Bird on the Street

Blue

11:46 pm

If you picture Leann Rhimes singing it, then you’ll know exactly how I’m feeling right now.

Louis is sick. He’s not deathly ill, but his bowels have proved that they aren’t quite ready for food and he’s developed an infection. Any little thing can go wrong quickly with a preemie, so they’re taking aggressive action and suspending all food for seven to ten days. In general, he looks good–he’s a little pissy about missing his meals, but he’s pink and active and responsive, which are all good signs.

It’s unusual for a baby of his size and gestation to be dealing with this, but Louis has proven to be a little bit of an odd ball from the beginning.

Today they added some drama to the mix by informing us that there is a chance that he’ll have to be moved to the large Children’s Hospital across the lake. Since he’ll be without food for a least a weeks, he receives all of his nutrition by IV. Being a tiny little guy, there are only so many veins that will work. If they are unable to find good veins, they’ll send him to the big hospital to have a central line placed surgically.

I hate to be a whiner–I really do. I’ve got two kids in the hospital and for the most part I’ve managed to stay pretty upbeat about the whole thing, but ugh, ugh, two babies at two different hospitals? One over forty minutes away?

I’m officially whining.

Nothing is written in stone–they might be able to find enough veins to make it through. The hospital across the lake is a good one and I know he would be in good hands. I just hoped that his time things would be a little easier. I felt like we’d been through the wringer enough the first time. Hell, I’ve been through the wringer quite a bit with this pregnancy.

But I know it doesn’t work that way. And I know I’m lucky that this is a bump in the road and not something more serious. I know, but I’m still feeling kind of down.

Oh well.

PS: August is doing very well–getting stronger and bigger every day and I think he’ll be four pounds very soon. He’s starting to look like a miniature Charlie.

Filed Undermedical

Postpartum

4:13 pm

Greetings from the land of the sleep-deprived!

Despite having no babies at home, I’m losing plenty of sleep at I dedicate to my arch nemesis–the pump.

I swore up one side and down the other that I would. not. pump. for these babies. That was, of course, before they arrived six weeks early. As much as I detest the pump, I think breast milk is best for getting immunities inside the babies, best for digestion, etc., etc. So here I am. Pumping.

The boys themselves are doing beautifully. The biggest issue facing them is growing and eating. They are both good eaters, but the eating is burning up so many calories, they aren’t gaining any weight. Don’t we all wish we had these problems? For now, they’re putting calories formula in their milk and with my tiny man, August, they’re letting him skip meals occasionally and putting it through a feeding tube. I’m trying not to gag at the very mention of a feeding tube, but I realize this is a necessary evil–the boys have to get bigger! We’ve also got routine head ultrasounds scheduled for tomorrow and I can’t tell you how much anxiety that’s causing me–just know that it’s a lot.

I’m doing my best to manage the crush of hormones that overtake me after birth–especially since this is my second time around having a baby (or two) and coming home with a plastic pump and a fist-full of pain killers. Not gonna lie: it’s kind of depressing. Hubby and I have talked about a fourth child (yes, we’re crazy), but this really puts a damper on that–I don’t seem especially good at this baby-making business.

But despite all of this, things in baby land really are good. This is so much better than the last time. I think my husband might do cartwheels, he’s so happy to visit his boys and not get bad news. Even when Louie was on the ventilator, it was easier than last time. The issues we are facing seem simple: eating, staying warm, jaundice. So much easier to swallow than: brain bleed, hydrocephalus, etc.

So we visit our tiny boys and hope that things will continue to go well. We’ll love the big brother we’ve got at home and cherish these last moments at home as three. Life is just flying by these days.

Filed Undermedical, motherhood

The Big Bad Baby Post

11:58 pm

Well, if you’ve been kept on with me on Twitter or Facebook, then you know that the boys have arrived. If you need even more meaty details, this is the post for you! Please excuse me if this post is nothing, but goofiness–I’m still taking pain killers.

So what happened?

I was scheduled to be on bed rest from early Sunday morning (2-ish) until my doctor’s appointment on Wednesday afternoon. We did some shuffling, got family members lined up to keep an eye on Charlie, and I was a very good pregnant lady, staying in bed, mostly flat, and getting up to go to the bathroom. By Tuesday afternoon, I had effectively kicked the contraction train and thought that I’d be placed on modified movement after my appointment.

Well, at around 3:45 Wednesday morning, my water broke. Hubby and I sat around for a while trying to figure out if that’s actually what happened and finally just took ourselves over to Labor and Delivery for a test.

Louis, one day old

Sure enough, my water had broken, so they shot me up with steroids to strengthen the boys’ lungs, and put me on constant monitoring and bed rest. The boys continued to well, with steady heart rates, and we really thought that we would make it to Friday, which would have been 34 weeks gestation.

Again, the boys had other plans and I went into full blown labor around early Thursday morning. My doctor had warned me for ages that he wouldn’t wait if there was an issue with the babies, and both boys were delivered before two in the morning. Both boys cried when delivered. Their weights were almost exactly what had been estimated two weeks ago, which I find interesting–had they stopped growing? Or were the measurements just perfectly off? August weighed in a 3 lbs. 10 oz. and Louis was 5 lbs. 8 oz. Not too shabby for boys born 7 weeks early.

Louis was in a bit of distress, so they hustled him off to be ventilated and tiny August held his own with no problems.

So those are the facts. Now here’s my completely unsubstantiated theory:

When the boys were born, Louis was in some distress and had a low iron count–despite being the larger of the two babies. Louis is the same baby that was suspected of having Fifth’s Disease. Despite how good he had been doing, Friday (today) would have officially marked the end of his “high risk” period.

I think he was still sick. He was doing his best, but at some point his little body just couldn’t take any more.

August, one day old

No doctor would ever back me up on that theory, but he’s gotten better practically by the minute since he’s been born. By ten o’clock the day he was born, they were able to take him off the ventilator. Today they were able to start letting him have actually food (through a tube, but still). August is my spunky boy–they told me I might as well go ahead and get roller skates because he’s going to be running me ragged before I know it.

We are very happy. This birth, while still quite dramatic, is so much easier than Charlie’s. I wish the babies could have stayed put for a bit longer, but for us, it’s clear that Louis needed things that my body could no longer give him. We will hope for the best.

Again, please feel free to ask me any question I didn’t answer, or anything that wasn’t clear–given birth, lost some blood, and taken a bunch of pain killers–it’s entirely possible I just typed this entire post in French and didn’t realize it.