Sometime before 11am on Friday, August 22nd, I called my nurse to come in and check Claire's glucose levels so I could feed her. Shortly after, the pediatrician who was making her rounds came in. She is not my regular pediatrician because St. Al's has an in-house pediatric staff and my pediatrician (whom I love) is not affiliated with St. Al's. This isn't really a big deal usually, but I was not very impressed with this particular pediatrician. She didn't seem very confident in what she was doing and was doing a Google search in my room to tell me what she thought was going on with Claire's breathing. (Weird, right?)
Anyway, after the nurse and pediatrician watched Claire and saw that she was breathing rapidly, they decided to do an oxygen saturation test. They put a sensor on her hand and the corresponding foot and then they read the saturation levels. There was a variation in the saturation levels which signals a problem. So, they said they were going to have the NICU people come down and check on her.
I wasn't really worried since Ruth had also had minor breathing problems at first and then worked it out. However, when the two NICU nurses came down (one was a respiratory nurse), they looked at the monitors and one said, "We can't have levels like this down here. We have to take her upstairs." That gave me a momentary bit of panic. The respiratory nurse showed me her tag (to prove she was a nurse and wasn't stealing my baby or anything) and said they were going to take her upstairs to the NICU and I could come up whenever I wanted. I didn't feel super panicked or anything because one, I didn't really know what the problem was (I knew she was taking in air, obviously) and two, I just didn't feel like something really serious was going to happen to her.
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| My chubby baby looked out of place with all of the tiny NICU babies. We actually had to switch her to size one diapers because the newborn diapers were so snug on her. August 22nd, 11:18am. |
I tried calling Brian to let him know what was going on but he was sleeping so I just went up to the NICU to figure out what was happening. Claire was technically in triage when I got up there (with about six people around her and already hooked up to all of the monitors) and I hoped that would be it - like it had been with Ruth - but as I heard the nurses and doctor talking, they said she would likely be admitted. Eventually, she was officially admitted to the NICU.
I was able to talk with the doctor in charge of Claire, Dr. Gieri, and she let me know what was happening. Basically, when they took the reading in my room, Claire had greater than a 5% difference in oxygen saturation between her hand and her foot. When the doctor heard this, she thought Claire's heart may be essentially flip-flopped and flowing oxygen the wrong way so she ordered an echo-cardiogram. (I can't imagine how horrible that would have been!)
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| Claire getting her echo-cardiogram. August 22nd, 11:45am. |
During the echo, I couldn't see or hear what was going on, but I felt calm. I had a sense that things would work out okay. After a while, Dr. Gieri came by and let me know that it looked like all of the worst-case scenarios were being ruled out by the echo (hallelujah!) but she would still have to have it confirmed by the pediatric cardiologist at St. Luke's. So, basically, our new "worst case scenario" was pneumonia so Claire also had a chest x-ray. They also started an IV to give her antibiotics in case she did have pneumonia.
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| Getting her chest x-ray. August 22nd, 12:31pm. |
Claire's daytime NICU nurse, Liz, was super nice and helpful. We scheduled Claire's care times for 8, 11, 2, and 5. At these times, they'd check her glucose levels, check her temperature, change her diaper, and either I'd attempt to breast feed or we'd give her formula. They also had to continually monitor her temperature because she wasn't maintaining it on her own without the warmer bed.
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| Chubby baby hands on my arm. August 22nd, 1:06pm. |
At her 2pm feed, she was having too hard of a time. Her respiratory rate was too high and her oxygen saturation kept dropping, so she really couldn't eat anything. If a baby tries to eat when her respiratory rate is too high it's like trying to suck and swallow after sprinting a mile. Not only is it difficult, but there's a chance of aspiration, which would be really bad. So, the doctor said Claire could eat as long as her respiratory rate was under 60. I went back down to my room around 2:30pm and ate some lunch. Brian came back to the hospital and we went up to see Claire.
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| This is one of my favorite pictures from the first day - only because she looks so stinkin' chubby! I put this picture as the lock screen on my phone so at least I could look at a picture of my baby anytime since I couldn't just turn over and look at her in my room. August 22nd, 3:41pm. |
When we got up to the NICU, they had put a cannula in Claire's nose to help with the oxygen saturation. She just wasn't cutting it on her own. They had also started giving her glucose in her IV. She was technically hypoglycemic and if her glucose levels ever got too low, she could have a seizure. I felt bad for my poor little girl.
We soon had our first visitor though! Brian's mom happened to be in town and actually at the hospital. She had come to town for her dad's 92nd birthday on the 19th and planned on returning home the 21st, but early that morning he fell. He ended up at St. Al's with a broken hip and I ended up there delivering a baby. The only silver lining to that broken hip was that Grandma Hanks ended up getting to meet her newest grandbaby on the day she was born!
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| Grandma Colleen Hanks meeting Claire Colleen. |
After Mom Hanks left, I fed Claire. It's very tricky to get all of those cords situated to breast feed! I didn't feed her on my right side because I felt like it had to hurt to have her IV hand under her and the cord seemed like it was probably pulling on her poor little (but chubby) hand.
At some point, after we had laid Claire back in her crib/warmer, Brian and I were just standing around talking by her and our nurse had left us for a bit. As we were talking, Brian saw Claire spit up through her nose with her cannula in there. I sat her up to help her work it out and I said, "Is she breathing?" Brian called Liz over and she started helping suction the spit up out of Claire's nose and mouth. Liz called to the respiratory nurse for help. Only when Claire took a breath did I realize she really hadn't been breathing and it wasn't just mom paranoia. The whole thing lasted less than 30 seconds, but it was a scary 30 seconds. After that, the respiratory nurse said, "She needs to be on her stomach." Since Claire still had junk in her tummy from being in utero, she was still spitting up quite a bit.
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| Attempting to have Claire on her stomach. August 22nd, 5:35pm. |
Finally, all of my other kids and my mom were able to come see Claire. They had to come in shifts though, because we were only supposed to have three people at her bedside at a time (including me).
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| Wes meeting Claire. |
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| Ruth wasn't so sure about it all...especially because Claire was attached to all of the monitors. |
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| Ruth didn't even want to get close to Claire if she could help it. She didn't know what to think about the whole thing. |
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| Sydney meeting Claire. |
We all (minus Claire, obviously) went back down to my room and I ate dinner and the kids enjoyed some pudding that they remembered fondly from when they came to meet Ruth in the hospital after she was born.
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| Wes and Sydney eating their pudding. The flowers on the table were from my dad. |
Everyone left and then around 8pm, I pumped and then went to bed. I had the night NICU nurse just supplement Claire with formula. That was probably the only bonus of her being up there. The only interruption I had was my own nurse coming in to check my vitals throughout the night.
I woke up around 6:00am so I went up to the NICU to check on Claire before they closed the unit for a shift change from 7:00am to 8:00am. They had turned her on her side because she wasn't a big fan of being on her stomach. Then I went back down to my room and ate breakfast. At 8:00am, I went back up to feed Claire. (This was the most exercise I had ever gotten during any of my hospital stays!)
I was definitely feeling a lot more emotional on Saturday than I had been on Friday. Friday I felt more in "business mode" getting it all figured out. Plus, there's kind of an adrenaline rush from delivering a baby. On Saturday though, I felt sad for my baby girl and sad that I didn't get to be with her any time I wanted. However, it was still hard to feel like I could just let my emotions out since I never knew when someone would pop into my room. In fact, I was on the phone with Brian and started crying and then a nurse came into check my vitals. Of course, she was very kind and understanding, but I just hate crying - especially in front of other people.
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| Claire sleeping on her side. August 23rd, 6:22am. |
Brian came back to the hospital and we went up so I could feed her at 11am. The whole feeding process always seemed to take about an hour. After that, we went back down to my room and ate lunch and watched part of a movie. I got about a 15-minute power nap before it was time to go back up for the 2pm feeding.
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| Brian holding Claire. It was always tricky with all of those cords! |
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| Poor little baby girl. But her eyes were open! |
Brian went back home after we were done with that feeding and I went back down to my room. My sister, Jennie, came by for a visit around 5pm. When we got up to the NICU, Claire was in one of the incubator-type beds and I had a momentary panic attack because I thought that was a step backward. However, it was a step forward because it meant that they didn't need to access her and her monitors as frequently so she could be in a more quiet and closed off space. They also dressed her. They were still regulating her temperature with the bed though, since she still wasn't maintaining good temps on her own.
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| Claire still all hooked up but wearing clothes...progress! August 23rd, 4:49pm. |
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| Aunt Jennie holding Claire. |
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| Another one of Jennie and Claire. |
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| After the 8pm feed I took some time to cuddle with my little one. It was hard not to get to cuddle her whenever I wanted. |
After the 8pm feed, I went to bed. In the morning, I woke up early so I went up to the NICU to do Claire's 5am feed. When I got up there, Claire's oxygen nubbins were out. She was able to breathe without de-saturating. Yay! More positive progress!
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| Claire sans oxygen nubbins. August 24th, 5:18am. |
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| While I fed her, I took off those stickers that held her nubbins in place. |
Later in the day (Sunday), Brian came back to the hospital and we talked to Dr. Gieri about the possibility of Claire leaving that day since her cultures had come back normal and she didn't have pneumonia. She was also able to move to a regular crib since she was maintaining her own body temperature. Basically, Claire still needed to wean off of her IV and have stable glucose levels through two blood draws before the doctor felt comfortable releasing her. She wanted to make sure we didn't get Claire home only to have her have a seizure from being hypoglycemic. It was an emotional and kind of frustrating situation because we were just ready to be at home. Brian was especially ready to have both of us safe at home.
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| In a regular bed, maintaining her own temps. August 24th, 12:01pm. |
In the afternoon, we spoke with Dr. Gieri again and the timing would work out such that Claire would get her last blood draw around 2am on Monday. Obviously, she couldn't be discharged at that hour, so that would mean she had to stay one more night. I, however, was supposed to be discharged Sunday evening. After a lot of discussion, we worked it out so I could stay in the NICU's family transitional room and Claire could actually stay in the room with me (yay!!!) since she was off her monitors and IV (they left the port until they were sure she was stable). The nurse would then come in a couple times in the night to do her last glucose checks.
I was so grateful I was able to stay that last night with Claire and not have to leave here there in the NICU while I went home. Another couple that I had seen over those two days going to and from the NICU (you tend to start seeing the same people over and over again and chat with them about their situation while you're scrubbing for two minutes in the washing station) were discharged the same day but they had to leave their little boy when they went home. I felt so sad for them.
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| My baby off of monitors and in my room with me. I literally cried after the nurse left from bringing her to me. August 24th, 6:28pm |
Finally, on Monday morning, Claire was IV and monitor free! I got up, got dressed, and got Claire dressed. Dr. Gieri came by and did a final check and finished up the discharge paperwork. Then Brian came with the car seat and we (impatiently) waited for the nurse to finally discharge us.
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| I feel like she has a different look in almost every picture. August 25th, 8:57am. |
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| Ready to go home with daddy! |
After a quick stop to see Brian's grandpa (who was also still at the hospital) we headed home!
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| Claire ready to go home. August 25th, 10:05am. |
Having a baby in the NICU was definitely a unique experience (and one I'd wish never to repeat). Because I was in the hospital for a full two days - and it being the weekend - I had the same nurses both days/nights so I feel like I got to know them more than I had in my previous deliveries. It was kind of nice. I also got more exercise going to and from the NICU multiple times a day so I actually felt stronger when I got home, too. It felt much different going home more than 72 hours after delivery versus leaving just after 24 hours with Sydney.
I was so impressed with all of my nurses as well as the NICU staff. Everyone I worked with was so kind and caring. I am grateful for modern medicine and the NICU staff that could help Claire transition through those first couple of days. And I'm also so super grateful that Claire's situation ultimately ended up being a non-issue after we left the hospital. I feel very lucky to have four happy and healthy children. Birth really is an amazing miracle.
