After the various challenges with William’s birth, we figured it was going to be smooth from here on out. Again, our plans and preferences were put aside. It is hospital policy for any baby that is born to a mom that has an infection, to go to the NICU (neo-natal intensive care). The infection caused what they call chorioamnionitis. That is an inflammation caused by an infection in the amniotic sac. Amy was immediately put on two extremely powerful antibiotics while she was in the recovery room from the surgery. Her fever immediately began to break (praise God!). I was too exhausted and concerned about Amy to even try to give much thought to what was happening with William. My brain hurt. I was wiped out – but I had to be there for Amy. As she woke up we explained to her that William was in the NICU and would probably be there for a few days. Once again our birth plan was getting chucked. We had planned on one of us being with him wherever he went (me accompanying him to the nursery if he had to go, etc.) and for him to room-in with Amy 24 hours a day. That was not going to happen. Additionally, it is NICU policy that no one can enter the unit who has had a fever in the last 24 hours. So it was going to be at least a day before Amy could see him!
Finally Amy was stable and moved to postpartum care. There she was rooming with another lady who had her baby roomed-in. I can imagine that was a struggle for her to hear that happening right next door. But she did well. The nurses said I could go down and see William if I wanted to. So I grabbed my video camera and headed down. I was so glad I had it. We had been shooting little conversations for William when he grew up while Amy was pregnant. That was a lot fun and I think he’ll enjoy it one day.
Once in the NICU I immediately felt a strong sense of gratitude as I saw so many babies that were in much worse shape than William. TINY babies. William was the big kid on the block at 7.5 pounds and 20 ¾ inches! It was hard seeing him lying there with the IV board taped to his arm and all the monitor leads, but it was amazing to see him alive and having survived the past 2 days. I took lots of video to bring back to his momma. I think it really warmed Amy’s heart to at least see video of him since she wasn’t able to go down there herself. When I got home that night I only had energy to do two things: 1) send out an email to a few people with his picture, because I was so excited. And 2) Print that same picture of him to tape next to Amy’s bed to encourage her until she could be with him.
The next day, finally Amy was going to see him! After being apart for 24 hours, we were greatly anticipating trying to do one more thing on her birth plan – breastfeed him. We loaded Amy up on a wheelchair and made our way to the NICU. While on the way down there, she started shivering really bad again. (I hated that!) It got worse as we got there and she tried to feed him. Figuring she was just cold, they brought over a heat lamp which seemed to help. The feeding was difficult. She had no energy to hold him and she was shaking so bad. What a trooper though, she stuck with it for a lot longer than I could have! Finally after shear exhaustion we went back to the room.
After getting Amy back into bed, the nurse came around for her vitals. Her fever had returned. That was a horrible feeling. We felt like it was finally over, the infection was in check, but it wasn’t. So they returned to giving her large doses of ibuprofen along with her antibiotics and pain meds. That was working well, however due to the fever returning; again Amy was barred from the NICU for 24 hours. Another day separated from her new baby. And another day of me running back and forth between my wife and my son... both sick in the hospital. (I had it good in comparison!)
Finally 24 hours later, it seemed as the infection was under control with Amy. Now we only had one patient in a critical position (again, thank you Lord!). During that time though, William’s blood sugar began to drop. Amy had gestational diabetes that can present some risk for the newborn to have lower blood sugar levels at and shortly after birth. That being the case, the NICU doctors wanted to give William formula. One more thing from the birth plan – NO formula! Well, we didn’t have much choice, he needed to be stabilized so we told them to go ahead.
The sugar was under control. William was now getting his IV fluids, formula and antibiotics. After the 24-hour point, Amy was allowed back in and we started trying to breastfeed him. She was still pretty tired from the whole ordeal and he had been getting formula, so it was a challenge. Also at this point we started to get some feedback from the doctors in the NICU. They informed us that they believe he has sepsis – a serious infection in his bloodstream. It is hard to medically ‘prove’, but it was presenting that way. So unfortunately, instead of a 3-day stay in NICU, it was going to be a 7-day stay. We also found out that Amy was going to be discharged on Friday night, so we’d be able to go home, while he would stay… making breastfeeding pretty difficult. This was discouraging, but we went home Friday to try to allow Amy to get a good night's sleep to help her recover.
Upon returning to the hospital on Saturday, they let us know they may have a room in the pediatric ward where Amy and the baby could stay together. While this made recovery more difficult for Amy – she would not be able to sleep as well, at least we could be with William and try to breastfeed. We spent 3 long days in the peds room, William in his bassinet. Amy in the hospital bed, and me on a 4 foot long bench. A tight squeeze.
The next to last day in the room, the baby’s IV, which had been moved to his head (yuck!) had gotten infiltrated – the fluid from the IV was seeping outside of the vain and blew up under his skin like a little balloon over his ear. Of course, that was a little scary, since he had extra fluid floating around in his head – not where I would prefer to have extra fluid. Fortunately it was only the IV flush, as they said the antibiotics would have burned him pretty severely. He only had one and a half treatments left, so they decided to just inject it into his legs. While that probably was more painful for him, it was better than trying to start another IV. Last time it took over an hour for them to insert the IV in his head. Normal healthy babies have too much fat to be able to get to a vain easily, so the easiest place to find veins are in their heads.
Finally with treatment done, and the clear-to-go from the NICU RN, it was time to go home! (Praise God!!)
…to be concluded…
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