In the Beginning, Jan 23

Karen had a very normal pregnancy.  She went to all of her Dr. visits and each time everything looked great and our miracle baby looked like a healthy little girl.  Her due date was Feb 5.  Karen usually goes right to her due date so she had filled the last weeks with things to keep her mind off of how uncomfortable things were getting.  Taking the kids sledding on Jan 19th, business mtg on Jan 21, helping in brother's preschool class on the 22, helping sister sell GS cookies and all the other activities a mother does.  The morning came early, 5:00.  Karen began experiencing some contractions.  She got up, ate a small breakfast, showered and wrote in her journal.  All these things were to see if the contractions were going to slow down or go away.  She got sister up and ready for school and the boys breakfast.  All while the contractions kept coming and then she woke-up Clint.  "I don't think these are going to go away, they are getting stronger and harder."  He got up, took sister to school and by the time he got back it was time to go to the hospital.  Karen wasn't anxious to go for fear she would be sent home.  Little did we know what was waiting for us when we got there.

About 10:15am -- Got checked into the hospital and taken to a room to deliver
About 10:50 am --Karen got rushed into the OR because of a prolapsed umbilical cord and baby heart decellerations
11:11 am --Baby born via c-section

Originally it was thought that our MB was without oxygen for 7 min.  Since hearing that initial report we have found out it was probably closer to 12-15 min.  there is really no way to tell exactly because she was still inside and they don't know when it was she stopped breathing.  Here's what we know, when they took her out of Karen she was limp and not breathing, covered in meconium.  The neonatal team had been called in advance to help the baby.  They worked for a solid 5 min before seeing a sinus rhythm.  It as a faint blip on the screen and one of the NP's said they should keep going.  (They are within rights to stop CPR at 5 min)  At 7 min they saw the blip again and at that time the head Neonatologist said at 10 min they have to stop.  at 9.5 min MB's heart started beating.  We don't know if that's when she took her first breath or not.  Until we get all the reports back we won't know a lot of time stuff.  It was determined that she was born with severe Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)  She was also born having aspirated the meconium deep into her lungs.

By 12:30 pm they had placed a cold cap on her.  there are a few places you can go to learn more about it.  Here is one place that we liked and here is a video done in Pheonix that will explain it much better than we can.