Marlo's Birth Adventure Part #1

Marlo is still cooped up in the hospital for one week now.  If things had gone as planned we would have been home this passed Monday.  Just after we posted about Marlo's birth she was taken to the NICU with fluid in her lungs.  My C-section has went well.  I did not have any of the post-op issues I had when I had Otis.  Unfortunately Little Miss Marlo had a respiratory issues.  She was taken from us just minutes after we posted about her arrival.

Other then the 15 minutes I held her in the recovery room I wasn't even able to touch her for two days.   Sunday afternoon I found out that she would not be coming home with me.  I was devastated to say the least.  Her breathing was still all over the place and they were testing to see if she had an infection that may be causing her to be Tachypnic aka Hyperventilating.   One saving grace in this whole ordeal was that she was on an IV which meant she was not drinking formula.  By Sunday evening I was able to start holding her.  I would tuck her into my chest skin to skin and nap with her until I had to go pump trying to get my milk in for when she would be ready to feed.

To my surprise we were able to start attempting breast feeding Monday morning.  This meant I could Stay at the hospital in one of their sleep rooms once I was discharged.  Breast feeding was starting to work, she latched and fed some.  They would tube feed her the rest directly into he stomach.  They had to work her body up to a certain amount of fluid intake and make sure her body would tolerate it before they could take the IV out.  As time progresses they needed to speed up the process as hes body was stuggling to hold IV's.  The fluid they had her on is very hard on anyone's veins, especially babies.

In the mean time I was discharged from the Hospital Monday around lunch.  During my whole recovery after the c-section I had not seen a doctor.  We moved my stuff over to the sleep room and went for lunch in the cafeteria.  Once we finished lunch I stood up to get back to the NICU for a feeding and dropped blood on the floor.  I thought it had just missed my pad since I had been sitting for the first time in a chair.  When I got back upstairs I got myself cleaned up panicked a little as it was a lot of blood.  I spoke to the nurses about it, they had me go rest in the sleep room.  I went in the family room with Dave to rest and calm my emotions.  While in there Dave and I decided it would be best for me to go home in between feeding and pumps over night.  I needed to be surrounded by family and in my own bed.  The sleep room wasn't going to hack it for my sanity.  Marlo was still being fed by tube and would not need to have a bottle.  This meant I didn't really need to be there overnight.  Marlo also developed Jaundice o on Monday and needed to be put on phototherepy to clear the jaundice.

I discovered later that night once we were home from the last feed, that I was still bleeding a lot and that it was coming from my incision.  Off to the ER Dave and I went.  When we got to the hospital  it took over an hour to be triaged.  There were only four people in front of me.  Once we were put in line we were told we could wait upstairs in the NICU instead of in the ER if we wanted to.  This was great, I could pump and relax in the family lounge. Dave started pacing the NICU while I slept.  It was the middle of the night so he went to visit Marlo.  Marlo's nurse was surpised we were still there.  She called down to the ER to make sure they did not miss us.  I eventually woke up to pump and told her that my Doctor was in the hospital on call that night.  She made many calls trying to get in contact with him.  No one would let her speak to him.  About an hour later nurse told nurse told nurse and word had made it to him that I was in the ER line waiting to be seen.  He travelled the hospital looking for me.

Breaking many rules he brought me into the Labour and delivery triage and looked at my incesion to see what was going on.  He determind the inner incision was closed and that a pocket had form that was bleeding.  It would take some time to see what was happening so he readmitted me into the hospital.  He had told me then that he was surprised to see I was discharged.  He had gone to check in on me about an hour after I had been discharged and I was gone.

Tuesday was a non eventful day for me I continued to leak blood.    Marlo was off the lights and feeding well on me and we began to suppliment with my milk by bottle.  This was the beginging of the end to the breastfeeding I was told Tuesday night that they were no longer going to treat Marlo as a sick baby.  I would be able to change her bathe her and we just needed the jaudice to stay in check and for her to gain wieght

Wednesday I had an ultra sound to see what was going on the bleeding had not stopped as the doctor had hoped.  He poked around a far bit to see if there was a clot causing the pocket to bleed.  The ultrasound was brutal.  The technichian had to push on the staples of my incision trying to get the right images.  When doing so she was causing me an extreme amount of pain and pushing out the remain blood the doctor had broken up.  This made her panic and go look for any on call doctor.  In the end she could not get the images she needed and I went back upstairs. I was told Wednesday morning that if Marlo gained weight and the bilirun number stayed down we could get her discharged to my room Thursday.  Low and benold she lost weight and the jaundice relapsed.  Feeding was still going O.k. but not as well as when she was not received a bottle to supplement.

To be continued.....