Birth of Baby Koby

First off, we are quite overwhelmed with what has happened the past two days. We've decided to use this as our way to update our family and friends with what is happening with the birth and life of our sweet little Koby. We will leave this site open to the public and we are comfortable with you sharing with any of your friends. We have many friends from many different faiths, and we appreciate everyone’s love and strength and prayers in Koby’s behalf.

DECEMBER 29, 2015

Sharalee woke up Tuesday Dec 29th not feeling very well. She went about her day as usual. I called her at 310pm in response to a text she sent me saying "I'm starting to have some really intense low pressure". I responded "Contractions?" At this point it wasn't even on our radar that the baby might be coming. She wasn't due for 3 more weeks, and didn't feel signs of anything yet. She responded with a screen shot from her phone showing the contractions were all two minutes apart. WOW! I was with my friend Jon and told him he better rush me home and that we didn't even have time to go pick up my vehicle.

I got home at 3:35pm. Sharalee was in a lot of pain and I could tell we had very little time. We hadn't packed a hospital bag yet, and I was scrambling. I grabbed her coat (her rain coat even though it wasn't raining.) She quickly sent me back inside to get her a real coat:)

Off we went to the ER. I knew we had to hurry but I also had to be safe. We live about 20 minutes from the hospital. I ran into the ER and told them "my wife is about to have our 6th child. This isn't a false alarm. The baby is ready to come out now!" They were amazing and rushed her right to a room. I parked the car and ran in. I threw my ID and insurance car at the reception desk and went upstairs. By now it was just after 4pm. They called her doctor and she arrived within 4 minutes. It was a mighty miracle that she happened to be close by.

Between 4:11pm and 4:17pm they couldn't find his heartbeat. Sharalee said she knew she had to hurry, so after two pushes he flew out with a lot of momentum. She asked me if I could see anything yet, and I said "Sharalee he is already out!" She wasn't aware because there was no crying or baby noises that you would typically expect.  Our OB gently told us what she could see happening and even though is looked like a nightmare somehow we both felt that no matter the outcome it was going to be ok.

A large staff of doctors and nurses picked him up and whisked him behind the curtain. I could tell something was wrong right away. After 60 seconds I realized that we couldn't even tell if this was a boy or girl. And I could tell from the nurses that we had problems. I remember watching the clock and seeing minute after minute go by without a breath. At 5min 18 seconds (I was watching the time closely) the nurse was about to give him epinephrine to get him going. They were cleaning out all of the meconium that filled his lungs. But they noticed he finally started to have a pulse. They continued to do CPR and he finally seemed to get some oxygen through his body. He went from dark blue to a more pinkish color pretty quickly. And then he was off to another room without us...

I called my friend Dave to hurry to the hospital so that we could give him a priesthood blessing. We knew we needed the help of heaven. Dave was at the hospital within 10 minutes.

The doctor’s knew that he may not make it through much else, and they gave Dave and I permission to come and see him and bless him in case he didn’t make it much longer. This was 30 minutes after the birth. We blessed him and felt so much peace it brought both of us to tears. We stayed with him for another 20 minutes while we waited for the ambulance to transport him to another hospital. Meanwhile Sharalee’s body was not ready for this, and she couldn’t get the placenta out.  She tried for over 2 hours after his birth, and the doctor decided that they needed to surgically get it out. They were stalling this just a little because Sharalee still hadn’t seen him at all. Knowing that he needed to get to the NICU at Centennial in Nashville, they put her in a wheelchair and took us in together to see him.

We had about 7 or so minutes with him. We told him we love him. I told him to keep fighting, and that I am so thankful to be his Dad. And then he was off in the ambulance.

There’s so much else that I’d like to share from the first night but it is a blurr right now. I’m remembering more details as time has gone on, and perhaps I’ll share more from that night at a later time.

DECEMBER 30, 2015

Everything went well with Sharalee in surgery, and she was quickly back in the room to rest. Koby was put on a special cold hypothermia-type bed, which has proven to help save lives of others we know. He will be on this machine for 3 days, and it is the best way to help a baby with severe brain trauma and lack of oxygen. 

Sharalee’s mom Sharon found a red eye flight and arrived at 8am the next day. Her arrival was wonderful. At 4am they took out his breathing tube because he was figuring out how to breath. But by 1pm he stopped breathing again, and they performed CPR and were able to bring him back to life. He has the breathing tube back in for now, but he is doing some of the breathing on his own right now.

I went up to spend time with him with my parents and with Sharalee’s Mom, which was wonderful but so difficult at the same time. We had permission to check Sharalee out of Williamson Medical if we wanted, but felt that he was stable enough we could have her stay to allow her more time to heal. It  also allowed us to gather our thoughts and let things sink in a little.

They gave me permission to touch him, but it could only be his foot, and it couldn’t be longer than two seconds. He needs zero stimulation right now, as he is fighting for his survival. We just want to pick him up and hold him and kiss him, and we are praying that the day will where we can do that.

DECEMBER 31, 2015

Several nurses and doctors who were aware of our situation came in to check on us and hear any updates on Koby’s condition and to tell us what a miracle that was witnessed with him.  They let us know they were praying and reminded us to keep our faith especially when such a miracle had been granted.  We also were flooded with messages of love and concern from our family and friends.  How powerful to witness through feeling of everyone praying on our family’s behalf.  Sharalee and I are now back at home.   Leaving the hospital without a baby was emotional. Boy, I have re-taught myself how to cry. My tear ducts have been working overtimeJ

We decided on the name Koby Jay. Jay is Sharalee’s Grandpa, and he is a very strong determined person, the kind we hope Koby will be.  And Koby just seemed to fit him.

I’m guessing the stress and emotions got the best of me this afternoon as I had a huge migraine come my way, and basically collapsed for a few hours at home.  We were able to visit him tonight, and he looks so healthy except for the crazy amount of tubes and machines around him and connected to him.

We are just taking this a moment at a time. We are aware of what can happen when an infant goes without breathing for so long. He’s already beat the odds just to make it two days. We will cherish every moment we have with him.

Thank you so much to those that are praying for Koby and our family. We have felt the prayers in an indescribable way. Yesterday I came home from the hospital to grab a few things for Sharalee. The kids were watching a movie in another room, and I got the report from the neurologist that Koby doesn’t have a lot of brain activity at this point. I went into my closet and just collapsed on the floor in tears, and got on my knees to pray. I had barely started to pray when I literally felt someone grabbing my arm and urging me to get back on my feet.  There was no one around, and was surely someone beyond the veil, helping to lift me up. It was such a peaceful experience, and got me through the rest of the day with a lot of hope.

We appreciate the text messages, emails, and phone calls. Feel free to reach out to us. If we are able to talk we’ll answer if not please leave us a message. Regardless of what happens with Koby we are thankful for him in our life thus far. As I said to my Aunt Alecia yesterday “this experience may shake our souls but it won’t shake our faith.”