Ian and I called in to the hospital last night before bed to check on Riley, and the nurse informed us that she has been having a few desats, sometimes requiring stimulation to come out of them. This is not surprising and is likely related to the vaccinations. However, it was still a little nerve-wracking going to bed after hearing that, but we both just crossed our fingers that the remainder of Riley’s night and early morning was uneventful.
As soon as I walked in this am, Riley’s nurse was sitting at the nurses station, and she stopped me to update me on Riley’s night. She started out by saying “I’m not sure if they called you or not…” and my heart kinda sank as I was thinking Great…what the heck happened where they’d have to call me??? and she continued saying “but Riley had bit of a rough night and needed to be bagged last night during one of her desats.” Ok. “It happened around midnight and she went down into the low 30’s, and her heart rate dropped as well.” Well, that’s a hell of a way to begin your birthday celebration Riley Mae. This is something that never gets easier to hear, but I thought to myself…it could be a lot worse. She could be back on a ventilator with a tube down her throat, starting back at square one…but she’s not. She’s still on .03 liters of home O2, and is overall doing ok. They stopped her bottle feedings to give her some recovery time, but the nurse said we can try to resume bottle feedings this afternoon if Riley’s otherwise doing okay. This is just another little hurdle we knew we’d have to jump…
During rounds, the medical team discussed the events that took place last night, and blamed it on the vaccines. They actually mentioned that she had to be bagged twice, but does the number really matter at this point? Not really. They agreed to resume bottle feedings as Riley tolerates. The attending, who was someone we never had before, asked about the plan for discharge, and other members of the medical team who are more familiar with Riley’s case informed the attending that Riley wasn’t on 100% bottle feedings even before the vaccines, and that she has a little ways to go yet. It was also mentioned that she’ll need an MRI before discharge, and when I asked what it was for, they explained that since Riley had such high bilirubin numbers shortly after her birth, requiring the exchange transfusion, an MRI is routine to ensure that there are no neurological effects from those high numbers. Unfortunately, there is also a possibility that they may need to give Riley a pretty strong drug (the exact name has escaped me) to knock her out for the MRI, but they only need to do that if “the babies are active and moving around a lot.” Well chances are…knowing crazy Riley, she will need that drug. The thought of that does not make me happy. Finally, the nurse practitioner discussed that although Riley may surprise us, she will likely be going home on O2 and a monitor, but we’ll see what happens. This I’m fine with…I just want to get her home. However, it sounds like we need to go back to our previous way of thinking…if Riley gets out before Sept 28th, her due date, it will be gift. We need to expect that she’ll likely be discharged closer to her due date. Looks like we’ve re-entered the never-ending sit and wait game again…actually we never left it.
First bottle feeding today went ok. One choking episode, causing Riley to turn a bit “purple” (as Ian would say), with a desat into the lower 70s, but she came back up with some stimulation from mom. We hung out for a little while afterwards because she was awake, and she’s way more fun when she’s awake:) Second bottle feeding also went ok…just needed lots of pacing, as she was acting a bit greedy and being a little animal.
Riley did pretty well for the remainder of the day. No crazy b’s or d’s. She gained more weight (shocker) and is now 6 lbs 2.6 oz. Daddy called weight watchers immediately after hearing this news…
I ended the day with meeting my work friends for dinner…which turned into the baby shower I never got to have! Adorable giraffe cupcakes and lots of nice new blankets, towels, homemade nursery decor, and adorable, sassy clothing for Riley Mae. She is SOOO spoiled. It was amazing…you guys are awesome. Thanks:)
"One Day Stronger" 