Three Days of Wonderful
May 13, 2015 is the day we got to take Zachary home. He had continued to do well with his feedings, taking the volume he needed to (2 ozs. every 3 hours) and it was all PO, which means bottle- no feeding tube. He passed his car seat test and hearing test, so he was all set to come home!
I remember the butterflies I had driving into Boston to get him. There isn’t even a word to describe how happy I was. Nothing comes close.
We had to go over a couple of things with the nurse during our discharge, but one thing sticks out…We asked if there was anything we needed to look out for that would indicate a problem. We were told that he was a normal eating and pooping newborn. So if he doesn’t poop for a couple of days, like breastfed babies sometimes do, don’t worry about it. We had a couple of things to look out for, but they were things that parents of all newborns would look for.
We hugged our nurses, and promised to visit, and out the door we went. I felt free. I felt like our hardest challenge was behind us. It was pure happiness.
We arrived home a little after noon. We walked Zachary around the house giving him a tour. We got him settled in his Rock and Play, and Chris and I made lunch. The boys were with Nana, so we had some time alone with Zach. We took turns holding him. But one of my favorite memories from that day was falling asleep with Zachary on my chest…on my own couch…with no monitors, no beeping, no nurses, no interruptions. Just us. It was amazing. I had longed for this moment.
My second favorite memory from that day we took him home was CJ and Ben walking in and calling out for Zachary. “Oh, hey Zach”, “Where’s my brother Zachary”? They were adorable with him. They were excited to have him home, and wanted to hold him. I was thrilled they wanted to hold him, because when they came to meet him in the NICU, they were very timid and scared to hold him, and that was just so sad for me.
So they both took turns holding him and gave their biggest smiles when I took their pictures. I will forever cherish those pictures.
Our first night at home went pretty well. Zachary was, is, such a good baby. He was waking up about every 3 hours to eat, but we didn’t care…he was eating!
The next morning, the boys climbed into bed with us. We were all together. Just as I had pictured it. It was beautiful.
My parents came to visit later that day, and we just had a quiet day at home Zach and I, because the boys were at school.
The next day, we had a doctor’s appointment. I took Zachary, and was pretty darn impressed I was able to get there on time!
The doctor had been kept up to date by Tufts, but still wanted to hear his history from me. She was very impressed with his progress, felt his belly, heard bowel sounds, and said he was absolutely perfect.
Throughout the day and evening, Zachary did very well eating and pooping, sleeping and playing. A little after midnight Zachary had a full 2 ounce bottle and I swaddled him up and put him in the bassinette next to our bed. Around 2:30am, he started grunting and making some strange sounds. When I looked in, I could see that he had spit up a little bit. No big deal…babies spit up. Even our surgeon told us that. So I picked him up to see if he had a burp.
Once he was upright, the amount of vomit that came out of that child was impressive. It was all over him and all over me. Again, babies spit up, so I changed my shirt, realized he had pooped and started to change his diaper.
Because Chris and I keep the room dark and quiet during the times we’re up with our kids, I could tell that his poop was darker than normal, but I didn’t really think anything of it…
Zachary woke up at 4:30am, downed a full bottle and fell right back to sleep. No spitting up. At 7:30am, he was hungry, so I tried to nurse. We had already had a couple successful nursing sessions, and this one looked as though we would be successful again. But we weren’t. He kept starting, but then stopping. He kept arching his back. He was really only comfortable when he was upright on my chest.
I took him downstairs around 8:00am, and decided to make him a bottle instead. He needed to bulk up on calories, so if he wouldn’t nurse, I wanted him to still eat.
When attempting to feed him, he had another very large vomit. And this time, we could see the color of it. It was bright yellow. The amount of it was alarming because he had eaten almost 4 hours ago, but the color…that was alarming.
I immediately called the pediatrician’s office and spoke with the nurse practitioner. I told her his feeding schedule from the night, and we discussed how we had started to give him Vitamin D drops with iron. She was pretty confident that the vitamin drops were to blame for both the vomiting and the color. We mentioned the diarrhea he was also having. I described it as a rusty color. Again, the iron drops were to blame. Or maybe he had caught a little bug. We were just in a hospital, so who knows what we could have picked up. So we held off giving them to him, and were told to call back if the vomiting continued.
Throughout the day Zachary would eat…or he wouldn’t. He would spit up…or he wouldn’t. There was no pattern. The only thing that was consistent was the diarrhea. I can’t even tell you how many diapers Chris and I changed that day. Over 30.
A couple friends, and one of his aunts and two of his cousins came to visit that day. They took turns holding him and all was well. He had another very large vomit, but he had just finished a bottle and didn’t burp, so I assumed it was due to that.
As the evening went on, Zachary became more and more lethargic. I remember thinking, “I feel like this goes beyond being a sleepy newborn”. But newborns sleep. A lot. And he has had a big transition, so he’s sleepy.
After the we put the boys to bed, Chris was carrying Zachary around, and I just had a feeling. I can’t describe it. But I was so unsettled. I just felt like Zachary was “off”. So I called the pediatrician on call.
I gave every detail of the day, when he had vomited, the color, how many diapers we had changed, and the color of those diapers. The pediatrician said to scale back the feedings to an ounce and see if he could tolerate that volume. He said to try and keep him hydrated. “There’s no way it can be another obstruction because he’s pooping”. Which made total sense to be…but it just didn’t feel right. “Try and avoid the ER tonight”…I started to pack the bag.
We hung up and I looked at Chris. “This just doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel like him”. And the amount of poop coming out of this child was now alarming. I found the phone number for the parent’s line for the NICU at Tufts.
“Hi, I’m sorry. I know that this line is only for NICU parents, but our son just came home on the 13th. I feel like something is wrong, and I’m hoping there is a doctor that would speak to me…I don’t know who else to call”.
A doctor that had been on Zachary’s case the first week of his life took my call. She encouraged me to follow my gut and take him to the ER. Either to Lowell General or bring him into Tufts. But if I went to Lowell, if there were any concerns, they would transfer us to Tufts anyway, so go to LGH for some fluids and peace of mind.
So I finished packing the bag, gave Chris a kiss goodbye, for he was staying home with the boys, put Zachary in the car, and drove like a bat out of hell to the hospital. Goosebumps covered my body the whole way.
The nurses were fantastic when we arrived at LGH. They took him immediately for vitals, and opened up a private room for us to wait in so we wouldn’t have to wait with all of the germs in the waiting room. I fed him while we were waiting, and he had 3 more poops.
They finally called us back, and he had another poop. They started an IV, and he had another poop. We went for an x-ray, and he had another poop. He pooped another 5 times. The doctor came in and said she had looked at the x-rays. She said there didn’t seem to be anything blocking his bowel. But he had some very dilated loops. That was nothing new…we were told that would be normal for him, and they would go down to size.
Around 2:00am, Zachary started to scream. In the 3 short weeks of his life, this baby never cried more than a couple of minutes. He was so easy to comfort.
He wouldn’t stop screaming. No matter what I did. He wouldn’t stop. I started to cry. I knew. I knew we had to leave. I knew he wasn’t okay.
I called the nurse and when he came in, I looked him straight in the eye and said, “I need to go to Tufts, now. I need you to call an ambulance, now”. He called the doctor in, and I repeated myself, “we need to go, NOW”. She said the ambulance would be here in 20 minutes…we weren’t even waiting for the transfer team from Tufts to come get us…
May 13, 2015 is the day we got to take Zachary home. He had continued to do well with his feedings, taking the volume he needed to (2 ozs. every 3 hours) and it was all PO, which means bottle- no feeding tube. He passed his car seat test and hearing test, so he was all set to come home!
I remember the butterflies I had driving into Boston to get him. There isn’t even a word to describe how happy I was. Nothing comes close.
We had to go over a couple of things with the nurse during our discharge, but one thing sticks out…We asked if there was anything we needed to look out for that would indicate a problem. We were told that he was a normal eating and pooping newborn. So if he doesn’t poop for a couple of days, like breastfed babies sometimes do, don’t worry about it. We had a couple of things to look out for, but they were things that parents of all newborns would look for.
We hugged our nurses, and promised to visit, and out the door we went. I felt free. I felt like our hardest challenge was behind us. It was pure happiness.
We arrived home a little after noon. We walked Zachary around the house giving him a tour. We got him settled in his Rock and Play, and Chris and I made lunch. The boys were with Nana, so we had some time alone with Zach. We took turns holding him. But one of my favorite memories from that day was falling asleep with Zachary on my chest…on my own couch…with no monitors, no beeping, no nurses, no interruptions. Just us. It was amazing. I had longed for this moment.
My second favorite memory from that day we took him home was CJ and Ben walking in and calling out for Zachary. “Oh, hey Zach”, “Where’s my brother Zachary”? They were adorable with him. They were excited to have him home, and wanted to hold him. I was thrilled they wanted to hold him, because when they came to meet him in the NICU, they were very timid and scared to hold him, and that was just so sad for me.
So they both took turns holding him and gave their biggest smiles when I took their pictures. I will forever cherish those pictures.
Our first night at home went pretty well. Zachary was, is, such a good baby. He was waking up about every 3 hours to eat, but we didn’t care…he was eating!
The next morning, the boys climbed into bed with us. We were all together. Just as I had pictured it. It was beautiful.
My parents came to visit later that day, and we just had a quiet day at home Zach and I, because the boys were at school.
The next day, we had a doctor’s appointment. I took Zachary, and was pretty darn impressed I was able to get there on time!
The doctor had been kept up to date by Tufts, but still wanted to hear his history from me. She was very impressed with his progress, felt his belly, heard bowel sounds, and said he was absolutely perfect.
Throughout the day and evening, Zachary did very well eating and pooping, sleeping and playing. A little after midnight Zachary had a full 2 ounce bottle and I swaddled him up and put him in the bassinette next to our bed. Around 2:30am, he started grunting and making some strange sounds. When I looked in, I could see that he had spit up a little bit. No big deal…babies spit up. Even our surgeon told us that. So I picked him up to see if he had a burp.
Once he was upright, the amount of vomit that came out of that child was impressive. It was all over him and all over me. Again, babies spit up, so I changed my shirt, realized he had pooped and started to change his diaper.
Because Chris and I keep the room dark and quiet during the times we’re up with our kids, I could tell that his poop was darker than normal, but I didn’t really think anything of it…
Zachary woke up at 4:30am, downed a full bottle and fell right back to sleep. No spitting up. At 7:30am, he was hungry, so I tried to nurse. We had already had a couple successful nursing sessions, and this one looked as though we would be successful again. But we weren’t. He kept starting, but then stopping. He kept arching his back. He was really only comfortable when he was upright on my chest.
I took him downstairs around 8:00am, and decided to make him a bottle instead. He needed to bulk up on calories, so if he wouldn’t nurse, I wanted him to still eat.
When attempting to feed him, he had another very large vomit. And this time, we could see the color of it. It was bright yellow. The amount of it was alarming because he had eaten almost 4 hours ago, but the color…that was alarming.
I immediately called the pediatrician’s office and spoke with the nurse practitioner. I told her his feeding schedule from the night, and we discussed how we had started to give him Vitamin D drops with iron. She was pretty confident that the vitamin drops were to blame for both the vomiting and the color. We mentioned the diarrhea he was also having. I described it as a rusty color. Again, the iron drops were to blame. Or maybe he had caught a little bug. We were just in a hospital, so who knows what we could have picked up. So we held off giving them to him, and were told to call back if the vomiting continued.
Throughout the day Zachary would eat…or he wouldn’t. He would spit up…or he wouldn’t. There was no pattern. The only thing that was consistent was the diarrhea. I can’t even tell you how many diapers Chris and I changed that day. Over 30.
A couple friends, and one of his aunts and two of his cousins came to visit that day. They took turns holding him and all was well. He had another very large vomit, but he had just finished a bottle and didn’t burp, so I assumed it was due to that.
As the evening went on, Zachary became more and more lethargic. I remember thinking, “I feel like this goes beyond being a sleepy newborn”. But newborns sleep. A lot. And he has had a big transition, so he’s sleepy.
After the we put the boys to bed, Chris was carrying Zachary around, and I just had a feeling. I can’t describe it. But I was so unsettled. I just felt like Zachary was “off”. So I called the pediatrician on call.
I gave every detail of the day, when he had vomited, the color, how many diapers we had changed, and the color of those diapers. The pediatrician said to scale back the feedings to an ounce and see if he could tolerate that volume. He said to try and keep him hydrated. “There’s no way it can be another obstruction because he’s pooping”. Which made total sense to be…but it just didn’t feel right. “Try and avoid the ER tonight”…I started to pack the bag.
We hung up and I looked at Chris. “This just doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel like him”. And the amount of poop coming out of this child was now alarming. I found the phone number for the parent’s line for the NICU at Tufts.
“Hi, I’m sorry. I know that this line is only for NICU parents, but our son just came home on the 13th. I feel like something is wrong, and I’m hoping there is a doctor that would speak to me…I don’t know who else to call”.
A doctor that had been on Zachary’s case the first week of his life took my call. She encouraged me to follow my gut and take him to the ER. Either to Lowell General or bring him into Tufts. But if I went to Lowell, if there were any concerns, they would transfer us to Tufts anyway, so go to LGH for some fluids and peace of mind.
So I finished packing the bag, gave Chris a kiss goodbye, for he was staying home with the boys, put Zachary in the car, and drove like a bat out of hell to the hospital. Goosebumps covered my body the whole way.
The nurses were fantastic when we arrived at LGH. They took him immediately for vitals, and opened up a private room for us to wait in so we wouldn’t have to wait with all of the germs in the waiting room. I fed him while we were waiting, and he had 3 more poops.
They finally called us back, and he had another poop. They started an IV, and he had another poop. We went for an x-ray, and he had another poop. He pooped another 5 times. The doctor came in and said she had looked at the x-rays. She said there didn’t seem to be anything blocking his bowel. But he had some very dilated loops. That was nothing new…we were told that would be normal for him, and they would go down to size.
Around 2:00am, Zachary started to scream. In the 3 short weeks of his life, this baby never cried more than a couple of minutes. He was so easy to comfort.
He wouldn’t stop screaming. No matter what I did. He wouldn’t stop. I started to cry. I knew. I knew we had to leave. I knew he wasn’t okay.
I called the nurse and when he came in, I looked him straight in the eye and said, “I need to go to Tufts, now. I need you to call an ambulance, now”. He called the doctor in, and I repeated myself, “we need to go, NOW”. She said the ambulance would be here in 20 minutes…we weren’t even waiting for the transfer team from Tufts to come get us…