Home for Now!

Of course more time passed by and Lj was getting better and better. His feeding tube was out. He started gaining more weight and for a minute I started to relax on the fact that Lj was still throwing up. I started having breastfeeding issues because Lj even started drinking more from the breast. I didn’t get to do it as often as I would have liked because the doctors needed to be able to measure how much milk he was able to take in each feed. Finally the day came for time to retake his car seat test and he passed. Then he had to get circumcised and another round of blood work. I was so excited. I get to go home with my baby. After a couple of meetings with Lj’s entire specialist, we were able to go home. Lj was release with an apnea monitor and aspiration tools just in case he spit up into his nose or airway became blocked with the rice cereal. I remember feeling happy, excited and sad at the same time because the NICU became my family away from home. Especially Barb and Wendy! These two nurses went above and beyond caring for my baby. They made me comfortable in the NICU. They always made sure that I had my needs met as well as my baby's needs. I vowed to keep in touch with them because I felt if I were a nurse I would want to keep in touch with my preemie patients too.

Our first day home was a weird one. I got to sit in the comfort of my own home. I was okay until I remembered that I still needed to get a job and finish school because the comfort of my home will be taken away from me if I don't find a way to pay rent. Maybe a week went by of me being up every 30 to 40 minutes because the apnea and then things took a turn for the worst. Lj began to have many apnea episodes. We didn't know why but at first as new parents, we just got home and we are alone so lets not panic. We waited for about 1-2 days and he still was having a lot of apnea episodes. He started vomiting more so we took him back to Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital. We went in through the emergency room and it didn't take them long to see that his oxygen levels were down and he was having a little trouble breathing. We were immediately admitted. To Be Continued.........