Life in the NICU

As I mentioned in my previous post, Christopher spent the first four and half days of life in the NICU. It was pretty surreal and scary. I pushed him out, they threw him up on my chest, I blinked and he was gone. I don't even remember them wheeling him out of the room...just telling Jared yes please go with him.

The NICU Doctor came in around 4:30 to explain the situation to Jared & I. It was so difficult for me to comprehend - probably because I don't comprehend much at 4:30 a.m. and because I was still pretty dopey.

We finally got to see Christopher around 10:00 a.m. or so on Sunday morning. I remember the NICU nurse telling us that we couldn't hold him or touch him because it would be too much stimulation for him. How heartbreaking. He was on 100% oxygen through a C-PAP and they were still talking about doing a ventilator if he didn't improve. Dr. Modi showed us Christopher's x-rays and they had already ruled out fluid in his lungs as well as the intestinal blockage. He also said babies with these breathing problems sometimes get worse before they get better.



We had several visitors on Sunday and I spent a lot of time in my room as my blood pressure was still pretty wacky. I wanted to go upstairs to the NICU and spend as much time as possible with Christopher but between visitors and just feeling generally crappy I spent a lot of time in bed.

Overnight they took Christopher off the C-PAP and reduced him to 30% oxygen through the isolette and let us know that he was doing much better. The main issue on Monday was his retaining water. He wasn't peeing much so we really weren't 100% out of the woods. Monday I was released from the birthing center and was finally able to hold my baby boy!

Tuesday we had a consultation with the Lactation Consultant - it didn't go real well and I left the hospital pretty upset. Christopher wanted IMMEDIATE milk and my production was pretty limited.

Wednesday Christopher's medical team thought that he may be able to go home on Thursday! That was phenomenal and awesome to hear. They took him out of the isolette and put him in an open air basinett.

Thursday came pretty fast and before we knew it they were helping us get ready to take our little dude home.

In all the NICU experience was good despite the fears that we had about the situation. I loved the majority of the staff and was thankful for such excellent care. We will definitely go back in a year or so to visit some of our favorite nurses!