niccu 5/16

niccu 5/16
in the children's hospital niccu on 5/16/11 4 hours after birth

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

5/24 Surgery, the big day we have been waiting for is tomorrow

So finally the big day we have all been waiting for is tomorrow. He will be 9 days old. Usu\ally they prefer to do surgery a little bit sooner, but we had a few hiccups that prevented it from running so smoothly. When Stephen was born and during transport they put him on Dopamine for his low blood pressure. He first began on a 14 and they slowly weened him down to nothing, but it was a slow process as his body had to agree with it. Then at day 4 they noticed secretions that were yellow and it came back that it was a gram negative positive. Meaning that he had an infection in his lung! So they started right away with 3 antibiotics because they weren't sure exactly what kind of bacteria he had. This was so scary on top of everything else. We knew we would have up/down days, but this one was difficult because it was the first "down" day we had experienced. Stephen also had to get photo-therapy for jaundice due to belly-reuben  (sp).

So between days 4 and 8 he has improved so much. He opened his eyes for Mommy & Daddy at day 6. It was the most precious thing. We took our first family picture together and video of Stephen having hiccups and Mommy helping change her first diaper ever. I was so tense and still am when I help with the diaper changes because of all the lines in/out. Stephen has become way more irritable and fussy. They have had to go up on his pain medicine during the day and night to keep him comfortable and from moving around so much. Today he cried and cried and it made me so emotional to see my baby like that. He doesn't make any noise, b if you look at his face you know he is crying. Daddy talked to him and sang him songs while holding his feet, chest and top of his head. Stephen calmed down so much and it was so beautiful to see my husband as a Daddy with comforting his son the best he could. The nurse also put a sock on is hand because he loves trying to pull out his tubes which is so scary! He is completely aware that there are things in his mouth and throat that are irritating him and making him mad. Today he was doing the cutest thing with his feet. He usually puts his left foot on top of his right foot when he is sleeping or hooks his left toes on his right foot and also curls up his toes really hard. It is absolutely the most adorable sight. He was also back on photo therapy today ans looked so much better compared to the lines on his face where the sunglasses cover and we can see how yellow he was.

The doctors and nurses are very optimistic that he will do great during surgery and after. They said they have not seen many babies do so well before surgery so they are very interested in seeing how severe his defect is and the details of it.

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