Wendy Fullerton: Should I get pregnant? Can I get pregnant? Is there going to be any issues during pregnancy? That was always a fear, but we decided to push through it and try things out and see how it goes.
Wendy: It was years trying to decide if we were going to have a family or not. It was just matter of 2017, we were finally ready and we said we were ready to get a family started. Things weren't working out, then luckily they worked out and got pregnant in March of 17.
Dr. Bachman: Wendy came to me for her OB care. I saw her in the office when she was in her early pregnancy. We continued to see her on a regular basis thereafter.
Wendy: We had a wonderful pregnancy. Everything was going perfect, 100% perfect. I was going toward my 34th week and my water broke in the middle of the night. I was having some pains and a little bit of an issue so I went to Upper Valley that night and delivered actually just a few hours later. I went six weeks early.
Wendy: Hank came and he was great for a couple hours. He basically stopped breathing for a little while. His lungs were not able to breath on his own. They took him over to the special care nursery.
Dr. Bachman: When babies do have the apnea episodes where they stop breathing, they get monitored in the special care nursery. They're monitored with an apnea monitor to look for events of stopping to breath. They're often ruled out for infections. Sometimes that can be a cause, especially in babies that are born prematurely.
Wendy: I was in post partum recovering and they did say that he was in the nursery so we went down to visit him. Just to see, not the extra attention he was getting, but to see how helpless and small he was and everything that was hooked up to him. We both felt like we could do nothing. There was nothing that we could do. Every moment was up to the nursing staff and the doctors to keep him alive with that feeling of he was born and he was fine and then all of a sudden he's not fine. Then they say, "we're going to take care of him", but it's in the back of your mind the fear and the unknown that you just cannot do anything.
Wendy Fullerton: I trusted the staff and luckily they were able to give us a room so I stayed in the room next to him for two weeks.
Dr. Bachman: I think it's fantastic that Upper Valley has a special care nursery. It's the only level two nursery in the area. It does provide patients with an option to be with their babies. Babies that don't require transfer to the NICU can be cared for here and their families don't have to make the long trip back and forth to Dayton from this area.
Wendy: The first time to hold him without having all the extras, all the wires, the alarms, the people, the nurses, the staff ... It was just me and my husband and just our child. There's no feeling, there's just no feeling in the world to finally feel that. I waited for it for a very long time, including the two weeks of waiting. Those two weeks was 25 years it felt like, but eventually when we finally got to hold him and got to ... Hey you can go. It was amazing, totally amazing.
Dr. Bachman: There's nothing more satisfying than seeing that baby born. The miracle of birth is amazing. Even when it doesn't go as planned and a baby comes early, it is just so rewarding to see that bond between mom and baby. Wendy definitely has that connection with Hank. It's so rewarding for me and just keeps me going, especially the days that I'm getting frustrated or tired. It's what keeps me going.
Wendy: I thank the staff at Upper Valley. I think Dr. Bachman for being there. The nursing staff that took care of me and Hank. It means the world that they were able to handle him and handle my emotions going through all this. It was a rollercoaster but I appreciate all their hard work and just how they handled everything. It was wonderful.
Wendy: He is 100% the reason worth living ever. This is why I'm here. For him. He is the world.
