Going Home!

Our sweet nurse really wanted us to “room-in” the night before we were released.  So Saturday around 8 PM they brought Campbell over.  The scary part was that they brought him in with all his monitors and AN OXYGEN TANK…just in case…WHAT????

  

See…that is what sat in the corner of our room…it just freaked me out!

Campbell did not cooperate and kept crying and stirring.  Then, when it was time to feed him, Matt had to go across to the NICU to get my milk so that we could give him a bottle because he STILL wasn’t nursing.  TO TOP IT OFF, his leads kept falling off his chest making his alarms go off…like every couple of minutes.  NO LIE!  There was NO way that any of us were sleeping.  Around 2 AM, Matt looked at me and said, “he’s going back”.  I’m so thankful he made that decision because I couldn’t with my mommy guilt.  It was the best decision because it allowed us to get a few hours of sleep.

We were released Monday, June 7th, after a VERY long day.  I was literally dressed and ready by 9 AM and we weren’t released to go home until 5 PM.  While we were waiting all day, they let us have Campbell back in our room instead of him being in the NICU. YAY!  Here are a few pictures of our VERY, LONG DAY!

And, because Campbell had been in the NICU since he arrived, Trigger had not gotten to meet his little brother.  This is the first time for Trigger and Campbell to meet each other.  I will probably post too many pictures but this was such a sweet moment, that I have to post alot of pictures!

And of course Trigger had to smell of him.  Trigger smells everything.

Giving sweet kisses…I was so surprised that Trigger reacted as good as he did.  No one prompted him to kiss Campbell.  Trigger just immediately crawled up and gave him kisses on Campbell’s head.

ALL THREE OF MY PRECIOUS BOYS…I love these three boys so much!

 

A few more kisses…

I had to take a picture with my FAVORITE DOCTOR! 

OUR FIRST FAMILY (of four) PICTURE

Campbell in his going home outfit…

NICU

WARNING: this post probably doesn’t flow…i kind of just typed as I thought of things so it probably doesn’t make much sense.  SORRY!

Campbell spent 5 days (Thursday-Monday) in the NICU.  His breathing got better quickly.  He did go under the bili light just because he was already in the NICU and his numbers had gone up a little.  He had FOUR IV’s throughout his stay…in fact, Saturday night (actually Sun morning) at 3 AM, I woke up to a baby screaming.  Our room was right across the door to the NICU.  I woke Matt up because I just knew it was Campbell.  Matt tried to convince me that it was probably the baby that was next door rooming in but I knew better.  I made him get up and go make sure Campbell was ok.  And, I was right.  Campbell’s 3rd IV had fallen out of his hand so they were trying to put one in his foot.  OH MY WORD…I listened to him scream for 30 minutes.  It was one of the saddest things to listen to your baby cry when you can’t comfort him.  Anyway, Campbell slowly but surely got better…lowered oxygen, finished fluids and antibiotics, got off the bili light, etc.  The only thing he had a little trouble with was feeding.  He gagged really easily.  It was funny because there were several times that I told Matt and Liz that Campbell seemed like he was younger than he really was…AND, I had a nurse tell me the same exact thing.  Campbell was born at 38 weeks but she said he was acting more like a 36 weeker.   However, we KNOW without a doubt when his little life started since we have to have an IUI to get pregnant.  Campbell acted very fickle while he was in the hospital.  I wanted to nurse him but my milk hadn’t really come in and they wanted to make sure he was getting the nutrients he needed so we had to give him a bottle…one minute he would like one kind of nipple, the next he would want a different kind.  THEN, he would go for a spurt where he LOVED nursing and didn’t want a bottle.  He finally caught on to things.  However, he didn’t start really nursing until about a week ago.  I had to pump to keep my milk up during that first week…OH HOW I DID NOT WANT TO PUMP…well, now it’s become somewhat of an obsession.  I am nursing Campbell..no bottles…AND I’m pumping some for relief.  I get an average of 35 ounces from pumping.  WHAT????  I think God gave me enough milk for twins (during both pregnancies). 

Below: Trigger did this same thing when he was in the NICU…he always had his wires tangled in his toes! Campbell’s first bottle.

And Campbell loves his paci just like his big brother.

After Campbell finally got taken off the oxygen, his poor little face was so irritated from all the tape. Look at his red marks.

And because we have a million pictures of Trigger under the bili light, we had to take some of Campbell.

One more thing that we encountered during our hospital stay:  heart murmur.  We were not told this until Monday (our discharge day).  They had heard his murmur since he’d been born.  They decided to do an xray, echo, and EKG.  All looked okay but they still felt like we needed to take Campbell to see Dr. King (pediatric cardiologists).  On a side note, do you remember that Dr. King is Trigger’s doctor too (for PPS-peripheral pulmonary stenosis and something else with initials that I can’t remember right this moment).  Matt called that Monday to check on Trigger’s report from his last appt.  All was good and they had cleared him to be released.  YAY…but now we have another reason to visit the good doctor!  HOWEVER, last week I received a phone call from Dr. King’s office.  Liz answered the phone and handed it to me.  In my head, I assumed that it was to confirm Campbell’s appointment when the nurse started going on and on about “Cole’s” (Trigger) last appointment.  She said something about Dr. King taking his file to let his New Orleans colleagues look it and something about an artery being narrow.  My head was spinning!  So I got off the phone, called Matt, and made him call back to get a report.  Anyway, Trigger is no longer being released.  After our appointment, and further review of the tests by Dr. King, he noticed a slight narrowing of the artery between Trigger’s heart and lungs…his two holes have closed up.   So now both of our babies are patients of Dr. King!

That’s all for now…I have been working on this post off and on for two days so who knows what it says and i’m not going back to read it. :)

I still have to post a few pictures from our last day…the LONGEST day!!!  I’ll try tomorrow.

Surely NOT?!?!

I had already had the thought a few days/weeks before Campbell was born that it sure would be pretty ridiculous if Campbell (at 38 weeks) had to go to the NICU…WELL GUESS WHAT?!?!  Since I had a C-Section, Campbell’s lungs didn’t have the chance to squeeze out all of the fluid.  So when he was born, he had fluid on his lungs…Campbell was having trouble breathing, breathing fast, and making grunting sounds.  They took him to the NICU to start him on antibiotics and iv fluids.  My sweet, FULL TERM baby had more wires and tubes coming out of him than our preemie Trigger had. 

LOOK AT ALL THAT HAIR…and  it’s dark! The orangish looking tube is a feeding tube…that really bothered me. The other tube is the cannula (how he got the oxygen).

It’s probably a good thing that I was a little doped up on drugs and that first day is pretty fuzzy.  If I had been fully there, I would have been pretty upset.  I can’t really remember but either Michelle or Matt told me that Campbell had been taken to the NICU and I can remember not really being worried…maybe because we had been down this NICU road before OR maybe it was the drugs.  Who knows?!  A nurse practitioner came in to talk to us at some point and gave us an update on Campbell.  They had to test my placenta to see if there was an infection…we got that back the Monday after very and there wasn’t an infection.  They did numerous x-rays on him and it was determined that the fluid was because of the c-section and NOT because of immaturity of the lungs which is a VERY good thing.  She told me that Michelle would help me get up and let me go into the NICU to see him later that evening.  I was so relieved because it had been several hours and i had only gotten a brief (few seconds) glance at my baby and had not gotten to touch him at all.  Then, the pediatrician (Dr. McCormick) came in Thursday afternoon.  She told me that I could go in to see him as soon as Michelle said I was ready…my parents, matt’s parents, and Matt had all been in to see him…it was KILLING me that I was stuck in that hospital bed and my baby was across the hall.  The doctor also told me that I did not need to hold him because he was getting agitated easily and that wasn’t good for his lungs.  I was very disappointed.

When it was time for me to go visit, Michelle came and got me in the wheelchair…NOT EASY. And let me just say that they usually do NOT let c-section patients out of the bed for 24 hours so I was very thankful that I got to get out of the bed early. 

Here is a picture of me touching Campbell for the first time.

When we got over to the NICU, Lisa (our sweet NICU nurse) told me that she was going to let me hold him…YAY!!!!!  I was sooo excited! 

My brother (Seth) and my sister in law (Vanna) and Liz were there (outside the window) while I was holding Campbell.  Seth and Vanna are expecting their first (a boy) in October.

At some point on Thursday, Trigger was visiting and got to open his I’m sorry I’m turning your world upside down big brother gift from Campbell…I had fun buying things for Trigger: rubber boots, his own set of keys (blank keys), matchbox cars/trucks, doodle pad/crayon holder, paint with water books,

And as soon as he saw his boots, he started pulling off his tennis shoes as fast as he could!

  And just some cute pictures of Trigger.

Playing with his new cars/trucks. 

 

Liz made the comment that about 70% of the pictures taken during “Campbell’s delivery” were of TRIGGER…so true.  He’s already trying to steal the show.  I’m not surprised though! I still have more pictures to blog from our hospital stay.  My time seems to be a little more slim these days…haha!  And the time I do have, I have been too tired.  Hopefully, I can get the other ones posted soon! :)

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting…

We had most of our family there to welcome Campbell into the world.

As I said in the post yesterday, after Campbell was out of me, they took him to the recovery room.  Matt, of course, followed Campbell and stayed with him.  While they were in recovery, Matt sent our family a picture of Campbell.  Seth had my camera in the waiting room so he got some shots of everyone checking their phones and seeing the picture.

  Proud (even though the face isn’t showing it) BIG BROTHER!!!!

And giving him a kiss!

And, here are some more pictures of Campbell from after birth.  Sorry if they are gross to you…it’s for my memories though!

His weight…

Matt got to hold him for the first time in recovery.

Usually the baby gets to stay in the recovery room but Campbell had some fluid on his lungs so they had to take him back to the nursery.  Matt got to wheel him past our family. They got to get their first glimpse at him.

 

Trigger did not really like that his daddy had that hat on his head. :)

Shortly after Campbell arrived in the nursery, they decided that his breathing had not gotten any better so they wheeled him down into the NICU.  And, I will talk more about that later.

Here is Liz talking to Dr. Mac…she said she has no idea what they were talking about.  I guess I was in the recovery room at this time.

And, I still have lots more pictures and lots more to share….but this will be the stopping point for now! :)