Felix neptune brunelle

Born at 36 weeks 4 days, 4 lbs, 2 oz - Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 1:45am in Minneapolis, MN

This is the story of Felix Neptune Brunelle. Amazing teams at the Mother Baby Center and Children's Hospital along with our Doula, Sarah, and midwife, Cheryl, helped bring Felix into the world safely and peacefully. We are so grateful to them all for their patience, encouragement, wisdom and good humor. It takes a village, and our village is strong!

But let's journey back a few hours and days.

Midway through Haley's 36th week of gestation her water broke early in the evening, Wednesday, January 25. It was a small, but persistent trickle of fluid. She was hanging out with our friends Elaine and Nicole. After consulting both Cheryl and Sarah we decided when Tim came home we should head to the Mother Baby Center to check things out. Good thing we packed a small bag! Shortly after we arrived there was a test that proved the leak was, in fact, amniotic fluid, which meant we weren't leaving and the baby would arrive soon.

Felix has been in a breech position (head up) for two months -- despite lots of efforts to flip him the correct way for a vaginal birth, which she desperately wanted to experience. Haley tried doing headstands, somersaults in the pool, burning mugwort near her pinkie toe, acupuncture, chiropractic adjustments and other ideas to encourage Felix to move, but he hasn't. Ironically, we may have Mom to thank for a bit of a stubborn streak. On the evening of the 25th he was still breech, which warrants a C-Section birth.

But let's back up even further for some context.

We had been visiting the perinatal team at Mother Baby for a few months. Massive kudos to Shannon Van Brunt RN for managing our case during that time, scheduling (and explaining!) all the genetics, perinatal, neonatal and OB/GYN terms and processes. We felt such concern and love during our time leading up to delivery! Especially as we began to uncover the story of our baby boy.

We learned somewhat early on that he was going to bring us on a great adventure. Twice weekly ultrasounds and fetal monitoring at the Perinatal Group were showing us some details: He had what appeared to be a club foot condition and had Intrauterine Growth Restriction (below the 3rd% for growth). Also, his hands and legs weren't moving as much as we would have liked and there was a small lump on his spine at L4. An amniocentesis and subsequent genetic micro array testing told us that there was a small deletion of genes "of unknown significance" on the Q arm of Chromosome 10 -- but nothing specific enough to identify a condition. Haley went on to carry a sea of amniotic fluid known as Severe Polyhydraminos which equated to giving our boy an olympic size swimming pool to play in for the last couple months and inspired our choice for a middle name: God of the Sea. Some of the fluid had to be drained about a week ago to provide a bit of relief for Haley, optimistic this would help her last a few more weeks.

Back to the evening of January 25th.

Our Midwife, Cheryl Heitkamp (from Willow Birth Center) and Doula, Sarah Longacre (founder of Blooma) arrived soon after we did at Mother Baby. Upon their arrival the first thing Sarah did to make us more comfortable and relaxed about being at the hospital unexpectedly was turned the lights down! We all consulted with the nurses, neonatal doctors, the anesthesiologist and Dr. Amy Eastenson, who performed the C-Section. It was a busy night at Mother Baby. Time to chill. We learned Haley would go into surgery around 1:00am. So Sarah worked with Haley to prepare for the journey into surgery, and the process of the surgery itself and what would happen with baby immediately after. We talked about the operating room (it would be chilly), the roles in the room, the process from entering to the table to the surgery itself. And we worked on relaxing! Huge thanks to Sarah for bringing so much peace and wisdom to this part of Felix's journey into the world!

Haley left for surgery around 1:15am. (Mother Baby doesn't allow anyone except the patient into the operating room during the onset of anesthesiology.) Tim and Sarah followed about 15 minutes later. Sarah comforted Haley through the process with warm towels, soothing words and a shoulder massage then took all the pictures while Tim spent time close to Haley to welcome their little boy. The surgery itself took less than 5 minutes, and Felix arrived at 1:45am! It was a beautiful, if brief, moment.

We got a good look at him, then Felix was immediately taken next door to the neonatal care team led by Dr. Jane Barthell from Children's. Their team cleaned him up and inspected his airway, pulse and overall condition. Tim went to visit the baby about five minutes later. Soon after Haley was sewn up, she was wheeled into the neonatal room adjoining surgery to spend time with her boy.

The time since has been a blur.

Haley has been recovering at Mother Baby. In the building next door, Felix has been growing under the watchful eyes of all the nurses and specialists at Children's NICU. Haley is in remarkable shape. She's managing her pain well. But she's also up and walking. She's made the trek through hallways and elevators to visit Felix on foot several times. Haley's rapid recovery surprises the nurses! Meanwhile, Felix is monitored 24 hours a day by a truly awesome team of nurses and specialists in his own room in the NICU. We've done an MRI and a few different ultrasound scans. We're learning a lot about what awaits.

We know that he can breath on his own -- given his premature arrival, we're using a mix of different breath support techniques to help encourage his lungs to grow. He can poop! He can pee! His spine is in great shape. His heart is strong. He's got many "compacted" muscles in his hips, arms and legs. (Yes, he's got a tight ass. He can thank Tim later.) And that club foot is actually a condition called Rocker Bottom Feet that affects both feet. He has not opened his eyes yet, but that's somewhat common and is likely the result of swelling. The MRI suggests and the ophthalmologist is confident he's got fully functioning eyes.

There is still so much more to learn about our little guy. We are meeting with geneticists, orthopedic specialists, urologists, physical therapists, neurologists, skeletal specialists and our rotating staff of RNs and neonatal physicians. They are all, to a person, gracious and kind and supportive. We are so fortunate to live in such a talented and giving metropolis.

And now Tim and Haley visit 3-4 times per day for many hours. Haley is lactating well, and Felix is taking in her milk via feeding tube. Haley is scheduled to go home Sunday, and will transition from Mother Baby to stay at a room in the Ronald McDonald Charities House located inside Children's Hospital. It's actually a closer walk to visit Felix than from Mother Baby.

And we'll see where all this takes us and Felix.

We know that he will likely stay at Children's in the NICU for "weeks" as the tests come in and the specialists confer and we all learn more about our boy we love so very much.