(Typing as fast as I can version because we're in survival mode and every minute spent with our sweet boy is the only way we're holding it together.) We spent all day Saturday rejoicing with family and friends. There is no way our little one didn't feel the love because of all the hugs, happy tears, smiles and baby adoring going on! Throughout the day he would spit up in a choking kind of way and the nurses said it was perfectly normal because he could have swallowed some amniotic fluid/mucous. We learned to use the little suction tool and all seemed well. Later that night, PC and I had about two hours before the next feeding and one of the nurses said they could watch him sleep for a couple of hours in the nursery since the spitting up was a worry and we could get a couple hours of sleep. We said that would be okay. One and a half hours later, the nurse comes in and says that Hampton spit up and it was green and she called someone from the NICU to come look at it and he was downstairs being checked out. Two things here- #1- PC and I would have not known that was cause for concern- sorry but we're amateurs here-and we would have thought 'mucous.' So, kind've a blessing in disguise that he was in the nursery when it happened. #2- You do not wake up any mother- and especially an IVF mother- and tell her that her baby is "down there being checked out." Within the next hour (when we could sort everything out...this is around 2 in the morning btw...) our baby had been hooked up to an IV, a chest x-ray was taken and he was on antibiotics. I called our ob/gyn and some people really got in trouble for taking these steps without the parents knowing... you girls could understand my anger, but I had to move past that quickly... Hampton needed me. So- green spit up is a cause for concern because it could indicate a bowel blockage, infection or (best case scenario) just a sensitive tummy. However, you have to rule out blockage/infection. His bloodwork that morning came back with a high white blood cell count which could mean #1- he's fighting infection or #2- (other best case scenario) sometimes it's elevated just from the birth experience and adjusting to their new world. He has been down there ever since and my heart is outside my chest right now, it's wherever he is. I'm down there as much as possible, only coming to our room for meals and meds and a few short naps when a grandma or dad is with him (dad's on duty right now and that's a different post- thank you God for my sweet PC). When I try to nap, I smell him on my hand and that's when I cry myself to sleep. He is doing so good... a little trooper meeting every goal... but they are not letting him go yet in order to totally rule out infection and watch him after more feedings to check for anymore suspicious color in the spit up. NICU is "they do not go until we're 100% sure he's a well baby." With newborns, every doctor & nurse has explained to me that timing is everything and pre-prevention and being overly cautious is what keeps babies from a more serious illness. I want them to be overly cautious but I WANT HIM HOME. AND YOU ALL KNOW HOW BAD I WANT HIM HOME. So please send some good thoughts or prayers for our sweet little guy our way... for this face... and this mama that has waited on this for almost six years. Thank you blog family! Love to you all! Back to my baby boy!
