On December 22, Dad woke up early and decided to go home to take a shower. Remember how things happen when he leaves? Well, this time was probably what I can call a starting point for that!
Medical personnel came in and asked for consent to move the baby to the Children's Hospital NICU because he stopped breathing 3 times throughout the night and had to be resuscitated. I still get a little fired up thinking back because I didn't even know this was happening as I woke every 3 hours through the night for vital checks and pumping. They should have told me.
In those days, baby goes, momma stays. He went, by ambulance.
In less than 30 minutes, the NICU was on the phone with me getting consent to place a chest tube for a pneumothorax, likely caused by poor resuscitation technique in the delivery room. A collapsed lung was the cause of his breathing difficulties. The chest tube was placed at 27 hours old.
A few hours later, hospital security arranged for me to make my first trip to the NICU to see him. I don't minimize any family's stay in the NICU, regardless of length of stay or amount of medical intervention. Any stay in the NICU is life changing, is perspective orienting, is scary and is profound for that family.
That first visit was all it took for me to realize I wasn't about to be in one hospital while he was in another. I'd already spent more than 30 hours listening to other new moms and their babies while not having mine in the room with me. I checked out AMA and went straight back to the NICU. I'm pretty sure they "kicked me out" later that night, but they allowed me to call every 3 hours to check in, since I was getting up anyway! We always got a kick out of our 7+ lb. baby with tiny 2 lb. neighbors on either side of him in the NICU. He was a goliath in there! It just proved that even a full term, normal pregnancy can change in the blink of an eye.
By day 3 beginning, we had Surfactant and steroids on board. By day 3 end, we had both Ampicillin and Gentamicin too because of pneumonia - an issue that goes hand in hand with respiratory trauma, but NO breathing support! Day 4 his chest tube was clamped and we waited...
We weaned off the steroids on Day 6. After 4 more days of i.v. antibiotics, we came home. Finally, home.
We managed to stay home for a full 6 1/2 weeks before we landed back in the PICU for another pneumonia for 5 days. By this time, Wy was on inhaled steroid meds 3 times a day, 2 medications for reflux and thickened feeds.
4 months later we visited the PICU again with pneumonia - our shortest visit yet, 3 days. He learned to roll over during that hospital stay. Who would have ever thought we'd experience normal baby milestones while inpatient?! We added a new respiratory med to our daily routine and another med for the vomiting caused by his reflux, so by 6 months old he was on 5 medications a day and soy based formula since anything cow based caused him to break out in welts and swell up. He was plenty round anyway from steroids and thickened feeds, so we didn't need any bigger of a babe from swelling!
We had 1 more pneumonia that first year, but we were able to keep him home and not hospitalized with that one. We averaged pneumonia twice a year until he was about 10, but now thanks to attentive docs and a maintenance medication cocktail he keeps going. He still takes 3 daily meds to manage respiratory issues and probably will for his entire life due to the amount of scar tissue on his left lung. But he's here and he's amazing and he starts Jr. High this year (sniff).
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