Video of Katie at Landstuhl NICU a few hours after birth. Watch for the bubble:
"Finally at home in my crib at Incirlik in Turkey! Turkey....where the hell is Turkey? Why am I in Turkey? Listen and you can hear my pacifier click."
I'll tell the story later. A few pics for now:
Just an hour or so after birth. NICU has placed a bow in Katie's hair and tried to make her comfortable as possible:
First day out of hospital...and first smile! Great to see - gas or not:
First pediatric appointment. "I am really bored and don't want to be here." Just prior to this shot Katie had tried to lift her head and look at Karen. This caused her to look like she was rolling her eyes and then she fell into her favorite contemplative position:
To start with, we want to make sure everyone knows Katie is just fine. She has been released from the Landstuhl hospital and has been staying with us in lodging since Thursday night. I have a ton of pictures but will again have to wait for posting as I can not load from this computer at the Landstuhl library. So here is the story of Katie Marie's birth...
Karen and I checked in to Labor and Delivery around 5:30 PM on Sunday, 13 July 2008. Karen was scheduled to be induced. Now, I want to say before I start that EVERYONE we dealt with concerning the birth was fantastic. but there were some interesting moments that we can laugh about now. To begin with, when we checked in, we still weren't sure if they were going to induce with a gel or a a "fully bulb" or "fully bowl" - I'm not sure how you pronounce it, but basically it's a little balloon they stick up a pregnant women's hoo-ha and slowly inflate to induce labor. Karen was reluctant to go the hoo-ha route. So we get settled in the room and we hear this guy outside our door say, "OK I'm going in - wish me luck." Then this 18-year old kid walks in and says "I'll be getting you started." So we are thinking he's going to insert the balloon. Karen says, "Have you ever done this before?" The kid answers back "Well, I did one earlier today." Fortunately, we learned he was only talking about starting the IV - but his experience wasn't much better with the IV. He stuck Karen two or three time and could not find a vein. Then the nurse came in and tried - same results. Turns out Karen has small veins up by the wrist and they had to call the anesthesiologist and have them find the vein. During this time they also checked Karen's dilation and told us they preferred to use the gel and not the balloon. Karen was agreeable to that. So they got the gel in, started the IV, and also started Karen on Patosum (spelling?), a medication that also helps increase contractions. This is when it got interesting.
Karen wanted to wait as long as she could for the epidural. When you get the epidural you loose all leg movement. So for quite a while we continued without the epidural. The only problem was we expected to get some sleep. However, they would come in and do a check on Karen every hour or so, and when they did the internal checks it made her have to go to the bathroom. So neither of us slept more than 10 minutes the first night. As daylight rose on the 14th, Karen's contractions became more intense and she finally reached around 4-5 centimeters dilation. Around this time Karen asked for the epidural. I think they tried 2-3 times at this point. But the first insertion didn't seem to go where they wanted and when they finished they were still uncertain if they had a good spot. The epidural is somewhat of a chance procedure if I understand it correctly. Once they get through the cartilage, it's kind of a roll of the dice that the wire will go the direction they want and evenly distribute the medication. Karen's hit her left side perfectly, but she still felt everything in her right side. As the contractions became stronger, they tried different thing like rolling her to one side to get the pain meds to shift. Nothing seemed to work and it got to a point in the afternoon where she was feeling every contraction intensely. They offered to readminister the epidural but Karen was reluctant to go through all that a second time. She settled for having some form of alternative narcotic administered through the epidural. That also had no effect. I don't remember exact time but I remember thinking Karen went through four hours of intense contractions every sixty seconds without the epidural working. Finally, she said she didn't think she could take much more and asked for the epidural to be reattempted. It was much more difficult to go through the procedure because Karen had lost feeling in one leg and was much more exhausted at this point. But she had to sit up straight on the side of the bed for the epidural to be administered. But we managed to pull it off and this time she was feeling nothing in about a half an hour. We were actually able to snooze for 10-20- minutes at a time for about two hours now. They told us Karen would deliver "...sometime tonight."
Well, she almost made it. Doctor Sewell said Katie didn't want to be born on Bastille Day. The labor started getting more intense and Karen was up in the straps pushing. Very exhausting but no pain. I saw her head about five minutes before she came out all the way, and I remember thinking, "Well she is smaller than I thought." But that was because of the head compression. After, Katie went back up inside, Karen continued to push without getting results. That's when the dod said he might have to consider the vacuum after another 10-20 minutes. It only took karen a few pushes after that comment. When she came out the second time, she kept coming and coming and then I though, "Oh she's actually bigger than I imagined." In reality Katie was quite small at 6.5 pounds but it sure is a lot to come out down there. She has very long legs and big feet. She was born on 15 July 2008, at 4 minutes after midnight.
Earlier we asked what would happen when Katie came out. Would they just hand her to mom and then clean her, or clean her and hand her to mom? The nurse told us they would clean her a little and hand her to mom unless there was a need to address something first, which sometimes happens. We knew something was up when we started seeing two to three other people show up and set up at the side. Then we heard Dr Sewell say, "The chord is around the baby's neck. I had to cut the chord but be sure to make note of that." She was literally white when she came out and didn't cry although I could see arm and leg movement. Then I heard little cries as they took her to the warming table and began to work with a manual oxygen pump and clean her up. The table was only about ten feet from Karen so she could see everything. They seemed to be trying to clear her lungs and getting her to breathe OK. It all happened so fast it was hard to have time to really think. Then they asked me to cut the umbilical chord, which I did. But that made me think everything must be going OK. Then the NICU doc walked over to Karen and said, "I'm going to make this fast. You can kiss her and then I'm going to be gone." And Karen did. And the doc was - gone. In the 5 seconds it took me to decide whether to stay with Karen or go with the baby, they literally had her down the hall and hooked up to tubes and were working on an IV.
It was all very scary but I was able to watch and stay with Katie. About two hours later Karen was able to clean up and make her way down by wheel chair. It was very hard for Karen. They had Katie on breathing assistance, warming, and an IV. Then they had Karen move to the Mother/Baby unit around 4 in the morning. At this point we had been up for almost 48 hours without ever sleeping more than a half hour. I went to back to our hotel room which is less than a quarter mile from the Mother/Baby unit.
I got 4 hours sleep and went back over 9am. Karen had already gotten up and had the nurse wheel her over to NICU. She was able to hold Katie. When I got there we went up again and this time I was able to hold her as well - that's the picture in the previous post. Things were looking much better for Katie. All the tubes had been removed from her nose and she was maintaining her own body temperature. I don't remember a lot of details from this day except that in our mind this was the day after Katie was born, but in reality it was the same day. This really made us loose track of getting sleep. I do remember that we again slept apart on Tuesday night, meeting up again on Wednesday morning.
On Wednesday, they moved Karen and to her own room where I could spend the night with her in a chair. And in the afternoon the moved Katie down to the unit with us! There where and are still things to watch for but we were very happy to have Katie with us. They explained to us that babies are very adaptable during birth. When a chord gets wrapped around a babies neck, they instinctively know to let there lower body organs (liver, kidneys) take a hit so they can protect the brain. They think this is what Katie did. They believe her liver experienced a bit of shock but that the brain was just fine. When she came out she had a hard time breathing but was able to recover from that and they don't see any current problems with the liver - but that will continued to be monitored. Hearing and vision test are just fine. She is a little low on iron right now and receives an extra .3ml per day.
Wednesday night we again got almost no sleep. We were finally all together but in a 15ft x 15 ft room with a bed, a lounge chair, a bassinet, a sink, and a computer stand. It was crowded. I finally left Karen and went across the hall to family lounge and watched TV all night. Luckily, on Thursday morning they said they would release Mom and baby in the afternoon. Good thing. Thursday became really frustrating. I don't blame anyone. Everyone was just so concerned and trying to make sure we were OK. What happened was we would get seen back the lactation nurse, the attending nurse, the Labory and Delivery unit, New Parent Support Program, the technicians for vitals. And they were all so adamant, "You have to feed her every two hours!" But we couldn't because they kept coming in. Finally, I had to say, "Look you all have to stop bothering us - you keep telling us to feed her every two hours but it's now been four because we can't get any privacy." I think that was the trigger that made them rush getting us released, since all tests on Katie were good. So we all ended up free together for the first time around 5PM on Thursday back at the hotel room.
Katie's first visitor outside the hospital was Karen's boss from Edward's Air Force Base, Tom Burkett and his wife Karin. They gave us a card and Katie a pink blanket that Karin calls a "snuggle blanket - because it is cold in Germany." It says, "A star is born."
Katie's first trip was to the Landstuhl dining hall on Friday for lunch. On Sunday she also went to Ramstein's Chili's, the Ramstein BX, and the Vogelway Commissary. We received Katie's emergency passport and Birth Abroad certificate on Friday. Hopefully, Katie will be flying to her new home at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey this coming Wednesday. Pictures to come.
We did make it to Trier today. Probably our last sight-seeing for some time. We saw the Roman ruins from over two thousand years ago and a beautiful Church that was started around 300AD. More details and pictures some other date.
Karen's final NST check was fine and we rest tomorrow and check in on Sunday evening. One and a wake-up. We'll keep you posted........
I was joking to Karen that if you look at our blog, it looks like we are on a giant vacation. Let me assure everyone there is a lot of other stuff going on. Our storknesting sponsor, Robin, has gone exceptionally above and beyond in getting us out of lodging and showing us the area. But we also are spending a lot of time taking care of the things that need to get done.
So today, I'm including just some of the things we are working on a daily basis on, such as...documents. Document, documents, documents! We have to apply for an emergency passport for Katie, a birth certificate for Katie, and a social security card for Katie. Plus, we also have to file a notice of birth abroad and get all of this expedited for through the American consulate and returned as quickly as possible after the birth. The American consulate gladly charges us $150 for that privilege - seems like it should be free for service members on a government directed move overseas. Then, once we get Katie back to Turkey we have to give Turkey $85 to allow Katie to be in Turkey. We have to pay close attention to all these document dates because Turkey is known for giving out one year residency permits that expire just before families are scheduled to leave Turkey forcing the families to purchase a second residency permit they only need for a matter of days to weeks.
Karen is also continuing with regular fetal monitoring at NST. They check the baby's heartbeat and movement along with Karen's blood pressure. All have been fine including Karen's blood pressure which has actually been excellent lately.
We also work on things such as preparing the labor bag, reading up on parenting, and taking care of other necessities. For example, last night Robin and Andy had us over for dinner but we also took the time for Robin to show Karen how the breast pump works and answer any questions Karen had.
On days we stay at Landstuhl, we sleep late, go to NST, each lunch, do our laundry, and try to keep in touch with those we can. Today we see the doctor at 1500 and will ask some last minute questions we have thought of. Then Karen has an NST on Friday. On Sunday, we are back in the evening for Karen to be induced. We don't expect anything to happen until Monday though. Karen and Katie will stay in the hospital a minimum of 48 hours. If all goes well, we would hope Karen and Katie could be released by Wednesday and that we receive our documentation back by Thursday. This would allow us to take the rotator flight back to Turkey a week from this Friday - however, more than likely we will have to wait on some paperwork and would be looking at the following week. We are hoping we can catch a rotator back because this allows to land at Incirlik and not have to catch a civilian flight into Adana.
If we are on base we can chose between three of Landstuhl top 5 dining choices: the Chow Hall, the Community Club, Burger King, Sub Way/Anthony's Pizza, or The Cappuccino Shop...actually those are ALL the dining choices. But we make do and the Chow Hall is quite good for my taste buds.
Tomorrow, the tentative plan is for our Storknesting sponsor to take us to Trier after Karen's NST appointment. Trier is the oldest city in Germany and is located close by near Luxembourg. It was established by the Romans over two thousand years ago.
This gives you a little "behind-the scenes-look" at how we spend a lot of our time. The hospital has fixed some of the computers in the cyber-lounge. Now there are 6 working computers instead of 2. So, hopefully, I'll have a few more posts before Katie arrives.
Karen on The Rhine River.
Karen at the castle overlooking Landstuhl.
Drinking a meter of beer at the Kaieserslautern street festival with our Storknesting sponsors, Robin and Andy - no Karen did not drink.
Eating authentic German food in a small village near Vogelway.
Katie Marie Dwyer continues her vagabond fetus travels - this time exploring the Rhine River for a second time with Daddy Dwyer on hand. Our Storknesting sponsor Robin and her 8-month old, Eve, took Karen and I on the Rhine River cruise again yesterday. We went by car about 50 miles north to Bingen-Rudesheim where we drove the car onto the ferry at Bingen (western side) and crossed over to Rudesheim (eastern side). There are no bridges anywhere to be found on this section of The Rhine. We actually never passed a bridge as we traveled north. The view was amazing - can't wait to post pics. There were at least thirteen castle's along the way. Everything looks like Disneyland except it's real - and it goes on forever. The first bridge was well north of our destination. At Rudesheim we boarded the tour boat which then proceeds north while stopping at most villages along the way. We got off several stops to the north at St. Goar where we had lunch. I had wiener schnitzel, which was essentially a thinly cut pork steak. After lunch we boarded the train and proceeded back down the river on the western side. We exited the train back at Bingen and took the ferry back across to Rudesheim, where the car was parked at. While we waited for the next ferry to get the car back across, we had apple strudel with ice cream and went in the Kathe Wohlfhart store. If you like Christmas - you will LOVE Germany. After all, a huge portion of those American Christmas traditions come from Germany. Kate Wohlfhart represents everything that is related to a German Christmas. You must check out their web site: wohlfahrt.com. Click on the "English" button for translation.
At the end of along afternoon, we crossed back over on the ferry to Bingen and drove back to the KMC (Kaiserslatern Military Community) where we had an authentic German dinner in Vogelway. I had jagerschnitzel and potatoes. The jaegerschnitzel was essentially a thinly breaded pork steak covered in a mushroom sauce. It reminded me of the breaded pork chops my Grandma Sprenger (Mildred Sprenger) used to make. I also actually walked up to the bar and ordered a beer with very little rehearsal. I don't know the spelling but I said something like "Ish mushta ein heffenveizen bitte."
Katie and Karen did quite well. Karen probably walked a good mile. We got a picture of Karen under Kathe Wohlfhart sign - "Kathe" is a German variance for "Katie." We are now scheduled for inducement on Sunday evening. Nothing is expected to happen until Monday. We still have a few more questions which we will be asking the doc this Thursday. We will be sure to keep everyone posted.
OK whoever asked this hasn't been reading the blog very thoroughly. The only computers we have access to are government computers and they do not allow downloading. Unfortunately, it may be a while before anyone sees pregnant Karen pictures. We will get them up as soon as we are able. And also, we have very limited telephone access - if you don't hear from us it's not because we aren't thinking about you. We miss everyone! Happy 4th of July ! ! ! !
Karen climbed a castle in Turkey during her first month of pregnancy and now she has climbed a castle in Germany in her ninth month of pregnancy! Not bad. Karen finally got over her cold today. We ate lunch at the Ramstein O Club and went out to Vogleway Where we bought three German Nutcrackers. Then we came back and found our way to Nanstein Castle (I've also seen it called Sickingen Castle - not sure which is correct), which overlooks Landstuhl village. Karen made it all the way to the top. I have to pull pictures from the web though - no way to download at this point. If you want to read the history of the castle, I found an excellent site by someone named Keith Laney at http://www.keithlaney.net/Legendary_Castles_of_the_Palatinate/Nanstein/castle_nanstein.htm
Another interesting bit of history is that Lanstuhl Regional Medical Center, or at least the land where it is, was developed by The Third Reich as a Hitler Youth School campus in the late 1930's. Supposedly, there are still some buildings left from that but I haven't figured out exactly which ones yet.
Tomorrow we see the doc again and should get a more exact idea about what will happen when. We are not sure if they will want Karen to keep coming in for monitoring as her blood pressure has been perfect the last two times they checked. We will also try to get as much paperwork done as we can tomorrow. there is so much paperwork. Birth Abroad documents, social security card documents, passport applications etc.
A picture of Landstuhl taken from the castle:
Posts
All Comments
