It's A Boy!!

This past month has flown by....

Camden Ryan was born Friday May 6th at 7:46 am, he was 8 lbs, 5 ozs, & 20 in long. His first week of life was a bumpy road...here's his story.....
Camden Ryan 8 lbs 5 oz 20 in long

Chad and I arrived at the hospital at 5:45 am so I could be prepped for my c-section. After the nurses got me settled and my IV started (which wasn't easy), & I signed the rest of my papers, I was ready to go to the OR. Everything went well with my c-section, Camden did have some fluid on his lungs when he was born, but other than that he was a healthy baby boy with lots of hair. Once I got back to my room, they brought Camden in. Soon after Grandma Rose, Grandpa Bob, Nana, Papa, Maddy, & Tanner came to my room. We got to hold him for a short time, then when it was Madison's turn he started having "tremors". They started off not to bad, but then they got worse, so we called the nurse and she thought she should take him back to the nursery and put him in the warming bed. Next thing we know our boy is hooked up to monitors, has an IV, and has to stay in the warming bed in the NICU. Our family doctor turned Camden over to the Peds doctors, & they decided he needed to be monitored.

Camden in his bed....poor baby boy!

Mommy with Camden

Daddy & Camden

Camden was still having these tremor episodes, so they decided to do a CT Scan. Chad was able to go & stay with him while they did the scan. He had to stay in the NICU Friday night, so I went to the nursery every 2 hours when he needed to eat. On Saturday he had to stay in the NICU all day, but Chad & I were able to go and sit with him whenever we wanted. We also were able to hold him some, but for the most part he stayed in his warming bed. On Saturday night they brought Camden to our room so I could nurse him, but then we had to call the nurse to come and take him back to the NICU. He was still having episodes, but not as bad or often.

Sunday was Mother's Day and we were hoping we would still be able to come home on Monday after Camden finished his last dose of antibiotics. Chad and the kids came out to see us, and we were hoping to spend much of the day together as a new family of 5. Once when Camden was in my room to eat he started having tremors again, so we called the nurse and she took him back to the nursery. Everything went down hill from there, they ended up doing a EEG on Camden and he was back in the warming bed.

Madison holding Camden Monday am.

Tanner holding Camden on Monday before they took Maddy to school.

On Monday a new doctor saw Camden, and he never came to talk to me, so we ended up requesting that he come and talk to us. he wanted to keep him at the hospital for 7 more days on antibiotics, but we still weren't getting any answers on what these tremors were. We wanted answers, so after talking to the doctor, we brought up that if they couldn't tell us what were causing the tremors, then maybe it was time to discuss taking our boy to IA City. He called Ia City, and they accepted Camden as a patient, then we had to play the waiting game...we had to wait for the ambulance to come get Camden. I was stressing over what we were going to do with Madison and Tanner, all this was hard on them, I was worried about where they could go during the day. everyone had to work, & I didn't want anyone to have to take off work to help with our kids, but at the same time Chad and I needed to go with Camden. My mom, Rose, & Leah took over our kids which was a blessing. The ambulance came to pick up Camden around 8:30 pm Monday night. I kept questioning if we were doing the right thing, I know in my heart that we were, but I felt pulled in every direction my the kids. I've never been away from Maddy and Tanner for so long.

Camden getting ready to go in the ambulance....

His bed for his ambulance ride.

We arrived in IA City around 10 pm Monday night. Once they got Camden settled we were shown around the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and met his nurse and after a few minutes the doctor was in telling us what her plan was for the night. Finally I felt at ease we were finally going to get answers! She told us they were going to monitor him, do a LP test, and of course more blood work, but they would have results for us in the morning. Chad and I left the hospital around 12:30 am, and headed to his cousin Nicole's house. We were going to try to sleep some and then be back to the hospital before the doctors did their rounds.



On Tuesday we got to the hospital around 7:30 am, when the doctors came around, the resident told us they were going over his tests & all his lab work that he had had since birth and we would go from there. They decided they just wanted to monitor him, the neonatalogist came in and did an evaluation & he said from what we told him about his tremors that he thought it was just an exaggerated reflux, and since Camden didn't have control over his muscles that it would get better as he got older. The nurse also got orders to take him off of his IV, his blood sugar was high and he wasn't nursing well since he was getting pumped full of sugar water. His IV was about to blow, so it was a good thing she was able to take it out. The NICU resident came back and told us that the plan was to watch him for the rest of the day and into Wed and then we might be able to take our baby home. I could of hugged the doctor!!



That afternoon Camden had an episode, his nurse was busy with another baby, so Chad recorded Camden on his cell, so we could show the doctor what he was doing since they hadn't seen it for themselves. On Tuesday night we left the hospital around 8:30 & went back to Nicole's, we wanted to get to bed early so we could be back at the hospital for rounds.

Wednesday we were there early, the resident came in and told us, that they would be doing rounds shortly. Then the head doctor came in and told us that they were waiting for the EEG to be looked at by a peds neurologist, and if all looked well then we would be going home!! Then we were back to waiting....Camden's room had his bed, a recliner, & a desk chair....waiting was not fun, but we were able to sit and cuddle all we wanted with our boy. He was still hooked up to the monitors, but Chad and I took care of him when we were at the hospital. Again the resident came in and said that they were running behind & that Camden's EEG would be read around 11, and it would take about an hour and he would be paged when they were done reading it with the results. We showed him the video and he said it didn't look like seizures, but he thought it was exaggerated reflux. He then said if all looked well, we were going home! Back to waiting again, so we knew what time we would maybe have answers, I think I looked at the clock every few minutes...time felt like it was standing still!!!

Camden was sleeping Wednesday morning when we got to the hospital.

Snuggling with mommy waiting on the doctors to come in.....

Finally the doctors, residents, and whoever else does rounds were outside Camden's room. They do the rounds in the hall and Chad and I were able to stand and listen to what they were saying. When the resident was discussing Camden's EEG, he stuck his head in so we could hear that the EEG was NORMAL!!!! Our baby boy just had a exaggerated reflux...he would outgrow it as he got older!! We finally had answers!!! Then the head doctor came in and said we could go home. I don't think I could of dressed Camden faster!

Getting dressed to go home!!

Daddy, Mommy, & Camden before we left the hospital! We surprised Madison and Tanner, they didn't know we were coming home!! Best day ever!!!!

On our way out we saw his doctors again and thanked them for all that they did. The doctors and nurses went above and beyond in IA City, Chad and I were thankful for all that they did. I know that they see babies that were much sicker that Camden was, but they still were there to answer any question that we had.



Today Camden is almost a month old. Madison and Tanner love him, they always want to "help" with him and love to hold him. Chad and I were blessed with 3 great children. I will try to put more recent pics of the kids on soon, but no promises...our household is a little crazy lately!

Camden Ryan

Tanner, Madison, & Camden

I would like to say a special thank you to my mom & dad, Rose, and Leah & Matt...Chad and I appreciate you helping with Madison and Tanner. I was relieved to not have to worry about them and to my mom and Leah for both making arrangements for the kids during the day while everyone was at work. And to everyone else for your thoughts & prayers...your kindnesses and words of encouragement helped us get through this. And also a big thank you to everyone who called and texted us during this hard time in our life, we truly found out who our "real" friends are!! We are so grateful for all the wonderful people we have in our families life!!!!!