NICU and Graduation

While Andrew was in the NICU I walked for my Masters. I even had my hospital tags hanging out of the robe as I went through the ceremony. I was just dying for someone to ask about them so that I could say they'd let me out of the mental hospital to get my diploma, but nobody did.

The Scare

So we just about readmitted K to the hospital the other day after she had a near heart attack. We went to see A in the NICU at about 10:30 pm and noticed a neonatal ambulance sitting outside the entrance to the women's center at the hospital. K immediately supposed the worst and started fretting. I told her not to worry and that it was probably because someone had gone into serious labor at home or something similar. I dropped her off to go inside and then I parked the car.

As I walked back to the NICU I noticed through the window a specialized ambulance stretcher as well as a team of neonatal specialists. What really got my attention was that they were all gathered around A's bed and they looked to be engaged in some serious work. At that moment K came out of the bathroom shaking and as white as a ghost. I quickly scrubbed and we began to go into the NICU.

At about 3 steps inside the door someone yells, "Are parents allowed?"! K just about fainted. Luckily the regular nurse practitioner was quick on her feet, told us to come back, and then explained that A was fine and that his bed had been moved to the back corner to make room for a set of premature twins that had been delivered at another hospital. I'm not sure the color returned to K's face entirely for a couple of hours still, even after holding A.

Now the update. A is doing EXTREMELY well, as you might tell from the pictures. He breastfed for the first time last night, and two more times today. None of the nurses can believe it. He latched on at the first attempt last night and has been going strong since. He becomes very alert when we are there now and he has the most beautiful eyes, smiles frequently, and loves to make little cooing noises at his mom. His bowels are holding pretty good pressure too apparently. He let one rip tonight that had a nurse come running from the far side of the nursery. It certainly made K and myself jump, and I thought he'd punched a hole through his diaper for sure.

Most likely he'll come home on Saturday just to make sure that we won't have to bring him back in. Since Little K still thought the hospital had lost A, we snuck the kids up to the NICU window to let them peek in even though we weren't supposed too. They thought that was pretty darn cool. Also, we'd like to acknowledge the birth of cousin C on Sunday. 3 cousins all within 4 days of each other sounds awefully dangerous to us, but we'll have to see. Again, we thank you all for your phone calls and prayers, and we'll continue to keep you updated.

Updates (pictures below)

Okay, before I give you an update on A I absolutely have to give you an update on my other two children first (pictures do follow for those of you who skip the text and just want the pics). Let's just say they have been having quite the time with Nini and Auntie A in town (hmmm... I guess I better come up with a way to distinguish between all the Auntie A's...).

First of all, my mother-in-law almost got herself issued a National Amber Alert, which I think would have been pretty funny although K doesn't think it would have. She flew in yesterday morning without telling us, which consequently happened to be just after the arrival of our little nephew in Rexburg. (The kids were born 2 days and 1 hour apart, we are so excited!) Given that it would be her only chance to go see that little one she devised a plan to drive up to Idaho from the airport. Somehow that plan included taking our children with her, but somehow didn't include letting us know about that. We thought the kids were going to go see animals at Aunt J's for the day. Luckily Uncle M informed us of said plan and thereby prevented us from calling the police. I was able to spend a good chunk of time explaining to Nini over the phone how to find the closest rest stops on the GPS system so that B wouldn't have a potty accident, and yet, B still had a potty accident in my car. Oh well, at least I don't think it will show up on the Carfax report.

Since they hadn't been able to see A, the kids were very excited and surprised to see people in a real hospital room holding a real baby. Little K went into a lengthy explanation for everyone on how the hospital had lost our baby so that's why they hadn't held A yet, and B confiscated all the cameras and started taking pictures of confidential medical documents and other sensitive things. Oh, and somewhere in the trip Auntie A got pulled over.

The kids have been doing pretty well without us, and since Nini and Auntie A don't know all the rules, they decided to run things for them. This morning the relief society president called (the sweetest lady in the world), and B decided to pick up the phone. Since he was talking for so long, Nini thought he was probably talking to us so she picked up the phone to listen in. She heard something along the lines of...

RP: So you're home all alone?
B: Well, no. My sister K is here, and my doggy Apollo, and my dog Dandy.
RP: Is anybody else there with you?
B: No. My Baby is sick so he's in the hospital with Mommy and Daddy. They have to stay with him because he's sick.
RP: So what are you doing?
B: Watching TV.
RP: And nobody is there with you guys if you need anything?

At this point Nini decided she had better jump in. After assuring the relief society president that they were okay, that there was a competent adult in the house and that K and I really hadn't left our 4 and 2 year old all alone, she clearly stated to the RP that, "we have everything under control". That's when Little K started screaming bloody murder. She's only 2, but when this girl screams the neighbors come running. That's when it was the RP's turn to listen in on a conversation:

Nini: B, where's Little K?
B: She's in the closet.
Nini: Why is she in the closet?
B: She needed a time out so I locked her in there.
Nini: Don't you think we should let her out?
B: No, she really needed a time out. I even turned off the lights.

Hopefully child protective services is not on the way to our house. I don't know if Nini was successful in convincing the relief society that we don't need much help, but I do know that whenever I tell her that we don't need help in the future she is not going to believe me at all.

Back to the baby. He is doing very well, and his lungs sound clear now. He will probably be weaned of the CPAP today (the rubber tubing you see going up his nose), and we will be able to hold him more often. He was under lights last night for jaundice, but hasn't been most of this morning. He's quite alert now and tries to look around, but for some reason still has a hard time opening his right eye. This morning his IV started leaking fluid at the site for some reason and they had to do a new one. After sticking and failing to put one in his other hand, they finally got one in his head. (Even though it looks worse, it's actually one of the best places for an IV). He fought and yelled the whole time, and in an effort to punish the nurse he managed to dislodge his CPAP, so the nurse in turn had to punish him by replacing it. For being 3 days old the kid has some strength to him.

Even though he looks like an "O - N", it's still hard for me to see the other two kids in him. He got to say goodbye to Grandma this morning who is on her way to South Dakota for the birth of yet another cousin, which we are very excited for. K is doing very well herself, and aside from being pretty sore has been up and moving around the past couple days. Thank you again for all of your support and love.