Will and I have been a bit out of touch as of the last few days. Later on I will be giving a more in depth background to the story of Ezekiel's birth - for now this must do.
Ezekiel was born on Sunday night at home after a 30 hour labor. Birthing him into this world was by far the sweetest moment of my life. He was pink, alert, and extremely healthy. He already had a ton of fat rolls and hair! It took a few hours for the midwives to get me together so we could settle in for the evening. During that time Ezekiel started to grunt and his breathing became labored. The midwives began monitoring him and the discussion of possible issues began. Their pediatrician on call was consulted and it became clear that we need to move to the hospital. Ezekiel's respiratory responses were becoming worrisome. We were in the car in no time and the midwives had him on oxygen.
The ER took he right back (we had called ahead), and were amazing. Sutter Amador was incredibly compassion and hard working to help our child. An x-ray determined that he had some fluid still in his lungs, a very common issue. He wasn't absorbing it and there was a concern of infection. Due to the lack of a NICU at Amador the decision to move him to Sutter Memorial NICU. The First Response NICU unit was mobilize from Sacramento and came for him. As soon as the came he was placed on a CPAC and he began to stabilize. We followed them down. When we arrived him was already in a isolated unit. We have been here even since that night. Will and I have been staying at a hotel down the street and have with him most hours of every day. On the second day he was cleared to be held and fed. On the three we were moved to D Room! This meant he could take off IV fluids, and most monitors and is in a bassinet for easy access. Will and I have 24 hour access to him - are there to feed, change, and bond with him. He has to run a complete course of antibiotics thru an IV as a precaution. Blood cultures take 3 day to come back and by then if he had an infection it would be too late. Today we just got back new results and he is clear of infection, and his white blood cell are back to normal. Right now he has jaundice, but they are predicting to release us on Saturday.
Will and I have been amazed at the amazing staff at the NICU. This has been incredibly painful and frightening experience, but we could not have ask a better team to work with from our midwives, the ER team, Transport team, to the NICU - even admin and our hotel staff. We are so looking forward to coming home with Ezekiel.
Stats: Sutter Amador weighted him in at 9lbs 12oz after his first diaper. His feet are 3 1/2 inches long, and they had lift up his neck folds to measure.
Photographer: Kris Lane Photography (Ezekiel's first few hours)
Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 10:02PM 
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