Feeding, discharge for 1

Feeding with a special bottle

Our baby boy was drinking out of a special bottle called the Haberman. Like any other baby he fell asleep after having some milk on his tummy and we had to keep him awake so that he would keep sucking and finish his milk. Because of his cleft, we had a speech therapist come in to make sure we were using the Haberman correctly when feeding him. Weird, right? Yes, but speech therapists work with patients needing swallowing therapy. This was a little bit frustrating, the first time the speech therapist came to show us how to use the bottle, she forced fed him so much that he spit it up almost completely after she left. We were pretty MAD! The next day, another speech therapist came by to observe him feeding, and didn't see anything wrong with him. However, the attending pediatrician was concerned about the volumes he was taking, which they didn't tell us it was below what they expected until discharge day. Nevertheless, they asked us to bring his car seat to the room so that they could do a car seat trial, which is performed on premature babies and babies with respiratory problems. It consists of placing the baby in the car seat for 90 minutes while monitoring his oxygen level with a pulse oximeter. Baby passes the test if the oxygen levels stay between 88% and 100%. That afternoon, a nurse came in and took baby boy and car seat to perform the test at the nursery. We didn't hear from anyone until we asked how our baby was doing, and they told us he didn't pass the test. Apparently is pretty common for babies not to pass the first time so alternate plans were being made to try it again the next day. 

Discharge for 1

In an effort to keep us together, they discharged me and transferred our baby boy to the children's hospital with the expectation that he would be going home the next day. On his third day of life, yet another speech therapist stopped by to watch him feed, whom again didn't see any problems with his feeding so she cleared him for discharge; we received the same determination from the attending pediatrician and craniomaxillofacial surgeon. At this point, we were just waiting for the car seat trial, which needed to be done 40 minutes after he stopped feeding for 90 minutes ,then we were on our way home (or so we thought). Our nurse called for someone from the Neonatal ICU to come and perform the test, since she wasn't trained on how to do it. However, later that day it was her that showed up with a pulse oximeter to perform the test. This is where the uneasiness began... I put our baby boy in his carseat, and let the nurse buckle him in. She then tried getting the car seat to a 45 degree angle. Once I understood what she was trying to do, I pointed out to her that the car seat's back is already at a 45 degree angle, so she set the pulse oximeter, started the time log, left the room, and left me watching... if the oxygen level dropped below 88% I needed to call her. Then, not even 5 minutes had passed and our baby's oxygen level dropped to 58%, the nurse immediately came to the room after hearing the alarm and took the baby out of the car seat. We were not going home that day, to the disappointment of Daddy and Big Sister who showed up later expecting to pick us up and be on our way home.

Baby Boy's Birth Story

Two days before our baby boy's due date we went into the hospital for our scheduled induction. Our appointment was at 3pm, by 6pm I was in a room, IV started, blood drawn, and Cervidil going into my cervix for 12 hours. We definitely didn't realize that we had to wait that long and that if at the end of the 12 hours I wasn't dilated to 3 cm, then another one for 12 hours would be started before I could be moved to the Labor and Delivery floor. Around 2 am I started having painful contractions so I woke my husband to help me manage the pain and also got on the birthing ball to ease the pain. The Cervidil was taken out at 6am, and my cervix was dilated to 2 cm, so the Dr ordered another Cervidil. I continued having contractions after the medicine was out and by the time the nurse was ready to put it in around  9am and checked my cervix, I was almost 3 cm dilated, so the Dr ordered to get me transferred to the L&D floor and start Pitocin. Then we waited and waited and waited until about 5:30pm when I was finally given a L&D room to have our baby. Since I continued to have contractions even without any medicines during the day, I was between 3 and 4 cm before the Pitocin got started.

The Final Hours of Labor
The nurse started the Pitocin drip at about 6pm, by 8pm the contractions were painful enough to prompt me to ask for an epidural. That anesthesiologist was at the ready! He came in to put it in so fast that it made me nervous and I started shaking, every time he poked or touched me, I jumped, for sure I thought I was going to get complications but I didn't, thank you God. And then I was relieved of my pain. My Dr. came in around 9pm to break my bag of waters, checked my cervix which was still around 4 cm close to 5 cm, then decided to go home and wait for a call from the nurse.

Time for Baby!
And the baby dropped along with the feeling of needing to push, it was around 11:15pm, so I called the nurse, who came in checked my cervix and discovered I was already at 10cm dilated and the baby went from station -1 to +2, she then hurried up to get everything ready for the delivery, had the nurse desk call the Dr, while my husband helped me get a boost of meds every 10 minutes pushing the button for the epidural. The Dr. arrived around 11:40pm, and got ready! Our Baby Boy was born at 11:56pm on March 20, 2013.

Our Baby Boy was rapidly evaluated by the NICU staff since we knew about his cleft lip since the 20 week ultrasound and confirmed a cleft palate at birth. He has a Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate (UCLP) on the right and a bilateral cleft on his soft palate. He was found to not have further complications other than failed hearing screenings. Although that rapidly changed in the days that followed... Stay posted for the story of our journey in the NICU and our Baby Boy in an upcoming blog post.

I'm back!

It has been a long while since I last posted, I even had a baby :-). Now with a new look, what a better day to revive this blog than #WAAD13 World Autoimmune Arthritis Day.

Please take a look at the LIVE chat sessions going on through tomorrow to understand better maybe what you are going through or what your loved ones are experiencing with their Autoimmune Arthritis which includes Rheumatoid Arthritis. RA Chicks, a group that I follow, will have a chat session tonight at 8pm ET. Visit http://www.waad13.com

Today, my son turns 2 months old. Time flies, and we have only being home for 3 weeks, please stay posted for the birth story as well as the ordeal this little guy has had to go through on a series of blog posts in the next week.