Monday, September 26, 2011

19 days in the hole (well.. NICU)

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Again, I am writing this in October 2012.. carefully trying to put together my memories from this time and onto paper (well, screen).

Due to breathing problems Aiden experienced after his birth, surgery was delayed for 5 days following his birth. On Monday, August 29th, Aiden finally had his surgery. In the days leading up to surgery, I spent as much time as possible in the NICU and got in as much skin to skin time as he would tolerate.

Daddy holding his on for the first time
 Night before surgery
 Cuddles
 Little baby fuzz head

When Monday rolled around I felt mentally numb. I had already fallen in love so hard with my little boy, and now I was scared I could lose him. While the surgery was relatively safe, we didn't know the severity of the problem that was causing the blockage. Best case scenario they could just snip out the blockage and connect the two ends together and keep the surgery arthroscopic (with tiny tiny incisions).  Worst case scenario, there was another organ wrapped around that portion of the stomach and major open surgery with a major incision would be needed, along with a much longer recovery.

The next 5 hours during his surgery were painfully slow. We did receive updates about every 1.5-2 hours, but the time in between was difficult. Even though I was tired and sore from surgery, I paced the waiting room and wanted to walk around the hospital.

Finally his surgery was over and we were allowed to briefly see our son, though he was heavily medicated.

Day after surgery. Poor little guy seemed so lifeless and swollen. I didnt recognize him anymore because his face was so swollen.

Two days post op... even more swollen
 Concerned daddy looking over his little boy

After a week of not being able to hold our little boy anymore, Aiden begun his journey to recovering and attempting to eat for the first time. Up until this point, he had been fed intravenously through a IV inserted up his leg and into his abdomen. He had never taken any milk. I had been faithfully pumping ever 2 hours, as I felt like it was the only thing I could actually do at this point to eventually help my son.

The doctors needed to wait until there was no more output from the tube inserted into Aidens stomach to pump out the accumulating stomach acids (what can't go down, must go up). Once there was no more output from the tube, it was a sign that Aiden's intestines were slowly starting to move and the acid was going down the intestines.


Look Ma! No tube!


They started Aiden out on the first drops of colostrum I had pumped and saved. After a week of steady improvement, we started to look forward to the day when Aiden would come home.  After 19 days in the NICU, he was finally ready to head home!!!







 

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