Our Horrible Night in the ICN

I'll start this story with a nightmare... Around 1AM Wednesday morning I had a nightmare that I was watching Caroline when she suddenly stopped breathing and turned purple. I woke up yelling for help and scared Tyler. Was this a premonition of things to come? Do Mom's have some sort of strange 6th sense?

We spent the day yesterday with Caroline but she wasn't doing so hot. I tried to nurse her but she wasn't at all interested, instead she just fell back to sleep. They continued to feed her my milk but she stopped digesting it and thought perhaps she had a slowed digestive system from the jaundice. We left around 5:30PM and I just had a bad feeling. She was so out of it all day but I was hopeful today would be better.

Around 9PM we got a call from the ICN doctor alerting us to the fact that around 6PM Caroline started having a lot more apnea and bradys, she had started vomiting, and her energy level had dropped even more. The doctor's suspected an infection of some sort so they started antibiotics. They took blood and urine for a culture, took x-rays, and did a spinal tap to check for meningitis.  We got to the hospital around 10PM only to walk in on a lot of drama. She was continuing to stop breathing and her heart kept slowing down, in addition her blood sugar levels were sky high. As we were standing there my nightmare came true. My poor baby would not breathe and turned an awful shade of purple and we were told to leave her area. They tried a C-PAP to get her some air but it didn't help, so they had to intubate her. We were taken to the ICN waiting room while this happened. When we came back there were a lot of doctors and nurses and respiratory people running all around. We stayed for a while but around 1AM another nurse came and took us to the Koala Room (a room typically used for parents to "test run" a night nurse-free before returning home) where we could pump, lay down and try to sleep for a little while. The doctor kept us updated throughout the night...

Around 4AM I pumped and went to check on her. She was moving around a little more at this point which made me feel better.  I tried to sleep but couldn't... and then the doc came in to report that she needed to get plasma because her blood was not clotting. We knew that she did not have meningitis but still had no answers on any of the other tests.

Throughout the morning and afternoon things continued to change. Her sky high blood sugar dropped to borderline low - she was given different IV fluid (her food for now since she can't have any breastmilk) with a higher sugar and caloric content. Her blood pressure improved throughout the day so she was taken off the dopamine but they are closely watching it. Her blood gas levels also improved - earlier she had so much carbon dioxide in her blood that her brain didn't recognize that she needed to breathe. She was given a lot of antibiotics today, especially since they have not yet been able to pinpoint a specific infection. It would be great if they could find out what is causing all of this so that they can treat something specific. They are also continuing to take x-rays of her stomach to check her guts. Basically the x-rays are showing that there is gas trapped in her guts and stomach and ideally that would come out soon. She had one poop earlier today that did have some blood in it - another sign of infection. Her white blood cell count was also low.

We came home for dinner tonight and got a call saying that the 4PM round of tests showed that her blood was still having issues so they were giving her more plasma. They are doing more tests around 10PM so we are heading back to the hospital soon to be there for those.

I got on the list for David's House next week - the 19th - Tyler and Katie's birthdays. This is the day that Matt's new roommate moves in and I'd hate to scare him away with all of my nightlong pumpings! David's House is a 10 minute walk from the hospital or a 2 minute shuttle ride. All of the doctors and nurses have recommended staying there so that I can be close by when she starts nursing full time.

My Mom is flying in tomorrow to stay for a week. I am looking forward to having her here, especially when Tyler is gone at the Leadership Academy next week (and he will only go if things continue to get better). I'd still like to drive home with Tyler and Mom Sunday to get a few things (more clothes, Caroline's clothes, her diaper bag, etc.) but then I will drive immediately back up here.

I am sure I have missed something but there was just so much going on last night and today that it is hard to keep up with.

Please keep Caroline in your thoughts and prayers!