Moments in the NICU: Refrigerator by Bossy

I've been after Bossy for a couple of weeks so that we could hear about the birth and the extra days in the hospital NICU for our sweet baby Skittles. Imagine my surprise when I opened an email with about a dozen stories!

Thanks to Bossy, here is the first one:

Refrigerator

Skittles was born via emergency c-section at 34weeks 2 days due to a partial placental abruption which sent me into labor.  My placental abruption started 2 weeks prior and I received the steroid shot to help Skittles’s lung development. Skittle was transverse when I went into labor and he did not correct himself after 12 hours of progressing labor so we went into surgery at 11:45pm.  We never had any answers for Calder’s passing, but my ob/gyn and I had suspected my many miscarriages and Calder’s passing where related to placenta problems.  With both Calder and Skittles I took progesterone supplements during the first trimester to assist with placental development.  We had discussed at length if we would need the progesterone shots during the second trimester to prevent early delivery, ultimately we decided that the insurance would likely not cover the shots because there was not a documented history of premature delivery. Taco missed being a preemie by a few hours.

One of my favorite visits while we were in the NICU was when Dog Walker, Puppy Lover, Drama Queen and Grandpa came up to see us. Dog Walker missed riding up with Drama Queen and we thought he and Puppy Lover would not come up.  I was impressed that Dog Walker found the hospital in the avenues.  I had to google maps it the first 3 visits.  He ended up coming at the same time as Drama Queen and Grandpa.  It had been a long week, my mom was on vacation and Gamer had taken Taco to Arizona for a baseball tournament.  I hadn’t had any visitors in two days and I hadn’t seen my family in nearly 2 weeks.  Dog Walker wanted to understand more about why Skittles was born early and why we had a c-section instead of waiting for him to come on his own.  I was trying to explain what a placenta was and its role in helping Skittles grow.  Drama Queen came up with a great analogy of the placenta as a refrigerator providing all the food for the baby.  When I was explaining what a placental abruption was, Dog Walker didn’t understand that it had just partially pulled away from the uterine wall.  Everything seemed fine from the outside.  Dog Walker thought my placenta completely fell out of my body.  He imagined it more like an actual appliance coming out of me and asked a series of concerned questions that led to a hysterical fit of giggles that were a challenge to my healing abdomen.  I wish Drama Queen had written down the story the evening it happened like she promised.  I can’t remember what was said, but I do remember how hard and long I laughed.  A welcome relief for a stressful end to our first week in the NICU.