On Friday June 22nd, Kyle and I welcomed our little fighting miracle.
Hayes Price Whitfield
My mom had been down staying with me during the day and we had just came home from town when I walked in the door and my water broke. It was 2:30 pm and I quickly decided that I could hide the fact that my water had broke from my mom until Kyle got home from work. I quickly called Kyle and told him to get home. Well I was wrong about being able to hide being in labor from my mom. You are probably wondering why I wanted to hide it from my mom.....well if you know my mom you'll agree with me.......I knew she'd begin running around the house like a chicken with her head cut off. And guess what she did when she found out......she ran around the house like a chicken with her head cut off.
We ended up meeting Kyle in Talala and Kyle and I made it back to the hospital around 4:30pm. When we arrived I was already dilated to 6cm. I was admitted into my delivery room and at 9:10pm our little guy was born, 8lbs 5oz and 21.5 inches long.What an amazing experience!
When Hayes was born he wasn't breathing and his white blood cell count was high. They quickly took him to the Special Care Nursery and Kyle followed. I was able to see him on my way from my delivery room to my main room. Let me tell you that it was the worst feeling in the world not getting to hold my little guy and seeing him hooked up to machines. Kyle and I finally got to hold him and feed him the next morning at 9am. During that day they were weaning him off of oxygen and things were looking up, except for the fact that he wasn't eating very well. That evening while my mom was holding him for the first time, he D-stated. They asked us to leave while they inserted a feeding tube and told us to go back to the room to get some rest.
About an hour later Hayes' nurse came in my room and told us that he was fighting an infection and that he needed to go to the NICU.
Seeing Hayes in the NICU was both heart breaking and it put my heart at peace as well. He had a nurse on every limb of his body. He couldn't have been in better hands. The next day, Sunday, I was released from the hospital. Kyle and I were fortunate enough to get a visitors room in the hospital and we were only 5 mins away from him at most.
This is the first morning after Hayes was put in the NICU. He was resting soundly after given medication to fight off the infection.
I cry every time I see this photo.
Talk about a little fighter! By Monday evening he was responding so good to the medication that he was taken off of oxygen. And we began trying to feed him by bottle too! At his 1am feeding on Tuesday morning we began fighting to get 10ml down him and by 4am on Wednesday morning we were feeding him 60ml!
I even got to try breast feeding him on Tuesday evening and he latched on with out any problems! While I was feeding him at his 7am feeding on Wednesday morning his Dr. Siddiki came in and asked me if I'd like to take my little boy home today. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. We were told he would probably be in the NICU for 14 days. Yes. YES! I want to take my little boy home with me today!
Going home on Wednesday, June 27th!
I may not look the best, but I couldn't have felt better!
Here are a few of his newborn photos.
