Troy Ellsworth Rampton

Introducing our little angel...

The birth story:

Bobby and I wanted to start a family right away, but we also wanted for me to be a nurse. So the plan was first nursing school, then baby.

Well, we missed that deadline by about 2 weeks. My graduation was on May 5th, and Troy was due April 26th. Luckily I had finished my final test but I had to do my last 7 shifts at the hospital. I was praying that I could get all 7 done before the baby was born.

(With my preceptor in the PACU at Banner Desert)

I did all 7 shifts in 8 days. And these are not sitting at a desk shifts, I was pushing patients in their beds, helping people stand after anesthesia, running to codes, on your feet shifts! Well my last shift was on Monday the 21st, I woke up with contractions and had to call in late(! never done before!). Throughout the day I was having contractions but they were not like the contractions you see in the movies, they were dull, achy contractions so I told my mom and Chelsea not to come until they got stronger and more consistent (like the movies). I thought for sure it was fake labor. After my shift I met Bobby at our friends, but when we got home I started having PAINFUL contractions!

I wanted so bad to clean our apartment so I could come home to a clean house but I started not being able to stand up and Bobby demanded that we go to the hospital. I couldn't believe it! It was 5 days before my due date!

BOBBY PIC coming down stairs

The ride to the hospital and walking in was not pleasant! The contractions were bad. Then of course when we started registration I had no contractions so I was scared the registration lady wasn't going to let me in. But she did, thankfully! At this point I was in a lot of pain. The triage nurse checked me and I was at a 4.5! I about lost it - I cried to Bobby "Not even half way?!?!?"

They admitted me to labor and delivery and asked when I wanted an epidural. I had been planning on going as long as possible without one. When I worked in OB as a nursing student, our policy was that the patient had to get a 2 liter bag of LR before we'd give them an epidural which usually took about an hour or longer by the time the doctor came in. So I answered ASAP, and they actually came and gave it to me. So I probably could have gone a little longer, but boy was that epidural relief! After the epidural labor and delivery was a utopia, and I could move my legs the whole time so I lucked out.

I tried my best to sleep but obviously could not. Bobby stayed with me and played games on his ipad, worked out getting rides for my mom and Chelsea who were flying in and such. The night went by pretty quickly. The doctor came in and said he had four patients that morning and that he was going to deliver the other two then I was next. Then the nurse and I started pushing.

Pushing was not like I was expecting. I didn't realize that you push for so long and that you got breaks and only pushed during contractions (all my deliveries in nursing school were quick, one-push deliveries). I pushed for about an hour and a half then my nurse said no more pushing and that she'd go get the doctor.

The doctor came in and I pushed a few times then he said, "If you let me cut this will be your last push" and I gave in. I wish I wouldn't have because I felt like he would have come without being cut, but next thing I knew he came! I still remember the feeling of his limbs leaving me. He came out crying and I was so relieved! His APGAR score was 9/9 :) They gave him to me and I couldn't believe that I was a mom and this tiny baby was mine!

We fell in love right away.

He was born at 8 pounds 7 ounces and 20.5 inches long. He had a head full of light hair and the tips of his eyebrows are dark :) He is active and alert and strong but is also a good sleeper. He loves to fall asleep when he's supposed to be eating. He likes to look at white walls, especially the one in our living room. He also loves to be held (especially by his grandma). We've struggled a little bit with nursing and gaining weight, but hopefully the end is near with that challenge (today he's weighing 10 lbs!). He loves his dad, who watches him in the late hours of the night while I sleep. Troy is beginning to react to our voices and makes eye contact for longer and longer amounts of time. It is so fun to fall in love again! Troy is a happy, beautiful baby and I can not get enough of him.

With my OB/GYN, Dr. Eric Huish

About a week after Troy's birthday I started getting really fast, irregular very scary heart arrhythmias. Long story short, I had to spend the night at the ER and it killed me to be away from my baby and I really feared that there was something seriously wrong with me. In the ER my heart rate would reach 163 and the monitor looked really scary. The ER doc diagnosed me with PVC's, PAC's, SVT and A Fib (my cardiologist later told me that I just had A Fib). I really pushed for treatments that would allow me to keep breastfeeding. The next day I had to come back to the hospital for more consults and I was a wreck in between then. Bobby had to feed Troy with bottles after we worked so hard on breastfeeding, then it was hard for him to go back.

Bobby gave me a beautiful blessing that night saying that I would be okay and that my heart condition would resolve soon. I wanted so bad to believe him but I didn't. But miraculously it is getting better. I still see a cardiologist and take medications, but things are so much better than they looked a month ago. What really kept me going is all the people who prayed and fasted for me and called to make sure I was ok. I can't say how grateful I am for that.

After that trauma, I was seeing a cardiologist, my PCP, Troy's pediatrician, a pediatrician/lactation consultant and another lactation consultant. I was running around with so many appointments and trying to feed in between all of those, so needless to say I got very behind on everything else in life. (Sorry if I took a week to respond to your text message...or never got back to you). Luckily I have an angel for a mom. She is seriously the biggest blessing. She has flown out here three times since Troy came and each time she comes she showers me with love, fills my fridge, cleans my house and encourages me. I can not say how incredibly grateful I am for her.

Oh, and by the way I graduated nursing school!

I really slacked the last two weeks (while all of the above was happening I was still in school  - not class but assignments), so I wondered if I actually would graduate but I did :) I graduated Summa Cum Laude with my Bachelor's of Nursing from Northern Arizona University and also got an Associates Degree of Nursing from Mesa Community College (I know, weird). I'm relieved it's over and so happy I'm finally a nurse! Now onto studying for and passing the national boards.