The Pair of Scates: Rainy Day

Have you ever noticed that, during a movie, frequently the weather is rainy or stormy when something bad happens? Not sure if it was a coincidence or not, but last night we had some serious lightning and thunder, and today was rainy and cool.

So I'm in the middle of running errands this morning when I receive the email/visual voicemail. Dr. Breed has called and said Hazel was acting "goofy." She had several more episodes last night and this morning, her white blood count was low, and so Dr. Breed was a bit concerned, and decided to order a full gamut of blood work, give her antibiotics, put her back on caffeine, and test her urine. Of course, as soon as I read the transcript of the voicemail, I forget about the other errands and head over to the hospital (fortunately I was relatively close by).

I walk in and up to the NICU clerk (Emely) to tell her I was there before I scrub in. Emely does a "wait a minute" wave and tells me I need to wait to go in, as NICU3 is closed for a "procedure." Well, this freaks me out a bit. I know - without being told - the "procedure" is for Hazel, and every other time I've heard the unit is closed for a procedure it has involved things like open heart surgery and the death of a poor 25 weeker. Before going too far off the deep end, though, I ask Emely how long I need to wait. She doesn't know, so has to call over there, and after she gets off the phone tells me the procedure is done so I can go over.

I scrub in, stride over to NICU3, and walk directly up to Hazel. She looks a bit pale, seems listless, and has an IV taped to the wrist above her left hand. But, of course, since she is an infant and prong to pulling on things, the whole hand is taped up/immobilized with plastic and a cotton ball. Cindy, our nurse for the day, comes over and tells me basically the same thing Dr. Breed said on the phone, and calls Dr. Breed to come over from wherever he is (probably in the other NICU bay) so he can give me the update in person. Again, nothing new from over the phone, but I do feel a bit better listening to him. Cindy and I decide to let Hazel gavage her 11:30 feeding, and then Hazel gets two doses of antibiotics over an hour, starting at 1:30. I leave at 1:45 to go eat and meet up with my parents (just arrived from Dallas for a quick three day visit), I come back at 2:25, and Hazel already looks remarkably better. She has more color, she's moving around, she smiles/makes faces while my parents are holding her, and downs a bottle from me at 5:30 with no episodes. All in all, she looks LOADS better. The antibiotics really must have helped, which is awesome.

Somewhat quietly, little Abigail has been doing really well. In fact, Dr. Breed told me there's a chance Abby could come home THIS WEEKEND. Normally this would probably be headlining the post (especially since Mother's Day happens to be this weekend), but Hazel managed to steal the headlines with everything going on this morning. The thought of Abby home is super exciting but also very scary at the same time. Not only will Matt and I be on our own with a baby for the first time (ah!), but a preterm infant who has, until just recently, forgotten to keep breathing and her heart beating on occasion (ah! ah!). And, on top of that, if Abby gets discharged before Hazel, how do I visit H during the day, since babies/kids are not allowed to visit the NICU (ah! ah! ah!)? Plus, we still need to get some things of our registry, including (without limitation) DIAPERS and another car seat. And I really would like to finish up the baby care arrangement after my maternity leave ends before either one comes home, since I feel like I'll be going "underwater" a bit dealing with the girls, especially when Matt goes back to work.

The other thing that happened today, which also normally would headline, is my parents came to visit the girls! They arrived before the 2:30 assessment, so my mom was able to partially feed Abby her bottle at 3:00, and then my dad got to feed part of her bottle at 6:00. In between, Meme and Granddad held the girls and enjoyed getting to know them.

Finally, the other thing that happened today was an appointment with the lactation consultant to make sure I was doing everything correctly. I was supposed to meet with her yesterday, but it never got written down, so LC didn't know to show up, and we decided to reschedule to Friday. Instead, LC was there at 11:30 this morning, and because of the Hazel thing, I happened to be there as well. This particular LC likes to ramble off facts and stats, which normally I like, but in this scenario seems a bit forced. Anyway, using Abby, she gave me some tips on how to make sure things go smoothly. I'm glad the scheduling worked out, even on such a busy day!

Pictures from the day: