On April 22, 2013 we welcomed Jayden Blake Checketts to our family. Our kids were so excited to be having another brother.
Jumping back to Christmas 2012. Christmas Eve was the evening that the kids found out we were expecting a little brother. They all we so excited. A brother is what they all hoped for. We shared the BOY news with our families Christmas Day via Text Message because Zach, Lyndee and myself came down with the flu Christmas Morning. A Christmas we'll never forget!
Jayden arrived at 8:10am Monday April 22. He was 7lbs, 7oz, and 20 inches long. My labor was short, and the delivery was easy. I pushed twice. His APGAR scores were high, at first, then as we were holding and enjoying him, as he was getting cleaned up right after the delivery, things changed. He no longer was screaming, and was having a hard time breathing. Our NICU nurse Liz took him from me (after asking) and had to put him on 100% Oxygen. Watching his little chest rise and fall with such effort and strain was hard. The Respiratory Nurse was called to the room. After warming him up and getting him weighed and cleaned up all while on oxygen, he and Zach were off to the NICU. I was so strong until they left the room, and man I broke down and started sobbing. My mom was there with me. I am so thankful she was, because I needed that comfort she gave.
I spent 45 min in recovery. During this time I got ahold of a family friend, Teryl Hunsaker who works in the Urology dept. at the Budge Clinic. I asked him if he would be willing to help Zach give Jayden a blessing, and he agreed. After being cleaned up, my nurse wheeled me to the NICU to see Jayden and Zach before going upstairs to rest. It was so hard to see my tiny little baby boy hooked up to all sorts of tubes, wires, and machines. As a mother all you want to do is hold and comfort those you love. Hard I tell you, hard. I was instructed to only touch him, not stroke him, as it puts too much stress on them. Shortly after I arrived, Teryl arrived. We decided on a full name our little baby as we needed it for the blessing. Jayden Blake Checketts. Thinking back I don't really remember all that was said in this blessing, but I do remember being comforted.
After this blessing, and prior to going up to my room I met the neonatologist, who only works once in a while at Logan Regional Hospital, and usually works on Tuesdays, but amazingly just happened to be working a Monday. (Miracle)
Zach stayed with Jayden most of the day, except to take a little nap in my room. After I was able to get up and move around without help, my nurses wheeled me down to the NICU to be with my little man. Zach had gone home to get Lyndee, Alex, and Madi. We didn't know if they would be able to even see him at all that day.
After running lots of blood work, and tests, they wanted to wait for one hour to see if he would have improvement. He failed to have improvement at that one hour mark, and turely was close to needing life flight due to sepsis. This is when I talked with our pediatrician and we agreed to start him on IV antibiotics, as his body was trying to fight some type of infection. They would re-test his blood in 48 hours, after antibiotics to see if he was improving. Time will tell. At this point we were hoping for him to be able to leave the hospital with me when I was discharged.
Zach called me around 5pm to see how we both were doing. I had spent all of the afternoon in the NICU with Jayden. I didn't want to leave him. Curt and Janet stopped by around 5:30 to come see him. They were surprised to see him the way he was, and Janet teared up right when she saw him. While they were there Zach had called and said he'd be bringing the kids up to see me around 6 pm, knowing they wouldn't be able to see him. When they got there our kids had fun in my hospital room.
Right close to 6 pm his nurse came into his room to do his vital signs. He was having a hard time and moaning through all those tubes. She called the Respiratory nurse to come help her. I was thinking, oh NO he is getting worse. I was surprised when she told me that he was moaning because of the tubes, and that they had orders from Dr. McKenna to try him off his oxygen and on room air to see how he would do. I had been told earlier that they were pretty sure he wouldn't be able to go to room air, and that he would need a nasal cannula. I think Jayden surprised us all when he was breathing just fine. The respiratory nurse moved out of the way so I could be by his side. He was able to open up his big eyes and look right at me. This was the first time I was able to see his eyes. Immediately I thought to myself, he looks like my dad , his grandpa (Lee Robinette).
I stayed up at the hospital for an extra day in hopes that he would be able to come home with me when I was discharged. Tuesday morning he had more blood work done, checking to see if the antibiotics were doing the job. When I came down to his room with my mom, early that afternoon, I asked his NICU nurse if his levels came back good, as I haden't heard yet. His nurse said to me, "They were bad, like he will need to be here for a week bad!) My heart sank. I honestly over the last 12 hours really thought he was improving. We were so upset he wouldn't be coming home, but we knew that he needed to be there to get better. Later that evening while I was down in the NICU, I brought up his lab work results with her. I loved Stefanie. She pulled out his results (the actual paper) sat next to me and showed me his lab results in comparison to his previous results. Then she preceded to explain what the (numbers) actually meant in lame man terms. She told me that yes, he was indeed getting better. His labs were improving, however they were still bad enough that he would need 1 full week of IV antibiotics. [Big sigh of relief] I was under the impression that he was actually getting worse, which led me to having lots of thoughts of what could happen flood my mind. Stefanie was so cute with us, and with Jayden. Thank you Stefanie from LRH NICU!
Over the next 4 days I was in and out of the NICU to feed and be with our little Jayden. One evening I came in, and his IV had clotted off, and they had to put a new one in on his head. (Previously it had been in the back of his hand) It was so sad. I sent a picture to Zach and the family. Despite the slightly appearance of the IV now, it was actually much easier to hold and handle him. After feeding him each time I came in, I always just sat and loved our little guy. It was our alone time.
On our way into the hospital late Saturday night, I received a call from our Pediactrician, Dr. McKenna. He told me that Jayden's lab levels were looking really good, and that he would be able to come home Sunday morning. We were expecting Monday sometime. This brought a smile to all of our faces. That night while we were there, we watched the mandatory videos for discharge. The carseat video, and the CPR video. while watching the CPR video Zach was practicing on the plastic dummy child. He thought he was pretty cool.
Sunday April 28, 2013 We loaded our kiddos up and headed to the hospital to pick up our little cutie. The kids were so excited. (It was really weird having a 4th child, but not having him around at home). The kids were not allowed back in the NICU, so they waited in the waiting room with Zach while I packed Jayden up, and had the rest of our discharge teaching.
We were escorted to our van by one of the NICU nurses. (They have to make sure you know how to buckle your new little one in. ) Then we were on our way home. Hooray!! When we got home, Zach was so excited to get him out of his car seat, and let the kids all hold and love him. Lyndee and Madi were super excited, Alex however was scared. He didn't even want to be by him for a picture. We had family come over later that evening to oogle over him too. Before everyone left Alex had warmed up, and we got a few pictures of all the kids. This one is not the best, but it'll do!
We are so blessed to have him home, and growing big. We thank everyone for your prayers, and I want to thank Grandma Ruth Robinette for caring so much. I know in my heart that the blessing Jayden had, and having our names in the Temple is what helped Jayden be the happy healthy little boy we love. Thank you all for all the kind help you've given our whole family. We are so blessed to have such great family in our lives. We thank our Heavenly Father everyday for the blessings he pour upon us. We know that we are lead by his hand, and watched over and loved continuously from him.
Love,
Zach, April, Lyndee, Alex, Madilynn, and Jayden
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