Emmy
Emmy is here. Emmy has been here since the 11th of April. Emmy is colicky and Emmy has reflux. Emmy is a hybrid electric baby. Keep reading. You'll see what I mean.
Early Saturday morning, April 14th at around 2:00 am, the nurse came into my hospital room without my Emmy. Emmy was supposed to come back from the nursery to be fed. So, in my groggy, half-awake stupor I asked where she was. The nurse replied that Emmy started to gag when she was in the nursery and she turned blue. Everything was fine. They called our pediatrician and admitted her to the NICU. Just then, a nurse comes in to take my blood pressure because they MUST know it at all times when you are in the hospital. I have no idea what it was, but I'm sure it wasn't good. I mean, I just found out my baby is in the NICU because she TURNED BLUE and you really want my blood pressure? NOW????
So, we jump up and get dressed to go up to the NICU. But, they don't want us to go just yet because they want to get Emmy settled in. So, we finally went up at 4 am.
The NICU wasn't as dreary as I thought it would be. Every baby had a little room with a sliding glass door. There were cheerful colors and artwork and large rockers in every room. You could tell which babies had been there for a long time because their doors were decorated with pictures and love notes from parents and siblings. That made me very sad. Emmy was in the very last room. She was all bundled up with wires sticking out of her blanket. I just cried when I saw her.
Emmy was hooked up to a machine that monitored her heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen level, and some other thing that I can't remember. We could hold her and feed her, but every once in awhile an alarm would go off and we would panic. The nurses in the NICU were fantastic and helped us deal with everything that was going on. Emmy was fine. They were just taking precautions. The next day Emmy had a GI test that confirmed acid reflux. They put Emmy on Zantac and a special formula that contains rice. Her little hands were bruised from the IV.
Sunday, I was able to go home. Emmy was not. It's a very strange feeling to leave the hospital with all this stuff (flowers, balloons, etc.) and not your baby. I knew she was in good hands - but they weren't my hands. Emmy was able to come home on Monday after we learned infant cpr and how to manage her portable monitor. She is on a portable monitor to measure her breathing and heartrate. She will be on this monitor for at least two months, if not longer. It's the size of a cable box with little wires attached to contacts on her chest. We have to keep her on it except for baths. We charge it at night. See, she is like a hybrid baby! She is currently getting 3-4 hours per bottle. I'm not sure what her epa rating is but she did well in the crash tests.
Besides that scare, Emmy is colicky. I have been calling her the scream machine, or electric baby. But, she is healthy and beautiful and I cannot thank God enough that her gagging episode happened in the hospital instead of in the middle of the night after we got home.
So, sorry for the lack of updates. I've been busy lugging electric baby and her battery pack all over the house.
Early Saturday morning, April 14th at around 2:00 am, the nurse came into my hospital room without my Emmy. Emmy was supposed to come back from the nursery to be fed. So, in my groggy, half-awake stupor I asked where she was. The nurse replied that Emmy started to gag when she was in the nursery and she turned blue. Everything was fine. They called our pediatrician and admitted her to the NICU. Just then, a nurse comes in to take my blood pressure because they MUST know it at all times when you are in the hospital. I have no idea what it was, but I'm sure it wasn't good. I mean, I just found out my baby is in the NICU because she TURNED BLUE and you really want my blood pressure? NOW????
So, we jump up and get dressed to go up to the NICU. But, they don't want us to go just yet because they want to get Emmy settled in. So, we finally went up at 4 am.
The NICU wasn't as dreary as I thought it would be. Every baby had a little room with a sliding glass door. There were cheerful colors and artwork and large rockers in every room. You could tell which babies had been there for a long time because their doors were decorated with pictures and love notes from parents and siblings. That made me very sad. Emmy was in the very last room. She was all bundled up with wires sticking out of her blanket. I just cried when I saw her.
Emmy was hooked up to a machine that monitored her heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen level, and some other thing that I can't remember. We could hold her and feed her, but every once in awhile an alarm would go off and we would panic. The nurses in the NICU were fantastic and helped us deal with everything that was going on. Emmy was fine. They were just taking precautions. The next day Emmy had a GI test that confirmed acid reflux. They put Emmy on Zantac and a special formula that contains rice. Her little hands were bruised from the IV.
Sunday, I was able to go home. Emmy was not. It's a very strange feeling to leave the hospital with all this stuff (flowers, balloons, etc.) and not your baby. I knew she was in good hands - but they weren't my hands. Emmy was able to come home on Monday after we learned infant cpr and how to manage her portable monitor. She is on a portable monitor to measure her breathing and heartrate. She will be on this monitor for at least two months, if not longer. It's the size of a cable box with little wires attached to contacts on her chest. We have to keep her on it except for baths. We charge it at night. See, she is like a hybrid baby! She is currently getting 3-4 hours per bottle. I'm not sure what her epa rating is but she did well in the crash tests.
Besides that scare, Emmy is colicky. I have been calling her the scream machine, or electric baby. But, she is healthy and beautiful and I cannot thank God enough that her gagging episode happened in the hospital instead of in the middle of the night after we got home.
So, sorry for the lack of updates. I've been busy lugging electric baby and her battery pack all over the house.
