Hospital

{Another long post and a lot of babbling, but I need to write as much as I can so I remember}

What a trial we have been faced with. Welcoming our son 5 weeks early, trying to get mom (me) back to good health, learning to adjust to juggling two kids at home (making sure they get school work done and house stays decent).

Tony was an amazing dad through all of this. He stayed with me at the hospital until as last as he could (due to babysitting needs), would leave go to work the next morning at 5am and then come straight back to the hospital that night just to do it all over again.  

I don't know what I would have done without him coming every night. I was lonely, lost, emotionally overwhelmed. I tried to stay strong and give the impression that I could handle it all on my own, but really I was crushed and a wreck. 

I am in pain walking to and from the nicu every two hours to fight together with Brysen and find the strength for him to eat. It seemed every time we over came a trial with Brysen a new one came. Being born 5 weeks early you can always expect some trials, but sometimes it feels never ending.

Once he was born they had to inflate his lungs so that he could breath correctly, we over came that and where immediately hit with extremely low sugar levels (due to too much insulin produced by his body).  The hooked up an IV in his scalp and began giving him a sugar IV. He was on the sugar for 3 days.  As we were regulating the sugar, he suddenly quit eating. His body got too weak and he wasn't able to suck enough so the put in a feeding tube.

Wednesday: The doctor gave me strict rules that if he didn't eat at least a full ounce orally within 30 minutes every three hours they would feed him through the tube. He had to go 24 hours without a feeding in the tube before they would release him from the hospital.  I was really worried the nurses in the NICU wouldn't take their time and patience to work him to eat so I was there for every feeding (every 3 hours). I calculated it took me about 15-20 minutes to walk from my room down to the NICU (side note: I was in alot of pain from surgery and was not wanting to take pain meds so I walked incredibly slow and in a lot of pain). So feeding is every 3 hours which means I basically did not sleep for 4 days. My every 3 hours consisted of 15 minutes to walk each way, plus 30 minutes feeding, 15 minutes changing his diaper, clothes, and checking his sugar & temperature,  get back to room and pump for 30 minutes, which would leave me with about 45 minutes until I had to do it all over again.

Every sleepless day, hour, minute was well worth me getting him strong enough to get off the sugar IV, and feeding tube.

Thursday: Must just be a blur with the rest of the days ;)

Friday morning - we finally overc0me those 3 battles (Lungs, Sugar levels and feedings) then they do the billirubin test to check for Jondus and find out he registered at a 17.9, which is a dangerous level for a baby of 3 days. They immediately call and get a full light bed and say that he will be in there for a mandatory 24 hours. I couldn't help but cry. My baby is 3 days old, I have barely seen or held him and now they are sticking him in this machine and tell me I can only take him out for 30 minutes every 3 hours. I just wanted to have him and hold him when I wanted.

Saturday Morning: What a long emotional day. I knew I was being released today, but still no word on when Brysen would get to go home with me. It made me cry over and over cause I needed answers, I needed to know when I could take my baby home. Finally the NICU calls me and says he has passed the Jondus test and they are waiting for the doctor to come, but they are hopeful he will be released this morning. I cried again, I was so happy of the possibility he would come home with me.

Finally at 11am the doctors came and cleared me. Once I was cleared I was able to go down to the NICU and wait for the pediatrician. It felt like forever. Finally he came and said "You are a lucky little guy, you get to go home with your mommy!" Those were the best words I had ever heard. Once they doctor gave the okay we began all the process of getting a baby released from the NICU. He had to sit in his car seat for 90 minutes without his heartbeat or oxygen levels dropping. I had to watch an hour long video on first aid and cpr.  I had to sit through a 30 minute session with the lactation specialist and lastly a 30 minute session with the head nurse of NICU to go over all the precautions with a preemie.

Once all the classes were over, Brysen passed him car seat test, and Dad arrived from Mesquite we signed all the released papers and couldn't get out of that place fast enough.