The next morning Hubby brought
Princess, his parents, my mom & my sister to the hospital to see Buddy.
Princess was smiling and excited to see me until she spotted the baby in my
arms, then she didn’t want anything to do with me for most of the rest of the
visit! She also wasn’t happy about Daddy holding that baby; she wanted to be in
Daddy’s arms. He was able to hold them both for a few minutes which helped and
then she ate some cereal that I had but hadn’t eaten which helped her warm back
up to me. J Hubby took everyone
back to the house and didn’t return until early evening. I think he ended up
going into work for a little while. Anyway, that afternoon Buddy was
circumcised and when they returned him to my room they said that his breathing
had been a bit fast so we should watch that. The pediatrician Dr. W (on-call,
not Ours) also said that Buddy had a clunk in his hip which was common with
transverse lie and that if it was still there the next day Buddy would have to
have an ultrasound on his hip.
After supper, Dad & my other
sister came to visit for a little while before going to the house and getting
Mom & R. Shortly after Hubby left to be with Princess, Buddy started
breathing fast again, but it didn’t last long. A little after midnight, he
woke, ate and slept for a few minutes. I thought he was breathing a bit fast. A
few minutes later the nurse came to get him for his weight check and to do a
couple pre-release tests (as we were to be discharged in the morning). The
nurse called the on-call Ped’s Dr. N who said to hook him up to a monitor for a
bit and get some blood work. They took him down to the NICU and I went to
sleep. Just before 2am I woke up as the nurse came back in. She said that his
breathing was still very fast and that Dr. N had ordered more tests. She told
me to wait about 30 minutes and then come on down.
That was a long 30 minutes though I
tried to occupy myself with having a snack and listening to the music play list
I had used during labor. I headed down to NICU and was told that there had been
an emergency c-section, so he hadn’t had all his tests yet, but I could stay
and stroke his hand. Later, as they were drawing more blood, Dr. N came in and
showed me the initial test results. The x-ray showed his lungs were clear so
Buddy didn’t have pneumonia, but his blood work showed that there was a
possible infection. His white cell count was normal as was everything but his
CRT (I think that was the one) which should have been less than 3 was over 9.
Do to the GBS they wondered if he had a delayed infection, though most babies
would still test at a 3. To be on the safe side they started him on two
different antibiotics and scheduled a retest for 7am. I stayed with Buddy until
almost 4 am before returning to my room to get a little sleep. Around 6 am I
called Hubby to let him know what was going on so he could be at the hospital
for the Dr’s. early morning rounds.
When I called I obviously woke Hubby
up. This did cause a bit of confusion and extra panic for Hubby as he misheard
part of what I said. I said “Buddy’s in the NICU, though they don’t think he’ll
be there long.” Hubby heard
“Buddy’s in the NICU, he’s not stable.” I did get a bit emotional there
too, which also scared Hubby. Hubby ‘heard’ what I said and then hung up after
saying he’d be there in a few minutes. (I remember thinking, “he did hear me
say Buddy’s okay, right?”) I guess he threw on some clothes, went downstairs to
post on our Church’s FB asking for prayer and called out to his parents to keep
an ear out for Princess as she had woken up as he passed by her room—his
parents didn’t hear a word he said, just his voice.
I came out of the bathroom as he
walked into my room with his hair sticking up in all directions and absolute
panic on his face. The nurses later told me that nobody knew where this
panicked dad belonged as he raced down the hall. I explained what I knew and we
headed down to see Buddy. When we got there they had already given him his next
dose of antibiotics and redrawn his blood. I think it was this day that they
had to redo it twice because there was a problem with the sample. Anyway, we
were later told that his level was 5.7 which was still high but down a lot from
midnight. This caused the current on-call Pediatrician, Dr. P to think that it
wasn’t an infection because he hadn’t had enough antibiotics to reduce it that
much, but to be on the safe side they would continue the medication.
At this time I was able to nurse
Buddy. While I did so, Hubby called his parents to update them and also called
my parents. My parents immediately sent my sister K up to help so that Hubby’s
parents could come to the hospital. Mom thought she was getting sick so she
didn’t want to risk it, though they did later bring food up.
Hubby’s Dad walked over to the
hospital and his Mom came over after K got there. His mom later told me that
that day was one of the scariest of her life. Considering Hubby was 7 weeks
early and nearly died from an amoeba before he was 2 years old, I can’t imagine
it.
Hubby’s Dad doesn’t usually hold or
touch babies before they are 4 months old, but that day when Hubby took him in
to the NICU to see Buddy, he asked to stroke his leg. That meant a lot to my
Hubby. I can still see him getting choked up as he told me about it, after his
parents returned to the house. Over the next couple days they made multiple
trips back and forth to bring us stuff and check on us. They along with my
sister were a lot of help.
The next time I went to feed Buddy,
the nurse had had a recliner brought in for me instead of the glider rocker
that was just a bit uncomfortable for me. I was impressed at her thoughtfulness.
She was very encouraging and helpful that day and the next. We really liked all
the nurses except the last night’s nurse. I just felt like she wasn’t listening
and that frustrated me.
Later that day (Saturday) I was
“discharged”; meaning they changed my status in their computer from patient to
guest. At this hospital they think it is very important for the parents of
babies in the NICU to be on-site so they allow you to stay in the same room you
were in (unless they need it for a delivery, then they move you to a smaller
room on the other end of the floor) so that you can be close to your baby. They
do this at no additional charge to you or your insurance company.
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