When we had Natalie's 20 week ultrasound, we both wanted to know the gender (that's a first)! As soon as the ultrasound tech said "It's a girl!" I went into a bit of shock because I had been convinced it was a baby boy. Matt, on the other had, got so terribly excited. He punched his one hand into the other so hard he hurt his recently fixed collarbone. I don't even think he knew he wanted a girl that much!
Of course, with the good came a bit of bad. They wanted to refer us to the neonatal specialist for follow-up because she had choroid plexus cysts and a persistent right umbilical vein (PRUV). We went through the cyst scare when we had Henry and they just vanished at one point and it was no big deal beyond the massive stress it caused us in the meantime. So I wasn't the least bit concerned about them, but the PRUV was a new unknown.
Through a series of follow ups, they also identified that she had a midline liver and her gallbladder was in the wrong spot. Organs being moved around, but not perfectly reversed is known as heterotaxy or situs ambiguus. The biggest concern with that is the spleen can sometimes be missing or have multiple tiny spleens and both scenarios lead to a compromised immune system. And heart issues are also common - her heart may or may not have had a hole that was too big. At some point, they thought they could see a splenic artery, but there wasn't much more to do but wait and do ultrasounds on her when she was born. Trying to image tiny organs on a baby is challenging when they are inside of their momma.
Given the concerns, the plan was for the NICU doctors to come see her immediately after delivery and make sure she was stable. Unless there was anything immediately concerning, the ultrasounds could wait a few hours. When she was born, they let me hold her for a minute and then took her over to the heated baby bed to check out her vitals. I overheard them say she was 5 lbs & 15 ounces and thought that sounded incredibly small for as big as I had been! And there was apparently an issue with her ears?
The NICU doctors said she was good to go and gave her back to me. I had a chance to take a good look at her and sure enough, one ear was missing and the other was a little misshapen. Whatever, she's still beautiful! :)
Probably an hour or so later (time is relative in the labor room), the nurses were concerned that she was breathing too hard and grunting, so the NICU doctors were called back. They decided to take her over to the NICU just to keep an eye on her for a bit and they said she would likely be back in my room upstairs before the nurses there finished my intake checks.
That's not exactly what happened. I showered, got all my vitals checked and she was still down there. So I went down there too. They had her on CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) for several hours until she was breathing better on her own. Once she was on room air, she did pretty good, but her oxygen levels would drop and the nurses would have to suction out her nose to get them back up. Thankfully, her planned ultrasounds came back with positive confirmation of a spleen and her heart passed the checks on it. Whew!
We realized at this point that she might be in the NICU for a few days. So we decided to bring the boys up to the NICU to meet her. The NICU has a pretty awesome book to describe what the purposed is of all the tubes and cables they might see on their sibling. Then after the required 2 minute scrub, these little guys were ready to see their baby sister. Thomas was entranced by the amount of equipment on the walls and was asking what everything was.
Henry only had eyes for his baby sister. This little guy was instantly smitten and told me "Mommy, I love her!"
We tried a few times, but she just couldn't or wouldn't nurse. Initially they had her on IV fluids, but once I started pumping milk for her they gave her a NG (nasogastric) tube to feed her. So Matt got to get in on the fun of holding up a syringe full of milk to feed her. :)
This little fighter really has a thing for her dad already. She would mostly just sleep when I was hanging out with her, but as soon as it was just her and Dad, she would stare very intently at him. He's clearly already her favorite.
Since we were stuck for an indeterminate amount of days, Nonni changed her ticket to get up here a few days sooner. It was a huge relief - especially once I was discharged from the hospital. Matt and I were trying to keep life with the boys normal while also trying to spend every possible minute with our new baby. At least this way, we had three adults to help divide and conquer!
I was doing my best to remain positive about what seemed like unending bad news, but there were some days that were harder than others. Like the day I was discharged from the hospital, but my baby wasn't. Luckily this girl had grins for me as soon as I got to her room. She's such a calm and easy going baby that she usually soothes my frazzled nerves pretty quickly.
With all of the airway difficulties and reflux she was having, the NICU doctors wanted her to get checked out by the ENT before they would try nursing or bottle feeding again. Unfortunately for us, there is one pediatric ENT and she was out of town. So we had to wait for her to get back.
Thankfully the NG tube worked really well and I could at least feed her milk even if it was a slightly different way than expected. And also, the NICU has the most comfortable recliners I've encountered in a hospital. This is how the two of us spent most of the week. High tech set-up on that syringe feeding, huh?
Aunt Heather finally got to meet her as well! The boys came back for another visit and were excited to see that she had moved to the slightly less intensive side of the NICU - mostly because they had a new room to check out.
It felt like the week was crawling by and we were making no progress. But then one day I walked in and she had clothes on! Her umbilical cord had fallen off and the nurses had found some cute clothes for her to wear since she was no longer restricted to a diaper and blankets. It's the little things some days... :)