Wednesday - April 30

DH and I were able to get some rest and were thrilled to have Turtle back with us when the nurses returned him from the nursery. After they checked my vitals, we all got a little more sleep, and then woke up to attempt a feeding.

The nurse said that he was havinga hard time with his suck and had spit up a few times in the night, and so this was mentioned to Dr. S, the pediatrician, when he came in to check on his newest patient. He said that everything was checking out fine, and that sometimes, pre-term babies will have a "disorganized suck." He also suggested we try a soy-based formula at the next feeding, just in case there was any kind of allergy to cow's milk.

At his next feeding, he still wasn't taking much (only 15 mL of the bottle) of the soy, so D suggested we try finger feeding. She brought in a syringe and a thin tube, and we tried to get him to suck the formula with the guide of our finger. He wasn't really interested. D said she wanted to talk to some of the other nurses to see if they could recommend alternative feeding methods, and she would be back.

DH changed another diaper and L came to visit us. She sat with our little guy and promptly blamed me for giving her baby fever again. D came back and asked if we would mind if she took Turtle to the nurse's station so that they could pool their ideas and see what they could come up with. I hated to let him go, but of course we wanted to get our little man fed, so we said yes. DH went to go pick up lunch (although it was 4 in the afternoon), and K & A and T & K came to visit us. D came back in to say that they were going to run a stomach xray and a full blood workup on Turtle - they had tested his glucose per Dr. S' instructions, and it was low (in the 50s).

The guest of honor came back just in time to visit with his guests for a little while. Then everyone left, and I ran to the bathroom so Keith and I could have something to eat. While I was in the bathroom, I heard the room phone ring and Keith answered it. At this point, D also came in the room. I finished up what I was doing, and came out, just as Keith was hanging up the phone.

D was there with a physician's assistant. They started talking to me about our baby and how they needed to transport him to the NICU at the children's hospital downtown. The xrays had turned up a blockage in his intestines and they had no way of determining what it was or how serious it was. They needed to take him and put him on an IV and put a tube down his throat to help clear out extra air and fluids, and then he was going to be taken via ambulance to the NICU. DH was able to follow the ambulance, but not ride with him, and I was to stay at the hospital.

Somehow, D and DH got me back in bed. They let me hold Turtle for another minute before they took him to get him ready for his trip. D said she was going to stay with him and update on how things were going. She also said that they were going to bring him back in the room with the entire transport team so we could see him and meet everyone who was going to be with him. I remember not being able to breathe.

At some point, DH told me he had spoken to my mom and that she and my stepdad were getting in their car and starting the drive from NJ immediately. He had to get some gas in the car, and so he left to do that, promising to be right back. D kept coming back to give me updates on how the IVs were going. Our baby was doing well. D also told me she had spoken to my doctor and he was going to discharge me. She called DH and told him to pick me up some motrin for the pain and she also gave me a dose of percocet to get me through the long night.

She helped me pack and DH came back. At that time, the transport team was ready. We signed off on the consents and they brought in our baby in the transport unit. It was awful. He was hooked up to so many wires and looked so small and helpless. I couldn't stand it and started bawling again, and then they had to take him.

D went over instructions for me one more time, and put me in a wheelchair. She brought us out of the hospital and held my hand until DH got the car. We promised to update her on Monday (her next shift), and got in the car.

At the NICU
Turtle was all set in the NICU when we arrived. In the car, I texted my friend K to see if a friend of ours worked in the same NICU (I knew she worked in that particular hospital, but wasn't sure of what unit). K immediately called L and told her to be on the lookout for me. L worked in PICU but promised that she would be right over to visit. It was good to see a friendly face.

We sat with him, and the doctor explained that they took another xray which showed a little less of a blockage, and that they thought it was a meconium block. They were going to try flushing him with a saline enema and if that didn't work, then they would have to run a contrast dye through his intestines and put a camera in to see what to do.

They weren't going to run any more tests that night, and the nurse recommended that we go home and get some rest. He needed to get some sleep, and so did we. She promised us that even if they had to do the contrast dye, it wouldn't be til later in the morning. We could call at any time and check on him. We dragged ourselves away and went home.