There and Back Again...

A NICU Tale of Daniel Ryan

NICU =  Newborn Intensive Care Unit

After spending his first hours of life in the NICU, Daniel returned there once more later that night. :( On my way to feed him in the nursery, Danny spit up a ton while lying on his back. Because his nose isn't separated from his mouth he was unable to breathe. I grabbed him and knocked on the nursery door, getting help from a nurse to quickly suction all the spit-up goo out with a bulb syringe so he could breathe. She called in the NICU team who hooked him up to monitors to see his heart rate, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation - which were not to their liking.

They rushed him away as I helplessly followed (Ryan had gone home earlier to get some sleep since we live just a few minutes from the hospital). It all happened so fast and I was confused as to why he needed intensive care exactly - but hey, my baby was unable to breathe just a few minutes before and was currently coughing and sputtering. I was too shocked to really ask any questions.

Daniel was in the NICU about ten days. At first he was hooked up to an I.V. and has a tube going down his throat to suction excess air. He had chest x-ryas taken to make sure he didn't breathe in any spit-up. After one night the tube in his mouth was removed so we could feed him, and after a couple of days, once his blood sugar level was satisfactory, the I.V. that gave him nutrition was removed as well.

They had to tape up and cover the I.V. because Danny kept pulling on it.

For the remainder of Daniel's stay he just had leads on to measure his heart rate, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation. It ended up being the oxygen saturation that gave us the most trouble. He would have little episodes where his oxygen saturation would drop for more than a minute and wouldn't go back up unless someone stimulated him. He needed to go two to three days without "destat-ing" before they would let him go home.

You can see the leads on his chest and foot that measure his vitals

Here are his vital signs. The green number is his heart rate, the white his respiratory rate and the blue number is his oxygen saturation. That is the number we were most concerned about. It kept dropping to 88 or below and sometimes wouldn't go back up without stimulation from a nurse

It was very frustrating having Daniel in the NICU for oxygen desaturation, since it seems that any baby could have the same problem, but you wouldn't know unless they were hooked up these monitors and leads. There were a couple of times where he was almost ready to go home, but then he would have another minor "episode" and we had to start the clock over again in counting 48-72 hours without a de-stat. Daniel seemed right as rain during most of his stay, but it is better to be safe rather than sorry. It would be super scary had we taken him home and then he stopped breathing or turned blue!

Daniel was also under the bili-light to help bring down his biliruben levels, which were never too high, but since he was in the NICU it was no trouble to put him under the lights just to be safe and make sure that jaundice wouldn't be a problem. At first he was just under the bili-light, but then the staff wrapped him in a photo-blanket instead since he hated being un-swaddled. :)

Here is the bili-ruben light

Daniel had cloth sunglasses taped on to protect his eyes :) 

You can see the photo-blanket glowing green underneath his normal blanket

The gray cord is attached to his photo-blanket/pad. I thought Daniel sometimes looked like a little glow worm with his blanket. Ryan and I also joked that it was a kryptonite blanket they put on Daniel to keep his super powers at bay and keep him from flying around the room, ha ha. :)

Besides these things, the stay at the NICU was pretty uneventful. I would spend the afternoons there feeding and holding Daniel, then Ryan and I would return there in the evenings to say hi and feed him once more if it was time for him to eat. Both his grandmas came to spend the day with Daniel and me, too. His grandpas also visited him while he was in intensive care. Yay for family visits!

At first Daniel was on a 3 hour schedule like the rest of the patients there - getting woken up, his diaper changed, and fed every three hours. But the last few days of his stay the nurses let him kinda make his own schedule. :) Daniel would always want to eat more often or sleep longer than 3 hours. He kept the nursing staff on their toes and they worked around his schedule and not the other way around. :)

Mommy feeding Daniel some dinner

Daddy kissing Danny's hand. It was always very emotional for both of us to leave him at night

Sleeping so peacefully

Daddy feeding Daniel dinner :)

He had a nice amount of hair when he was born. This is him only one day old.

One of Daniel's first "smiles!"

After ten days in the NICU Daniel was finally ready to come home. He may have had to stay a little longer, since he had only gone two days without having a de-stat episode and not three yet, but because it was the weekend there was a different doctor in charge. Dr. Liu was there when Daniel was first admitted and she was surprised he was still there. She saw that he had gone two days without his oxygen saturation dropping and promptly discharged us. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All dressed in his own clothes, getting ready to leave!

Daddy was so happy

Mommy was, too

Family picture time!

We could finally be rid of our NICU hospital bracelets.
Daniel came home to us on Friday, November 12th

A view of a beautiful winter sunrise from our deck

It is hard to describe the emotions felt during this time, but having Daniel come home in time for my birthday was the best present I could have gotten.