There's so many blessings in Landry's story that I hate to even think of our NICU stay. When he got over to Cook's Children NICU we found out that he had a critical platelet count of 7(measured in thousands), you are suppose to have between 100-150. He was at extreme risk for internal bleeding, mainly brain bleeds.
Blessing: if Landry was born vaginally it would have almost guaranteed him a brain bleed with platelets that low and the pressure of contractions and birth canal.
He also had low sugars and a heart murmur.
Sunday, July 8th: He was born at 10:57 pm on Saturday and when I called over to Cooks at 6 am they were telling me he needed a platelet transfusion (this begun the fight of get me over to him right now or I'm going to lose it). So when I got over there he had an IV in his foot because his blood sugar was low and they needed to start him on D10 (pretty much like sugar water). He also had to get a feeding tube in. He ate a bottle over at Harris and took 15 out of 20 cc's for the 2nd feeding but by the third feeding he only took 5 cc and he had to eat to keep his sugars up. So he was now getting 20 cc's every 3 hours via his tube. They then had to start an IV in his hand for the transfusion.
Hell: watching your itty bitty peanut get poked and proded on for blood sugars and IV's.
It is torture watching him scream in pain and the nurses dig around in a vein to get it started. I know it is necessary but that doesn't make it any easier to stand there and watch.
After the first transfusion his platelets went up, I believe to the 170's.After the transfusion I had to go back to Harris to get assessed, get pain pills, pump, etc. Between the time I left and checked in with Brandon a hour later Landry had been placed on CPAP as he was working too hard to breath. It was actually called bubble CPAP because his lungs were sticking together. They were slightly premature in their development and were "sticky" from his body not producing enough surfactin. The bubble CPAP put moisture in his lungs to help them from sticking together. He HATED the mask that went over his nose and hated the nose prongs even more. Sunday night he fought the nurses all night long pulling out his CPAP and even pulling out his feeding tube.
His sugars were up and down. Anything under 50 meant he had to get tested every 3 hours, once before a feeding and then again after a feeding.
Hell: multiple heal pricks. Those nurses bend and squeeze the crap out of those hells to geth enough blood. At one point both his feet were black and purple. His right foot actually had a tissue break down from the constant tape being taken on and off. At first it looked like a blister but then it quickly started to get yellow puss and oozing. We stopped all heal pricks and blood pressure cuffs on that foot. I put a sock over it and it was the "don't touch that foot" sock and we applied antibiotic ointment on it.
Monday, July 9th: I finally got to hold Landry Monday morning. It was the greatest feeling ever and he absolutely loved it. His entire face became puffy and swollen from the CPAP and his eyes were swollen shut. Heartbreaking to see him try and open his eyes and they were just too swollen :( He was a little yellow looking so they checked his rubella and it was an 8 but luckily quickly went down from there. He was extremely tired today from the previous days event and didn't have much energy at all. His sugars that night were in the 30's so they had to turn up his IV and increaed his feedings to 28cc's. His platelets that night were 93.
Tuesday, July 10th was a hard day. The doctor's began telling us all these things that they thought could be going on with Landry. Things like NAIT, an antibody that my body launched on him that was attacking his platelets. CMV virus, Parvovirus, MMA, and numerous other scary things that shouldn't be googled by a postpartum mama. He also pulled out his tube again and the nurse didn't even know it. We had just returned from Harris and when I went to check on him he had formula everywhere. He also started spitting up occasionally, was very gassy and sugars were very low. Tuesday night we had our first experience with an awful nurse. It was so hard for me to leave him that night and I ended up staying til almost midnight until I was in so much pain I had to return to Harris to get medicine. Luckily Brandon had been staying with him every night and assured me he was keep his eye on the nurse.
Wednesday, July 11th was by far the longest and crappiest day of our stay. I got discharged from Harris! So there was a lot of going back and forth that day. I was so excited to finally be in one place and to stay the night with Landry. They took him off CPAP and he did great! He was much happier without the mask. That morning his platelets had plummeted to 44 so he needed his 2nd transfusion. We were about 20 minutes into the transfusion that his IV blew in his hand and the platelets were going into his hand. His entire hand, fingers and part of his wrist were black. He looked like Dumbledorf's hand on Harry Potter. It looked absolutely awful. The nurse called it an IV burn and said it would be tender and painful for a couple of days and slowly fade away. He also began spitting up after every single feed. At first it was just a little but by the end of the day he was losing everything he was taking in. My milk had finally come in so I told the nurses no more formula and they agreed that he was having a formula intolerance. Once we switched over to my breast milk he stopped spitting up. We facetimed with Brody that evening and Landry became wide-eyed and was searching for Brody's voice, it was so sweet. That evening when the nurse changed his bedding and I held him while he did that he began rooting around, it was so exciting! They did morning labs at 3 am every morning. That night we slept from 12:30 - 3:00 and his blood draw went smoothly and he didn't cry until she pulled out the needle. When the lab ladies draw the blood it's defintely better than when the nurses do it. His sugar was 76, which is great so he didn't have to get a heal prick for another 6 hours and they could decrease his IV fluid (if it's above 60 they can decrease by 1, he was at an 11) Platelets were 165.
Thursday, July 12th: he got to nurse! I was so excited and cried when he knew exactly what to do. With preemies you never know if they will remember to suck, swallow and breath as they usually forget one. He actually nursed for 25 minutes. His sugars were borderline at 51 so they didn't get to lower his IV but didn't have to prick him either until 6 hours later. His platelets were 148 (starting to decrease again)
That night his sugars were 89 so they were able to turn down his IV. He was also having some desats that night and his breathing became labored. So we started watching him and the little stinker was holding his breath! The nurse and I couldn't believe it. He also had his first bath! He loved it and was so snuggled in his warm blankets after that he immediately zonked out.
Friday, July 13th: Platelets were 138 and he blew his onlhy good iv so they were going to start one in his head. This was the 2nd time I got pissed at a crappy nurse. All the others were simply amazing. There is a "iv specialist" that is great at getting IV's. All of Landry's locations were shot and the only place they could get one was his head. So they were waiting on this "specialist" to come start it. I told my nurse that I wanted to wait for her and that I wanted to be there to sooth Landry while they started the IV. She said she would be a little while if Brandon and I wanted to go grab lunch. So we went down to the kitchen (you can't eat anything in the rooms) and ate really quickly only to return to the crappy nurse trying to start the IV in his head!!! I was pretty sure I was going to punch the lady but she had a needle in my kids head so I refrained but boy was I boiling. Of course she didn't get the vein and blew it! My poor baby had been a pin cushion. Luckily the other nurse that was there pulled out the blown IV in his arm and found a good vein on that hand and got it going. He was able to completely ween off the fluids throughout the day and night and we stopped the D10 fluid. This also began the weight loss, that night he lost 30 grams. That 3 am blood draw was torturous and took 3 hours!! They had order a few test that morning so they needed quite a bit of blood. When they would find a good vein and get in it would quickly stop bleeding soon after. It was just awful. The charge nurse even came in and tried and kept apolgizing to Landry and I, we were both in tears by 6 am when they finally got all the blood they needed only for labs to tell us some of it wasn't good because it had already clotted. AWFUL! So they had to stick him one more time to get blood. The charge nurse went off on the lab people telling them not to be sitting on their butts letting this blood clot and my mama claws didn't have to come out thanks to her.
Friday, July
Saturday, July 14th: Landry is one week old!! He spent the majority of the day sleeping thanks to his 3 hour blood draw and didn't even attempt to nurse, we tube fed all his feedings until about 3 when he finally decided to wake up. His blood sugars remained high and we got to dress him for the first time. He also was moved to room air to see if he could hold his body temp without the help of the warmer. He did great as long as he was bundled up or skin to skin.
I will update NICU stay week 2 shortly!
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