NICU

We had planned to come on Saturday the 5th. We had discharge orders from the doctors and everything. Then Colby must have gotten too excited to be coming home because he started breathing really fast. Normal respirations for a baby are between 40-60 per minute and he was breathing at 80-100. The nurses wanted to monitor him for awhile and test him for an infection and other things that might have caused this sudden change. Also because I tested positive for Group B Strep, they wanted to see if that had something to do with it. All the tests came back that there was no infection but by 5:00 he was still breathing fast and because of it, he had worn himself out and we couldn't wake him up to eat and he was too exhausted to eat. The Nurse Practitioner from the NICU (who we later found out was in our ward!) told us that Colby now had two strikes against him and they wanted to admit him to the NICU for further monitoring, a chest x-ray, antibiotics, and oxygen. That was a complete shock to me and I didn't know what to think other than do whatever it takes to get my baby better.

So this became Colby's home for the next 3 days. The poor little thing had a pretty tough first week of life. He had everything done to him you could think including a little IV, feeding tube, oxygen, x-rays, and blood tests. They originally placed the feeding tube in his mouth until he gaged it up then they placed it through his nose. He was so exhausted by the time they admitted him that he had no fight in him. He didn't even cry when they placed the IV. The chest x-ray did reveal some fluid in his lungs but nothing out of the ordinary for a baby less than 24 hours old. So the NP told us they would give him antibiotics just in case there was an infection that was not detectable yet and also put him on oxygen to get his breathing under control. She said that once they did those things, Colby should be able to get on top of things on his own and be just fine. That made me feel a little better but I was still worried about my baby.

The nursing staff and doctors in the NICU were great. They explained everything they did to us and let us stay in the room with Colby as long as we wanted. I hated seeing him hooked up to all those monitors but I knew it was what he needed.

The next day Colby was doing much better and the Respiratory Therapist was starting to wean him off of the oxygen. Because of this, they let Emily come in and see her brother for a few minutes.

She brought him in a little stuffed animal dog and they brought me flowers too. Emily was kind of scared to touch Colby probably because of all the tubes and wires but we told her it was okay to touch his arms. She was happy to see me and told me all about what she was doing at Grandma's. Then she wanted to know if I was coming home with her and it just broke my heart to tell her not yet.

I actually was discharged on Sunday but I was allowed to stay in the room as a border until Colby got out of the NICU because I was breastfeeding. This was really nice because the room was free of charge pending on availability and I was able to stay close to Colby which I needed to be anyway.

To top it off, Colby's biliruben levels were high so he had to be under the bili-lights constantly except for feedings. He hated having the little sunglasses on his head because he likes to look around. During the night between Sunday and Monday, Colby decided he had had enough of the NICU and wanted to go home. He pulled out his feeding tube and then later pulled out his IV. The staff decided to keep the IV out instead of putting a new one in because he was doing much better. He did need one more round of antibiotics but they just gave that to him as a shot. After he got rid of those two things, we were just waiting for his biliruben levels to go down before we could go home.

The doctors never really decided on why his respirations were so high or if there was any infection but they said he is better now and that is all that matters. I couldn't agree with them more. As much stress as this caused, I would do it again if I needed to just to make sure my kids were healthy. I am glad the doctors and nurses cared enough to take these precautionary measures.

On Monday night, they tested his biliruben levels and they were at a 12.6 so he was able to come off the lights and then they would test him again in the morning to see if he stays low or rebounds. If he stayed low, we could go home. If he rebounds, we stay for another day. We prayed that his levels would go down. The next day, Russell and I walked into Colby's room and saw him back on the lights and our hearts just sank. The test had come back with an 18! We knew that meant we weren't going home as planned. We were so confused and worried that something was wrong with Colby's liver. After talking to the doctor, we asked him why it would jump so high in a short amount of time. He said sometimes it just does but with it reading that high, he wanted to retest the biliruben using a more accurate test at the lab, an N-Bili instead of the T-Bili they did in the NICU. We were just sick to our stomachs. We were worried something was wrong and the emotional roller coaster was taking its toll on us.

After lunch, we went back to the NICU and our nurse had the biggest smile on her face as she asked us if we heard the results. We told her we hadn't yet and she said it came back as a 12.1! After talking to the doctor again he told us that the N-Bili was more accurate and that we could go home as long as our Primary doctor said it was okay. We were so excited and relieved that the first test was wrong! We were finally going home and Colby was finally better!

Here we are getting into our going home outfit...finally! I can't believe how much he has changed in the first week!

In the car seat ready to go home. He looks to small in that thing! This is our great nurse, Christy, she took care of Colby for 2 of the 3 days he was in the NICU. She was as excited for us as we were.

The NICU is definitely somewhere you never want to be but if you have to the staff of doctors and nurses are great. They are very competent and they have you and your baby's needs in mind all the time. I would just like to say thank you to all of the Nurses and Doctors that helped us out during our stay at the hospital and thank you for your compassion and caring attitude toward us.

I also want to thank everyone that helped us out with Emily and also all those who prayed and fasted for us while we were in the hospital. Your prayers and ours were answered and our little boy is healthy and happy and so are we to have him home. THANK YOU!