Melissa & Baby Amiayah

Baby girl Amiayah Kaylee Belle was born yesterday, January 15th at 5:38pm weighing in at 4 pounds 6 ounces!

Now here is the story....

Melissa called me around 3:30 yesterday afternoon. She was on her way to the hospital and told me that she was in a lot of pain. She was more concerned about Kiara and someone getting her from daycare and I told her not to worry - that I would do it! Even though I didn't have an extra car seat or know where day care was....but I remained calm. ;0) Luckily - Scott was able to bring home a car seat and directions so Leslie and Billy went to get her while I got Taylor and rushed over to the house.

While I was on my way to the Bradley's, talking to Leslie, she told me that Melissa had been admitted and was "screaming" for drugs! Ummmm......who in their right mind wouldn't be!?! Dear Crazy! They had done a sonogram shortly after she got there and everything looked to be ok so they wanted to monitor her for a little while.

We were getting little updates here and there but it was when Scott called to tell us that she had been rushed into an emergency C section because they thought the placenta had detached from the uterus and the baby was in stress due to the cord being wrapped around her neck a few times - my heart just sank. At that point I told Ben that I would be skipping bowling, made sure it was ok with Leslie, and I left to go to the Hospital to join Scott, Billy and 2 of Melissa's friends who were already there.

By the time I arrived the surgery was long over. The baby had been delivered - she was not breathing when they took her out but they were able to resuscitate her. Because of the placenta detaching from the uterus - Melissa had some bleeding they had to get under control while in surgery but that was taken care of as well by this point and she was in recovery. This is the point where I learned that Baby Amiayah was in the NICU being prepped for transport to Children's Hospital. After the initial shock left me - Scott explained that she was going to Children's because they have a "cooling unit" that the baby required to help bring down her body temperature. Apparently - during labor - both Melissa and the baby's blood pressure got pretty high - thus making the brain too warm. Melissa was not aware that her baby was being prepped for transport and ended up finding out by accident when a nurse called to ask her nurse to ask Melissa for permission for the transport. Obviously this didn't go over so well and Melissa was drugged and confused. She gave the permission and they promised they she would be able to see Amiayah before she left.

Once Melissa was out of recovery and had some time with Buck and Scott, myself and her two friends - Nicole and Carrie were able to go in and see her. Needless to say - she was not herself but was handling the situation very well. She's a STRONG one! Little by little - her and Buck's other friends and family came by to share their love. Around 8:30-8:45ish the Children's Hospital Transport Team (4 of them) brought Baby Amiayah to meet her mommy. She is PRECIOUS! It was too short of a visit - especially considering it was the first time Melissa had even seen her but it was special none the less. Carrie was able to get a few pictures.......

So this morning after working for a few hours - I headed back to the hospital. When I got there - Melissa had talked to a nurse at Children's and learned that Amiayah had been taken off the respirator and was breathing on her own! GREAT NEWS!!! She spoke to the doctor that was in charge of the cooling unit and that's when we learned what was explained above on why she was in it and would be for 3 days. Also - the APGAR test done at Reston was scored a 1 and when it was redone at Children's - she scored a 7 so they were very pleased with the progress over the night and early morning. I spent most of the day with her, Scott, Leslie and Billy. She's doing amazing! She's walked to and from the bathroom and those of you that have had a C section understand what an accomplishment that is. Once she was moved into her post partum room she was asking to walk around the hallways to help her start her recovery process.

Right before I left this afternoon - Melissa talked to Children's again to find out that Amiayah was very active! She has an EEG hooked to her to monitor brain activity and make sure she wasn't having any seizures -so far so good. Originally - she was told the baby would have to stay there 3-4 weeks but she was told that it was looking more like 1! YAHOOO! She is scheduled to have a Neuro scan and MRI at the end of her stay so we've got our fingers crossed she will be home sooner rather than later.

Melissa and Buck send their thanks along for everyones prayers and well wishes! I will post more updates as I get them.

K