Vorheis Family

 Dylan Asher Vorheis

Birth Story

We kind of found out we were going to have a baby when I was at the ER for being in a car accident. Not my fault, and I will forever be in love with Jeeps since mine has been hit three times since moving to Vegas. I'm sure that the spare tire was put on the back door for just that purpose. While I was getting an IV the tech was having problems finding a vein, turns out that my vein's are terrible. They are little tiny, collapse, roll, and just disappear anytime someone try's to stick them with a needle. He tried to get an IV started using one of the veins in my hand, I told him that those ones are even worse. He said that I wouldn't have a choice when I went in to have my baby, they always use veins in the hands. Ben and I looked at each other, and figured he was looking at old paperwork or something. I had had a miscarriage a few months ago, and wasn't going to do the pregnant thing ever again. We finished treatment at the ER with lots of x-rays and some pain pills. The doctor never mentioned that I was pregnant, so we figured that we weren't. A few days later I was throwing up all the time that I decided that I might want to take a pregnancy test. When the first one came out positive I figured that I'd better double check. When the forth one came out positive I was convinced. I made an appointment at the doctors office, and they sent me for another pregnancy test. I was still throwing up a lot, and it was hard having enough pee for all of those tests. The doctor called an hour later with the happy news, and told us to go into the ER for an IV. That was the first of many. I worked for another week before I was put on bed rest. I was on and off bed rest for the next 7 1/2 months. The first trimester was so hard. I had a lot of doctor appointments, but they didn't do much thinking that the nauseous would go away after the first trimester. So we spent a lot of time in the ER that first few months. I was admitted into the hospital a few times to stay a few days to get really hydrated before going home and starting over. During one of the ultrasounds they saw two heart beats, and the idea of having twins was pretty scary. Early into the second trimester the second heart beat was gone. I was happy and sad at the same time. I was so sick, I didn't think that my body could handle two babies. The second trimester was easier. I got a pic line in my arm, with an IV line so I could get medication and fluids at home. A home nurse came twice a week to make sure things were going okay, and to change the bandage for the pic line. It was so nice to have fluids in the morning and evening and medication a few times a day. During the second trimester Ben had to go and do some training for a month in New Mexico, so I went to stay at my parents. Right before I went to my parents in Utah my pic line got infected and I got one in my other arm. My Mom became my nurse helping me change my bandage and helping with IV's and medication. That one only worked about three weeks before it was infected as well. It seems like I was allergic to everything, the bandage, the iodine to clean the area, latex gloves. So I started going to the ER for IV's again. I went twice in Utah, and the second time went home early because the doctor didn't believe in giving any medication to pregnant lady's. So we started driving to Las Vegas to spend the day in a bed at Labor and Delivery to get an IV. They did some tests and found out that I had preclampasia, really high blood pressure, and that my liver and kidney's were starting to fail. I didn't gain very much weight at the start of being pregnant, and the last five weeks gained 45 lbs from my liver and kidneys not working well. They did some tests to see if the baby's lungs were developed. They weren't and so I started steroids so that I could deliver the baby early. They wanted him to be delivered at 36 weeks, a month early. Ben got back from New Mexico and surprised me at my parents house. It was so good to see him again. We went back to Las Vegas, and I was going to Labor and Delivery three times a week to get IV's and make sure the baby was doing okay. Ben would take me when he went to work in the morning and pick me up after work. I had Eclampsia then and there was a lot of risk for me and the baby. The only treatment is delivery so they were doing a lot of ultrasounds to make sure the baby was doing okay. Some of the symptoms that I was having were abdominal pain, severe headaches, reduced urine, protein in the urine, dizziness, excessive vomiting and nausea, and high blood pressure. I kept going into labor with lots of contractions, and the doctors kept stopping it. I think that I was done being pregnant. At 34 weeks I was having contractions all night and not feeling good at all. I went to Labor and Delivery first thing that morning. I had really high blood pressure that they couldn't get to go down. They couldn't get an IV started, my two normal veins didn't work, they finally got a really tiny one in my hand using an infant needle. The doctors started me on magnesium sulfate to prevent seizures due to such high blood pressure. It's a muscle relaxer, and made me feel so weird like I had the flu. I kept forgetting to breathe and was on full oxygen. So there were alarms going off all the time and they had to keep reminding me to breathe. They did another ultrasound, and decided that I needed to have the baby because my health was so bad. They called for an ambulance to take me to Sunrise hospital because they won't deliver baby's at 34 weeks. I called Ben and asked him if he would come over since the ambulance was coming in a few minutes. He said that I talked with him for about five minutes about his work day, and asked if he was at lunch. I don't remember any of that. The ambulance ride was terrible, I remember throwing up several times while the guy was asking me questions. It was kind of funny to be in the ambulance looking out the back window and seeing Ben behind us in the Jeep. He went home to pack a bag and to take care of the dogs. My parents came later that day and took the dogs home with them. Once we were at the hospital they started pitocin to help the contractions get stronger. After a few hours they broke my water, and soon after that it was time to start pushing. I totally forgot that I could get an epidural, and was just living minute by minute. When the contractions were right on top of each other Ben asked again if I wanted an epidural, this time I was ready to get one. Now I kind of wish that I hadn't because Dylan was born about an hour later. The delivery went really smooth. They had a team there from the NICU, nurses from the regular nursery, and two high risk doctors. It took two pushes and the baby was out. The doctor cut the cord and handed the baby off to the NICU nurses. They worked on him and his lungs worked great. He started crying right away. He was in such good shape that he went to the regular nursery. We didn't have much time with him and then they took him off to the nursery. I went to a recovery room. I had to stay on the magnesium for the next 24 hours and with all the other medications I was on slept really good. I woke up at 3:00 am and was really hungry. The first time I was hungry the whole time I was pregnant. They brought me in a sandwich, just cheese and turkey on wonder bread, and it was the best sandwich I've ever had. I called my sister Becky in Japan since it wasn't the middle of the night there. It was amazing to feel more myself. I didn't have any nausea, and felt pretty good. I couldn't see the baby until the next day in the afternoon. He was on a different floor then I was and they wouldn't let either one of us leave. Ben was able to see the baby, and then went home to sleep. The recovery room was really small and didn't even have an extra chair. I was able to go to another room the next afternoon and was able to see the baby then. He was so little I was almost afraid to hold him. The medication I was on made me feel dizzy and light headed, not how you want to be holding such a little baby. Ben held him the most, and he would look around for his Daddy anytime he heard him talking. The baby was baby boy Vorheis for about three days. We hadn't thought of any names, I didn't want to even think of anything like that until we had a baby. We hadn't done anything for the house either. The crib was set up, and I had some things from my baby shower, but I hadn't bought anything. When we were ready to choose a name Ben pulled up baby names on his phone, I said try C, there are some good names for C. He has big fingers so he pressed D, and started naming names, he started with Dylan and I said yep that's the one. Dylan means from the Sea, and I'm an ocean girl so I liked that, and Dillon Aero made the mini gun that Ben shoots all the time at work, so it worked for him. So baby boy Vorheis became Dylan Asher Vorheis. We had some fun times at the hospital getting to know our little boy. He stayed with us always unless he was getting some testing done. He didn't know how to suck and had a hard time with a bottle. He had to be tube fed for the first few days. I was released from the hospital after five days, but Dylan had to stay until his bilirubin levels went down. On the way home from the hospital we stopped and bought 5 preemie outfits. It was so hard leaving my little tiny baby at the hospital. We did have a lot to do, we didn't have his room or anything set up yet.  The next morning we got to the hospital early and got to feed him every two hours. He had to be under the lights until his Jaundice got better. We didn't get to hold him any longer then just a bottle break and a diaper change. It was pretty funny seeing him next to the other babies in the nursery. He was so tiny, the other ones were between 7-10 pounds and they looked so big next to Dylan. We went home again that night, it was killing me to be home without our baby again. We were back at the hospital first thing that morning and got to feed him again that day. They had to do blood work to check the bilirubin and his little feet were all bandaged up. That afternoon his bloodwork came out normal and we got to take him home. I thought that being pregnant was hard, but having a newborn is really hard. This little guy just wouldn't sleep hardly at all. He would take little cat naps, but would never sleep very long at a time. He thought that night time was playtime and we spent a lot of nights out in the living room so Ben could get some sleep. We had a lot of doctor appointments and it felt like we were living at the doctors office for awhile. I felt so much better, but still had problems with my liver and kidneys. I had to be on a special diet, no processed foods, no red meat, no dariy, no wheat, and no sugar. I'm probably forgetting something, it was such a hard diet. It wasn't too bad if we were home, but eating out was almost impossible. He dropped to 4 pounds 2 ounces pretty fast and stayed there for awhile. He wasn't gaining weight fast at all. He had colic and from 6-10 we would just pace the floor with him. He liked the baby bojourn and we would walk the living room for hours at night. We had to set an alarm to feed him every two hours. He still had a hard time eating and he wasn't figuring out breast feeding very quickly. So I would pump and then feed him a bottle. It felt like pretty much all I was doing was preparing to feed the baby and feeding the baby. We sure weren't sleeping. He had to be dressed warm all the time, even though he was born in August, so that he didn't have to use any energy to stay warm. He always had a hat on, and pretty much still always has a hat on. We got to do some fun things when he was really little. We went to a friends house and got some pictures taken, he didn't cooperate pretty much at all for that. We went to Utah to pick up the dogs and Brittney took some pictures for us. We went to the Air show at Nellis, and to the PBR to see the bull riding. We went to some hockey games, that he totally loved. He loved all the lights and music, he's a big hockey fan. We had Flyball tournaments, and went to walk the bridge at the Hoover Dam. We did a lot and he was pretty portable while he was that little. Thinking back to being pregnant and the delivery, we were blessed in so many ways. I am so thankful that we have this beautiful baby in our family. Dylan has always been a fighter, on days that I was so sick his heartbeat was always been so strong. We had so many people praying for us, and so much help from everyone. I truly believe that Dylan was meant to be in our family, and we love him so much.

 Getting an IV and fluids at my baby shower.

 After a doctor appointment, he had to have so much blood work the first week. He was so tiny that Ben's index finger was longer and bigger then Dylan's arm.

2 Months Old, infant clothes are still way too big.