Baby Aiden is here

After a fun and relaxing night with the family, I woke up the next morning on Thursday July 28th with my water breaking. Greg and I were in the car thirty minutes later and on our way to Ann Arbor. We were full of nerves while driving up and thankfully I did not start to contract until we were 45 minutes away from the hospital. After checking in at the hospital I found that I was about 3 cm dilated but my contractions were not strong so they started me on Pitocin. Not fun! It took many hours to get to 7cm and then 30 minutes later I was at 10 cm and ready to push. They wheeled me into the OR because they need more room. About 15 people were in the room doing various things for me and the baby. After about 8 pushes, Aiden James Reed arrived at 8:23pm weighing 6 pounds and 8 ounces and 20 inches in length. Greg and I got a quick glimpse of him and he was immediately whisked away to the Pediatric team. Aiden did pretty well for the first 2 hours of his life on a ventilator but after struggling they decided to  put him on the ECMO machine.
I had some complications as well after the birth. They could not locate all of the placenta and the OB team went through 4 different OB doctors trying to find it. They then decided that the best way to get it out would be a D & C. They tried that option and that did not work. The team of OB doctors then talked with me about my options on how to locate the rest of the placenta and they were not good choices:
1) Chemotherapy 2) a procedure much like a C-section to search for the missing placenta 3) Hysterectomy. None of these choices were one that I wanted to attempt but I went with #2 hoping that #3 would not be the option that would happen. They put me to sleep and after 3 hours of surgery they were able to find the missing tissue and close me up. I was a mess and so was Greg. This is definitley not something we wanted to be dealing with on top of everything that we were already dealing with with Aiden.
After my surgery, I was in recovery until 3 am. My parents rushed up to Michigan and were able to see me in recovery and see Aiden the next morning. Today has been an emotional day because I have had lots of pain due to my surgery and have felt dizzy and nauseated throughout the day. Greg has been with Aiden off and on throughout the day and I finally was able to see him in the afternoon. I was only able to stay with him for a short amount of time due to feeling nauseated. He is so beautiful! The spitting image of Cole at birth and I have lots of pictures that Greg and I took today but will post tomorrow. Greg and I both went back after we ate dinner. We stayed with him for over 2 hours and met some of the wonderful NICU team. They have been so kind and caring. Aiden is doing pretty good on ECMO but has started to look very puffy. This is pretty typical because of all the fluids and medicine they have him on. It is very overwhelming when you see him because of all the wires, tubes and machines but I know this is what he needs to keep going. The ECMO nurse was cleaning his ECMO cannula tubing tonight and he was making some funny faces while she did this. It was so exciting to see this since he is heavily sedated so that he doesn't move around because of all the wires. Greg and I cradle the top of his head when we see him and talk to him a lot since we cannot hold himbecause too much stimulate would be bad. I cannot wait to him tomorrow. He is just too adorable!

Good news: Greg and I were able to get into the Ronald McDonald House today. Bad news: Someone has to stay there each night or risk losing our room so I am staying at the hospital tonight by myself and Greg is at RMD House. Good news: I met a woman tonight that I have been following her blog since March when her daughter was born with CDH (not known until after birth. Her daughter is actually in the same NICU room as Aiden. I was happy to see her and I know she will be so helpful to our family.

Cole is also doing well as he has been busy with going to the babysitter, playing with his friends and spending the night with Mimi and Uncle Luke. He has been doing so well with his potty training and hope that it continues to go well. Lindsay, Luke, my mom and dad have been so helpful throughout all of this and I cannot thank them enough. Thank you to all our friends and family members for prayers and support through all of this. Please keep the prayers coming as Aiden really needs them right now!