Hudson!

We first want to thank you for all your love and support! All the thoughts and prayers were felt and appreciated so much. We thank you to those that took time out of your busy schedules to come up to the hospital, and visit with us (even though you couldn’t really see Hudson).
For you who don’t know (and those that do), this is what we have gone through the last few days. It started with Jana’s regular weekly checkup on Wed. Her OB told her that she was going to have a baby that night or early morning, and sent her straight to the hospital. She called me and luckily I was with Grammy, so Grammy took Tanner and I gathered up our bags and headed to Presbyterian Hospital of Rockwall. Jana was sitting comfortably when I got there. We then were told they would start a small dose of pitosin (sp?) about midnight, and then ramp it up about 4 am Thursday and should have Hudson by noon. In the morning we were able to talk with the anesthesiologist about our concerns with spinal headaches (Jana had one with Tanner), and he calmed our fears as much as possible. We talked about getting the epidural ASAP, but the hospital was crazy busy and ended up getting it about 45 min too late. Poor Jana was in some serious pain for a while, but once the epidural took she was much better off! That happened about 9:45 a.m., and then we rested till about 10:45. The Dr. came in about 10:55 and Hudson Lee Hake was born at 11:06 a.m. on July 30th weighing in at 7lbs 4oz and 20 ½ in length!

We were able to take a few family pics and snuggle for about 15min. when the nurses decided to take Hudson to the nursery for observations because of fluid in his lungs (he was grunting with every breath). We were told he needed a little extra time to get rid of the fluid. Several hours later it was decided he would need an IV that helped him feel full so he could concentrate solely on breathing, and hooked him up to monitor his breathing. He continued to struggle with breathing throughout Thursday. Jana and I went to the nursery so she could try and nurse him for the first time, later Thursday evening. He got pretty worked up trying to eat and his respiratory rate went crazy, so they made us stop to let him rest. He then rested for the remainder of the night and Friday morning we talked with the pediatrician and she told us he needed to go to a hospital that had a NICU. She had looked at some x-rays of his chest and it showed that his lungs were sticking together in some areas. This was due to a lack of surfactant, which is developed at birth so your lungs don’t stick together and lasts your entire life.

An ambulance took Hudson and I to Lakepointe Medical Center (this is the hospital Tanner was born at), while Grammy and Tanner stayed with Jana and helped her get discharged. At Lakepointe they had to stick a tube down his throat for oxygen, another tube in his throat to shoot the med’s in, an IV in his hand, and a central line into his belly button to take blood for tests

Jana was discharged and went home for quick shower and then was dropped off at Lakepointe later Friday evening.

We could go into the NICU and touch Hudson but couldn’t pick him up because of all the tubes and wires in him. When we were in touching him late Friday night he “clamped up” (stopped breathing and stiffened up) for about 1 or 2 sec.’s. This obviously was the lowest point and we were scared for his life. We went home after that, and cried hysterically for a while. Luckily Ed and Theresa were at our place watching Tanner for us, and they comforted us tremendously.

We headed back up to the hospital Saturday morning and Hudson was doing so much better already! He had taken 2 shots of the surfactant and his lungs were good now. They were just working on his oxygen levels in his blood. He continued to improve all day. Before we went home for the night they had taken the oxygen tube from his mouth, and the medicine tube out and he just had a thing in his nose to whisk oxygen in for a gentle reminder to breathe even though he wasn’t having any issues with that yet. We called the NICU to check on him later that night and they had taken out the central line and they said he would be ready to nurse in the morning.

So we got in our last great night sleep that we would have for a while, and returned to Lakepointe Sunday morning and the pediatrician had told the nurse to take the oxygen thing from his nose out and let momma feed him. So we were able to pick him up and hold him (up until this point we had only been able to hold him for a combined 20 min or so). It was great! He ate well, and by middle of the day Tanner was up to the hospital holding and singing to Hudson.

We were able to get a room at the hospital Sunday night and Hudson stayed with us all night. Monday was a busy day for Hudson; he woke up for a circumcision, then shots, and then a hearing test. Then we were able to take him home around 4:00 p.m. on 8/3/09.

Proud Big Brother!