It's a Rollar Coaster baby

Nathaniel was supposed to discharged on Monday Feb 26th. On the Saturday before that he had a major bradycardia, his heart rate dropped then his oxygen levels dropped. Needless to say he was not going to be discharge on Monday. I took this very hard, I had everything riding on this day because once he was discharged then I could go home and things would go back to normal, so I thought. Soon I learned that things do not go back to normal so soon when you have a preemie. Even if they are one of the lucky few preemies that do not have the hearing, vision, motor or learning skills affected from being born so early, their development is still delayed. (For instance Nathan is now weighing 6 lbs and 4 oz, that is a normal weight for a full term baby slightly on the small size but still a good weight. Trust me I know (more on this later). Right now their is another little boy in the NICU is a hefty 9 lbs and some odd oz. He is a full term baby that is staying in the NICU for an infection that they are not sure how he got, but he his doing much better an soon will get to go him with his parents. Nathaniel is almost 2 months old, the other baby boy is almost a week old. This baby is still bigger than Nathan even though he is older. And I am not talking in weight I am talking in size. It seems that preemies do tend to be smaller than their full term counterparts for a least their first two years. The other thing is preemies tend to have delayed development in their motor skills. Most preemie parents have the actual age of the child and then the adjusted age. The adjusted age is the one they use when getting immunizations for their children and when to judge whether or not they are developing their gross motor skills around the right time. Nathan is trying to pick his head and look around when laying on his stomach, but he still has not quite got the hang of it.)

Mommy's Little Monster

After the passing of the failed discharge I went home to TN for a few day to recharge myself. My stress level was way to high and my milk production was being affected. Besides Nathan had a little bit longer before he could go home. The Neo doc wanted Nathan to go 7 full days without having a major incident where someone had to stimulate him to remind his brain to breathe. I left for TN on Sunday (March 4) evening and came back to NJ on Thursday evening (March 8). On Friday morning (March 9) the NICU doctor told me that Nathan was going to need a blood transfusion, okay not big deal. The neo-doc said that he felt that the low blood level/iron count was adding to the brady's so he felt if we did the blood transfusion then he should stop having the drops. I wanted to use my blood, since I am the same blood type. They said sure and looked into it with the local red cross, well the red cross told them that it would it would take 6 business days to do all the tests to before they could give the blood to Nathan. Well needless to say I did not want to wait 6 days only to have to wait another 7 days. So I said whatever use the bank donor blood. I was angry, I mean my god I had just given birth to this child and they tested both of our blood then they knew I did not have anything.
Nathan having blood transfusion

Okay, back to I know about the weights of babies. I have been visiting in the NICU for the past month, I have seen all kinds of babies come and go. Ones that get sent on to Our Lady of Lourdes because they are very premature . Usually these babies are under 31 weeks and having major medical issues. These tiny darlings are just that, TINY. These babies are usually 3.5 lbs and under, a lot were around 1.5lbs. I have also seen the ones that are full term come in because they are cold or breathing funny or not eating well or have an infection, like Nathan's big friend I mentioned earlier. These babies range from 6 lbs and up. So I have seen a lot of different sizes of babies come into the NICU. I have also almost that many be discharged. Which is even more depressing at times because I want it to be my turn.
Playing in the car seat

But HOPEFULLY my turn will be Saturday March 17th. As long as everything goes well tonight, Nathaniel will get to come home on Saint Patrick's Day. Funny thing is, as joyful as I am about bringing my baby home I am also slightly scared and afraid. He will come home on a monitor which will help but still I am worried. But I guess this is natural.