More Birth Story

The first night Jack did awesome. He was up every couple of hours to eat but he ate like a champ and didn't cry at all. When I woke up in the morning and saw my husband and my baby sleeping like logs I was so incredibly happy! No NICU, no wired or alarms or tubes.

The first day we spent welcoming lots of guests including the big siblings. The girls were ADORABLE meeting him. They were so excited and happy. I have to get those pics from my Mom. Seeing them all together was amazing. Genna and the boys came a couple of hours later and they were all completely in love with him. It was such a nice day. I was in a fair amount of pain and still very nauseous but the happy outweighed all of that.

Jack started his second day by being circumsized so he was NOT a happy camper on Tuesday. He didn't eat much that day and the nurses were getting a little concerned. Then Brian started to notice that Jack's legs would sponatenously turn purple. I didn't notice it at first but when I did see it it was scarey. From his diaper down his legs turned a bluish purple that looked awful.

Late the second night The nurse saw it and once she did she immediately took him to get checked out. They had him checked by the pediatrician and the NEO (NICU) staff. When she walked back in with the doc I could tell it wasn't great news. They were nervous it was his aorta so he had to go to the NICU. I cannot even tell you how sad I felt in that moment. I cried like a baby. It was almost embarrassing. This perfect experience just got ugly.

We went with him to the NICU and the doc explained what he thought could be going on. I fed him and we went back to our room for a couple hours of sleep. The nurse called me whenever he woke up so I could feed him so it made for a very long and sad night. We were tired and scared that something could be wrong with him. So not what we had expected.

Over the next 24 hours they did an echo, EKG and ultrasound of the aorta. Thankfully all was clear. He had developed a bad case of jaundice but it wasn't enough to keep him in the NICU. I could have danced my way back to the Mother Baby Unit.

Because of the NICU stay, my BP going up and down and the jaundice they decided to keep us until Friday. We had to wait around into the afternoon for the last bilirubin level but it was sufficient to send him home.

As they wheeled us out I had such a rush of mixed emotions. A strange sadness that I would never do this again. Sheer joy of taking him home. Excitement to be back with the girls and in our house. I did my best not to cry. :D