Friday, November 12, 2010

The Nicu Story

 
Im Still here! Now I understand why Mom blogs dwindle the weeks after a baby is born! :)
We have now been home for 3 weeks and Brett is 4 weeks old! It actually feels like its  been a lot longer! I think the 1 week stay in the Nicu really made it drag out! Here is a quick recap of why we were in the Nicu:
Right after Brett was born he was spitting alot and his oxygen levels were dipping so he went to the transition nursery to be watched. They noticed his blood platelets were low and his infection markers were elevated so they decided to treat for infection with antibiotics. It wasn't made clear how long he would be on meds but it was a day by day thing...we knew it wasnt serious but we wanted to take him home!
It was so hard because we did not get to have our baby with us the whole time we were in the hosptial! When he was first taken to Nicu I cried myself to sleep. I was then awoken with a phone call from the Nicu and they said I could be there as much as I wanted and feed him etc. SO, I started spending every minute in the nursery with him. I was never in my room and kept missing my meds because I was with Brett, but I didnt care.
I was supposed to be discharged Monday, but since my baby was still there, I was able to "Nest" in a room for one extra night. This was free of charge and gave us one more day to hope we could take our baby home.
Every morning his platelets and CRP levels were checked. The CRP levels (infection) were going down and this was good! But, the blood platelets had come up but then dipped again, so Brett was given a platelet transfusion. In addition to all this, he still had to be circumcised. But, with low blood platelets, the Dr would not do it...with good reason because platelets are what make your blood clot, and if he were cut and coldnt stop bleeding that would be bad! 
The platelets finally came up on Friday and he was Ok'd for his circ! But, the Dr  wanted him to complete a 7 day antibiotic cycle and that would mean one more day! We tried to get the antibiotics at home but the insurance company denied it. 
 We ended up spending 4 nights at home without our baby. It actually wasnt as bad as I thought because we would come home at 10 at night, go straight to bed and wake up and be back in the hospital by 8 am everyday. I was sure not to miss a single daytime feeding and despite his being supplemented with formula he took to breastfeeding like a champ! This was my main concern with nicu, but luckily it worked out. 

So, Brett is a very healthy newborn! He weighed 8.6 when we left the hospital and one week later he weighed 8.13! He is definitely an eater and Im sure will be over 10 lbs next week.
We have been trying to get a good routine down, and have been sort of successful. He eats about every 2 hours during the day and at night has started sleeping 3-4 hours at a time.  But last night he was up every 2 again :/ Oh well, Im sure we will get it worked out. My husband is great and takes Brett after his 6 am feeding and lets me sleep until 8:30. In return Josh sleeps with ear plugs through the night. This way we are both pretty well rested!

Thats all for now, Ill try to be good about blogging more, but sometimes its either blog or take a shower.....just so you know I currently have baby spit up in my hair but decided to forgo the shower to update the blog! :)
I leave you with some newborn pics taken by one of my best friends the talented MrsSouthernBelle.







2 comments:

  1. So happy to read that everything is wonderful as a new Mommy!!! Congrats Sarah! He is so cute... and I am so happy for you both. Cannot wait to read more about Baby Brett!

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  2. Sarah, so glad to finally understand what was going on. I know it must have been very scary at times and I am so thankful that nothing takes God by surprise and He knew every moment of Baby Brett's life before time even began. He is so precious and I know you are falling in love with him more and more everyday! ~Georgana

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