We had a surprise preemie baby arrival on May 3rd. Ben and Haley's baby boy entered the world a lot sooner than expected--7 weeks before his due date.
The little guy weighed 5 lbs. 7 ozs., so that was a good weight for how early he was. He needed some help with his lungs.
Ben was doing juggling of Kade and Levi each day so he could spend time at the hospital with Haley and baby. This day was Friday, May 5th, and Glen offered to watch the boys while I took Ben to the hospital. That way he could drive Haley's car home that was parked at the hospital.
We were nearly there when Ben got a call with news that the baby was going to be flown to Primary Children's Hospital. That was surprising and unsettling news.
Maverick had been throwing up all his food and was not having any bowel movements.
Ben said, "A few hours later, Maverick was loaded up in a helicopter on his way to his new hospital. It was at this point in time I knew we chose the right name for him."
With all the drama going on with Ben, Haley and their preemie baby, Ben ended up staying at the hospital longer than he had originally planned that evening. That meant we took the two little boys with us to see Madison performing in her school play Newsies Jr.
Sarah's family was there with Rebecca's family, so there were cousins for the little boys to sit with and they were all so very good through the whole production.
There's our Madison in the maroon-colored pants.
She is the fourth one from the left on the front row.
She had a small role as one of the police officers (the one on the right).
And there she is on the far left of the stage. I was impressed with how well those elementary school children sang out and remembered all their parts.
I didn't dare keep Kade and Levi the rest of that evening for reasons I will elaborate on next. Rebecca said she would watch them--or should I say Caroline would watch them as she still calls them her babies.
Sarah's boys wanted to jump on the trampolines in Rebecca's back yard, so we all met there for a few minutes for us to regroup. Cousin playtime is the best! Triple the trampolines is pretty great, too.
Glen was the reason I didn't dare keep Ben's boys that evening.
Glen was having breathing problems and his legs were swollen up like tree trunks. He had been unable to sleep during the night because his breathing was so labored.
I kept telling him to go to urgent care and he kept telling me he had a physical scheduled for Monday and he would just talk to the doctor then.
I was so worried he would end up in the hospital if his breathing continued to get worse. When I told the girls about their dad, Rebecca insisted he go right to urgent care that night to see what was going on and then he could have a follow-up visit with his doctor on Monday.
Thankfully he listened to her and at intermission of the play, he took himself to urgent care.
They did an EKG, a chest x-ray, blood work and ruled out a heart problem.
They sent him home with a prescription for a diuretic and high blood pressure medication which he refused to take until he talked to his doctor on Monday. They told him if his chest started to hurt, he should go straight to the emergency room.
Knowing he was not having a heart attack, I felt okay leaving him for a few hours on Saturday. Sarah had picked up Ben's boys and called to tell me Ben was going to Primary Children's Hospital to see his baby and get updated on his condition. She suggested I go with him to give him moral support.
I was thankful she was so in tune to that prompting. Because it was his first time at that hospital, he didn't know what news he would hear about his newborn son, and having company is always nice when faced with the unknown.
This picture of Ben is so reminiscent of the picture taken when Levi was born premature and Ben posed in front of that little son's baby bed in the NICU.
This one is different though, because his wife was still in a totally different hospital. He was torn two ways between Haley and Maverick.
I was just so happy I was able to go with Ben and meet our newest grandson that day. I immediately fell in love with this precious little baby boy.
The little guy was doing so well with his breathing after they took the oxygen tube off him. The tube in his mouth was sucking stuff out of his stomach.
They were wondering if he had a blockage somewhere, or if he had a disease of his colon (biopsy later proved negative--hurrah!!), or if he just had a small colon that would grow as he grows and things would just work itself out. Time would tell.
As things progressed through Saturday with Glen, he was getting absolutely no relief on the diuretic. His breathing was still very labored.
That evening, he started getting chest pains. Apparently that scared him enough that he said it was time to go to the emergency room.
They did the same tests on him that had been done the night before in urgent care. They had him get into a gown to do an x-ray.
More blood tests were done on him. He was irate when it took more than one poke to get some blood. When they miss, it hurts. And it makes a huge bruise as he would soon see on his arm.
After hours of no clear answers, they wanted to admit him to the hospital to continue testing and to administer an IV diuretic.
Glen was adamant he could not stay overnight (keep in mind it was already the wee hours of the morning and there weren't too many more nighttime hours left...). He kept saying he had to get to the prison first thing in the morning because he was the only Sunday School teacher for both hours.
I admit that was a valid concern. I had been concerned about that issue as well. But, we talked about what a great team of leaders we work with and how they would willingly step up and help out in this situation--even when being presented with the problem first thing in the morning.
I felt like an inspired thought came into my mind to solve the problem.
Our institute teachers had not been able to go in during the week because of the prison being in lockdown. They each prepare an hour-long lesson, so I suggested one of them give their lesson during Sunday School. Or they could do whatever else they thought best. Turns out they did as suggested and all was well.
So, very reluctantly, Glen moved from the emergency room to a room on the 4th floor of the University of Utah Hospital. I thought it a bit ironic that grandpa and grandson were in neighboring hospitals.
The large dose of diuretic was put in the IV and by the time Glen got to his room, he was already feeling the urge to go to the bathroom. Output was measured each time.
By the end of the night, he had expelled 5 liters of fluid. WOW!! The nurse kept exclaiming over how much was collected each time and kept us apprised of the growing total.
Glen was given a shot of Lovenox (blood thinner) in his belly in case there was a pulmonary embolism. That was pretty much ruled out.
They didn't think he was having a heart attack because the blood numbers didn't indicate that, although it was elevated some to indicate something going on with his heart.
I spent the night in the hospital with him with us both getting very little sleep. His oxygen monitor kept beeping because his numbers would dip below 90 percent. Even with oxygen on him, the machine would keep beeping at him.
As soon as Glen got our prison team notified of our absence at 6 a.m., I decided I would come home, shower, get the roast and other food prepared for our children and their families who were coming over for Sunday dinner.
I didn't want to cancel that because Ben would be bringing his boys over for dinner and for us to watch so he could go to the hospital and be with his baby for a while.
Glen had an echocardiogram, lots more blood testing done, and several meetings with doctors on Sunday. He was fed up with being in the hospital and getting no answers as to why he got the diagnosis of heart failure but nobody could tell him what caused it or how to prevent it in the future.
And we keep getting positive news about his heart. It seems like his heart is fine--so why heart failure????????? I went to pick him up in the afternoon and brought him home.
After Sunday dinner, Dallas went with Ben to the hospital so they could give Maverick a blessing.
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