Lourdes Elizabeth arrives

Today I'm thankful for...
A healthcare system that is compassionate, advanced, andthe best in the world.
Having good health insurance
Being alive
Beautiful sunny weather
Being with my wife

The night ended up being uneventful for Lulu and the Baby Lourdes. The contractions stopped, and the tests show that all was well. I rescheduled my patients to be with Lulu on this Monday, and good thing that I did, because the day started just as the last 10 days in room #7, but ended with us having a baby that would end up being born three months prematurely.

I got a phone call from Lulu letting me know that she was having the contractions again, after her night was mostly quiet. I arrived at the hospital at around 9 AM, and at that time Lulu was having contractions about every five minutes and the staff and doctors were giving her medications to hopefully stop the contractions? More tests and another round of labor stopping medications (the first dosages weren't effective in stopping the contractions). This was the day's event Lulu having contractions, the baby wanting to be born, but everyone working hard to just get another hour, if not day, before Baby Lourdes was to arrive. We were told by the nurses that for every day that we could prolong the birth of Lourdes, she would save her three days in the Neonatal intensive care unit. Knowing that she was only 26 weeks old, we were all for keeping Lulu pregnant for as long as possible.

Unfortunately, Lourdes wasn't cooperating and she was determined to have June 1 be her birthday. After the third course of medications to try and stop the premature labor, the doctors were looking at the possibility of having to deliver the baby soon? The final decision was made after the blood test returned for the lab with a very high white blood cell count (twice as high as normal).

Lulu requested to use the anesthesiologist that she has built a professional and personal relationship with. After years of working with someone Lulu knew that she wanted him for her anesthesia. Luck would have it that he was available to do her anesthesia for her C-Section now scheduled for around 5 PM.

Lulu and I prayed that this was the right choice to have Baby Lourdes so early and we knew that she was to have a large fight ahead of her just for survival at only 26 weeks gestation. In this situation you have to have faith that the doctors are making the best choice for both mother and the baby, and we prepared ourselves for the birth of our first little girl.

After multiple physician consultations (the doctors have to decide on whether or not the baby was at risk for infection), a course of antibiotics, and nurses prepping Lulu's lower abdomen for the surgery, leaving room #7 after 10 days was bittersweet (would would have liked to stayed there until Lulu's due date, but we also wanted to see the little bundle of joy), Lulu was taken to the labor and delivery operating room for birthing Lourdes.

Lulu had General Anesthesia instead of a epidural C-section due the risk of introducing bacteria in the Meningeal spaces (especially concerning due to the high white blood cell count from early in the day). From the time they induce her to the birth of Baby Lulu the procedure took approximately 10 minutes, and we had a wonderfully beautiful baby girl weighting 2 lbs, and being about 14" in length.

Baby Lourdes was immediately placed into a incubator and whisked away to the Neonatal Intensive Care unit conveniently only 20 feet or so away.

I had never in my life seen something as beautiful as Baby Lourdes, but I was terrified that I might not be able to care for her a lifetime?She was so small and fragile looking there in the incubator almost as if it was made for a baby two or three times her size? As the care team scrambled around caring for her immediate needs, I just stood frozen in time. It happen all so sudden, what now? Here's was that baby that we had been waiting to see for the 6 months for, and now she was on the table just a arm length away. My heart ached to hold her, to maybe just reach out to help her in this most critical moment? I can't express the emotions of wanting to care for this incredible treasure, but only being a spectator in what seems like a dream.

I managed this picture before they attached the myrad of tubes, IVs, and monitors to the newly delivered girl we now could call Lourdes Elizabeth Wilkerson