Camping

We returned home to Kelowna on the last Friday of July. The kids and I went shopping and got things together for our next expedition - camping at Shushwap. It seemed like a good idea when we booked the campsite in April, but I was now beginning to question our decision. We completed our preparations Saturday morning and headed up north for our family vacation on Saturday afternoon. The kids were a little disappointed that they had to endure another 2 1/2 hours in the car, but they were excited to get to the campground. Fortunately, Ted and Rosemary and some of Brendon's other family had helped to set up our camp before we arrived. Apparently, our new tent wasn't very popular among the assemblers. My biggest concern coming into the vacation was the potential campfire smoke. This had not been a problem for the past several years due to fire bans across the province; however, after a mild beginning to the season this year, the parks would not invoke the same ban. From past experience, the Scotch Creek campsite gets extremely smoky when the campfire ban is not in effect. I had not anticipated this when we booked our site in April as we had been promised a hot dry summer. Sure enough, the smoke was intolerable. I was prepared to go home for the remainder of the vacation, however, I worried about Brendon taking care of the three kids by himself, and I didn't want to miss out on the kids vacation. Brendon and I discussed our options and checked with the park ranger. We finally decided that I would spend the nights in an overflow area that was removed from the main campground and where the air was clear. We got special permission from the park for me to park there overnight and sleep in the car. We all felt much better about this arrangement, although it was rather inconvenient and my sleeps were less than ideal. Still I enjoyed spending some alone time at night lying down and feeling the baby move. By the following Saturday I was pretty much done with camping. All of our clothes were dirty, we were out of food and I was now completely exhausted. Although we were booked until Tuesday morning we made the decision to go home early. One week was plenty of time for beaches, boating, and camping. I looked forward to getting home and getting some much needed rest in my own bed. We arrived back in Kelowna at midnight and spent a few hours unpacking. That night I had the best sleep I had had in several weeks. We went to church the next day and relaxed. We went for a family walk on the beach and noticed how warm the Kelowna waters felt. We were excited to spent the next 4-6 weeks getting the house organized, preparing for back to school and getting ready for the baby.

That night after getting the kids to bed I went and laid down on my bed. Usually this was the time that I felt Sayde most active. I laid there for 20 minutes waiting to feel her move. When I didn't feel anything I started to get concerned. I began to think back on the day to remember when I had last felt her move. The last time I could recall was at about 11am at church. I remember reading a post on a talk forum about a month earlier from a mom that was concerned about lack of fetal movement. I thought at the time that the mom was being overly cautious. The fellow posters had encouraged her to go in to get things checked out. Although everything was fine, she relayed her positive experience and how the hospital staff had been supportive of her decision to come in. I expressed my concern to Brendon and he initially brushed it off saying - "she is probably just sleeping ... you have an ultrasound booked in a week .... they can check it out then." I had already experienced the tragedy that can occur in a week. I responded by saying that she could be sleeping or she could be dead!!! (I tend to be blunt like that) Brendon agreed that for my own sanity maybe we should go in a get things checked. What we didn't want was to wait in emergency for 4 hours and come home 6 hours later even more exhausted. Brendon called into the hospital to check what would happen if we went in. He was told that we would be sent right to maternity for monitoring. We decided to go to get it checked out. Brendon's cousin Bobby came over to be with the kids and we headed for the hospital. Within a few minutes they had me hooked up to a monitor and we were relieved to hear the heartbeat. The nurse monitored the baby for over 20 minutes and during that time we were able to explain the history of the pregnancy. After 20 minutes the nurse expressed some concern that there was little variation in the heart rate. She suggested having me monitored overnight and then having me sent for an ultrasound and biophysical in the morning. Brendon went home to relieve Bobby and I tried to get comfortable for another night not in my own bed. I suddenly felt a really strong contraction. The nurse came rushing back in and showed immediate concern. The heart rate fell to 60 or 70 and took several minutes to work it's way back to normal. Apparently this is cause for significant concern. The nurse told Brendon several days later that this desat along with the lack of fetal movement indicated that the baby was not getting enough oxygen and that it was going into preservation mode by not moving. This combined with Sayde's history of hypoxia was a emergent concern. Rebecca, the nurse, called the doctor on call and the OB on call. The two doctors reviewed the monitoring sheets and quickly made the the decision to perform an emergency c-section. The OR was free so they began to do the blood work and prepare the IV for surgery. I called Brendon at 2:15 and he quickly came back to the hospital. I began to go into shock with all of the needles and tried to hold it together to sign away my life and make other important decision while the doctors quickly debriefed me on what was about to happen. I have never had surgery before and was completely terrified. I felt like I was taken to the top of a cliff and pushed off. I was extremely concerned about Sayde as things did not look good and I thought there was a good chance that we could loose her. If she did live - every doctor I had talked to so far had told me he chances at 33weeks would not be good. Yet, it seemed as though there was no other choice. As I was wheeled into the OR I felt like I needed to be at peace and trust the doctors. Brendon arrived around 2:30 and by 2:58am on Monday August 8th 2011 Sayde let out her first cry. This was the most beautiful sound I had heard as I knew that this first cry was so important for her. I wanted her to cry, to suck, and to be pink. Her apgar was 8/10 - I couldn't have been happier. She weighed 3lbs 12 oz which looked bigger than I thought it would. I told Brendon to stay with Sayde. I asked the Anaesthesiologist if he could see the other baby at all. He told me there was not much to see, so I left it at that. I sat in recover for several hours and was finally taken up to see our precious Sayde. She was so beautiful and perfect. She had been breathing on her own from the beginning, with only a little supplemental oxygen which they quickly discontinued. She had already overcome so many obstacles and exceeded every expectation. We were told to expect to be there at least until 37weeks. Her requirement for discharge were: 1) to maintain her oxygen sats and heart rate 2) to talk all of her feeds orally and 3) to maintain her temperature. She was placed in an incubator and hooked up to an IV for antibiotics and a monitor to assess her oxygen sats, pulse rate, and heart rate. We were initially told they she would spend the first few days taking her feeds by NG, since 33weekers are not typically successful at breastfeeding. Within a few hours Sayde breastfed for the first time. The nurses were amazed. They inserted an NG tube just in case, but after Sayde pulled it out for the 3rd time they didn't bother putting it back in. Neurologically she presented normally. Dr. Ranchod, the pediatrician ordered a cranial ultrasound for the next day.