Bella's Birth Story Part Two: Welcome to the NICU

Bella was here after a rough two days and I was stuck in the recovery room because I was having a bad reaction to the anesthesia. I had lock jaw, terrible shivering, low heart rate and low blood sugar (I am type 1 diabetic). Unfortunately after surgery you can't eat of drink anything for a while and I was totally freaking out with out being able to explain in full sentences that I NEEDED something with sugar or else they were going to have a much more serious problem on their hands than just a shivering woman, I was going to pass out!! After about 30 minutes they were finally able to get glucose for my IV and get my blood sugar to come up some.

Mike was asked to keep away from Bella while in the operating room, they finally thought that they had her stable enough and he was able to make a quick run with her to the waiting room to see family. It did not last long and they then whisked Bella away to the NICU. No one really explained anything except that she was not going to the nursery, but instead up to the NICU because she was not breathing correctly.

Daddy showing off Bella for the 5 seconds he had her.

Finally, Mike was escorted upstairs to the NICU to be by Bella's side. She was already hooked up to oxygen, monitors, and IVs etc. He said it was very overwhelming and scary to see all of that. At Memorial Hermann Memorial City they have every NICU child in their own closed off room. It is visible by a big glass window and sliding door for the nurses to get in fast, and believe me they are FAST! When their little phones/pagers start beeping (which is constantly) they are running to the room to check on that baby, and each nurse has their own station directly out side of the babies room. An awesome NICU might I add!



Ou sweet, swollen baby girl.

Bella was placed in the NICU for breathing difficulties, low blood sugar and a few other things that, what we thought, were related to her prematurity. I was still downstairs and was not able to see her until the next day. Yes, I cried most of the night because I was not allowed out of the bed!! I still had not even met her yet! I only got to see a few pictures that Mike was able to get while upstairs with her :( I was SAD! Luckily, we had some wonderful nurses, and doctors taking care of Bella and they called many times throughout the night to let us know how she was doing and Mike was constantly running up and downstairs to check on his ladies :). Another thing that was really nice about this NICU is that every 12 hours you are assigned a nurse to your baby and you are given their direct phone number, they carry around these phones and the monitor beeper everywhere they go in their pocket. You can call and talk to YOUR nurse anytime of day. They also would place your same nurse with your baby each day depending on the level of care your child was needing. The nurses are ranked so that if you had a "high level" nurse and a baby came into the NICU that was more sick than yours, then you would get a different nurse the next day so that the other nurse could care for the sicker child.

The next morning I was finally able to be wheeled upstairs to see the new princess. It was sad, I was not able to hold her yet and her monitors were constantly beeping. She had a feeding tube and was VERY swollen from all of the fluid I had during my pregnancy.

Meeting my hero for the first time!

The next day the nurses where making their rounds, downstairs, with me, when they noticed that my blood pressure had been steadily rising. The doctors at first rubbed it off as a reaction to the c-section and my body was just trying to find normal again. I was to be monitored a little bit more closely.

Bella really had no changes over these next few days besides having Jaundice (which is pretty common with preemies) and was still on and off of oxygen, on the feeding tube but was having desaturations (dsats) with her oxygen. She would struggle to breath, then stop breathing and then her heart rate and pulse would drop. The nurses would have to intervene with "blow by" oxygen or even put her back onto the oxygen for a few hours at a time and try to diminish it little by little. On day three after Bella was born, our favorite nurse, Pam starting saying things like, I don't think her breathing issues are preemie related and that there may be more issues . They described her as a "stuffy" baby earlier and said she had swelling from being suctioned at birth and that was contributing to her breathing issues as well.

Bella sun tanning :) - Jaundice Treatment.

Bella's day 2 of Jaundice treatment, stylish glasses.

Bella had her feeding tube removed one morning so that she could have a "better try" at feeding from a bottle. She ended up having some really bad dsats and bradys (heart rate dropping) during her bottle feed and needed a feeding tube again. Nurse Pam decided to pass it through her nose so that we could practice bottle feeding with out having to remove the tube. The tube would not go down either side. We were downstairs and got a phone call to come up and talk to her as soon as possible. We got up there and she said we think Bella might have something called Choanal Atresia. Three of the nurses had been trying to pass a feeding tube and the smallest catheter down her nose for the past hour with no success. Then she wrote the name "Choanal Atresia" on a piece of paper and said that they have an ENT coming to see her first thing in the morning. When we looked up CA we were devastated. Our daughter might not have an opening in the back of her nasal passages? She might have to have surgery tomorrow? What are all of these other associated anomalies about that we are seeing in these Google searches? We were nowhere near prepared for this type of news.

Daddy trying to teach Bella how to bottle feed.

The next morning the ENT arrived and was not able to make it down either side of her nose and said that we needed to start neosynephrine drops (which had been used on and off for the past few days) to keep the swelling down and see if it gets better. That afternoon, nothing was working so they started her on steroids. ENT returned the next morning and was able to partially get down one side, he knew it was not totally closed off, but was not sure about the other.

Meanwhile, downstairs in my room my blood pressure continued to rise and I also started to swell pretty bad. I looked like a balloon quite frankly. I remember when the nurse came into check my blood pressure and other vitals I was telling her that I was having a terrible headache and needed some Tylenol, or something to relieve the pain. She checked my blood pressure and ran out of the room, not saying anything, I mean ran. Doctors and nurses started pouring in the room and told me to lay down we are going up stairs. They were on their phones and running me through the halls. My blood pressure was reading 205/128. They told Mike that they had to get me to the ICU immediately as I was past "Stroke" phase and could have a stroke and start seizing at any moment. Mike panicked. I was wheeled into a room and started IVs and medications at lightening speed. Mike said people in the halls were moving faster than he had ever seen. All of our bags, flowers, and my first solid meal since the baby was born was still downstairs in our other room.

I was having what they call Postpartum Preeclampsia. A very serious treatable condition that can happen anywhere from 48 hours to 6 weeks after delivery. Luckily I did not seize or have a stroke. I was seen by many specialist to try and figure out why my blood pressure was rising so much more lying down than standing up. It is usually the other way around. The doctors were baffled. The treatment for Postpartum Preeclampsia is magnesium. The have to give it to you through an IV for 24-48hrs. You have a catheter in and are not allowed to move, so no seeing princess Bella for me. This was even harder now that I new something was terribly wrong with her. I could not comfort her or be there by her side. I was breastfeeding every 2 hours to try and get her the best nutrition I could as a mother. Mike would take what I pumped upstairs every time to get it into her fridge. He would go be with her, then come stay with me. He was awesome at this time when we both needed him so badly! He even found a moment to run out and grab me a subway, since my first real meal was left downstairs. Yes, I got a foot long and ate probably close to all of it!

First "real" meal after Bella's birth.

By the time my treatment was over, I had drained almost 10 pounds of fluid! I no longer looked like a balloon :)

I was released from the hospital with 3 different blood pressure medications. Although Bella was in great hands, the LAST thing I wanted to do was leave our sweet princess there. That was a heartbreaking moment. I felt empty, like I was forgetting something. I cried the whole way home. As soon as we got home I called to check on Bella and laid on the couch. Bella must have wanted me back there because a headache started approaching again. We checked my blood pressure and sure enough I was back at the hospital within the next hour. We were instructed to go straight up to the labor and delivery floor to begin a second treatment of magnesium. Although I was not able to go sit with Bella, I was in the same place. I felt safer being there just minutes from her rather than at home where it would take us almost an hour to get to her side.

One more 24 hour treatment and I was good to go. This time we were sent home for good. The next afternoon we were visiting with Bella, talking with her neonatologists, ENT's and nurses when we found out the Bella was going to have to be transferred to the medical center. I started crying. We knew that was going to be a WHOLE different ball game. No personal rooms, you are actually in what they call a POD with 8 other babies. You don't get a personal nurse and you can't stay with your baby at all times if you wanted too. BUT she was going to get awesome medical care. She was going to be seen by a team of pediatric ENT's that could truly help her and figure out what was wrong with our baby. A team that we are still with today, that have been so special to us this past year. We thank God for them everyday.

Sweet Angel :)

{Bella's ambulance transport and Medical Center NICU stay coming soon...}