The Kirk's - Boys-R-Us!

Not What We Had Expected!


The Scary Stuff Starts. . .

The Beginning of the End of his Happy Birthday . . .
So as I mentioned as I was being wheeled into the recovery room the nurses were saying "we have a hungry baby" so being an old pro at the whole breastfeeding thing, I just whipped one of my girls out, we got Pierce to latch on and things seemed great. The lactation consultant was pretty happy that he had a nice latch and he nursed from both sides - all systems were go - or so we thought.

About two and half or three hours later we went for another feeding, every couple hours the nurses would come take his vitals, check his blood sugar and then I would nurse him. Well around 5:00ish when they came to do his stats, the nurse said that she wasn't that happy with his blood sugar level because it was 42% and she went on to say that 40% is critical - which freaked me out so I said, go ahead and get me some formula I don't care if he has formula I just think we need to get some sugar in this kiddo. So off she went to get some formula and returned with this nifty feeding system. I'm sure it has a name, but for the life of me I can't recall it - basically it's a large syringe that has this itty bitty tube at the end and you run it down your boob and tape it down close to your nipple, that way when he nurses he gets to latch to the breast but still get some formula as well. It sounded like it would work great - in theory but unfortunately that wasn't to be. Pierce was a little too tired to wake up and participate in this feeding, so instead of having him latch on, they thought I should just stick the tube directly in his mouth and drop the formula on his tongue for him to start swallowing, and then maybe he would 'nurse' my finger. That didn't work either - and about this time the nurses start pointing out that little Pierce went from having purple fingernails to purple hands, and it was rapidly creeping up to his elbows and beyond.


The Move to the Nursery
About this time one of the nurses stepped out into the hall and called the attending pediatrician who said 'better safe than sorry' so they came back in and explained to us that they would like to take Pierce back downstairs to the nursery so they could get him under a heat lamp, run some tests and get some nutrition in him and that he may need to spend the night down there, but they would absolutely keep us posted. Dave and I were a little freaked, but of course we told them to do everything they thought they needed to do to make little Pierce feel better and get some sugar in him. We thought that this was just a side effect of not getting milk/formula fast enough - little did we know. Shortly after Pierce was taken from our room the pediatrician stopped in for a visit to give us an idea of what they would be looking for and to give us an idea of what we should expect. He very graciously said that we were welcome to stop down in and visit with Pierce just as soon as I was feeling up to it (remember at this time it hadn't even been 12 hours since my surgery). Dave and I not wanting to be an interruption said we would wait in the room for a while so they could work and we would wait for a call from them. We naively thought they were just going to reprimand us for leaving him unswaddled for close to an hour and tell us to supplement the feedings with formula and pumped colostrum - again little did we know!


Up and At'Em. . .
Once my catheter had been removed I had no choice but to get up and out of bed - they'll change soiled bed linens but I don't think they want to! Dave had quickly run out to subway to grab a sandwich and I was resting and waiting for him to come back so he could help me to make a trip to the potty and then I wanted him to take me down to the nursery to see my baby. I felt a little nauseous but not too bad, and he was good about not going fast over the bumps into and out of the elevator. We made it down to the nursery, Dave had already been down a couple times to check on Pierce so he knew right where it was and was telling me how good he was looking. I couldn't wait to see him but as we got close we saw that the cardiologist was there performing an ultra sound on his chest. We really didn't think anything of it, we just kind of assumed that this was a normal procedure if your babies limbs turn purple - we had NO idea - so we went in and the nurse at the desk said, 'they'll be done in just a minute.' We sat inside the nursery for a few minutes, and could hear muffled discussion between the two docs and again we didn't want to interrupt plus it's CRAZY hot in nurseries so between my meds and the stress I thought I was seconds from throwing up. Dave quickly rolled me out into the hall, and pushed me up and down the hall for a few minutes so I could get a cool breeze going to help with the nausea. After 15 to 20 minutes of discussion, and the two of them looking at x-rays and then back to the ultrasound machine, and then back to the x-ray viewing screen we started to get a little more scared. We did a few more laps, attempted to pass the time chatting, my pre-op nurse had returned for another 12 hour shift, so she came over to say HI and ask how everything had gone. . .


The Findings
It seemed like an eternity had passed before the Pediatrician came out to talk to us, now you have to imagine a real life "Patch Adams" - this doc has a very friendly face, he was wearing a black tie with huge green shamrocks and pots of gold - I spent some time looking at his tie when I was trying to listen without crying - and he walks out of the nursery holding an x-ray film shaking his head and says "it's not good". OK GREAT - what the hello does that mean!??! My stomach dropped and my heart started racing and my ears got all hot and started ringing, I actually felt like I might pass out for just a second then I realized that I needed to snap out of it and focus on what this man had to say about my baby. Briefly the doc showed us the film and pointed out his two main areas of concern, both of them were above the diaphragm but below the lungs. He said this could be something as benign as fluid left in the lungs after birth (apparently C-section babies are what they call "wet babies" b/c typically they don't expel as much fluid from their lungs during or after birth) or that it could be pneumonia, or possibly a portion or lobe of the lung that didn't form properly and therefore wasn't functioning properly, or that it could be some kind of mass or tumor but before he went any further he wanted us to meet the cardiologist- so Dave wheeled me into the nursery (which at that point I couldn't even feel the temperature so it didn't bother me. Crazy how that happens) Pierce was the only baby in the nursery so we just went over to where he was and we were introduced to the cardiologist - who at this point had determined that Pierce had a distinct murmur in his heart and that there were two holes, however one of the holes (PDA) all babies are born with because it is what keeps the blood from flowing to the lungs while the baby is still swimming in amniotic fluid. He said this can take up to 3 days to close and isn't that big of a deal. He went on to say that although he had found these 'complaints' of the heart that he was quite stable and that both he and the Pediatrician believed that the 'masses' below the lungs were the more pressing issues and that to best diagnose and treat Pierce he needed to be transferred down to Northside Atlanta's NICU. Shortly after being told this information the Nursery nurse asks if we have added him to our insurance policy yet - we give each other a blank stare (of course NOT - who had time to think about that!??!) Since I was tearing up and very nauseous, and they assured us that they would let us see Pierce before they took him down, we rushed back up to our room to start calling our insurance companies. It was after 11:00pm so of course they were both closed, but it was worth a shot!

The Transport Team. . .
We were exhausted!!! Remember this is the same day that we had to be checked into the hospital by 5:00am - so around midnight we were falling asleep while attempting to stay awake to see Pierce off. We finally gave in, turned off the lights and tv and figured they would wake us up when they got there. Sure enough 30 minutes later we were startled awake by the transport team's knock on the door. I quickly pulled on the light and watched as they rolled in this huge transport incubator with my itty bitty baby strapped down inside. They pushed him close to my bed and opened the door so I could love on him while they went over the release papers and had us sign consent forms. I attempted to hold back tears, but I think I wasn't doing that great of a job - I didn't sob, just tears - well until they were gone then I let the cries out - all I could think was this was some horrible dream! They were all wrong and they were going to bring him back and apologize for making such a big mistake - I mean when I left for the hospital that morning I was scheduled to deliver a healthy baby boy! Not a baby who needed to be rushed to a NICU and who had holes in his heart and holes in his diaphragm - someone was sorely mistaken - I came to find out it was ME!