Abigail's Arrival & 10 Days in the NICU... (Part 3)

Over the next few days, we were excited to see her blood sugar become normal on its own as she began eating. Unfortunately, we'd hit the weekend and the results from my placenta had not come back yet... meaning we'd be there till at least Monday. John and I began adjusting to the NICU's feeding schedule (every 3 hours) and after my release from the hospital, we began applying (daily) to stay in the Ronald McDonald House. God was gracious to us and granted us stay there every following night till her release. (This wonderful place in itself deserves its own blog post... hopefully I will get to that someday soon.)

At first, Abigail seemed to feed pretty well. But as they kept increasing the amount she needed

to eat, wanting us to force her to eat it all in less than 30 minutes, and still having her eat on the same schedule even when she didn't eat it that quickly... the girl just refused to pack it in (and her daddy and I couldn't blame her). One or two of the nurses really stressed me out about it... until THEY tried to feed her. It was then that they realized something else might be up. The doctor ordered that she be tube-fed

for every other feeding until her strength came up a little more where she could feed on her own for every meal. At first, they suspected she ate like this because she was even earlier than 37 1/2 weeks... but Monday held what I believe to be the real answer.

While the report from my placenta came back okay, the

doctor on call had walked by Abigail's crib and notice her oxygen wasn't up to par. It had dropped into the 80's when he walked by and remained there for about 45 seconds. He ordered an x-ray and the results were what guaranteed our stay for the full 10 days of antibiotics. She had what looked like a respiratory infection / pneumonia, though it didn't look like a severe case by any means. He just

wanted to make sure that she was in tip-top shape before sending her home. He would order another x-ray for mid-week to see how she was healing. While we weren't thrilled with the news by any means, we knew it was best for her.

Mid-week the x-ray was not what we hoped. In fact, it looked worse. This was really the first time I really recall breaking down about the situation. We just wanted to take our girl home... and I was so worried that my respiratory history had been cursed to our daughter. After a little time to ourselves (in other words, time for me to compose myself), we had another opportunity to speak with the doctor. He lifted our spirits some by explaining that sometimes x-rays show a "lag behind" in their results... showing what was there a few days ago instead of what's actually there now. She was eating so well and doing so well by this point, he felt like this was probably the case. We still had a few more days of antibiotics so he ordered another x-ray for Day 9, just to be sure.

While Day 9's (Saturday's) x-ray still hadn't shown the "cloudiness" cleared up, the doctor just kept watching Abigail and saying that "clinically, she's fine". So under the stipulation that we take her into see her pediatrician for follow-up on Tuesday or Wednesday that week, he'd release her on Day 10. While 14 days of antibiotics could've been an option, he just didn't see any reason why she would need it. In fact, he was concerned that with so many other babies in the NICU (that place was full pretty much the entire time we were there!), she might contract something else.

We were completely satisfied with his decision. She was eating well and not fussy or running a fever (nor had she been)... and the fact that we'd have her right back to a doctor within a few days of being home, we were confident that she'd be fine to go home. Okay, I'll admit it... going home sounded so good too!!!

So... after the final run of antibiotics, early Sunday morning, a few feedings (while we waited for all of the discharge paperwork to be processed and we got our stuff packed up/loaded), we finally got to leave the NICU WITH our little Abigail Dianne. No matter the state of the house we came home to, home just felt sooooo good. And now, we could begin the next journey of our lives... Parenthood.