We’ll start Little Tait’s story on June 3, 2008, one month after we,
his mommy and daddy, got married.
On this Alaskan summer day, we joyfully discovered that we
were expecting a tiny blessing from above.
We just didn’t know how tiny this tiny blessing would
actually be! Our
families excitedly welcomed the news, and we all looked forward to
the arrival of a precious baby sometime around February 4, 2009.
Then, on November 6, at 27 weeks along, the unexpected happened.
Lauren had just returned the day before from a trip to California, where she was helping her mom and sister on a medical trip for her baby sister, Katelyn Grace. (Katelyn Grace is 2 years old, and has Down Syndrome and epilepsy. As of March 27, she has been seizure free for two weeks for one of the first times in her short little life! Praise the Lord!)
This is a very rough outline of the progression of events on Thursday, November 6, 2008:
12:00 am – Lauren started having irregular contractions. She mistook them originally for her not-so-unusual back pain, and then for Braxton Hicks. The contractions were never even somewhat regular; they were anywhere from 5 to 45 minutes apart.
4:00 am – We called our midwife, informing her of early contractions. Lauren was told to be on complete bed rest, and given other suggestions to slow contractions down.
8:00 am – Contractions slowed down, and it seemed as if everything would be okay.
11:30 am – Contractions began to pick back up, but were still very irregular. Another call was made to the midwife, who told us to come into the clinic right away.
12:00 pm – As soon as we got off of the phone with the midwife, the contractions were suddenly 5 minutes apart.
12:30 pm – During the 30 minute drive into town , the contractions got even closer together, and were barely 4 minutes apart when we arrive at the clinic.
1:00 pm – The midwife checked to see how dilated Lauren was, and actually felt the baby’s feet at this time. She only told us that Lauren was in labor, that it was an emergency, and that we needed to get in an ambulance right away. (She called Tait later, when we were in the ambulance, and informed him that she had felt the baby’s feet and that we were going to have the baby today. Tait had been hoping that maybe we would get to the hospital, they would stop the contractions, and everything would be fine. By this time, however, Lauren knew that it was too late to stop the contractions. Through it all, our midwife was just wonderful!)
1:30 pm – Lauren was loaded into the back of the ambulance, Tait climbed in the front, and we were off on a whirlwind trip to Anchorage (normally a 45-minute drive). The midwife and Tait’s parents and sisters followed. It was comforting for Lauren to be able to hear Tait’s voice from the front of the ambulance, where Tait was able to witness to our driver. During the ambulance ride, the contractions progressed to just over 2 minutes apart, and increased in intensity.
2:30 pm – We arrived at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, signed tons of papers, and discussed with the doctors what the best course of action would be. Unfortunately, the doctors told us, they would have to do a C-section. For one thing, the baby was breech, and they were afraid to run the risk of body parts getting stuck along the way, with such a tiny, fragile baby. Also, with preemies, their heads are proportionately larger than term babies, and there is a greater chance that the head will get stuck. The midwife confirmed the need for a C-section.
3:00 pm – Lauren was wheeled into the operating room, and kept asking for Tait. The doctors debated whether to do localized or general anesthesia, and finally decided on localized. If they had used general anesthesia, Tait could not have been in the room. As it was, thankfully, Tait was able to be there through everything, holding Lauren’s hand and praying with her for the baby.
The midwife had tried to prepare Tait for whatever might happen; she told him that at 26 weeks the lungs were not very mature, and that at 28 weeks they were normally much more developed. We were right in between, at 27 weeks, and the baby was still very little. We tried to prepare for whatever the Lord had in store….
Little Tait was born at 3:29 pm, weighing 2 pounds 9 ounces (1170 grams), and measuring 14¼ inches long. We were delighted to hear that we had a little son! When the doctors and nurses pulled him out, he was so purple that Tait’s heart sunk. A split second later, he was relieved and so thankful to hear the nurses exclaiming, “Oh look! His little eyes are open!” The baby was passed through a window into the NICU so quickly that Lauren couldn’t catch a glimpse of him on his way out.
Lauren was moved to the recovery room, where she was so worn out she couldn’t keep her eyes open (and would have been able to rest comfortably had she not been shaking uncontrollably), and Tait – who was not allowed in the recovery room – rejoined his family to wait for news of the baby.
We very much appreciated everyone’s prayers during this trying time. The Lord really did keep us calm through it all. It seemed as if everyone else in our families was more worried and upset by things than we were – probably because we were actually living everything, and always knew firsthand what was going on at any given moment, while our families had to sit around, waiting for updates. It was difficult for us, however, after the baby was born, waiting for news.
Tait waited 45 minutes to hear news of the baby. While he thought nervously of all the possible complications that could arise, he knew that God was in control, and purposed to rejoice no matter what the outcome. Finally, a nurse came out to take him into the NICU to see his little son. He was greeted with the welcome news that “he’s doing just wonderfully!”
One of the neonatologists came into the recovery room to tell Lauren the news that the baby was doing well and, amazingly enough, was breathing on his own when he was born, though he did need breathing help to strengthen his breathing. Thankfully, he was never on a respirator!
Lauren was transferred to a hospital room, where family and friends gathered. She was in quite a bit of pain after the local anesthesia wore off, but avoided using the morphine for the most part.
Seven-and-a-half hours after the delivery, Lauren finally hobbled into a wheelchair and was able to meet her precious boy. He looked so tiny and fragile! He was covered in various paraphernalia – CPAP, sensors, bili goggles, IV’s – but the little amount of skin that was visible looked nearly transparent! It was so special and awe-inspiring reaching her hand into the incubator and touching her little guy for the first time! The nurses tried to explain all of the equipment and their uses to Lauren, but she kept falling asleep; the mixture of lack of sleep, high stress, anesthesia, and morphine were finally taking their toll.
Lauren was in the hospital for 5 days, and recovered well. The day after delivering, she was able to get up and walk around for about 3 hours off and on, talking with people who came to visit and going in to see the baby. It was hard hearing all of the other babies crying with their mommies in the Mother Baby rooms, seeing the couples getting ready to take their new babies home, and knowing that we wouldn’t be able to take our precious boy home for several months.
Lauren was able to pump milk for the baby, which was quite a time commitment over the next 3 months! At times, it seemed nearly impossible to keep up with it all, but it was definitely worth the extra time and energy.
It took us four days to finally come up with a name for our little son. We made the mistake of getting the “100,001 Baby Names” book, which meant that we had a ridiculous amount of names to wade through. Tait was constantly making Lauren laugh uncontrollably (which was extremely painful) at some of the especially ludicrous names – “Ding-Bang,” for instance, which means “Protector of the city.” We were looking for a name with meaning – one that later we could use to spur our son on and inspire him to live up to his name, but also one that sounded pleasant. We finally decided to name the baby after his daddy: Tait Edward Zimmerman Jr. Tait means “cheerful,” and Edward means “wealthy provider.” One of our goals for our son is that he would grow up to be a godly leader for his family (should the Lord bless him with a wife and children), and that he would cheerfully provide for them, lest he be “worse than an infidel” (1 Timothy 5:8).
To be continued....
