Jordy's Birth Story

I really thought that at some point I had typed up Jordyn's Birth story....but I guess it was not on here.  Maybe it was back in my "myspace" days, but who knows.  So I thought I would share it.  All of our family and friends that have been around for years know most of the details, but some of our newer friends might only know some or none of her story...and quite a few people have asked since her seizure diagnosis came back up, as well as why we are constantly at appointments for her, yet she is never sick....so here goes.

First a quick review of Abby: Abby was born at 34 weeks weighing just over 4lbs.  My water had broke and they decided to just go ahead and let her come rather than try to stop it.  I got a few rounds of steroids for her lungs in my 36 hours of labor.  She was in the NICU for 6 weeks for mostly a prematurity condition called "Bradycardia".  When she left the NICU she was about 6 and a half lbs and still so fragile.  All in all, she is a very normal 7 year old now.  She has a very weakened immune system still and up until recently she was always still super tiny, being at least a size or two behind what she should be and hanging out in the 1-5th percentile for her age.

Fast foward 2 years....

After getting over our fear of having another preemie, we decided we would put it in God's hands, and we found out we were expecting again :)  Right away I was super concerned with everything.  Before Abby I had 2 miscarriages, so that was my first fear, was just to make it to my 2nd trimester.  Next up we have my horrible pregnancy experience with now a 2nd baby.  We are talking puking anywhere from 3-15 times a day.  It was definitely not quite as bad with my 2nd as it was with Abby.  They were nice and put me on Zofran from the beginning before it got out of control, which I truely think helped. I was still sick every day, but it was much more managble.  At my first check up they told me I had a 50% chance or higher of having another preemie, so they decided to put me in the high risk clinic, where I got seen about twice as much as I would if I was not high risk.

For the most part my pregnancy was very uneventful.  I was less sick and I was able to enjoy it slightly more than with Abby.  We found out we were having another girl and were thrilled.  We both wanted girls so we couldn't be happier.

I made it to my next goal of the 34 week mark and she still was nice and cozy inside of me.  36 weeks came and I was starting to get uncomfortable and nesting like crazy.  My dr told me she said there is no way I would go past 38 weeks, and that she wouldn't let me.  (I had trouble delivering Abby at 4lbs, so I was a little concerned at what a 7+ lb baby might do to me). 38 weeks came and went and they decided to let me go longer. I was still okay with it at this point, but something inside of me said it wasn't a good idea.  My head kept saying "this is a good thing...you will have a big healthy baby to BRING HOME WITH YOU" but my heart kept saying she needed to come...now.  After 40 weeks I pretty much stopped answering my phone, didn't sign on line, and pretty much started getting annoyed at everyone asking me if I went into labor yet.  I was sick of everyone saying "Well at least you wont have a preemie".  Yes I know that...and that is what kept me going, was that it would be different this time.

Finally they put in the order to induce me at 41 weeks...but there was no empty rooms.  We called every morning at 4am, and was finally able to get in to be admitted at 41 weeks and 5 days!!!!  Finally...I was going to get to meet my sweet baby girl.  And I am full term..in fact OVER due, so everything will be perfect...right?

Well everything was perfect.  They started my pitocin and I was actually already about to go into labor, on my own.  I was already 3 cm when I got there, so the pitocin just gave me a little jumpstart.  I was progressing so perfectly.  At 7cm and about 7 hours into my labor, my water broke..on its own.  At just over 8 hours (umm a fraction of the time it took for Abby!) I was just about 10cm and ready to push.  The checked me one last time and the dr had a very confused look on his face.  Jordyn was stuck.  She was turned the wrong way, causing her chin to be caught on my pelvic bone.  He told me right away, I now had a 50% chance of a cseciton, but she was just fine.  Her heart rate was good and she didn't seem to be in any sort of destress, so they said they wanted to try to manually turn her.  All of you moms can probably figure out what manually turning entails....but luckily I had already gotten an epidural (I was on pitocin, I wasn't trying to be super mom!)  BTW, this Dr..had the biggest hands I have ever seen in my life and seemed to be the worst candidate possible to try and turn her.  After about an hour, he said he wanted someone else to try...someone who had a really good success rate with turning babies.  So he comes in...tries for about an hour...she just doesn't want to move.  At this point they said she is still doing fine, and I really do not want a csection after going through labor and all of this.  They left and came back with a teeny tiny dr who had the smallest, skinniest fingers ever...seriously, she looked like a skeleton.  They said if she can't do it, we give up.  After a total of 3 hours of them trying to turn her, we see that her heart rate is slowly starting to go down and we all said its enough, we need to get her out.  I was considered an "emergency" so they had me back into the OR within about 20 minutes...and she was out about 20 minutes later.  I got really sick and they needed to give me meds to make me go to sleep.  I needed to make sure she was okay before I could though. She wasn't crying or making a sound...and there were probably 15 doctors, nurses, and techs surrounding her.  Finally after about 10 minutes they walked her past me as they were taking her to the NICU.  They simply said "she was having some breathing problems"...and then put me to sleep. 


I woke up not too long later to no baby, and no hubby, and them still "working on me".  They were having trouble stopping the bleeding and was about to get a transfusion when they were finally able to get it under control.  That was pretty dang scary waking up all alone like that....but Geoff had gone to be with Jordyn.  I had to go to recovery for a bit, and then finally to my room where Geoff is waiting for me.  I was told I could see Jordyn in the morning. Of course I couldn't sleep for crap even on massive amounts of pain killers.  In the morning a nurse came and taught me how to walk again.  That was terrifying too.  I just wanted to do it and go see my baby...

ugh, and here it is....

We finally get to go see her.  We are met by a Dr while we are scrubbing into the NICU. They warn us that her birth was super traumatic and she needed help breathing so she was intubated.  We were also warned how bruised up she looked.  My heart was beating probably 200BPM at this point.  I saw her and I just immediately burst into tears.  A nurse was standing there with me telling me she was okay.  But that didn't help me at all.  Looking at her was the most heartbreaking thing ever. Her face (from what I could see of it...her tubes covered so much of her) was covered in bruises, welts, and open sores)  They told me I couldn't hold her until she was extubated and stable.  Later that day, 3 to who knows how many drs came in to talk to us about Jordyn.  First we found out she was having seizures.  Next we found out she was having possible random organ problems (kidneys, liver....). It just seemed to be one thing after another.  I think at one point she was having trouble digesting.  She was on IVs for the first few days, she even had one on the top of her head for a while that freaked out Abby.  The first 4 days in the NICU were the LONGEST 4 DAYS OF MY LIFE.  Finally after 4 days, she was extubated, and I was finally able to hold my baby!!!!  She was still having breathing problems though...she had what is called "stridor" which made her sound like a little mouse, and she aquired the nickname "squeakers" for a while.  Eventually after about a week in the NICU she had some significant improvements. Her face was healing up so quickly, and you could hardly see any trace of the marks (they told us she would probably have permenant scaring).  This was the first time we experienced what we like to call "Jordyn's crazy healing powers".

Over the course of our 2nd week in the NICU, Abby was allowed to come in and visit more often as we got to know the staff more.  Abby actually got to meet Jordyn that first morning, but she just seemed so confused. It was one of the saddest things ever when we had to tell her we couldn't bring her sister home with us that day.  She was sooooo excited about being a big sister...she was more involved than any other kid I have ever seen, and she was only 2 and a half.  Even with how smart she was, she just didn't understand.  We had gotten her so excited about getting to hold her and snuggle her in the hospital, and then...she wasn't even allowed to touch her :( Ugh.  This was when I completely lost it again.  After the first week though Abby seemed to be a little more understanding that sissy was sick and needed to get better.  Even in the NICU though, Abby was the most amazing big sister ever.  She brought Jordy presents, wanted to hold her and never give her back every time, and was always kissing and loving on her constantly.

Finally after exactly 2 weeks in the NICU, they said she could finally come home!  Before we could take her home we had to speak with tons of drs again.  The main Dr we had to stay in touch with was her neurolgists at the hosptial.  They tried their best to explain her seizures and how they were caused by blood on her brain.  They said she will most likely have long term damage from this, ranging from small things like slight learning disablitlies to as severe as cerebal palsey.  They just kept saying "Expect the worst, but hope for the best". Which is what we have done for the last 4 years. We finally got to bring our sweet girl home with us.  She was completely tube free and just came with lots of paperwork, medications, and information on followups with several different speciality Doctors over the couse of her first year of life.

The crazy thing is...I actually didn't realize how scary/crazy/serious her birth actually was until the day we brought her home.  We were enjoying having her home with us finally...and I was sitting on the couch, feeding her, and reading her discharge paperwork.  It was then that I read the details of exactly what happened.  First, it took them longer than a normal amount of time to get her out for an "emergency csecion".  She was so far down and was one step away from crowning when her chin got stuck, so there was a lot of pulling and tugging to get her out.  When she came out she was in fact NOT breathing...at all.  She had an apgar score of 1.  The only reason they even gave her a 1 was because she had a heartbeat of about 10bpm.  Yes, that is correct. 10 bpm.  Full life saving  resuscitation measures were used to bring her back.  She was with out oxygen for at least a few minutes.

By the time I was done reading her discharge report, I was bawling my eyes out (yes, I cried and prayed..A LOT the first few weeks) and in shock of what my baby girl had gone through.  But we did it.  There is no way we would have made it to where we are with her with out God and a strong loving family.

There you have it...Jordyn's birth story (spared a few details that most do not want to hear about)

It's still hard to believe what our family went through 4 years ago.  We gave everything over to God because we knew he would take care of her...either on earth or in Heaven.  But we couldn't help but be full of gratitude to Him for allowing us to keep her.  I just can not fathom our life without her in it. She has been such a Blessing to our family.  She brings us so much joy, laughter, craziness, silliness, and lessons of patience.

Very few people have seen photos from Jordyn's first few days of life.  If people ask, we have always been willing to show them, and it's only been the last 2 years or so that I was able to pull them out and show people, without crying.  Be warned, some are kind of graphic looking....

 First time I saw Jordyn

A Few days old...Abby is warming up to her being in the NICU now.

Off her ventalator and breathing on her own!!!!

First time Abby got to hold her baby sister.

While I was pregnant...Abby was just so obsessed with her baby sister.  She had planned a Happy Birthday Party for Jordyn for when she was born.  She was so excited about it.  She was going to bring cake and party supplies to the hospital.  But things didn't go as planned we helped her change it to a Welcome home party for Jordyn.  We had lots of friends come and celebrate an amazing day with us. (I think it was the day after or so that she came home)

Jordyn and Seizures

Today I took Jordyn to her follow up to find out the results of the study done that was used to measure her brain activity and check for any type of seizure activity while she sleeps (EEG).  You all know we had a big party to "keep Jordy up" all night the night before.  She did great and she actually fell asleep for the test.  Honestly, we walked away thinking that nothing would come of that test.  We really didn't expect anything abnormal, especially because the actual sleep part of her test was only about 15 minutes...I thought, what could they possibly diagnose with her in 15 minutes of sleep???

Well today we saw the same Dr who requested the EEG for her. She was very surprised to find what she did too.  She told me she was expecting nothing. She really thought that either her possible seizure was just some weird night time randomness, or just a one time thing, because, what were the odds that I SAW her doing it in the middle of the night????

Her test showed quite a bit of what the Dr referred to as "pre seizure activity" near the back side of her head.  Meaning, that it could possibly have lead to another seizure had she stayed asleep.

You all know what Jordy's birth story is and what she went through.  Her neurologist strongly agrees that her current situtation is most likely from her traumatic birth she had, and the birth injuries she experienced.  She did explain to me though that baby seizures (which Jordy had) are VERY different from regular seizures.  Baby seizures can come in any shape or form.  Jordy had what was explained as a "tick seizure"....basically her arm/hand would just repeat the same motion over and over again.  They discovered she had some blood on her brain, of which was causing the seizures. 

Now because of that, her seizures have probably become more of the "regular type" like I saw a few months ago: Full body convulsions, and her eyes rolled back into her head...lasted less than a minute, and she went right back to sleep.

It terrifies me to know that she may have possibly been having seizures all along, even after she was taken off her anti seizure meds and cleared by her neurologists in Texas as a baby.  Because, most likely, she is only having them in the middle of the night, while sleeping. 

I would love to say how mad we are at WHMC in San Antonio...for causing her to have such a traumatic birth, and definitely some aftermath because of what she went through.  We would love to blame them for what happened, because, it really was their fault...but it's hard to be upset about an incident that gave us our beautiful princess.  Everything that happned was all part of God's plan for Jordy and our family. She may have been a completely different little girl had she not gone through what she did....So, it's hard to admit, but in some ways, we are grateful for what we went through. I would never wish our experience on any other child or family, but... It gave us the most perfect Jordy, and so many life lessons that had to be taught to prepare us for raising her.

From here a few things are going to happen.  First of all, they decided to immediately put her back on anti-seizure medication.  It is the same one she was on as a baby, but hasn't taken in over 3 years.  Next we are to get an updated MRI done of her brain.  I have actually been pushing to get one done for a while now, but I couldn't convince any of the doctors here that she needed one.  She hasn't had one done in years, and I really just wanted to see what sort of changes have occured with the blood on her brain.  I guess now they finally have to.  With a child as young as Jordyn, they have to put them to sleep so they will stay still for the MRI which can take upto an hour.  We also need to get some bloodwork done in about a month to see how the medication is working in her body...they want to check the levels and see if it will need to be increased or decreased.  Finally in about a month we will follow up with her neurologist and see where to go from there.

She did it!

I am happy to announce that Jordy is now officially daytime potty trained!!!!!!!! After 2 years of trying, and quitting, trying and realizing she wasn't ready, trying and having too much going on...finally....she is potty trained! I am happy it happened before her 4th Birthday at least! I am hoping she is nighttime potty trained within the next 6 months, but for now I am extremely happy she is 100% daytime potty trained. She has very very few accidents now...and we even went on a 4 day trip to Fargo and MN, with NOT ONE accident!!! She didn't even wear a pull up in the car, and did GREAT. GO JORDY!!!!

Jordyn's Purple Happy Birthday Party!

Happy Birthday Jordy!

I can't believe my baby girl is 3 years old! Mommy and Daddy and Sissy love you SOOOO much sweet girl! We hope you have the best birthday ever!

Happy 3rd Birthday Jordy!

Jordyn is now 3 years old! :( Yes it makes me sad to think of how quickly time flies by lately. It seems like just yesterday I was holding her in the NICU.
We spent the day yesterday celebrating a little bit of her birthday by taking her to McDonalds, and then going to the park. We are saving most of the celebration for in a couple of weeks when family comes to visit for her birthday party!
Jordyn had her 3 year check up today. She is now 25lbs and 35 inches tall. This puts her at the 3-5th percentile now, which is down a little bit from what she had been on. Our teeny little girl is very healthy and is pretty much caught up in every aspect!

Happy Birthday Jordyn!

We can't believe our last baby is almost 2 already! She has become quite the little stinker too! Her smile just has this way of lighting up a room. She is the sweetest little snuggle bug ever! Her days consist of copying every single thing her big sister does! Her 2nd Birthday party is this coming weekend! She is having a BUBBLE party to celebrate with all her friends here in Texas! We love you baby girl so much and thank God for you every day!!!

And just in case you needed a reminder that God exists, and that Miracles do happen....

...Our little Miracle baby at not even a day old....she had a rough start, but even then she was still covered with The Fingerprints of God....

Jordyn's Turn!

At my 2nd set of sessions at the barn...I was in the middle of a shoot, when I look behind me...and see this....

...My teeny tiny 18 month old daugther riding a fullsize horse!

She loved it so much! She didn't want to get off!

Jordyn's 1st Haircut!

Jordyn just got her first much needed haircut! She has probably needed it for almost 6 months, so now that she was 1, I finally broke down and did it. Abby didn't get her first haircut til she was 2 years old! I am trying to not be sad about her growing so fast

The Before Picture