The dramatic entrance

On the night of Wednesday, April 6, 2011, as I was watching a bit of American Idol and checking work emails, I felt my water break. But I wasn't sure, since I was induced with the other two kids, so waited until around 10:30 to call the doctor. She told me to go to the hospital to check it out, but it wasn't an emergency. I took a shower while my mother-in-law, Carmen, called my sister-in-law, Cindy. So Cindy picked me up around 11:15 or so and I was admitted into the hospital around midnight. Turns out, my water did break and we spent the night just waiting. Poor Cindy sat in a rocking chair all night. We had to stay in the triage room because it was a full house in the maternity ward. In the morning, there was still no action, so they started inducing me, giving me the oxytocin at 7:00 am. I progressed nicely and the started delivery around 11:40 and a beautiful boy, yet to be named, was born at 11:48 am on April 7, 2011. He was only 36 weeks and 3 days, so he weighed in at 5 lbs, 3 oz and measured 16 inches. Shortly after he arrived, the neonatologist, Dr. Zaid Alrawi, confirmed that he was having some respiratory difficulty and they took him to the NICU for examination. Basically, he went from pink to dark purple in a matter of minutes, as you can see from the pictures Cindy took. Dr. Alrawi was fantastic – he suspected a cardiac issue and ordered an EKG. It turns out, our baby had a very rare congenital heart defect called total anomalous pulmonary venous return (TAPVR – also known as TAPVConnection and TAPVDrainage – see http://cardioiap.org/TAPVD.pdf). His pulmonary veins were not connected properly to his heart, thereby mixing the “blue” blood with the oxygenated red blood so that his body wasn’t getting enough oxygen on its own. He responded well to oxygen and then they put him on a respirator. Dr. Michael Snyder, the pediatric cardiologist on duty that day, made the diagnosis. The decision was quickly made to move him to Columbia-Presbyterian for surgery and by 8:30 pm, the Columbia-Presbyterian EMS team was there moving him to the ambulance to whisk him down there - it was pretty incredible watching them in action. There were 3 EMS guys, plus the pediatric cardiology fellow from CP, Mark Egallea, riding along to make sure everything went smoothly.

Did I mention that Jeff was on a business trip in Tunisia? He had left on April 2 and was not due back until April 12. On April 7, he was scheduled to fly from Tunis to Dakar, Senegal, via Paris. We managed to catch him before he left for Paris to let him know and he got a flight back to New York from Paris. So when the baby was bron, Jeff was on a flight from Paris to New York and had no way of knowing what had happened until he landed at JFK (scheduled for 6:40 pm). I wasn't able to contact Jeff until about 7:45 and he didn’t arrive home until 8:45 pm. At that point, I had seen the baby being transferred by the EMS and he was on his way to CP. I told Jeff to go straight to CP to meet with the doctors down there.

Jeff wound up staying at CP until almost midnight and then he had to be back down there by 6:30 the next morning because the surgery was scheduled for 7:00 am. We still hadn't named the baby.

Jeff went back in the morning and we spoke at 6:20 am. I was waiting anxiously at White Plains Hospital and called him back around 7:30, but no answer. Around 7:50, Jeff called to say that they had prepped the baby and were ready to go into the OR. The surgery started around 8:00 am. The surgery took 3.5 hours and went very well and Jeff called at 11:30 to say that the baby was out of the OR. We were lucky to have the best doctors around the Children’s Hospital. His name is Dr. Jan Modest Quaegebeur and apparently pioneered this surgery.

I was basically a wreck all morning, but once the baby came out of surgery, I felt much better and my friends Andrea and Helen came just as I learned the surgery was over and spent the rest of the day with me. Jeff and I decided that night to name the baby Derek Yi-De Slater.

I finally got to see Jeff on Saturday morning when he came to get me. We had lunch at White Plains Hospital, then checked me out and headed straight for CP. Derek was doing well, but he was all puffy and swollen. He was so swollen, he couldn't open his little eyes. But he looked so much better than he did when he left White Plains and it was a huge relief to me. I think it was so much worse in my head.

We went back today and he looked much better than on Saturday - they had given him something to help him urinate and he gave it his all. He was not as swollen and could open his eyes. They are hoping to remove the tubes from his nose (they go down into his throat so the poor thing can’t make any sounds and cries silently when he’s uncomfortable) by tomorrow. He looks wonderful, despite all of the tubes and bandages, so we are thrilled. You can see the photos I took on my iPhone here: OurLittleTRex.