Prayers for Baby Otto

Disclaimer: This was written at 5:00 AM after Mommy had about a 2 hour nap.


As many of you may know Otto has been having some reflux issues since last Thursday evening. Towards late Thursday night and into Friday morning he was not keeping most of his feedings down. They were large enough volumes that I called the Pediatrician on Friday to see what we could do for him. We tried several at home remedies for reflux with no success. We have either talked to or seen a doctor/ nurse everyday since Friday. 


Since there had not been any progress by Tuesday morning our Pediatrician, Dr. Brooks, decided to see him again. He checked him out and he seems like a normal, healthy baby. He had a check list of things to screen for and remedies to try at home. For example, keeping him upright before, during and after feedings, cutting dairy/soy out of my diet, etc. He also wanted to check out another possible issue and ordered and ultrasound for Otto's tummy that afternoon.  


So Otto and I left Franklin and headed up to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville. We arrived around 2 pm for the ultrasound and lIttle did I know we wouldn't be leaving. It turns out he indeed does have the condition that Dr. Brooks wanted to screen for. He has a condition called Pyloric Stenosis. It's where the Pyloric muscle between his stomach and small intestine gets so enlarged that it constricts/stops the flow of food from going out the back end. Unfortunately, the only remedy is surgery. It is something that is most commonly found in first born, male children. 


He will have the surgery sometime on Thursday. It's a fairly common procedure and takes about an hour. As soon as he starts eating well afterwards we will all be able to head home (most likely on Friday). At this point the poor guy hasn't had anything to eat since 12:19 pm on Tuesday. Obviously it kills us to see him like this, but we know it will be best in the long run. Grandma & Grandpa Geis drove down from Indiana Tuesday night and were able to come snuggle with him before it was their bedtime. They decided to camp out in the waiting room since visiting hours are over at 9 pm. I hope everyone is getting rest. Thursday will be a long day. 

Bionic Karate Man

Sleeping peacefully with his seahorse

He is FINALLY here!!! ...

And I am finally getting a chance to update the blog! Obviously, life over the past 3 weeks has been pretty crazy.


August 30th was the big day!! Not only was it going to be our son's birthday, but it was mine as well. Of course, I was so excited to meet him that I kept forgetting that I was turning another year older.


The day started at 6:00 AM with my induction at the hospital. Jef and I got settled into our room and the waiting began. Around 9:00 AM, Dr. Rupe came by the room and broke my water to move the process along. She then made a guess that we would have a baby by 3:57 PM. We were pleased to hear that we would get to meet Otto in a few short hours.

A few hours passed and my contractions started getting stronger and closer together, but I didn't really notice that I was having them. Jef would point them out to me if he was looking at the monitor. I went ahead and got my epidural before I actually started to feel ANY pain. I'm glad I did because shortly after that Jef would freak out by the size of the contractions on the screen and couldn't believe that I didn't feel it. The only thing I suffered from (and complained about) all day was an empty stomach. I wasn't allowed to have anything to eat or drink past midnight. Eventually, my doctor felt bad for me and let me have an orange popsicle. It was the BEST popsicle I've ever had!!!

To make a long day/story short, things progressed slowly. The nurses would check on me every few hours or so and the dilating hadn't changed much. 3:57 pm had come and gone with no signs of baby. This went on until around 9:00 PM! Dr. Rupe came in to check on my progress and was pleased that I had finally reached 10 cm. The nurses quickly got the room ready and I began pushing. Since I had my epidural in I couldn't feel ANYTHING. On one hand I was thankful for that, but on the other I had no idea how to push when I couldn't feel anything. About an hour had passed and Dr. Rupe asked one of her nurses to step out into the hallway. That didn't sound good. A few minutes later they came back in and began talking about our situation. They weren't pleased with where we were in the pushing process. Otto's head hadn't come down very far so she gave me 3 options.

1. I could push for 2 more hours and try to have him naturally.
2. I could push for 2 more hours, nothing happen and end up having a c-section and possibly creating more problems for the both of us. 
3. Go ahead and have a c-section


Everyone stepped out of the room so Jef and I could talk through our decision. By this time it would have been 10:00 PM and I had been in labor since 7:30 AM. I was so worn out, hungry and ready to meet the little guy that we felt it was best to go ahead with the c-section and not add any more complications for either Otto or myself. 


Once we made our decision everyone went to work. It was amazing to see how quick and efficient everyone was (while I was still awake). The anesthesiologist came to give me even more medicine on top of my epidural and I was pretty much out of it before we even got to the OR. I remember them moving me from my bed to the table and putting up the curtain. I had the voice of the anesthesiologist in my ear the whole time. She kept telling me everything that was going on even though I couldn't see or feel most of it. She kept reminding me to breathe. Once they got the curtain set up they let Jef come in and sit at my head. About 15-ish minutes later, around 10:49 PM, we heard the sweet sound of a baby crying. Otto was finally here!!   


From there everything is a blur. The anesthesiologist told me I could look over to me left and see my son! The first thing I noticed (and thought to myself) was his red hair! RED HAIR!?! Where did that come from?!? I also knew I was pretty drugged so I didn't think too much of it. I thought maybe it was actually blonde and he just had a little blood on his head. Turns out I wasn't imagining things.

Jef then got to go with Otto to the nursery while they finished up with me in the OR and we all met back in our room. By this point I had no idea what time it was or what was going on. My parents, sister, niece and nephew had been waiting at the hospital since around 11:30 AM. Jef went out to fill them in on what had happened and showed them pictures he took with our camera. Everyone was so exhausted that they went home to bed and would come back on Wednesday. 


Jef will have to fill you in on his side of the story. 


Here are a few pictures from the night he was born... 

The doctor told Jef it was a good thing we chose c-section because
that head wasn't coming out on it's own.