much went in and out but just being bale to hold him and bottle feed him was a blessing from where he came from. We got the news that they were going to take him completely off the oxygen and within a few hours he was back on it and then they discovered that he really didn't need it he just wanted the tube there. They would cut the oxygen off and leave the tube in his nose and he would do fine but as soon as they would take the tube out he would revert. It was slow but he finally got off.
I also remember on Christmas Eve Maci wanted to stay with us in the hospital. Santa came early at our house because he knew we didn't know when Rhett would arrive. On Christmas Eve it was really slow and Rhett and one more baby was the only ones in the NICU she wasn't sick and the nurse said she could come in the NICU and take a peek at her brother who she still hasn't seen. Only in pictures because kids are not allowed in. That is how sweet the NICU crew were I loved them.
Things were finally looking up and the nurse said we could finally try a breast feeding we went into a room off from the NICU and just enjoyed it. Each day he was getting better and wires were being removed and we were on our way to getting close to go home. We had to do a car seat test and he had to be able to sit in his car seat and hour and remain stable, he passed and we couldn't be happier. I remember the day before we had to leave being all excited and then walking in that morning to the words that can completely take your excitement away.. He cant go today we are sorry but one of his ekg test wasn't what we like to see so we are waiting on the heart doctor to come around. After disappointment and thinking we were going to be in the hospital forever we got news that the heart doctor cleared him to go home but we were going to have to go to his office in a week for his monitoring. That afternoon we were on our way home. What a journey what a miracle. After being home for 2 weeks not going anywhere and being careful he caught RSV and I remember thinking here we go again. He got over it thankfully.
Dr King our heart doctor had ordered some blood work at a nearby hospital and I took him to get it done and the next day they called and said I had to come back because they didn't get enough, the next day I got a phone call that scared me and took me back to the day he was born and it was touch and go. Dr, King himself called me and said: Kelli don't panic but you have got to bring Rhett to the hospital right now, don't get dressed don't stop for anything we need him here as soon as possible his potassium is to high which means his organs are going to shut down also. I will have my team meet you at the from door don't park come straight to the front door. Thankfully Nicks mamaw was at my house so she stayed with the girls while I hopped into my car with Rhett and drove straight there. I didn't have time to wait on Nick to come home from the field so I called him from my car and my mom as well. When I pull up I see Dr. King waiting outside the front door with 2 nurses and as if I wasn't panicked enough it really set it. My mom was there and she was waiting with them. They removed Rhett from his car seat and away they went I was like oh wait where are you taking him where do I go what do I do? My mom parked my car while I ran in behind them. The took him straight up to ICU and we had to wait outside. The nurse came in and said that he was going to do another blood test to make sure there were no mistake because to high is dangerous and to low is dangerous. We were the allowed in the room and Dr. King stuck Rhett himself and then we had to wait for the results. Being that he did it all himself and took it to the lab himself we knew it was serious. For what felt forever when it was only about 30 minutes he walked in and explained that the lab messed up Rhetts blood work and let it clot which caused the showing of high potassium. His test that he did was right and everything was normal. He was so mad and aggravated due to everything else we went through. He apologized and explained that he was having some trouble with this hospital and this made his decision to change hospitals clear and that he was going to change and he did in fact change to the hospital where Rhett was born. He is now a healthy growing boy who loves all things farm, cow, and outside related.
Now you cant even tell he was a preemie.
As I am finishing this post up I am getting a little teary eyed because in my heart I hear the saying:
"A son is a son til he takes a wife and a daughter is a daughter the rest of her life"
Although this tends to sadden me at the moment I know that this is the plans the Lord has for him.
Matthew 19:5
and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'?
