Nehemiah Thomas Perry-Just the Beginning

This is another long post, but I never want to forget a single detail of Nehemiah's birthday.

In March, when we went to our first visit at Vanderbilt, our doctor told us that we would be delivering via scheduled c-section at 39 weeks. The first day of my 39^th week fell on a Saturday, where they try not to schedule many c-sections. Shane’s birthday (July 26) happened to fall in the same week, so we asked that if, considering all was normal with me, we could schedule for Shane’s birthday. At this time, the doctor saw no problem with this and (we thought) as soon as the July schedule went out, we were put on the c-section schedule. Fast forward a few months when we were solidifying delivery plans, there seemed to be a little hiccup with scheduling, but from what I understood, it was fixed and we were scheduled to arrive at 1pm on July 26 for a 3pm c-section. It was confirmed and we were so excited that Shane and Nehem would be sharing a birthday.

 

39 weeks pregnant

We celebrated Shane’s birthday a few days early with grilled steaks and carrot cake in anticipation that we might be a little busy on July 26. My doctor told me that I could eat up to 8 hours before the surgery so on the big day, (July 26) Shane and I woke up early, ate breakfast, and somehow laid back down and went to sleep. We woke up at about 8:30 to start getting ready and I noticed I had a missed call from a Vanderbilt number. When I returned the call, it was my doctor’s office asking us if we could come in early because they had an unexpected triplet delivery that they needed to do that afternoon. I said yes and we started RACING to get ready. My sweet mother-in-law said that I might want to mention when I had eaten breakfast. I called the doctor back and, long story short, she told me that I shouldn’t have been scheduled for that late in the day and that if she had noticed earlier, she would have fixed it. Nehem needed a neonatal team as well as a neurosurgery team awaiting him in my delivery room and had he been born that late in the day, the teams would not be as prepared as they needed to be. Had I not had breakfast, she could have performed my c-section earlier in the day but the anesthesia team was pretty strict on the “no eating” rule. She cancelled my July 26^th delivery and asked me to arrive at 7am the following day for a 9am c-section.

I’m not gonna lie, I was kinda crushed. So was Shane. It was supposed to be so sweet that they shared a birthday and we’d celebrate together and cherish that day forever and ever. But now that was all gone. Not to mention I was SO READY to meet Nehem and not be pregnant anymore. I let myself sulk for a little while…then I remembered that it’s still Shane’s birthday. SO I decided that we still needed to celebrate him! So that’s what we did. We ate a yummy Longhorn lunch, went to a few music stores that Shane wanted to visit, and just spent intentional time together in anticipation of Nehem’s arrival the next day.

We tried to go to bed early that night but we were a little too excited to sleep. I think we both got a few hours, woke up way too early, and headed to the hospital. I was full of emotions—excited, scared, anxious, nauseous (that’s an emotion, right?), but so hopeful that this would be the best day of my life. Spoiler Alert: I was right about that part. 

Walking into the hospital felt like a blur. We checked in, filled out some fun paper work and got taken back to a room for normal pre-op stuff. At about 9:20, they rolled me back to the operating room to start my spinal and get me ready. We left Shane in the room and they said they would come and get him when they were ready.

The next 30 minutes or so were some of the weirdest moments of my life. I was in a cold, bright operating room with no less than 20 people who were also anticipating the arrival of my son. The anesthesiology team got my spinal done, ensured that I was getting numb, laid me down, and started hooking me up to other machines. The next few minutes were spent telling the anesthesiologist how sharp his tool was on my skin over and over and over again. They put that curtain up and I started feeling people touching me. I was kind of out of it at
this point and in my brain, amongst all the people in my room, I knew Shane wasn’t one of them. So I started asking for him, because I was sure they had started the surgery without him. In a minute he walked in the room and I immediately felt a calm come over me. I swore that they gave him some course on “what to say to your wife when she’s being cut open” during that time, but he assured me they didn’t. From the time he walked in the room, he never stopped encouraging me, calming me, and telling me how much he loved me. Because let’s be honest, I was freaking out the entire time.

About 20 minutes later, which seemed like 2 hours I heard the tiniest little squeak. I looked at the anesthesiologist who was standing at my head and said “IS THAT HIM???” and about that time, the curtain came down and I saw the most beautiful, mad face I had ever seen.

Nehemiah Thomas Perry was born on 07/27/2017 at 10:24am weighing 7lbs, 8oz, 21 inches long. He was SCREAMING his lungs out and it was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard.

We knew that after he was born, things would be a little uncertain. Depending on how stable he was, we had no idea if we’d be able to see or touch him. We had no idea how fast they would need to get to the NICU in the other hospital (a little quarter of a mile walk, no big deal). All we knew at this time was that he was here and that he was MAD.

A few minutes later, a member of the neonatal team brought a little squishy baby over and put his forehead to mine. My life will never be the same. The little boy I had waited for years to meet was here. All I could do was cry and Thank the Lord for this perfect little gift. I snuck in a little kiss on his forehead and within a minute or two Shane, Nehem and his team of specialists were gone.

After Shane left me, it was like my calm had left the room with him. The sweet anesthesiologist who was at my head kept asking me how I felt and if I needed anything. I felt weird. I don’t know how else to explain it. It's the strangest sensation knowing that your body is literally being closed back up, not being able to feel it, but at the same time being able to feel everything. The same girl played some music for me and tried to talk to me, but I was way too anxious about what I was feeling to talk to her very much.

They finally finished, took me back into my recovery room and I spent the next several hours doing EVERYTHING I could to regain feeling in my legs and feet so that I could go meet Nehem. Shane was sending me plenty of pictures and keeping me updated on everything that was happening over in the NICU. During these hours, Nehem’s lesion on his back was assessed, wrapped and unwrapped, his back closure surgery was scheduled, he got a head ultrasound, renal ultrasound, echocardiogram, IVs were were hooked up and he was poked and prodded more than any baby should be. Shane stuck it out the entire time and handled the entire situation like a pro. In the meantime, my family went over and met Nehem while got changed and ready to come meet my guy! My Dad, sister and stepmom came and pushed me over to the NICU and I could not get to him fast enough! I think this video expresses how I felt about it much better than I could describe with words.

This is only the beginning of our Nehem’s journey. There has been plenty that has happened since his birthday, but we will talk about all of that later. If you’ve kept up with my Facebook updates you know how I feel about my son. He is amazing. He is strong. He is brave. He is my hero. He is defying odds and exceeding doctor’s expectations. Shane and I have mentioned several times that we wish we could show the doctor who gave us our initial diagnosis and asked us if we wanted to “go through with this” what he’s like. Because I would do all of this a million times over to have Nehem in my life.

Nehem, your Dad and I have prayed lots of prayers over you and your life. But we pray that you know these things about yourself:

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
    and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
    Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
    as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
You saw me before I was born.
    Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
    before a single day had passed.

Psalm 139:13-16