Analisa Joy King

Analisa Joy King was born on 6/29/18 at 6:16 pm at Hershey Medical Center. She was born at 36 weeks gestation and weighed 3 pounds 13 ounces and is 16 inches long. She was born with a congenital heart defect. She is our precious miracle baby!  


That is the 'sweet n short' story. For those who want more details, here goes!
On May 29, Rosene was diagnosed with gestational diabetes.  They told us that she would need to watch her sugar intake and do non-stress tests on the baby every week beginning at 36 weeks gestation. Shortly thereafter we noticed that Rosene was not gaining weight any more but thought that was probably due to the fact that she had cut out almost all sugar. At Rosene's week 35 prenatal check-up, June 21, the baby only measured 29 weeks. There was consideration given to sending us for an ultrasound but since it was an assistant in the office that day and not the midwife, it was thought that possibly the difference was in the way the assistant and the midwife measured Rosene.
The first non-stress test was  Thursday, June 28. The baby was VERY active the two days prior to the test but not nearly as much on Thursday.  She did not pass her test and so an ultrasound was scheduled for that afternoon. We were told that best case scenario was that everything would be fine and normal and we could return home and worst case scenario was that we would need to stay in the hospital and Rosene would have labor induced. We packed a few clothes "just in case" and went to UPMC Pinnacle in Lititz.
During a bio-physical ultrasound the baby needs to have 3 movements (arm, leg or head), and a 'practice breath' or hiccup. Each movement and breath is given 2 points, making 8 a perfect score. The baby still was not very active but did the 3 movements but not the practice breath giving her a score of 6 of 8. The midwife was contacted and she said that we would need to stay in the hospital over night and have the baby monitored. A second ultrasound was scheduled for the next day.
Thursday evening the maternity doctor came in and was not very excited about how the baby was doing. There was very little movement and the baby's pulse rate stayed pretty much the same. He said that if things digressed at all overnight that we would need to have an emergency C-section delivery. Throughout the night the nurses tried to get the baby to increase her movement by increasing the fluids that Rosene was being given through her IV. There was very little change. 
The second, more in-depth ultrasound was done on Friday around 1 p.m. This time the baby did a have a perfect score but due to the baby measuring 7 weeks small and not being able to get a good visual of the heart, it was decided that another even more in-depth ultrasound was needed. Dr Larkin suggested we go to Hershey immediately where we would have the best NICU care available should it be needed. We were discharged from UPMC Lititz and drove straight to Hershey. 
Upon our arrival at Hershey the nurses wasted very little time in getting Rosene situated and on the baby monitor. Dr O'Brien came in and immediately started the ultrasound. This time the baby only had a score of 4 of 10 (I'm not sure how the scoring is different but for the most part it is the same). He was very concerned at things had seemed to have regressed in 3 hours time. He strongly felt that the baby needed to be born ASAP and felt having a C-section was the best option since he didn't know if the baby could tolerate a natural labor and delivery.   Rosene was prepped for the OR and approximately two hours after we arrived at Hershey our dear little Analisa Joy was born!!!
The NICU team was in the OR and since Analisa showed no signs of respiratory effort the cord was cut immediately and the NICU team went to work. She was intubated in the OR and they brought her over for Rosene to see before they transported her to the NICU on the 7th floor. We were allowed to see her there about 2 hours later. 


So, thus began our journey here at Hershey Medical Center...