The morning after our boys were born, our sweet little peanut, Christopher, was taken to the nursery due to he was not able to regulate his body temperature. He finally had that under control then he started having desaturation episodes during sleep and when just sucking his pacifier. We were sent home on day 2 of our hospital stay with Michael.
I can say having a newborn at home, being sleep deprived and driving to the hospital which was a 25 minutes drive one way every day hoping he’d get come home was the one of the worst feelings to date.
Christopher stayed in the nursery for 6 days and eventually was moved over to the NICU for monitoring for how much he ate, if he gained weight or had any desaturation episodes. We would get updates of how much he was or was not eating, if he had an episode that he recovered from on his own or if he needed gentle stimulation. We would pack up Michael to drive the 25 minutes one way, would spend maybe 30 mins to an hour each day with Christopher mostly in the evenings. Since Michael was discharged he was not allowed in the nursery or NICU. One of us would sit in the waiting room while one of us spent time with Christopher to feed or just cuddle him. Some nights we both could go in as my parents would sit with Michael in the lobby.
Nine days after the boys were born, super early in the morning I had shivers, couldn’t get warm and had a 103.9 fever. My husband had to get Michael and me in the car to take me to the ER. They ran tests on urine, did blood work, had a chest X-ray and ultrasound of my legs. I was given antibiotics and Tylenol to help combat the fever. Michael was a trooper and all the nurses loved to see this tiny peanut who wasn’t there for testing.
All the items they tested me for made sense, if I had a UTI and low potassium too – All these things contribute to heart rate being irregular or blood pressure. The antibiotics they gave me were for “E coli in urinary tract”. The doctor did say rather start me on it and if nothing is found I’d stop it but if something is found in urine or blood work then at least I started it already. The thing they worried about most was blood clots that why i had an ultrasound of my legs there. I had been on baby aspirin the entire pregnancy too. I had set a follow appointment with my OBGYN office for Friday. We were hoping the the cultures were done and they can review them too at the appointment.
We later found out that evening from the NICU lactation nurse who came and talked with me and I showed her I had redness, warm to touch left breast – and that my fever had something to do with infection of the breast that happens with breastfeeding and not pumping enough – mastitis, I had symptoms of fever before the other symptoms presented that afternoon. Antibiotics did help and pumping lots and breastfeeding to move it out of my body.
On September 4th, our littlest peanut Christopher, was finally discharged to come home with us. We were a family of 5, including Baby Gurl Rey, going on a new adventure of parenthood.
Designing A Mindful Journey 