Merry Christmas Mattson Family

Christmas 2012 is one that we will never forget.  We planned to stay in Norway, since I was far too pregnant to travel back to the United States, for a quiet family holiday. We had organized a cabin in the mountains and I had prepared many different craft activities for Maarit to work on during our 2 week break from school.  Our preparations for Christmas were a lot of fun, especially shopping with Maarit for presents she had thought of for Mommy and Daddy.  She had very specific ideas and it was fun to know that she had spent time thinking of each of us. 

On Sunday the 23rd,  Maarit was in the shower and talking with me about Christmas and about the upcoming birth of her brother.  She said, "Mommy, I think brother will come for Christmas."  I told her that this was very unlikely because he was not due for over 3 weeks and if he came now he would be far too early.  She thought about it for a moment and said, "No, I think he will be here for Christmas." Every once in a while she will make a declaration like this.  I should know now to trust her intuition.  She has a connection to the world that is far, far beyond me. 

Sure enough, late on Sunday night my water broke and I hurried off to the hospital by taxi.  At the check up they monitored our baby and determined that I should head home, celebrate Christmas in Norwegian style (opening presents on Christmas Eve) and report back to the hospital at 8:00am on Christmas Day.   Immediately after returning from the hospital, I began to have contractions, so Justin and I decided we would celebrate our Christmas with Maarit on Christmas Eve morning.  

This is a photo of Maarit and I after a sleepless night of contractions for me and Maarit waiting excitedly for her brother to come any minute.   It was a nice family celebration, tinged with a high level of excitement about our baby arriving and worry that he was coming far too early.  Christmas Eve day passed with naps, playing with new toys and a Christmas dinner.  That night it was difficult to sleep. 

Santa came to visit Maarit and I was able to stay with her and Justin just long enough for her to explore her stocking and open her presents from Santa.  Then I headed off by taxi once more to the hospital.

these are pictures from our Christmas Eve morning celebration:

I could not resist this one...too cute.

Justin stayed with Maarit at our house as I was admitted to the Stavanger hospital.  We were working with a very specific birth plan I had created with the midwives and surgeon at the hospital to attempt a natural birth.  However, since my water had broken 33 hours before, and contractions had been very irregular, it was important to start them.  I was not a candidate for immediate drug-drip induction- because of my previous c-section the medical team was worried about rupturing my uterus. They opted to for a manual  cervical dilation, an incredibly painful process that I will not begin to describe here.   I spent many hours working through this dilation alone and then in the late afternoon our friend Kari came to take care of Maarit so Justin could be with me in the hospital.   We waited several more hours, during which our baby's heart rate plummeted to very low levels several times.  The medical staff waited to see if I would progress any further and when I did not, they ordered the medication to induce contractions further.  It became very important for our baby to be born as he was starting to experience stress during the process.
The medication did not work at first, and Justin went home to put Maarit to bed and help keep her feeling secure.  It had been a very long day for all of us! We were certain we would be heading into surgery at some point in the night and we felt we needed to check in with Maarit to make sure she was doing well.  However, near 10:00pm when I was checked at the end of my midwife's shift, she found that the medication had suddenly taken effect.  I called Justin and our friends rushed back to our house to be with a sleeping Maarit and Justin came back to the hospital.
Our baby boy was born at 11:19pm. He weighed 2565 grams (5.6 pounds) and was 43cm long (about 19 inches).  He was 3 weeks and 2 days early.

We named him Gustaf Kristopher Mattson.  He was named for his great, great grandfather Johan Gustaf, the first Mattson to immigrate to the United States from Finland and for my brother, Kristopher.

Gus and I spent our first 2 nights in a the "birthing hotel," a special hotel connected to the hospital, where new mothers go to be 24 hours a day with their babies with midwives and children's pediatrics nurses.  He was tiny, but appeared to be doing quite well. These are pictures of Maarit from her first meeting with her long awaited baby brother.  She was so excited to finally hold him, I will remember her first moments with her brother always.

During his second night, Gus began to suffer from difficulty eating and passing his food. He became very ill and was throwing up electric green vomit.  Because he was so small when he was born the doctors had ordered that he be fed with additional formula every 3 hours, these feedings only exacerbated his illness.   In the morning he was taken immediately to the doctor, she ordered xrays and several tests.  Immediately upon seeing the xrays the doctor sent us to the neonatal unit of the Stavanger hospital.  All of these events happened so quickly, I barely had time to process what was happening or to call Justin and Maarit.  We were lucky to have friends, Aaron and Annemieke, who were on their way to visit us at the hospital. They agreed to stay with Maarit so Justin could rush to be with Gus and me at the hospital.  

The doctors at Stavanger neonatal ward identified a twist and unspecified blockage in Gus' intestines and his intestinal tract above the twist was dilated to alarming levels.  They believed he was a candidate for surgery and immediately organized an ambulance flight to Oslo.  

The flight to Oslo was the scariest, most turbulent flight I have ever experienced.  The airplane was a small ambulance prop plane with room for one stretcher, a nurse, one seat near the patient and a seat in the far back with the cargo.  Justin sat near the cargo facing us and I sat with my back to the pilots facing the nurse and Gus.  He was strapped in to a baby carrier and hooked to several monitors. His nurse wore headphones to communicate with the pilots, taking notes on his vitals constantly.  She was so kind, she held a hand on my knee most of the flight, although she did not speak very much English she tried to talk with me and reassure me that everything would be alright.  We flew low over the mountains because Gus was so small the pilot worried about altitude and pressure on his small ears.  

During the flight, Gus' nurse pointed out the window and told me it was the Blå Tid  (Blue Time), a special dusk time in the Norwegian mountains that the blue mountain nisse create.  She called Gus a little blue nisse.  It was sweet and made me feel better so I took a picture from the airplane window to remember the blue time. 

Justin was seated so that he could see the runway from the back of the plane as we landed in Oslo.  The plane was being tossed around in the turbulence so violently, Justin said he would see the runway and then sky, runway and then forest, runway and then mountain. It was an extremely scary landing. All I could think of was Maarit, home with our friends in Stavanger, and us possibly not making it to the hospital in Oslo.  I have never been so frightened in an airplane.

When we did finally land safely the temperature in Oslo was so cold they hauled the little plane by tractor into a hanger before allowing Gus to be taken out.  Gus and I were loaded into an ambulance with the crew while Justin was taken by taxi.  The ambulance crew were incredibly reassuring, they talked with me and asked questions about Gus' birth.  The airport was about 50 minutes ride from the hospital; it was a long ride.

We reached the hospital around 5:30pm and were admitted to the neonatal surgical unit.  Gus was immediately hooked to monitors and placed in a heated bassinet.  He was checked by the nurses and doctors right away and more tests and xrays were ordered for him.   Over the course of the next several hours he was very well cared for and the nurses and neonatal staff were able to help him sleep without being in pain.  I can safely say that the neonatal surgery ward is the saddest place on earth.  We joined several other parents wandering the ward with awful, haunted and sleepless faces.  It is perhaps the place where one feels the most helpless and at the mercy of fate more than anywhere else.

Late that night the xray results showed that through vacating his stomach and manipulating the gasses in his system, the twist in Gus' intestine was working itself out and his intestinal tract above the twist was becoming less dilated.  It would be some time before the surgeon was certain he would not need to have surgery, but we went into Friday with a lot of hope that things were going to be alright.

Justin returned to Stavanger on Friday late afternoon to be with Maarit.  It was difficult to have our family on opposite sides of Norway, but best for Maarit to be with her Daddy since she could not join us in Oslo at the surgery unit (they do not allow young children due to risk of viruses they may bring into the surgery ward). Of the list of possible concerns, the surgeon had ordered a biopsy on Gus' colon to ensure that he had proper nerve endings.  If the biopsy were to have come back positive, Gus would have gone directly into surgery; therefore he and I had to stay until the results were complete. It was very hard to say goodbye to Justin and stay on at the surgery ward on my own with Gus.  Mostly because it was such a lonely place to be and there was so much worry and sleeplessness.

On Friday evening I was allowed to try to feed Gus for the first time in many days because he finally passed his first stool!  I had never been so happy about poop!  Over the next several days Gus got stronger and stronger.  I did not take any pictures of him with all the wires and tubes.  I could not bear to have pictures of those moments, I have no doubt that I will never forget how awful it was seeing my newborn boy like that.  These were the first pictures I took after he was unhooked from everything.  It was such a happy moment!

We were released with negative biopsy results on Monday, New Year's Eve afternoon.  Gus was eating and passing very well and although he was still very tiny, it appeared that he would begin to gain weight appropriately.  The doctors in Oslo wanted to release us back to the Stavanger hospital.  However, there was no passenger travel for non-emergency on New Years Eve due to the holiday.  Gus and I were stranded in Oslo for one more night.  We listened to the fireworks for New Years Eve and waited anxiously for the morning for his second flight in his short first week of life. 

Here  he is on his second flight, this time no monitors, only a car seat and a sleepy little guy.

Justin and Maarit met us at the airport and our friend Aaron  drove us to the Stavanger hospital.  It was so very wonderful to see Maarit and Justin after a week of being away from them!  Maarit was thrilled to have us all back together again.  She was so good during that horrible week, but I know that it was quite hard on her.  She seemed so much older to me after a week away.

Gus was checked by the doctors at the Stavanger hospital. During one exam he showed the doctor that all his systems were working well.  I begged to be released home.  I could not stand one more night in a hospital, not when were were so close to home.  The doctor agreed that Gus seemed fully recovered and released us home.  It was fantastic to finally take our baby boy home.

Our first family walk!

Gus was able to finally meet his guide parents, Aaron and Annemieke, on Thursday. We are so very lucky to have friends like these two in Norway.  Without them, everything would have been much more difficult and scary.  Maarit very much enjoyed her 2 days with them while we were in Oslo and they helped us not to worry since she was in such good hands.

Our first family picture all together.

Gus' birth was certainly an adventure for many reasons.  I am thankful that he was born in Norway. Although we were far from home and family, the midwives and children's specialist nurses were so good, so careful, they caught the problem before it became truly life threatening.  The medical staff treated us with such care and kindness and never once did I worry about insurance, time off or how we would manage the situation. I was very grateful that during the time all that we needed to do was be with our baby and love him.  

This New Year we are so very grateful for our little family, for our extended families, our friends and the gift of good health.  It is so good to be home together the four of us.