We got admitted into the Anchorage Providence Hospital on Tuesday, November 10th because Ethan was coming a little too early...6 weeks early, to be exact. We spent one week in the perinatal wing of the hospital, under bed rest, so that Ethan and I could be observed. Once we hit 35 weeks, Ethan's chances of complications dropped dramatically. So, only one week of waiting until he was ready to go.
We were induced Tuesday afternoon, November 17th. It was an easy labor, and before we knew it, Ethan had arrived. There were many people in the room when he was delivered because his chances of being a NICU-baby were still pretty high. He was born at 6:24pm and was 6 lbs. 3oz. (Yes, he's a little guy.) The doctor from NICU observed Ethan for about 45 minutes before she said that he appeared to be healthy enough to go to the postpartum room just like the normal babies. Exciting news!
The evening was spent getting to know one-another. Although we didn't get much sleep, Ethan got quite a bit. Because Ethan was born so early he sleeps a lot; his little body doesn't have the strength nor energy of a full-term baby, so he has been spending most of his time sleeping. We wake him to feed and change him...and then right back to sleep. Of all the possible complications that could have arisen by having a preemie, we were blessed to end up with a healthy baby boy.
The latest lung maturity results came back today and they have almost doubled since our last test which was done on Tuesday. Very Positive!! So, the doctor has scheduled for us to be induced on Tuesday morning at 7am!
On Tuesday we'll be 35 weeks along, and with the recent lung results, we should expect to have a perfectly healthy baby with little complications. We'll probably still be stuck in the hospital for the rest of next week so we can all be observed. But, it looks like there may be an end to this madness!
Wednesday night Lisa arrived at the Anchorage Airport. It wasn't an easy decision, but considering all the possibilities/complications with being in the hospital, we decided that it would be in Emily's best interest for her to spend some time down south.
It looks like we'll be here in the hospital for at least a few weeks, and there isn't much for her to do here. Not only that, but Chris would need to become a full-time babysitter and therefore not be able to visit the hospital as often; and if Ethan gets transferred to the NICU, then Emily won't be able to visit at all, which means that Chris wouldn't be able to visit either.
Lisa was nice enough to fly up and bring Emily back home with her. They left this morning for CA. Emily will be in California until mid-December, and return when the entire family will be coming to Alaska. They all originally had plans to come to Kodiak for the baby's "expected due date" and stay through the Holidays. So, Emily will be coming back home with them in December.
In the meantime, I know everyone back home will get plenty of face-time with Emily. And, I'm sure Emily will have a BALL with you all! I'm sure there will be many trips to Disneyland, the Zoo, Aquarium, Park, movies, and even just family visits. She'll be staying with the Fam, and they're going to be doing their best to make sure that Emily gets to see everyone. Call them if you want to babysit or see the lil rascal.
But, back here in Alaska, things will be a little quite without her. I don't think I've been away from her for more than a day or so; and I know it will be hard to talk with her on the phone or via webcam. I get teary-eyed just thinking about it. But, all in all, it's for the best...and I know she will be in good hands.
I'm sure most of you have heard by now...but, yes, we're in the hospital. My water broke Tuesday afternoon, and five hours later, we were in Anchorage. We're at 34 weeks, 6 weeks early, so the doctors were concerned that the baby may not be fully developed. It only took 2 hours to arrange all the emergency travel arrangements to fly to the "big city" in Anchorage - Kodiak is not equip to handle pre-term labor situations, thus the reason we were swooped off to Anchorage.
Emily was excited to go on an airplane, but it was a little stressful knowing that we were about to go on an hour plane ride with a possible 'labor' situation. We arrived safely in Anchorage where it was snowing. We drove straight from the airport to the hospital, only diverting to get a late dinner at Carl's Jr. (We haven't had Carl's in over a year!)
The people at the hospital were waiting for us; they had been expecting our arrival since we left the doctor's office in Kodiak at about 4pm. At this point it was almost 10pm by the time we arrived to the hospital. Emily and Chris stayed at the hospital until about 1am until they went off to the hotel to get some sleep.
The first night in the hospital was extremely difficult and scary. It was FULL of new and terrifying information about the endless complications of having a preemie. The magnitude of this situation hit me hard, and the news coming in wasn't good.
I'll save you all the back-and-forth of information. To cut to the chase, Ethan's lungs are not fully developed and he needs more time "baking in the oven" before he is ready to come out. So, as it is now (2 days later) I'm chilling in the hospital, bedridden, trying not to go into labor. Yes, my water broke days ago, but they're monitoring me closely and giving me a ton of penicillin to prevent any infections. I've got the best doctor in the entire State of Alaska, and I'm not just saying that...she's seriously "the best."
We're hoping to "stay pregnant" for at least another week, and then Ethan will probably have another week in the hospital before we can take him home...this is Best Case Scenario. Worst case scenario...we'll be here till Christmas. We're all hoping for the best and hoping for positive results from each coming test.
Now that we're settled in our "new home" in the Anchorage hospital, I'll try to update the blog as things change.
Yesterday we caught word that the Coast Guard Base received 50 swine flu vaccinations from the State of Alaska. These vaccines were sent for the purpose to be used on Coast Guard Dependents ONLY (USCG spouse's & children.)
The email announcement came through at 4pm yesterday. The "shot clinic" was to be held the following day from 1pm to 3pm....and, remember, only 50 vaccines.
I planned my whole day around this shot clinic. My plan was to leave work at 12:15 and get to the Base by 12:30 so that I could wait in line. All morning long I watched the clock; as soon as noon hit I was packing things up and ready to walk out the door.
I got to the Base a little after 12:30...there were already 2 women waiting, and their combined 4 children. (that's 6 shots already...I was adding in my head.) The Base Clinic closes for lunch, so they were all waiting in the breezeway. Chris went to get Emily out of school so that she too could get the shot and then they joined me. Over the next ten minutes (still a quarter to 1pm) there were about 8 women and their combined 15 children all squeezed into that breezeway waiting for the Clinic to open. (25 shots...including Me & Em)
The hysteria here is crazy. There was an article in the newspaper yesterday talking about how the school district is considering closing all of the schools for a month so that this "bug" stops spreading! So, to hear that someone, anyone had vaccines...YOU BET THERE WOULD BE A LINE!
Once they opened we wrote our names on a list in order of who got there first. However, that didn't do much good because they decided to distribute the vaccine based on "urgency/priority" -- pregnant women first, next care givers, then small children, then older children, and then everyone else.
So, props for being pregnant...I was actually the very first person to get the shot this afternoon. The folks holding the Shot Clinic were so disorganized with this whole mess that we were able to get Emily in there with me, and she got the shot as well. She actually got 2 shots...one in each leg. The seasonal flu and the swine flu. The kicker is...those two shots were just "primer" shots because she hasn't had a flu shot before, so we need to go back in a month and do it all over again for her. (Hopefully they'll have more by then.)
Thank God this all worked out! My boss was there as well to get the shot, but she is considered a "care giver" and therefore she is a "second priority" - she said she was waiting there for 2 hours! When we had left the building and went back through the lobby there were at least 50-70 people in there all waiting - and this was at 1:30pm by the time we were done. They DEFINITELY had to turn people away!
We woke up, as any normal day. Chris had duty last night, so it was just me and Emily this morning. I planned on going to work late so that she could sleep in a bit this morning, but as soon as 8:30am hit - my phone was blazing with call, after call, after call. My phone actually died mid-afternoon because it had too much activity today.
It all started with a phone call from Chris from the Coast Guard Base. He called me to tell me that there was a child at Emily's school with a confirmed case of the Swine Flu. At that point the question becomes: Do we take Emily to school? Chris was on duty still, so he couldn't get off work to look after her...and, although I had a ton of work waiting at the office, I was the only person available to stay home with Emily. Don't worry, Emily isn't sick...but after much discussion, we couldn't take the chance of her getting sick by entering an infected building.
Emily's school is like any other "government agency" - they are very secretive about any diseases spreading through the facility, and they don't say anything to confirm or deny the existence of a widespread disease. The bad part is, however, that we're a small community...their lack of explanation only causes more panic because everyone talks about what's going on!
So, 8:30am this morning I get the swine flu phone call. Which kid is it? Is that kid in Emily's class? Has Emily already been exposed? Should we take her to school anyway? No answers from the school...in fact, no one even picked up the phone at her school. About 6-10 people that work with Chris were pulling their kids from school and taking them home - this only causes more panic! In addition, the school was requesting an emergency closure from the Base Command. It wasn't an environment I wanted to send my child into.
I called the doctor's office to see if we could get a vaccine. Nope. There are NO H1N1 vaccines on the island. I called them a week or so ago about getting a vaccine for myself...at the time they had only 7 vaccines and ALL were gone within 2 hours time. So, the chances of getting an H1N1 vaccine are extremely limited, even though we're in the high risk group. It doesn't matter...there just isn't enough to go around.
The Base suggested getting the regular flu vaccine to help ward off any flu symptoms. I called doctor's office again about getting Emily a regular flu vaccine (I got mine weeks ago) and the earliest I can get an appointment for a flu shot is sometime next week...LIKE IN 10 DAYS! Screw That! We switched doctors...we didn't like that old doctor much anyway. So, the new doctor's office tells us that they don't do flu vaccines for children as young as Emily. We're going to try to go to the Base Clinic tomorrow and beg for a flu shot for Emily...it's our last resort.
A few hours later...Emily and I home for the day...a few hours later I learn that 133 high school students were home sick yesterday with flu-like symptoms, and 60 elementary school kids were home sick with the same thing. Yes, that may not seem like a lot to you - but, we're on an island with only 6,000 people in total...190 kids out of school is SIGNIFICANT!!!!
I also learned that a 3-year old co-worker's child from the Base was airlifted off the island yesterday because his airways closed due to the swine flu that he had contracted. In addition, Wal-Mart is out of Children's Ibuprofen. If Wal-Mart's out of medicine, the island is out of medicine!
This may sound a little silly in your world, but we're on an isolated island. It is a small island and everyone knows everyone. When a "cold" comes to the island, everyone gets sick. It may take a month or two to spread...but, guaranteed, everyone on the island will get sick. It's not like back in California where you can take your chances of encountering someone with the an infectious disease - it is guaranteed that if someone on the island has IT, you will have IT.
I've been an emotional wreck all day today! I've been stuck at home, not being able to do anything but sit here in panic and wait for more information. I can't get any flu shots for my family and the Island is Sick. The only information I have is information of panic. And, being 8 months pregnant, every nerve in my body is shot! I'm on the verge of a meltdown.
It's an epidemic and I am truly scared about "what to do" - I think the scarier thing is that we do not have the resources needed to try to protest ourselves. We're all just waiting to get sick.
This afternoon I got an email from the Coast Guard Command calling this epidemic "FLUCON LEVEL IV" Here's the email as they describe what's happening:
The clinic will begin to use a 5 point influenza condition scale (FlUCON)for future updates detailing our local level:
FLUCON 1- no reported casesCommand response- none needed
FLUCON 2- sporadic cases in the communityCommand response- institute social distancing when able, reinforce need forproper personal hygiene techniques (coughing into sleeve, hand washing, act)
FLUCON 3- sporadic cases in the local Coast Guard populationCommand response- plan for a possible reduction in key personal, personnelare able to either utilize the clinic for sick call or may stay at homeafter notifying their supervisor(preferable)
FLUCON 4- wide spread sustained illness reported in the local Coast Guardpopulation.Command response- consider canceling previously planned large meetings oractivities, institute work from home measures if possible, ill people shouldnot report to the clinic for sick call- the clinic will institute phonetriage of ill people (sick people call 487-5757 ext 155) and they will bedirected to stay home, come in to clinic, or head to the hospital dependingon the severity of their symptoms. However, no one would be turned awayfrom the clinic if the showed up.
FLUCON 5- Widespread contact and death reported in the community or in theCoast GuardCommand response- same as level 4
Based on the above proposed scale, we are at FLUCON 3. (this was before they advanced it to Level 4) I therefore recommend to all commands that you plan for a possible reductionin key personal in the near future, that you continue to encourage socialdistancing when able, reinforce need for proper personal hygiene techniques,and expect that personnel who are ill to come to the clinic for sick callunless you otherwise direct them.This clinic will update you periodically as the situation warrants.
I was cleaning the house the other day, and I just had to take some pictures.
We have worked long and hard making this house "our home" over the last few months. We recently killed the rest of our savings by buying some new furniture that we have wanted for years; and after cleaning, the house just looked so nice - I thought I needed to post some pictures so you all could see. (It was decorated for Halloween.)
This is the main living room area from the front door. It's an odd-shaped room, so it is set up similar to how the previous owners had their furniture arranged.
This is the living room from the other angle. The drapes were left by the previous owners, and they blended with our design, so we kept them.
This is the kitchen. Originally the kitchen was a hunter green and so dark that it looked like a cave. It took us a few days, but we lightened up the walls with a tan-coffee color, and it really accents the wood cabinets much better. We still need to order some sort of blind for that window - it's so large that we'll need to special order something and we haven't decided what to get just yet. You can't see it, but there's a skylight in the ceiling...totally helps keep energy costs down!
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So, those are all the pictures I'll show you for now. Our current projects coming up are the kids' room and the downstairs bathroom. We're hoping to have both those projects completed within the next 2-3 weeks. I'll be sure to post some pictures up when they're ready.
