The Inrcredible Hulk

On Thursday, just before my workday was ending I got a call from Dustin asking if I was ready to have a baby...I thought he was joking and laughed; once I realized he was serious panic set in. Stacy went in for a routine diabetic appointment and mentioned she hadn't felt baby move much. They took her over to the woman's pavilion and got her hooked up to the monitors and babies heart rate was a little low so they decided to get her an ultrasound; baby wasn't very responsive there either, it seemed that his umbilical cord had tightened so it was time to pull him out.

We made it to the hospital in record time and I basically had time to put on scrubs and sit down before I saw his little head poking out of Stacy's tummy. Officially Hudson Samuel was born at 5:04pm on April 23, 2009 and he is beautiful. He weighed 7lbs 3 oz at birth and is 21.8" long and perfect in every way.


We held him for about half an hour before they took him down to the nursery. Once we got there the nurse thought he looked a little dusty coloured and checked his oxygen levels. They like babies to be in the 90's and Hudson was down in the 60's. They got oxygen on him and brought him up to the NIC Unit. We thought he just needed to have his lungs cleared from going through a c-section, so we weren't all that worried. We went home late that night expecting good news in the morning.


Friday might have been the toughest day I've ever faced in my life. The news went from bad to worse and no one could tell us what was wrong with him. Over the night he'd had a blood transfusion and been intubated. He had high levels of acid in his blood and they didn't know why. Things got worse when after finding all of this out the newest Dr on call said we had to leave because we weren't Hudson's parents. That is where I finally broke down and lost it, it all became too much. The nurses here are amazing though, within minutes we had a social worker with us who got the forms signed for us to get back in the room with our little guy. It was all overwhelming and the scariest part was not knowing what we were up against. How could a little guy who looks so healthy and strong be so sick?


Friday night we found out they had a room just outside the NIC U available for us to stay in, which was a relief in some ways (getting to be near him and see him 24-7) but scary to realize he's sick enough that we need to be here 24-7.


Saturday morning one of his neonatologists finally sat us down to explain what they think is going on in his little body. They think he has either a hardening of his heart due to Stacy being diabetic, which is something that will get better over time or a metabolic disorder on a cellular level that isn't treatable and life threatening. They are both symptomatic of the other and can be the cause or effect of the other and there is no way to know which it is, only time will tell. So we wait, and pray and enjoy every moment we have with him, because we just don't know.

He couldn't be in a better place, he has his own nurse, a team of 19 neonatologists and specialized doctors who are doing everything they can to figure out what's going on and keeping him stable until they do. The nurses here are beyond amazing, I can't begin to describe how wonderful and caring and compassionate they are.

Hudson is a strong little guy, the nurses were calling him Hulk because he was pulling all his tubes out and monitor lines off every chance he got. Saturday night he spent some time with his eyes open just checking things out without agitation. Last night we got the best anniversary gift ever, we got to hold him for 3 hours straight outside his incubator. It was amazing and calming and perfect.

So here we are, with our little guy being just about 4 days old, and we are completely and totally in love with our little monkey, and hoping he will live for us to tell him the whole story one day.

♥