So, What Happened?

Kolleen and I have been trying to piece together the circustances that lead up to Nolan's premature birth from what we've heard from the doctors and nurses that were involved. It seems to us that Nolan is, in fact, a very fortunate baby whose birth was a miracle.

Nolan suffered from a condition called Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR) -- his birth weight and size are in the 3rd percentile (97 percent of babies of the same gestational age will be larger). We believe that this was caused, mostly, by Kolleen's high blood pressure which caused the placenta to function at a much reduced level. Nutrients and oxygen were not passed onto baby in the womb and the amniotic fluid was not replenished sufficiently.

Ultimately, this restricted plancental function began to stress Nolan more and more. He seemed to be pinching his umbilical cord because he just didn't have the amount of fluid needed to function as a cushion like it would in a normal pregnancy. This caused precipitous plunges in his heart rate that were the first obvious alarm that something was seriously wrong with the pregnancy. He became so stressed that he would eventually pass his first stool in utero. He "inhaled" the toxic meconium, as this first bowel movement is called, which would ultimately delay his first breaths after delivery. He had to be intibated prior to taking his first breath. What a way to enter the world, huh?

All of this conspired to result in a less than auspicious delivery. APGAR tests are administered to newborns at 1, 5 and 10 minutes after birth and are a measure of a baby's "adaptability" after birth. As I understand it, APGAR measures breathing, heart rate, reflexes, muscle tone, color and probably something else... Nolan barely scored a 1 out of 10 in his first minute, a 4 at 5 minutes, and (phew) a 9 at 10 minutes.

All I can say is that I'm glad that we found this out 3 days after the fact when we could tangibly see that Nolan was doing well for his circumstances. I believe Nolan is here with us partly because of the sheer determination and skill of the Legacy Emanuel birth team that we were blessed with. But he is partly here, too, because God wanted him to be with us. Nolan is NOT out of the woods yet, we know but we are hopeful and prayerful that he will continue to grow stronger every day.

We have fallen deeply in love with our beautiful little baby and pray that God will take care of him and guide that hands of the wonderful NICU medical staff. Keep up the good work!

Humbly,
Dave