In the NICU

Johanna's birth was great and similar to her sisters. Her first night was also very much like her sisters. The post-partum nursing staff came and checked on me every few hours, the techs came to check my vitals and the well baby nursery nurse brought Johanna to and from my room every few hours. It is not a system conducive to sleep, but when Johanna was ready to go back to the nursery before midnight I called the nurse and asked that they do everything they needed to then, so I got 3 hours of consecutive sleep. The nursery brought Pumpkin in to me to eat around 2:30AM and she ate well, they then brought her back around 5:30 AM, but Johanna was sound asleep. I decided after an attempt to wake her to just enjoy her. So we snuggled until 7AM when they came to get her so the pediatricians could do their rounds. I fell asleep and expected Johanna back around 9AM.

I was woken up at 9AM but instead of baby Johanna it was the neo-natologist. She started in explaining that Johanna had stopped breathing twice (apnea) while she was in the nursery and that she was now in the NICU. It was a lot to take in but I tried to ask questions and get info. I was worried what I would see when I went to see her, but I was reassured to know that she didn't need to be intubated and was still in a regular crib. The doctor was great, calming but realistic and gave me lots of info. I called Jim after she left and started to cry. I was tired and emotional and just really wanted to see our baby. The NICU called in the next few minutes and asked if I wanted to come over to fed her. Yeah! I quickly found my way over and scrubbed in. Johanna was alert and hungry and it felt so good to hold her and feed her. She had an IV line in her arm which was taped to a board. She had heart and respiration monitors stuck to her chest with little wires that came out of a little outfit they had already put her in. And she had a pulsox monitor taped to her foot. None of it was scary and the nursing staff was great.


Once we knew that Johanna was stable and was just being observed our biggest question was "Why did it happen?" They wanted to rule out infection so they sent cultures off. The NICU doctors expected if everything looked good we would be there for 3 days, if she had an infection it would be at least a week. The NICU doesn't let siblings come to visit so now when Jim brought them to the hospital they had to hang out in my room. It was really hard for them to not be able to see their sister and to be in a small room for so long but I was really impressed at how well behaved they were. The first day in the NICU Heather came and sat with the girls keeping them busy and fed while Jim and I went back and forth from the NICU. We had a number family come to visit and it as a nice distraction for the girls and for me. Instead of heading home on Sunday, our plans shifted and we decided that I should stay on at the hospital so I could nurse Johanna and be with her. It was my birthday so Jim and the girls brought me cupcakes and homemade cards, they really wanted to celebrate and it made me feel special in the strange situation. I was relieved to find out the hospital lets moms stay two extra days so I would have until Tuesday to be with Johanna. My biggest wish was that she and I would go home together.

  

Jim did a great job with the girls and arranged play dates and visits with friends for Monday since school was closed. All of them needed a fun relaxed day. Jim got things ready at home for our new addition project that was to start on Tuesday and came to hang out with Johanna and me at the hospital. We met a different Dr. in the NICU and we went over an echocardiogram and chest x-ray. The echo showed a hole but they determined that it was a small common one that was not negatively impacting blood flow or pressures, and the chest x-ray was clear. Pumpkin's 1st two cultures also came back clear. It became clear that Johanna had reflux and they suspected that the reflux might have caused the apnea. They gave her a prescription for Zantac which we started that day. There were a few oxygen level alarms that went off on Sunday but the staff thought it might have been a bad contact on the sensor and after it was re-taped the alarms stopped.  We continued to get good news on other tests and the NICU staff started talking about discharge for Tuesday. 

 Tuesday morning when I went to the NICU, Johanna's IV was out and she had been given a bath. Johanna was sweet smelling and I was anxious to take her home. On my next visit all of the sensors were gone and the monitors said discharged. They brought Johanna to my room and she and I got ready to go home. I got her dressed in the little pumpkin outfit we had picked out for the special occasion. That morning Jim took Emma to Towson to get a new cast for her broken arm and then brought the whole family to the hospital to pick us up. Em, Rae, Meg and Bridget were all so excited to see Johanna and hold her again. We were all thrilled to be going home together.