Thanks for all the prayers, good wishes and thoughts! They sure came through! I am home - I was discharged Wednesday around 5pm and Mike and I went straight to pick up Lillian from daycare. It was sooooo good to see her and get some much needed snuggles and kisses. We didn't let her come see mommy in the hospital.
Joseph Allan Kerschen's delivery proved to be every bit as difficult as the doctors were preparing for - and thank God they were prepared. They truly saved my life. It's hard to admit how very scary last Friday was for my family and I'm so sorry to have put them through so much! It appeared everything was fine - the docs were able to "save my uterus" and I appeared to come through just fine. Moments after wheeling my bed up to Labor & Delivery things took a dramatic turn. I lost a ton of blood (about 2 humans worth!). All in all I took 13 pints of blood, a few bags of plasma, platelets and other things I didn't know I needed! (GIVE BLOOD WHEN YOU CAN!!! PLEASE) I had a few scary conditions that I also don't fully understand - something called HELLP syndrome, DIC which could have led to liver and kidney function failure. Everyone says I am doing amazingly well. The hospital is really thrilled with my progress. I do have a wound vac (a gross little contraption suctioning out my cesarean wound to keep infection down). I have to wear it on my shoulder like a purse all day and night. It's proving to be a good little reminder to me that I'm not out of the woods and I need to take it easy. For now - I am very restricted on visitors....the risk of infection is really severe for the next few weeks. We will be laying low but hope to see all or most of you very soon. ENOUGH about me!!!!
On to Jak! Joseph Allan Kerschen was born last Friday at 10:14 AM - he was 4 pounds 5 ounces and perfect in every way! He is performing like a champ. Never needed oxygen, breathing fine on his own. He has passed his birth weight and is gaining faster than expected. His big challenge for the week has been proving he can maintain his body temp and digest his food - which he's doing much more rapidly than they expected. He is graduating from an isolette to an open crib today. If he continues to keep this up we should have him home by Monday at best. I am pumping furiously and producing milk. :) A pretty big miracle considering I lost all those good pregnancy hormones with my blood loss. I am not producing enough to feed him solely but that should come with time. The hospital lets me nurse Jak when I visit while he gets fed through a tube in his nose. He has a great little suck already and seems to enjoy nursing. Otherwise I bring in syringes of milk and they feed it to him with his feedings.
I tire pretty easily but I am stronger every day. Can't wait to get Jak home and hunker down with Mike and our two beautiful children! We are so blessed. Love to all of you! Courtney
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