Sunday, April 29, 2012

My poor little man!

Cade has been through the ringer in the past week and a half. We had a jaundice check the day after we got back home and his levels had increased a little. I didn't think much about it because he looked SO much better than Connor did at this point. Plus the doctor wasn't too concerned about it. One of the questions they asked me while I was there was if he had been having a good amount of alert periods. I said that he had, and once again didn't think anything about it. Well, on Sunday he had an alert period that morning and then didn't have one the rest of the day. We couldn't wake him up besides to eat. And even then it was very hard to keep him awake. I figured we had a long night ahead of us, so when I still had to wake him up in the middle of the night I started to worry. I knew that, with jaundice, becoming lethargic was a bad sign and could mean that it was causing brain damage. I called the after hours line at his dr's office and after talking to the nurse she suggested we head to the emergency room. I immediately started crying and pretty much didn't stop for 5 hours. We got to Vandy in record time and thankfully, they immediately got us into a room. He had to get an IV, which was pretty awful. They tried his hand a couple of times and it wouldn't stick. Finally after what felt like forever (he was screaming), they got it in his elbow. Thankfully, we were still able to hold him and he pretty much calmed down as soon as I picked him up. After the labs came back normal, they weren't too concerned with the lethargy, but they were concerned with the fact that his oxygen levels kept dropping into the high 70s, low 80s. At his 18 week ultrasound they had seen a little echogenic focus on his heart, so this kept popping into my head that it could still be there and be causing an issue. They decided they wanted to observe him for the night and admitted us into a room upstairs. At this point he was still not awake and it had been 24 hours. I was still not sure there wasn't anything wrong and it didn't help that his wee little body was in this huge bed. Finally after being there for 5 hours, he opened those sweet little eyes and I started crying again, but this time out of thankfulness. He stayed awake for 2 hours and was even fighting going to sleep. They ordered an echo to be done and thankfully, it came back completely normal.  I was so glad to go ahead and get that done. His oxygen levels continued to look good throughout the day and night, so we were able to come home the next morning. They pretty much decided that he had just had a really sleepy day and that the drop in oxygen levels was just normal infant breathing. We had so many people praying for us while we were there and we are so thankful for that. I can easily say that was the most helpless I have EVER felt. I am SO appreciative of the fact that I was still able to nurse and that he still would. My mom was actually at our house when we had to go, so she was able to stay with Connor. I had already spent 3 days away from him while in the hospital to give birth, so I was missing him something awful! He was so excited to see us, but he was most excited to see his baby brother! 

His pediatrician decided that he wanted to see him on Thursday just as a follow up from the ER visit. While there we found out that he hadn't gained any weight since Saturday and was still down 5 oz from birth weight, so back to the dr we go next week for a weight check. We've had some serious talks about his nursing times lately and I am hoping that gets better soon. I also talked to Dr Mehrotra about his short frenulum (the little thing under our tongue). His was very close to his gum line and was restricting him from sticking his tongue out. He referred us to an ENT in the same building and made an appointment for the next morning to get it clipped. We went the next morning and it was about a 15 second procedure and now he can stick his little tongue out! I immediately felt the difference when he nursed, so I am glad we went ahead and got it done. Plus, he said if we hadn't he wouldn't be able to do simple things like lick ice cream off of his upper lip and no child of mine should have any trouble eating ice cream ;). 

I didn't take any pictures at the hospital. I was sure it was something I would never forget and didn't need a picture to remind me. It is so easy to take advantage of your children's health as well as your own, so I pray that this has taught me to appreciate every single moment even more. Crying in the middle of the night? He is crying and awake! If my biggest problem is that he won't nurse as long as he should in one sitting and I have to increase his feedings, then I have absolutely nothing to complain about! 

2 comments:

chesley said...

so glad you got him taken care of!! i didn't know you ended up going to the ENT, but so glad you did and didn't have to be put to sleep, etc when he was older!!!

the workaholic momma said...

oh Kelli, I am SOOO thankful that everything is ok. I cannot even imagine how scary that would all be:( Hugs to you and Cade....and prayers for weight gains at his next appt:)

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