On the second day at the NICU we made it in plenty of time for rounds. When the doctors were talking about all of her problems we were pretty shocked at the fact that they didn’t seem to think the heart murmur was a big problem. They were more concerned about the pneumonia and ABO incompatibility. In matter of fact, they only scheduled an ECHO to give us some peace of mind. The nurse on duty was fantastic, she convinced the doctors to allow Aliceana to start eating through her feeding tube so she would be a little happier (at this point they wouldn’t allow me to breastfeed anymore, because she wasn’t healthy enough). That day we definitely were on pacifier duty, I never wanted to give her a pacifier this early, but with all that she had to go through I’d do anything to make her happy. We took turns standing by her and holding her pacifier in for her, we didn’t mind, we just wanted to spend time with her no matter what that time entailed. My mom and grandma visited us that afternoon, so we put them on pacifier duty and they didn’t mind at all either. Later on my Father-in-law and his girlfriend visited as well, Aliceana slept through their entire visit. Then they took us out to dinner at a brewery, my husband and I both enjoyed a much needed drink (my first in 10 months) and I got to have a hamburger medium-rare. It was weird enjoying things that I couldn’t have during pregnancy, but without having my daughter at home.
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| My grandma on pacifier duty |
Day three at the NICU we had the ECHO done. We were there when they performed the ECHO, and my husband left the room briefly to use the restroom. While he was gone the nurse said to me “After the ECHO I’ll let you hold her.” I hadn’t held Aliceana since early Saturday morning and it was now Monday. I had to try so hard not to cry happy tears, especially since my husband had come back in the room. The last thing I needed was for him to see my tears and think that we saw something wrong with the ECHO. The doctors came in to do rounds at the same time, and decided that Aliceana could start breastfeeding and bottle feeding formula to supplement (I was having supply issues at this point). So the nurse said I could breast feed instead of just holding her. That’s when we first started issues with breastfeeding, after having a pacifier Aliceana wanted nothing to do with it. We got the results of the ECHO only a few hours later, it turns out she has several small heart murmurs called VSD’s and they should all heal up on their own, we’ll have to follow up with a cardiologist in a couple weeks. On this day they would eventually take out her feeding tube completely (after she had ripped it out herself several times) they also took the giant bili light off of her so she was down to just the blanket, she also was down to only one pulse ox monitor. Overall this was a great day, things were starting to look up.
Day four, her bilirubin counts were great and she no longer needed the bili blanket, and her sunglasses were off so we could see her little eyes all the time! They started to wean her off of oxygen, with hopes to be off of it completely within the next 2 days. She still had a bad cough, but that should be gone when the pneumonia is gone. According to the doctors, she’s doing great and should be home on Saturday! We were so excited, we told everyone the good news and were so ready to go home in a couple days.
Day five, she was still slowly being weaned off of the oxygen. If it’s gone by tomorrow we’ll be home by Saturday. Every moment I spent with her I was anxiously looking at the monitors, I was so hopeful that we would be going home Saturday, but worried that she wouldn’t be strong enough. We were just so ready to go home. Spending every waking hour in the hospital really was taking a toll on us, not to mention we were in a different city. We were somewhat familiar with Madison from going to concerts in the city, but it was still pretty strange to us. We had started going back to the Ronald McDonald house mid-day to take a nap, because the social worker suggested that we get out of the hospital more often so we don’t go completely crazy. All of that on top of pumping every 2-3 hours around the clock and only getting 2-10 ml each time was just exhausting. We went back to the house that night so hopeful.
Day six, it was Friday the 13thand boy was our luck terrible! They took her off of IV fluids, so she had a hep-lock in so she could still get her antibiotics twice a day, but it was one less cord hooked up to her during the day which was great. They took her off of oxygen, and after rounds we left for our normal lunch and nap. When we were at the Ronald McDonald house my husband got a phone call from the hospital. They had to put her back on oxygen after her blood oxygen levels desaturated. This meant our homecoming was delayed for who knows how long. They also moved her to a different place in the hospital, called the step-down NICU, or as I like to call it “the ghetto NICU”. Her new room was shared with two other NICU babies since the actual NICU was at full capacity. It was in the post-partum recovery wing of the hospital, it was the nursery where the mom’s would send the babies at night or when they wanted to rest, so she also had to share the space with those babies. Oh and this was also the room where they performed all of the circumcisions, there was only a thin curtain separating us from about 6 circumcisions being performed each morning. One day we actually got a play-by-play as the doctor was describing each step in vivid detail. I know way more about circumcisions than I ever wanted to.
ohymgosh! this must have been so terrifying – having children both excites and worries me because i dont handle being out of control too well. and i’ glad she is now a happy healthy baby!
<3 katherine
of corgis and cocktails
It was pretty terrifying, but being a mom is the greatest thing in the world. Every day spent in the NICU was one of the longest days of my life, but once you get your little one home everything is right in the world again and the days of the NICU feel like ancient history.
That is a horrible Friday the 13th. I hope things have improved since then!