The Pants Party
05-24-2007, 04:00 AM
Ok, I'm guessing many of you knew I had a baby on the way, due in late August. Well, God decided we shouldn't wait that long and on Monday my wife got very sick, and Tuesday morning they got our baby girl out. I'm home from the hospital for a bit and wanted to shout out to the world that I'm a father and in case people have noticed I haven't been around as much, let everyone know what's up. I'm going to copy/paste two livejournal posts I made to inform my friends so I don't have to type it all again, so here's basically what happened:
Ok, so I'm sure most people have heard what's been going on with Jillian, myself and our new baby girl Chloe Leeann. I'm home from the hospital for a little bit to take care of a few things and clear my head a bit so I'll try to get as much info as possible in here quick before I get back to Jillian and Chloe. Monday morning Jillian apparently had a seizure (I didn't witness it), and luckily I had stayed up until 5am checking on her because she was feeling very dizzy and sick (plus I was playing Crackdown, but ignore that), so I had called off work to take her to the clinic in the morning and was home at the time, heard her breathing very heavy from downstairs. She was bodily responsive to me when I came upstairs, but she just seemed to be half-asleep, though after pouring water on her and screaming for her to wake up, she would not respond verbally, so I called 911. They go there and after about ten minutes and four guys holding her down were able to get vitals and get her somewhat stable, she became aware of what was going on and who was there with her. They then took her to St. Joe's in Ann Arbor where her OBGYN is. She got slightly worse but stayed stable through the night, however they were pumping a lot of IVs and fluids in here, not much of which was coming out in her urine, so they figured if they waited longer it would start to build up in her lungs. Officially what she had was "eclampsia" which is when the placenta is bad and the body tries to reject it, the only cure being to remove the placenta, aka deliver the baby. This morning at about 10.30 they decided it was time, and by 11.30 she was in surgery and our daughter was "born" at 12.01pm. She came at 27 weeks, weighed only 1lb. 15ozs and was 13" long. She is completely formed and breathing on a ventilator tube down her throat, which is apparently set to a low setting, which they say is a very good sign... she's a fighter. She is very active and can open and close her hands, wiggle everything and even open her eyes at times. Jillian is also doing very well, though her blood pressure is high and her kidneys aren't working all that great yet. They hope to have her better and discharged by Friday morning or Saturday at the latest. Chloe however will most likely be in the hospital until Jillian's original due date of late August... myself, I'm past freaking out and finally calm, just trying to keep all my family and friends up-to-date since I'm the only one who can talk directly with the doctors. I need to take a shower and get back to the hospital, but I wanted to let everyone know how things are going and thank you all for all the messages on my phone, keep em coming (pun intended). Special thanks to Joe for being my messenger over the last day. I hope to see everyone soon, and within a week or two if you guys want to make a trip out to the hospital to see Chloe we can certainly do that. Love you all and thanks for everything.
AlanSince I made that post last night, Jillian has improved tremendously. Her kidneys kicked back in, they have taken her off almost all her IVs (except sugar water, which is just standard), though they are still having her take pills for pain and blood pressure. Chloe was doing amazing last night, and they even extubated her and put her on something akin to a fish tank pump that kind of just bubbles and helps the air move through her lungs, rather than forcing it.. however, she got a little worse this morning and they intubated her again, so it's doing most of her breathing for her. Aside from that both mom and baby are doing amazing. A nurse said if she had to have a baby at 27 weeks, she would want it to be Chloe, so that has to say something of how amazing things have turned out for such a horrible situation.
Here's a picture of our baby girl. You can see how small she is compared to my hand, it's sort of ridiculous how little she is, but she's beautiful and she's very active.
Chloe LeeAnn Pettit (http://www.thezissousociety.org/chloe.jpg)Any thoughts (and prayers if you're that type) would be appreciated. I probably won't be able to check this thread for another day or two since I'm only home for a bit here to get my wife some stuff and take care of a few bills, but I'll try to get back with an update soon.
Ok, so I'm sure most people have heard what's been going on with Jillian, myself and our new baby girl Chloe Leeann. I'm home from the hospital for a little bit to take care of a few things and clear my head a bit so I'll try to get as much info as possible in here quick before I get back to Jillian and Chloe. Monday morning Jillian apparently had a seizure (I didn't witness it), and luckily I had stayed up until 5am checking on her because she was feeling very dizzy and sick (plus I was playing Crackdown, but ignore that), so I had called off work to take her to the clinic in the morning and was home at the time, heard her breathing very heavy from downstairs. She was bodily responsive to me when I came upstairs, but she just seemed to be half-asleep, though after pouring water on her and screaming for her to wake up, she would not respond verbally, so I called 911. They go there and after about ten minutes and four guys holding her down were able to get vitals and get her somewhat stable, she became aware of what was going on and who was there with her. They then took her to St. Joe's in Ann Arbor where her OBGYN is. She got slightly worse but stayed stable through the night, however they were pumping a lot of IVs and fluids in here, not much of which was coming out in her urine, so they figured if they waited longer it would start to build up in her lungs. Officially what she had was "eclampsia" which is when the placenta is bad and the body tries to reject it, the only cure being to remove the placenta, aka deliver the baby. This morning at about 10.30 they decided it was time, and by 11.30 she was in surgery and our daughter was "born" at 12.01pm. She came at 27 weeks, weighed only 1lb. 15ozs and was 13" long. She is completely formed and breathing on a ventilator tube down her throat, which is apparently set to a low setting, which they say is a very good sign... she's a fighter. She is very active and can open and close her hands, wiggle everything and even open her eyes at times. Jillian is also doing very well, though her blood pressure is high and her kidneys aren't working all that great yet. They hope to have her better and discharged by Friday morning or Saturday at the latest. Chloe however will most likely be in the hospital until Jillian's original due date of late August... myself, I'm past freaking out and finally calm, just trying to keep all my family and friends up-to-date since I'm the only one who can talk directly with the doctors. I need to take a shower and get back to the hospital, but I wanted to let everyone know how things are going and thank you all for all the messages on my phone, keep em coming (pun intended). Special thanks to Joe for being my messenger over the last day. I hope to see everyone soon, and within a week or two if you guys want to make a trip out to the hospital to see Chloe we can certainly do that. Love you all and thanks for everything.
AlanSince I made that post last night, Jillian has improved tremendously. Her kidneys kicked back in, they have taken her off almost all her IVs (except sugar water, which is just standard), though they are still having her take pills for pain and blood pressure. Chloe was doing amazing last night, and they even extubated her and put her on something akin to a fish tank pump that kind of just bubbles and helps the air move through her lungs, rather than forcing it.. however, she got a little worse this morning and they intubated her again, so it's doing most of her breathing for her. Aside from that both mom and baby are doing amazing. A nurse said if she had to have a baby at 27 weeks, she would want it to be Chloe, so that has to say something of how amazing things have turned out for such a horrible situation.
Here's a picture of our baby girl. You can see how small she is compared to my hand, it's sort of ridiculous how little she is, but she's beautiful and she's very active.
Chloe LeeAnn Pettit (http://www.thezissousociety.org/chloe.jpg)Any thoughts (and prayers if you're that type) would be appreciated. I probably won't be able to check this thread for another day or two since I'm only home for a bit here to get my wife some stuff and take care of a few bills, but I'll try to get back with an update soon.