Tripp's Birthday

It all started on Tuesday, May 11th, I noticed Tripp wasn't moving like normal, but he was still moving some. I didn't get extremely concerned until I woke up Wednesday morning and he was in the same position as he had been when I went to bed. So I got something to eat, drank a glass of cold tea and laid on my left side to try to get him to move. Didn't work. By this time Josh had woke up and was getting worried. So I went ahead and got a shower and called the doctor's office when I got out hoping they were open. Once I explained what was going on, they sent me straight over to Shands Lake Shore. We got there at 8:00a and they got us hooked up on the monitors and we heard the most beautiful noise in the world, Tripp's heartbeat. At this point, we figured worse case scenario they would send me home on bed rest and tell me to take an easy. Boy, were we wrong! Tripp's heart rate began to decelerate, it would come back up on its own, but it was taking longer than they liked. So I they started an IV with fluids, turned me on my left side, and put me on oxygen. None of this seemed to help. So they went ahead and gave me a shot of betamethasone, which would help Tripp's lungs to mature some, just in case they did have to deliver him. Dr. Greene came over and did an ultrasound to check him out. Everything looked ok except for he wasn't moving as much as he should and he also wasn't practice breathing like he was supposed to be. She was going to try to transfer us to Shands UF but wanted to watch Tripp to make sure he was stable enough to make the ride in the ambulance. Apparently he had no intentions of making that ride just yet because he dropped his heartrate a few more times. Plans changed quickly to an emergency c-section and Tripp was born at 11:49a. He weighed 2 lbs. 1 oz. and was 13 in. long. When he was born they had to rescucitate him as he was not breathing. Thankfully, they were able to get him breathing and intubated since his lungs weren't mature enough yet. Among being premature he also has a small cleft lip, 2 vertebra the did not form correctly in his thoracic area, a small hole in the ventricular wall of his heart (VSD) and esophageal atresia, which means his esophagus is not connected to his stomach. With all of these abnormalities they have diagnosed him with the VACTERL or VATER syndrome which is a list of seven abnormalities that can occur and a person must have atleast 3 to be diagnosed with it. Thankfully all of these things are fixable and/or manageable! So Tripp could start feedings, they placed a gastronomy tube (g-tube or feeding tube) into his stomach a few days before he was 3 weeks old. Since that time he has gained almost 2lbs and grown and inch in length. :)