One of the RNs at Waukesha NICU told me that on average these babies have 3 visits back to the hospital after going home. Well, let's hope this is visit number 3 and the last one. We had an appointment with Cardiology on Monday just to check in, get Baby Gl's weight and see how he was doing with his new feeding schedule. Unfortunately, his weight was down so now they want to intervene. The requested to admit Baby Gl into the hospital for a few days for observation to see if we could resolve his weight issues. It was very emotion for my husband to think about our son going back into the hospital. I think I handled it better because I knew it wasn't a trip starting with a call to 911. The goal is just to observe and be able to bring him home before the weekend.
Yesterday, by about noon, we admitted Baby Gl in to Children's Hospital. I think we've been spoiled in the past getting put into the new wing of the hospital so now that we have a room in the old wing we're a little disappointed. I shouldn't complain. It will just mean we want to come home that much sooner.
Baby Gl is completely aware of his surroundings. He knows he not at home and he knows these are not Mom and Dad coming in to check on him. We've had to stay close by because he will just cry when we're not around. His first day settling in was hard for him. We went for dinner during his nap and of course didn't make it back before he woke up. We found him in the arms of a care volunteer just crying away, which is usually what happens when we're not around. It's heartbreaking, but it's difficult to be there ever second. To put him down for a nap we have to hide behind the separation curtain and just wait. He wines and wiggles around for quite awhile before he eventually settles in.
Neither of us spent the night in the hospital. We got Baby Gl to sleep and went home to sleep. I made it back to the hospital before he work up, however, he had been awakens a few times earlier from labs coming through and the nurses fussing. He even vomited during the night right at the last bit of his tube feeding with the nurse. That wasn't anything new for us. We had found that tube feeding has to be minimal or he won't tolerate any longer. It's a battle because he needs to eat but when he doesn't take enough by bottle we have to get it in somewhere.
So today the regime is to get 24 ounces of this Compleat Pediatric rather than the 16 we've been aiming for. I don't know that we'll do it by mouth, but we'll hope. Everything else will remain the same. The nurses and nutrition are following closely. His weight as of Monday was 6.76 kilos, 14.87lbs. Today the nurse weighed him and he was up at 6.93 kilos, 15.25lbs. We know he can gain weight it's just keeping the weight on and figuring what diet works well for him. The doctor came through with a theory that maybe he's constipated which would cause him not to eat. Well, I can say I agree since I changed 3 dirty diapers in 2 hours already today. I guess we'll just humor him and let him rule constipation out on his own.
The one thing making us feel very trapped here is that Baby Gl needs to be under isolation. Back in January, when he was hospitalized, he tested positive for MRSA. I guess it's highly contagious and he needs 3 negative test results before they will let him out of isolation when he's hospitalized. He had 1 negative result back during his surgery in June and now they are doing a 2nd test. With him in isolation we have to stay in the room. We've had to bring toys in and let him explore the hospital room only. He's surprisingly fine with it. We were given a bouncer today for him to play in. He doesn't play with one at him now but he likes to play and walk around the outside of them so I think it will entertain him. It's only a few days. We can tolerate a few days. Hopefully by the time they release him they will have the answers we all need to get Baby Gl growing.
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