Joshua Glenn Trottier

Joshua was born on January 29 at 6:50 AM. He weighs 8 lbs 7 oz and is 20 inches long.

I started having contractions Thursday afternoon, but they were pretty painless and averaged about 15 minutes apart. Tim called the hospital to get their advice, and they told us to come in to get checked when I was having 6 contractions in an hour. I continued having contractions on Friday, and they averaged about 12 minutes apart. We headed down to Terra's around 4:30 to help with the big move. We weren't there very long, just enough time for Tim to get started on taking Avery's crib apart, when my water broke. Luckily Terra had some old maternity pants in her D.I pile that fit pretty well, so off we went to the hospital. Tim drove like a maniac to get us there quickly, which I really appreciated since I now knew what real contractions felt like. We checked in around 6:45 and I was dilated to a 2 at that point. My contractions were about 4 minutes apart now, and they asked if I wanted my epidural yet. I knew I wanted it eventually, but I felt like it was a little too early. I toughed it out until the next check where I was dilated to a 4. I opted for the epidural because my contractions were pretty horrible, and it was like heaven when it finally kicked in. Tim took a nap while we waited, and I tried unsuccessfully to take one myself. I was beyond uncomfortable with the epidural IV in my back, antibiotic IV in my left wrist, 3 hospital bracelets on my right wrist, and completely numb legs. The nurse came in to check me again a few hours later and I was dilated to a 6. I tried a lot of things to keep me distracted, and none of them worked. Four hours later....Finally the moment we'd been waiting for! I was dilated to a 10 and the nurse told me it was time to start pushing. I pushed without the doctor for about 45 minutes, then the doctor came and I pushed for another 15 minutes. A couple of nurses from NICU came because Josh had swallowed some miconium before he arrived.



I fed him for the first time about an hour after he was born and he did a great job eating. They took him to the nursery for a bath while I was moving into our new room. They brought him in to eat again, but this time he was not the least bit interested. When the nurse came in to check on both of us she noticed he was breathing much quicker and more shallow than usual, so she took him back to the nursery to run some tests on him. Tim came back a while later to let me know that they were moving him from the nursery to NICU because of his breathing problems. We went to visit him in NICU, which was a traumatizing experience for me. He had an IV in his head, an oxygen box over his face, and a lot of monitors connected to him.




They called a specialist in to look over his chest x-rays, and she came to explain what they had found. He had a pneumothorax, which is when there is a buildup of air in the space between the lung and the chest wall. She said she was going to put a catheter in his umbilical cord, and if it didn't start to heal itself she would need to put a chest tube on both sides of his body. She expected that he would need to stay in the NICU for an additional 8 to 10 days. The only good news she gave us was that there was a 100% chance of recovery, and that this wasn't a life-threatening problem. That was definitely a relief, but I was still an emotional mess. Tim and I both got minimal sleep last night, but luckily we woke up to good news. The tear in his lung was starting to heal itself, and the doctor was pretty confident that he wouldn't need the chest tubes after all. He is still slowly improving, enough that they took out the umbilical catheter and moved him from the incubator to a crib. He still has an oxygen tube and an IV since he can't eat, but they told us this afternoon that since his breathing is starting to level out they are going to try and bottle-feed him at 3:00 AM. We are praying that he will eat a lot since that is one of the biggest factors in being able to bring him home. He has another chest x-ray scheduled at 5:00 AM, and we are anxiously waiting to here if anything else has changed. We appreciate everyone that said prayers on his behalf, and ask that you continue to do so for the next few days. I will post another update as soon as we know more.