NICU, part 2

He was in the unit for just a short time. Not even two days, before they moved him to "step down."

He kept having heart rate drops (bradys), but they assured us it was normal.
After a day or two (it has all kind of run together, in my mind) he had to be put under a blue light, for jaundice.

He had a nasal cannula, a feeding tube, an IV, a pulse-ox monitor, heart rate & resp. monitors, and an eye mask (bc of the blue light) so there were wires, cords, and tubes, everywhere. It was pretty intimidating.

When I wanted to touch him, I had to open a port hole. I could reach in and hold his hand. That was all I had done, for what seemed like days.

FINALLY, a nurse asked, "Do you want to do kangaroo care?" I was like "Yes!"
The nurse helped me place him on my chest, under my shirt. He was a tiny little guy, and he was finally where he belonged.

2K:

When he had managed to keep up his temperature, get off the IV, lose the cannula, and get out from under the blue light, they moved him to 2K, which is the last level before babies get to go home.
Shortly after the move, he got to get into a crib, and out of the incubator. That meant we could touch and hold, whenever we wanted! We barely put him down, when we were there.

E.R. Visit

I started having major nausea & back/shoulder pain. After a couple of spells, progressively getting worse & lasting longer, I went to the ER.
It was "either your gall bladder, or you have bad reflux."
Wellllll thanks. Not.
They told me to go get an ultrasound from the doctor who delivered Henry.
I went to the doctor. The Arkansas Women's Center (remember that name, and NEVER GO THERE. We'll get to that later)
The doctor had me fill out a 20 minute questionare, change into a gown, sit on a table, answer some questions for 2 minutes, and then he was done. No examination or anything. I asked him about my ER visit, and his reply? "If it hasn't bothered you in a couple of days, you don't have anything to worry about. (WRONG. We'll also get to that later.)

Back to 2K, and back to work

We usually spent a few hours at a time with Henry. At night shift, we'd stay from 7 to sometimes past 2 am. My husband, who is a night owl, sometimes would drive me to the hotel when I got sick, at 10 or 11 pm, take care of me for a bit, and then go back and sit with Henry til 3 or 4 am. We did NOT like to leave him there, without us.

We had been there for a couple of weeks, when my husband decided he should get back to work. His department was short-handed, and he hated that the other guys weren't getting any time off (he works patrol for a nearby police department)
They managed to make it so he only had to leave on Tuesday or Wednesday nights, and come back early Sunday mornings.

After over 3 weeks, Henry had gained plenty of weight (at over 5.5 pounds!), but he was having reflux and still having a lot of heart rate drops. We had been working on getting him to take a bottle, but the reflux made it difficult.
He was put in reflux meds, and his caffeine was upped. He began to improve.