So you read about what happened to us in the first 24 hours. It was a bit traumatic to say the least. But we made it through to the next day which went really well. Annie spent that night with me and all went pretty well considering and Griffin stayed in the room most of the night until they had to do Griffin's vitals. Barbi and my mom came at different times during the day to stay with me and to help out with Griffin. Although I was up and moving around, I was still really sore for all of the manipulation to my body the day before. However; I was thrilled to not be shaking anymore and I was able to hold my baby without feeling like he was going to fall out of my arms.
When he was born his head was 36 cm around, that is the high end of the average. Average head size is 32-36 cm around. This was good and bad. Good because he was healthy, bad because all the hats I had crocheted were for a slightly smaller noggin.
When my mom had come over, she was watching Ronin for us, she brought Ronin with her to meet his new baby brother. He wasn't sure about him at first. It took a good 15 minutes for him to even really get close to the baby. They way we were able to get him to start connecting that this was his baby was to ask were his facial features were. We started with his hair, nose and ears. This helped him to start understanding what was going on. He was so cute with him. When it was time to go he even decided that he could give him a love and a kiss.
After my mom had left with Ronin I was hit with exhaustion. Barbi let me take a nap which was great! You never know when you are going to need a nap until it is right there knocking on your eyes.
Griffin seemed to do really well that day. He slept and ate like you would expect and every time they did his vitals they would check his grunt and see how it was doing. At this point there was nothing to be concerned about.
Ryan came over to the hospital after dinner and stayed the night with me. All had been going good, that was until about 2 in the morning. I couldn't get Griffin to fall back asleep after a feeding. He kept fussing and I couldn't figure out why. After a little bit of rocking him and being so exhausted, I finally called in our nurse Julie, and had her take him to the nursery for a little bit so I could get some sleep. I crashed, HARD. It felt like I had slept forever. It was now 6:30 am and Julie was at the door. When she came in she didn't have Griffin. This instantly concerned me because she usually had him with her. If he wasn't with her, where was he?
She informed me that Griffin's respiratory rate (RR) was very high and his blood sugars were very low and he was put on an IV. My mother hen instincts started to fire. We were supposed to go home today.... Is this going to be a problem? She told me that the doctor would be in shortly and they were doing another x-ray on him to see why his RR was so high, and the IV would help bring up his sugars.
I woke up Ryan, told him what she said and sent him home to be with Ronin when he wakes up. I then called to have my mom come over and be with me until we knew what else was going on. I put on some more appropriate clothes and followed Julie to the nursery. This is what I saw.
My heart sank. My poor baby was only 2 days old. Now I know that it could have been worse, but not knowing what was going on & then seeing a head IV (I had never seen one before) I didn't know what to do. I was able to to talk with Julie as to what was going on. She was waiting for the doctor to come to look over the information. She also told me that they had done another x-ray and it showed a cloudy portion in both lungs. Most likely an infection but the doctor would confirm and be in soon to talk with me.
While I was waiting, my mom came over, and I was nervous as to what the doctor would say. After her evaluation, the doctor came in to talk to me and my mom. Do I remember everything she said? Nope.... This is what I do remember:
-He has
hypospadias, of the penis (my poor buys and their genitalia)
(This meant he couldn't be circumcised until after meeting with a urologist at 6 months when they will operate on him.)
-Possible Pneumonia, with 7 days antibiotics.
-Has to stay in the nursery.
-Boarding at the hospital.
I stayed pretty calm as she spoke to me. I knew that she knew best and I just needed to take her advice, but my mom seemed to be a bit more agitated by the situation and I couldn't figure out why. The doctor even said, "You are taking this really well. Your mom, not so much." Well, life dealt us this issue and there wasn't anything that I could do about it.
After she left I talked with my mom about what was going to happen. I thought, with Griffin on antibiotics, just give us the medicine and I can give it to him once we are home. That was not the case. For newborns, they have to be given antibiotics through the IV and he would be getting meds 2 times a day. We would have to stay in the hospital for the whole time. That was when I understood what she meant by boarding, staying in the hospital while Griffin was still there.
Shortly after lunch I was discharged from the hospital, but I was allowed to stay in my room as a boarder. The way boarding worked for me was that I was able to stay in my room for the 7 days that Griffin would be getting his antibiotics. It's like a hotel stay. I was able to use the room and sleep there, but the nurses were no longer in charge of telling me when to take my meds and there were there to help the baby, not me (Although, I did make friends with the nurses and they were great to work with if I was in need of anything.).
SO I was discharged, admitted as a boarder and Griffin was still in the nursery as a NICU patient. He was to stay at the NICU status until his blood sugars came up and stabilized and they were able to remove his IV. Since I was nursing, I would go into the nursery to feed him. If it was feeding time and his RR was too high I would have to wait until he calmed down to feed him. One of the great nurses that was there, Donna, Gave me some great advice. She told me that if I was wanting to get his blood sugars to stabilize, a good idea would be to have him nurse, then top him off with formula. That way we could see how much he was getting and know that he was getting enough to keep him stable. I thought hard about this. I wanted to nurse him but he was also sick and I knew that I wanted to get him home healthy. SO I took her advice. I would nurse him then top off with a bottle (We continued this until we went home now we have a small bottle to help him stay full through the night.) then I would go and pump out. He was a champ. He was released from the NICU Sunday afternoon. Only 36 hours in the nursery and he was able to come back to the room!
Although back in our room, the nurses would come and check on him regularly (I became really good friends with all of our nurses.). With being back in our room, we were able to start having visitors again, which was nice. Ronin was able to come back in and see his little brother. Ryan brought him in and we kept trying to get him to warm up to the idea of a real baby, not a doll. It didn't take as long as I thought it was going to.
He was on the road to recovery and it was great. Every now and then his RR would jump back up and we would have to wait to feed. It was kinda scary when that would happen. Most of the time it was when the nurses would get ready to take him away, but it stopped after another day or 2.
Ronin loved coming to visit us! He would climb up on my bed and steal my water. And if he wasn't there, he was touching all the machines or cords. He thought he was being pretty cool when he would come, sometimes he didn't really want to leave.
Taking a few steps back to Sunday before he was released from the NICU Nursery, (Day 3 of his life) the nurse was changing Griffin's diaper then she looked up and his umbilical cord fell off. She told me that in the 14 years of her being a nurse, she had never seen a cord come off that early. It was strange to me too. I didn't know what this meant, all i knew was that it was feeding time. The nurse paged for a doctor and, luckily, there was a pediatrician there who was able to help. She was awesome. I don't remember her name but she was about 7 months pregnant and worked great and quick with Griffin. She was able to get some silver nitrate, the stuff to burn off warts, and cauterized it while I was nursing. Griffin didn't even flinch. It was unbelievable. I thought for sure there would be a small cry. Nothing. All that was there was a scab that later came off as it healed.
Day after day passed with the same routine, sometimes with the same nurses and sometimes with new ones, more friends that I now have. HE did a great job and his IV stayed great! The nurses told me that a lot of IV catheters would go out frequently and they would have to set new ones. We were lucky enough that his IV stayed good until the last night there.
There were 2 things that happened on our last night.
1- All the rooms were booked and I got kicked out of my room.
2- Griffin's IV went out and they had to place another on the other side of his head.
It was fine that I was getting kicked out of my room. I had been there for 8 days, no problem to go home and sleep in my own bed then come back. The hard part of that night was to watch the nurses remove his 1st catheter and place another, only for 1 more round of antibiotics. My heart broke as I watched them prick his hand, unable to get a good vein, then moving to his head again. Luckily it was over within 230 minutes and I was able to breathe again. It is so hard to watch and not be able to do anything about it.
The next day was amazing. I said goodbye to the nurses and the techs around 10 and then we were headed home. Ryan and Ronin came to pick us up and I was so excited! Going home was a big deal after being seeing the same 4 walls for 8 days straight.
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| Nurse Mindy giving Griffin one last snuggle before we headed home |
All dressed in camo and ready to go hunting....... in a few years.......
Us walking down the hall and out the doors!
Nursing Staff SELFIE!
When we arrived at the house, My sister was there and had decorated for us. There were banners, balloons and stickers all over. I was so overwhelmed that I wanted to cry but kept it all in until that night.
I couldn't be more excited to have this little boy home! We love him so much. Our little family of 3 has become a family of 4 and we can't wait for what the future holds for us!
