The Surprise of My Life!

 This was me last Sunday. I was not supposed to be laying in a hospital bed. I was supposed to be in the chicken houses, in church, at home, anywhere but the hospital.  So, why was I in the hospital?  Oh, no real reason besides the fact that I woke up at 5AM with my water broke and contractions that were 4 minutes apart by 6:30.  I was only 32 weeks, totally not supposed to happen, and totally not expecting it.  The doctor hadn't even gone over what that stuff would feel like yet. I didn't realize that my water had broken at the time, I just thought that maybe the baby was on my bladder or something. It wasn't the gush that I was expecting. The contractions didn't start till over an hour later, so while we were googling "can't stop peeing", I started having really bad cramps. Or Braxton Hicks contractions. Or anything besides real labor. We decided to call the hospital because I really didn't want to run up there and make everybody drive to the hospital, which was over an hour away for my parents, if it was just a fake out. Well, they weren't fake.

And here he is. Reed Travis Miller. Born July 31, 2011 at 10:19 AM. Weighed 3lbs. 8oz. 16 in. long. He tried coming out butt first, so I had an emergency c-section. Somebody forgot to tell him to get ready too. 

He was transported to the Huntsville Hospital Neonatal ICU around noon. I don't really remember much of the details because I was a bit loopy. Although, I do remember asking Lance if I was on fire once. He was breathing on his on and doing pretty well.  I got out of the hospital on Tuesday, and we've been trying to visit as much as possible ever since, even though Huntsville is 60 miles away.

He had a little bit of jaundice for a couple of days.

So he got to lay in the "tanning bed" and wear really cool foam glasses for a while.

He had to wear a c-pap machine for a few days (you can see it in first baby pic) because he had a touch of sleep apnea. He would basically forget to breathe occasionally when he got into a deep sleep because that part of their brain hasn't developed yet. Thankfully, he is over most of that now and is breathing completely on his own. They did try using a canula on him (that oxygen tube with prongs up your nose), but he kept ripping it out and gnawing on it, lol.

As of right now, he is fed by a little tube running in his mouth because he isn't coordinated enough to suck a bottle and breathe at the same time yet. He is currently eating 18 ccs of a high calorie formula every 3 hours, which is a little over half an ounce.  They should be trying him on a bottle in the next day or so.

Reed got a case of the hiccups when we were visiting him this morning, so he kept his eyes open for about 30 minutes. Made for some good pictures!

I really wish blogger would cooperate because I have a really cute video on my camera of his hiccups!

This afternoon, he got to move from the nicu to "progressive care", which means they think he is doing really well. He no longer has an iv and is now in an "isolette", which is one of those enclosed beds. The doctor said that those beds "grow" babies. Basically just getting them bigger and stronger.  It also lets him try to maintain his body temperature more, which is something he needs to do before he gets to come home. I'll also get to hold him twice a day (which I haven't been able to do yet) and feed him. Hopefully, we'll get to visit every couple of days or so, and we've checked some prices of some hotels in the area. I told the nurse today that my birthday was coming up (Aug. 31st) and taking him home would be a nice present, and she said that the way he was progressing, that there's a good chance that would happen!