Doing Time in the NICU

The night before our discharge Mike and I thought it would be a good idea to have Jack spend the night in the nursery so we could have one last night of sleep. Well that next morning one of the nurses informed us that when she was doing her assessment on Jack she detected an irregular heart beat and had 3 other nurses confirm the irregularity. They also noted that his oxygen level dropped when he was feeding but not terribly. So that morning when Jack's pediatrician came in he listened to his heart but did not hear any irregularity so he spoke to the neonatologist and he wanted Jack to come to the NICU for further testing. Next thing we knew Jack was in the NICU getting hooked up to an ekg and having his blood taken. The doctor came to talk to us about the ekg and that it did pick up an extra heartbeat so he wanted to have an echocardiogram done in the morning...THE MORNING...we are suppose to go home TODAY!!! At that moment I lost it and the water works started pouring out of me! The only thing I could think about was I can't go home without him, there is noooo way!! Lucky the mother/baby unit was not busy at all and the nurses were soo awesome and let Mike and I stay in our room while Jack did his time in the NICU.The other issue that Jack was having was he was jaundice. Jack's nurse Tina who was sooo great and brutely honest said that if the heart all checks out okay the jaundice is what may keep him here for a few days. DAYS!!!!?? It was such a shock to here all this within 2 hours of us being discharged to Jack having to stay a few more days! Below is Jack hanging with Dad and his biliblanket (help with jaundice) this was nice so we could at least hold him. When we weren't holding him he had to lay in this bili bed and wear these tight goggles to protect his eyes...which he hated.

So Jack had the echocardiogram the next morning (which was really cool)and the results were good, the structure of his heart was fine but the neonatologist consulted with a cardiologist who recommended that he have a holter monitor which just monitors the rhythm of the heart for 24 hours. But that wasn't going to be put on him until the next day! So another day, this is day 3 in the NICU. So below is a picture of Jack hooked up to the holter monitor and the regular NICU monitor. Not fun to change a diaper thats for sure! So when the holter monitor finally came off it was a waiting game for the actual results. By day 4 the neonatologist finally informed us that the preliminary results of the holter monitor were good nothing of concern and his bilirubin levels should go down in the days to come and to have the level checked in two days and to follow up with the pediatrician. And the great news...you can finally take Jack HOME!!!

So when we followed up with the pediatrician, Dr.Talwar went over everything with us. Basically what was causing the irregular heartbeat was the Ductus Arteriosus had not closed yet which usually closes within a few days after birth. And his bilirubin level when from 14 on the day of discharge to 12 so that was great!! So Jack had quite a bit to deal with in his first several days of life but took it like a champ!!