Everyone always says, "Your life will change completely once you have children". This is true, your life does change when you have children, and for Tasha and I, it changed in a blink of an eye.
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 was the night that Tasha and I, well Tasha, was admitted to Smith County Memorial Hospital. Just as every induction goes, they put you in the hospital the night before or the day of to give you good rest and some drugs to help the labor process start. We really didn't get much sleep at all between Tasha have cramps or contractions and the excitement of soon having our very first Baby!
Reis was born June 25, 2009 at 9:35 am at Smith County Memorial Hospital weighing 8lbs 3oz and measuring 22 inches long. Tasha and I both suspected that we were going to have a boy, but we did not know for sure because when we had the sonogram done, we told the "Radiologist" that we didn't want to know what the gender was. When we got the pictures of sonogram, we thought we seen something around his nose area, but we just went on about everything thinking that our child's nose was just a little big or whatever. Up to the point of his birth, we were told, and assumed ourselves, that we had had a healthy pregnancy and we were going to have this baby and a few days later be home to enjoy our new little gift. Much to our surprise, when Reis was born with a Bilateral Cleft Lip and Palate, which was a HUGH shock to us, not that we were going to love him less, but just the fact that we were not prepared for it at all, physically or emotionally.After all of the normal labor procedure was over, Dr. Overmiller stepped out to make a few phone calls while the family that was at the hospital came in to see Reis, Tasha and I. When he returned, he told us that Reis would have to be transferred to Salina Regional Health Center in Salina, KS because Smith County Memorial Hospital was not equipped to feed or take care of a baby with a cleft. The good news about this was that since everything else about Reis was in perfect condition, they were going to let us take him down there in our own vehicle. However, the bad news was that Tasha would have to stay in the hospital there at Smith Center because she had lost quite a bit of blood and they wanted to make sure she was stable before they would release her.
We didn't really have a lot of time to discuss because he would soon be getting hungry and with no way of feeding him, he would just have to cry until we got him to the Hospital at Salina. After a few moments of talking and contiplating how we were going to pull this off, not to mention, that I was about to have an emotional breakdown, my mom and I decided that she would drive us down there and Tasha's mom and dad would stay with Tasha and drive her down when she was released from the hospital there.
While I ran home to try to pack a diaper bag and my own bag for a trip I had no idea up until then that I was taking, Tasha got to have a little quality time with Reis. The worst part about me having to try to pack a diaper bag was, well, I had absolutely no clue where anything was, what all I would need to take, how many diapers to pack, what to take for formula or what to take for clothes for him. I did what I could and grabbed a little bit of everything and threw a shirt and some other clothes for myself in a bag and we headed out the door and back to the hospital.
When we arrived back at the hospital, things had calmed down a little bit and I knew by then that everything was going to be OK, it was just still an emotional shock for us. Tasha got him put into his car seat for me to take and we said our goodbyes and got on the road to Salina. Paula Hayes, one of the OB nurses at Smith County Memorial rode to Salina with us to monitor Reis on the way down there to make sure his vitals were fine. Terry McDonald, another OB nurse, followed us down there to pick Paula up when we did arrive at Salina.After our agonizing two hour car ride to Salina, which Reis handled like a Pro, we had finally arrived at the front entrance of Salina Regional Health Center. We unloaded and went inside to figure out where we were supposed to go.
We headed to the registration desk and told them that we were transferred from Smith County Memorial and they had all the paper work ready and all I had to do is sign in and head up to the sixth floor to the ICU. Paula and Terry stayed around until we got on the elevator to head upstairs and then they too got back on their way. When we got to the ICU the nurses there were very helpful and this is where I first met "Aunt Cathy". She was a very very nice woman that had been working in the nursery and ICU for over 30 years. Aunt Cathy was so kind to us and she really helped out with everything. She was even so kind to let me change the first poopie diaper!We were very fortunate that Reis was able to eat from a bottle, however, it was a special bottle called a Mead Johnson bottle. The reason for this bottle was because with Reis' cleft, he had no way of sucking on a regular bottle so this bottle was a soft plastic bottle that we could use to squeeze the milk out of it so that he could eat. At first, feeding was very scary and a little bit challenging, especially since I had not had much experience feeding babies anyways, but after a few feedings, I was well adjusted to it and I even taught most everyone how to use it.
Later on that evening Tasha was released from Smith County and headed down to Salina. Tasha's dad Troy drove her down and her mom Louise and sister Stasia followed them down. When she arrived, I was never happier to see her. We spent most of that night holding our new baby boy and enjoying every minute of him. Most of our family had decided to drive down to Salina as well so there was no lack of family around as well. My dad Rick and his wife Tish drove down from Wichita, my brother Brian, who was in Holdrege, NE earlier that day drove all the way down to Salina, in record time not to mention, and my sister Brenda and her husband Jason were in Hays for a checkup with her new baby girl (Fuzz) that she had just had 2 weeks prior.
Finally around 1:00 am the next day, June 26th, we all were exhausted and decided it was time to get some sleep. The hospital had made arrangements for us to stay at the Rebecca A. Morrison House that they have just across the street from the hospital, which was very convenient. My mom road home with my brother and Louise, Stasia, Tasha and I stayed at the house. Troy decided he would just rent a motel for the night since the room only had four single size beds in it. As soon as the lights went out, I was out cold.
It was a very strange feeling knowing that our baby was sleeping in a completely different building then we were and was being taken care of by people that we didn't really even know, but I was so exhausted that it didn't really sink in until the next morning when I woke up in a strange bed and with no Reis around. We all got ready so that we could get over to the hospital in time to talk to the Dr. Rosales, who was the ICU doctor that would be looking after Reis the next few days.
We talked a little while with Dr. Rosales and he assured us that everything was going to be OK and he had made some phone calls to Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, MO and they would be contacting us in the next few days. Later on that day, Brian and his wife Lynnae showed back up as well as my mom and her husband Glen. While Reis was resting in the ICU we all decided to go grab a quick lunch. Since the ICU had other babies in it, we were really only supposed to have a few people in there at a time, so we all took turns holding and rocking and feeding Reis throughout the day. As quick as night turned to day, day had then turned to night and the night staff assured us the everything was fine and that we should go rest for the night, so we did just that.
Saturday was our last full day at Salina and they actually put us in a room for the day and night so that we could take care of Reis all by ourselves that way when we got home, we wouldn't be lost.
This was the best day for us in awhile since we were actually going to be taking care of our son on our own. My oldest brother Eric and his wife Becca came down for the afternoon along with my mom and Louise and her husband, Darrell. It seemed like time just flew by and before we knew it, it was time for our visitors to leave and us to get settled down and get ready for bed. Sunday morning we woke up and were able to give Reis his first "Bath" together as a family. He did pretty good sleeping through the night, waking up about every two hours or so which was good because it gave us the opportunity to get used to him waking up throughout the night. After his bath he went back to the nursery for his going away present (circumcision) and we were finally ready to get out of there and get home. We loaded up all of our belongings and one the the nursery nurses walked us out to the front lobby to make sure we got to our vehicle safely. We loaded up and headed for home.Upon arrival to our house,
we noticed our house was decorated with balloons and streamers galore. As we pulled into our driveway we seen a sign that Stasia and her grandma Irene had made for our homecoming. It was very nice to be home and to see how much we were missed, or at least how much Reis was missed. We spent most of the day Sunday just relaxing and trying to get our lives back in order.Everything seemed to be going pretty well up to the point that Tasha started to feel hot, then cold, then hot again. GREAT! Just what we needed. Seems as though the hits just keep on coming. I will save that story for the next post...
