After resting for a bit it was time to test her sugar and it came back in the low fifties. I felt like life was perfect! My family was complete and I had a beautiful new baby girl. At this point, some friends and family came to the hospital to meet Elyse and visit. By this time we were in early evening and it was time to test Ely's blood sugar again, this time she didn't pass. So the nurses told me we needed to nurse her again, I did so and it was still low. At this point, they said we needed to give her a little formula, so we did while she nursed. I was still just so pleased with everything. At this point, the nurse came in a said it was time to test again. I told her that I was going to take a shower and then I would pick Elyse up from the nursery. When I got out of the shower, the nursery nurse was in my room. She told me that Elyse was now in the critical range and that Elyse was being taken downstairs to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU). I was told that I could not go down with her that I had to wait an hour and then I could go down. I asked if I could be with Elyse until they take her down and they said yes. Just as I was walking to the nursery, they were wheeling my daughter away. I gave her a kiss and told her that I loved her. I then walked back to my room in tears. I called Brian and told him what was going on it was just after 9 PM.
After, an hour passed the Nurse Practitioner (PRN) called me and told me that most babies this small just need help for 2-3 days and then she would be out of the NICU and could go home. I was then told I could go to the NICU. When I got there they were still working on getting blood and getting her situated. I sat in a wheel chair, dazed. I wondered how this could be happening, she is a full term baby and I had a healthy pregnancy. The nurse told me that they were giving her Dextrose 10.2ml/hr through her IV and that she probably wouldn't be hungry and that I should sleep. I told her that I wanted to hold my daughter for a little bit and then I would go back to my room to sleep. She promised she would call me when Elyse woke up so I could feed her. After feeding Elyse, they told me that they expected the doctor to round about 11 AM, if I wanted to be there for that I would need back.
Brian came back to the hospital and we went down to see Elyse, at this point they had found out she had jaundice and had her under bili-lights. We couldn't hold her, just sit next to her and touch the one foot without a needle in it. This was super hard on all of us. The kids couldn't understand why mom and Ely weren't coming home. Brian and I couldn't figure out what went wrong with our baby. The doctors then told us that Elyse could be in the NICU any where from 2-7 days. The earliest discharge day at that point was probably Monday. At this point I was bawling, Brian took me back to my room and told me to sleep.
The next few days were a blur. My life was pretty much feed Elyse, go back to my room and pump, eat and try and sleep for an hour or so because we were on a strict 3 hour feed schedule. They started to wean her but when she had a bad number the dextrose was bummed back up. Her heels looked like hamburger from being poked every 3 hours. At some point they gave her a bili-blanket so we could at least hold her. Monday came and went, without her blood sugar stabilizing. They decided to check for hormonal issues at this point. However, during all this heartache, the maternity ward receptionist was making bows and hats, so I bought the little owl hat for $5, and it made a rough day better. Tuesday arrived and they lowered her Dextrose to 1ml/hr and the hormonal tests came back negative. She had a good day and it looked like we would be going home very soon. Wednesday at 2:30 AM Elyse was taken off the Dextrose. I was so excited, she now had to maintain 24 hours of good blood sugars then she could go home. We were told that a discharge on Thursday looked very good. Well, late in the afternoon on Wednesday she had a low blood sugar and we were told earliest discharge was going to be Friday now. They decided that Elyse needed more calories so they were going to add Nutramigen to my pumped breast milk and she would have to have a bottle every other feed. When Brian got to the hospital that day, I started crying and couldn't stop. He told me that it was time to come home. I could come back and be with Elyse all day tomorrow if I wanted but he wanted me to come home and sleep. So, that evening I made the hardest decision I ever had to and I kissed my baby and left the hospital. I slept most the night only waking once to pump. I got up early and was at the hospital for her early morning feeding Thursday. I found out at this point that Elyse had great numbers all night. Brian and I tried to be back for the rounds at 11 AM, but we missed them. However, the PRN was still in Elyse's room. She told us that they had still had great numbers and that if she had 2 more good numbers she could go home that night. Well, Elyse rocked the last 2 numbers and they finally discharged her on Thursday evening, with the understanding that she had to be feed every 3 hours and with a fortified bottle every other feed. Aside for her being born, it was the best news of the year. I was thrilled that we finally got to bring her home. Except it was just me that brought her home, as Bri was with our older kids. I also just brought her home in PJ's because I didn't want to jinx going home by bringing in an outfit. Needless to say, this was not the week I had envisioned for our family, but Miss Elyse is now healthy and home, I couldn't ask for better news. I have to say that the staff did an great job and without them it would have been an awful experience.
These are some of the pictures taken in the NICU over the 6 day stay:
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