Well, our sweet boy is here! Archer William arrived on Monday, July 30 at 7:01am, after a quick 4 1/2 hours of labour. He weighed 7lbs, 15oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. Our first three weeks with Archer have been a bit of a whirlwind; even more than we expected. The first week home was just our little family - Derek was able to have the week off from work, so we just relaxed around home and adjusted to life with another baby! The next week, my parents came to visit and my mom helped me with things around the house - what a blessing!
Last week we experienced a bit of stress, as we had to spend some time at the Children's Hospital with Archer... Here's what happened:
At my 36 week prenatal visit, my midwife, Kathleen, heard a very high heart rate as she listened at the beginning of our appointment; it only lasted maybe a minute and then went right back down to normal & didn't happen again the several times she checked while I was there. At the time we didn't think too much of it, because we had never heard that before at any of my appointments.
When Archer was born, upon his assessment, Kathleen heard a high heart rate again but again didn't think we needed to do too much about it (besides keeping a closer watch on his heart rate anytime she would see him).
On Wednesday of last week we had our 2 week visit with Kathleen and she heard that high heart rate twice in the 45 minutes or so that we were with her. She decided to do a phone consult with a pediatrician at the children's hospital just to see what our next steps should be. At this time we had NO idea what it could possibly be, and even Kathleen couldn't say what it might be as she didn't have any experience with this.
Later that day I got a call back from Kathleen & the pediatrician she spoke with suggested that we should have an ECG done initially. That night we went to the hospital in High River and had an ECG done, and then we waited to hear from Kathleen again on what to do next.
On Thursday morning Kathleen called after speaking with the cardiologist at the children's hospital, and she let us know that they wanted to monitor Archer for at least 24 hours, as well as run some more tests. So, at around 11 we left home for the hospital, after dropping Annalise off in Okotoks.
When we arrived at the hospital they admitted Archer & showed us to our room, and then took us up to the cardiology clinic to have an Echo done and another ECG, and then they hooked him up to a holter monitor which would stay on for 24 hours.
Later in the afternoon we met with the cardiologist (she was wonderful, and completely assuring. We are thankful for her!) who told us that the tests (echo & ECG) came back completely normal. This means that the function & structure of Archer's heart is all great, and there hasn't been any damage to his heart from these episodes.
At that time, she told us what she suspected was happening, that he has something called SVT, which is quite common. She would just need to see a run of SVT (that high heart rate) on his heart monitor to confirm that that was indeed what it was. (Which is why we were staying 24 hours!)
On Friday, after 24 hours, Archer hadn't my had any runs of high heart rate so the doc suggested we stay another 24 hours & hope that we catch one. If we didn't see one in that time she said she would be comfortable sending us home & said we should just be sure to check his heart rate a few times a day so that if he had any runs, we would hopefully catch them.
On Saturday morning, it didn't appear that he had any runs but when the doc came in at 9:30, she said he had JUST had one, 15 minutes before. I had been feeding Archer & then snuggling him and didn't notice a thing!
So, finally it was confirmed that he does in fact have SVT, and they wanted to start him on medication right away - which meant another 48 hour stay at the hospital, to monitor him ON the medication, making sure he accepted it well and that it did its job. He did incredibly well, with none of the side effects that they were watching for, so on Monday afternoon, finally, we were discharged & sent home.
It's been quite an adjustment having an infant on medication, and having to give him that medication 4 times a day (every 6 hours); but he is accepting it really well, so at least it's not a struggle when it comes down to actually giving it to him!
From here, we'll have periodic follow up appointments with the cardiologist, and eventually she will try to wean him off of the medication. A large percentage of infants grow out of SVT by a year, so that's the hope when we wean him off.
Wearing the holter monitor (it was pretty rotten having all of those cords connected to him for 4 days!)
Sweet boy.
Thank you all so much for your prayers..
D.
