Little Layne

Happy Sunday Bumpers! (Can I call y’all that? Did it only sound good in my head? Whoops!) anyways! I am so glad you are here. Today is officially the first day of our new series “Birth Blogs”! I am so giddy. I won’t blab for too long I just wanted to preface this first birth story before we dive in. Today Rebecca shared her story of birthing her sweet babe Layne. I found Rebecca scrolling through FB one day and this adorable picture of Layne popped up ⬇️so naturally. I did the totally not at all creepy thing and reached out knowing I needed to hear the story and share it here if she was up for it. Thankfully she was!! I was so excited! I’ve gotten to know Rebecca over the last few weeks and I adore her! So without further blabber from me here’s the story. Told from her point of view in her own sweet words. “okay before I start my birth story I’d like to say I had thee BEST pregnancy! I ate what I wanted and gained 50 pounds 🙈 but I was so so happy! My fiancé and I tried for 6 months to have a baby and I know to some that’s nothing but when it finally happened we were so excited! Excited to the point that after I peed on the pregnancy test and it was positive I ran into our living room waving it in his face.

On March 1st (our due date) I chose to be induced. I was so so uncomfortable and had a lot of hip pain. I was induced at 5:30 pm Wednesday night. I have to giggle writing this because we got to our room in the hospital and Marcus (my fiancé) had all his snacks laid out and his labor outfit on ready to roll. We had a very relaxing night Tuesday slowly letting my body get ready. I had some mild to strong contractions but we had the best bath tub in our bathroom at the hospital and I soaked in it about 5 times to help relieve the pain. I was also given pain medicine to help me rest. My OB wanted to take it slow and I was okay with that. On Thursday morning my OB, Dr. Osuebi came in to check me and I was ONLY 3 cm. He decided to break my water and get things rolling. I knew my contractions were getting stronger and I thought I could “tough it out” nope I asked for the epidural right away. My sister Sarah showed up for support right before my epidural. (My sister is my best friend. She acted as my mom growing up and I am thankful to have her by my side through life and during labor especially!) Marcus hates needles so Sarah sat and held me while I got it. I LOVED my epidural, it didn’t numb me completely but enough were I could enjoy the process but feel what I was doing. It was about 10:30 am when I got my epidural, Marcus and my sister sat with me all day through my contractions which were so so uncomfortable! It wasn’t painful but a lot of pressure and I could feel my catheter which I hated. I started to get a fever at 4:00pm so my doctor started me on some antibiotics. I was eating ice and had a fan on me I felt so out of it and so tired. Finally around 6:00 I felt a burst of energy and was feeling better but a lot more pressure down there. The nurse checked me and called my doctor in I was 9 cm almost 10 and they wanted me to start to push. Marcus held my left leg and my sister held my right, they were my support system and cheered me on. I felt like such a rock star they were telling me how good I was doing along with the nurses and my doctor. Along with every woman giving birth I asked if I pooped like 10 times lol no poop though. I don’t know why I was embarrassed my people had already seen it all. After 45 minutes of pushing our sweet little boy Layne had arrived. I remember laying my head back and thinking WE did it. I looked at Marcus and said it out loud WE did it and he said no babe YOU did it! But honestly I couldn’t have done it with out him or my sister. Layne cried right away and my doctor wiped him down quick and laid him on my chest. That moment is one I will NEVER forget. I protected this precious babe inside me for 9 months and there he was on my chest in our crazy world. Marcus cut the umbilical cord and then the nurses took Layne away to weigh and measure him. While they were doing that my doctor told me to push some more and out came my placenta, I asked to look at it and it was amazing. It’s crazy what our bodies are capable of!

They gave Layne back to me to breast feed. A nurse was showing me how to hold him and Marcus was on the food ordering us some food (we hadn’t eaten in 10 hours) after he got off the phone he joined me by the bed and looked at me and said “why is he breathing so hard?” In my head I just thought he just came out of my body I’m sure he’s tired. Marcus didn’t feel right about it and went and got a nurse, she swooped him away to the warmer to get his heart rate and oxygen level. The warmer kept alarming and the oxygen reader was alarming as well. My heart dropped like what is going on why is it making that noise. Layne started crying and that made us even more worried. The nurses kept saying “oh this reader isn’t working correctly we will try another” and then the next one wasn’t working……the took him out of the room to the nursery. Marcus and I stared at each other and I told him to go with Layne. I sat alone in our room for 10 minutes. 10 MINUTES! Finally Marcus came in crying….I knew it was bad. Why was he crying? He said “they are flying Layne to Rochester” I asked why and the doctor told him that Layne’s oxygen levels were low and his heart rate was high and they could hear a murmur.

I was mad. I was upset and I couldn’t use my legs to move at all.

Why didn’t we know this before he came into this world? What did I do wrong? Did I eat something I shouldn’t have!?

So many questions and so many emotions.

A nurses helped me into a wheel chair. I was confident I could help and use my legs. Nope. No help at all my epidural was still in full effect.

They wheeled me to the nursery to join Marcus and Layne. It was a mad house but calm at the same time. Layne was in a warmer with the anesthesiologist and 3 nurses around him. Dr Slama, Laynes pediatrician was there and explained to me that he heard a murmur and wanted him to go to St Mary’s Rochester mayo. I wanted to go with him, I asked to go with him. I spoke with my doctor and told me to wait until morning to leave. We spoke with a surgeon on video chat in the nursery from Rochester and he said he wanted to be safe than sorry and wanted to see Layne. I got to hold him. Marcus and I both crying not knowing what our future was going to be. If we would be able to take our baby home with us or not.

He left with his mom to go to Rochester

before the helicopter arrived. I went back to my room to finish my antibiotics from my fever and the pitocin. The helicopter arrived and they put Layne in a warmers and brought him into my room to say bye. I had to sign some papers I didn’t even read because I didn’t care I’d do anything for him and I wanted them to do anything they needed to, to help him.

Marcus texted me at 1:00 am to let me know they arrived in Rochester and by 2:00am they performed a echocardiogram on our sweet baby and discovered he had Transposition of the great arteries.

I left the hospital at 9:30 am and drove home to pack clothes to join Marcus and Layne in Rochester. (2 hour drive from where we live)

I was in pain I just gave birth (no tear ) thank god.

But still in pain and tired but nothing was going to stop me. My amazing sister drove me to Rochester. When we got there I remember walking to the hospital and getting in a wheel chair. It was slow motion the rest on the way getting in the elevator and going up to the 3rd floor to the NICU.

Layne had a procedure before I arrived to open a valve to help the blood flown in his heart. So when I got there he had a breathing tube in. Seeing my baby hooked up to machines was so hard. I know he needed there help but I hated it. I hated seeing them.

On the 6th of March Layne had open heart surgery to correct his defect. The word defect is hard to hear but it was there.

They took him away at 8:30am it was the hardest goodbye we’d ever make. We sat in the waiting room with our families for 12 hours. Layne was in surgery for 9.

The whole day is a blur. I remember doing puzzles and the nurse calling every 2 hours with an update.

Dr Said, Layne’s surgeon finally came out to tell us about surgery and said it went great but they were unable to close his chest due to swelling from being on by pass.

2 hours later a nurse finally came out and took Marcus and I back to see Layne. We were so exited but as soon as we saw him our hearts stopped. His chest was open. We could see his heart beat. He could see his heart! He was swollen, hooked up to so many tubes and IV’s and monitors. They told us to leave and get some rest. It was hard to leave him looking that way. No parent wants to see there child hurt. I wanted to take all of his pain away.Marcus and I came home half way through our stay away in the ICU to get some more clothes and having to walk into the house and look at laynes nursery was the hardest thing ever. We came home without him. No parent expects to go home without there baby. It made it that much better when we did get to bring him home!

Fast forward to the 19th of March we went home. We got to bring our baby home ❤️ of course on a few medications but NO pain medicine. How amazing is that, that his little body didn’t need it. We had Tylenol and were told to give as needed.

During our time in the ICU and NICU we learned that TGA is a congenital heart defect and is the second most common heart defect. It occurs at only 8 weeks of pregnancy. Nothing we did wrong just a defect when the heart formed.

Layne will see a cardiologist for the rest of his life and hopefully no more open heart surgeries.

On April 28th he had an echo and we learned his heart is working like it should be. A valve is leaking and he was narrowing in his coronary arteries already. On the 9th of may we go back to Rochester for a chest CT to figure out our next step.

It doesn’t matter what our next step is because Layne is SO strong. So so strong. He can do anything now I truly believe that. What he has gone through is so tough and it makes me so sad but proud because HE DID IT. He came out on top and will continue to do so!

At my 6 week check up my doctor asked if I wish I knew about Layne’s condition before birth. Honestly? No. I had the best pregnancy and because of his amazing dad noticing his breathing it was handled in a timely manner and Layne is okay.

-Rebecca Kaak

Y’all.

This story made me bawl. The amount of love and fight that poured through Rebecca’s words…makes my heart explode no matter how many times I read it. I am so honored that she let Bump to Babies share her story and even more honored this is how we got to kick off the Birth Blog series. You can go to our social media’s (@bumptobabies) to see more pictures and follow along with our whole series as well!Make sure to subscribe below so you’re in the loop and if you’d like your birth story to be featured see the image below! This whole series makes my heart happy and I hope this is a community showcasing just how amazing all of our mamas are! See you next weekend!