2003 Journal Links

Anne went into labor around 7 p.m. on Saturday night (10/25/2003) and the baby was born at 4:34 a.m. on 10/26/03. Anne did it all herself and the doctor never administered pictocin. The epidural wore off toward the end but Anne declined another dose because one may have meant that she would have a lot of difficulty pushing the baby out. There were about 15 doctors and nurses in the delivery room when Archie was born. He was born with his eyes open and his arms outstretched and he was looking all around. He didn’t cry at first but then wailed in protest when one of the NICU doctors did something to him he didn’t like. When the nurse gave him to Anne he turned his head toward her and was trying to focus on her face.

It was a real blessing that Archie came on his own and wasn’t induced. It turns out that Anne had some sort of placental aberration that occurs about once in 5,000 pregnancies. If Archie’s water broke anywhere other than it did (there was a two inch circle where the water could have broken without issue) he would have bleed to death instantly. Anne’s doctor said that she most likely would have broken Anne’s water to get her labor moving. Our boy is a real fighter who keeps beating all the odds. Anne keeps saying that someone is looking out for the little guy.

Anne was released yesterday and we are staying at Portia’s because it is closer to the hospital. We tried to get into the Ronald McDonald house, but there weren’t any openings.

Archie weighed 7.53 lbs. at birth and is 19.5 inches long. Right now he has jaundice and isn’t feeding very well, but Anne and an occupational therapist from the NICU named Sue are working with him. The doctors say it may be because of the jaundice making him tired. When he won’t take a bottle we tube feed him. He only had oxygen for a few hours the first day and he is doing well other than the feeding. He is on the least severe level of the NICU and they are talking about taking him off the blood oxygen monitor soon.

Sue, our Occupational Therapist, gave us good news about Archie’s muscle tone. She said that his tone is really developed. A baby’s muscle tone develops from the feet up and babies with Down syndrome normally have little to no upper body strength at birth. But Archie moves his arms a lot and likes to put them above his head when he sleeps. He also has pretty good control of his neck muscles which is also unusual for babies with Down syndrome. He can really toss his head around.

Archie has lots of hair and a sweet personality. He also has a temper like his mother and gives the nurses and Anne and I the same “looks” Anne gives people. It is really funny.

Today we talked to Archie’s doctor and found out that his white blood cell count is still elevated. This is usual in babies with Down’s, but it could also be an indicator for leukemia. The first blood culture they took also showed a “blast.” In a “normal” person like you or me, this would mean that cancer is present. The doctor told that it isn’t such a big deal in babies with Down’s and that no more “blasts” have shown up in subsequent cultures and that the elevated white cell count could just indicate that Archie has over-active bone marrow. Archie’s doctors are keeping an eye on his blood cultures and we are just going to see what happens each day. Anne is really worried about this so any positive thoughts or prayers are appreciated.

Archie’s pediatric cardiologist is optimistic about his heart defect. He feels that Archie should do well without surgery until he is four or six months old. We’ll know more about that as time goes on. We’ll take him to the ped-card’s office for an appointment as soon as he’s released from the hospital.

We won’t be able to take Archie home until he can eat on his own. Right now we try to feed him three times a day by bottle and then we feed him by tube for the remainder of his feedings. He only eats a few cc’s on his own from the bottle. He did pretty well with the bottle when he was first born, so we are hoping that his eating will pick up as soon as the jaundice is under control.

I’ll be posting more photos on Archie’s site soon, but not right now. We are really busy with trying to stay at the hospital as long as possible and trying to get Anne to rest at home so she can recuperate. You can see from the photos that she is really tired, but she is doing much better today than the past few days.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support. All of your well wishes are very much appreciated.