The NICU grows babies. Babies born preterm need their methods of high calorie feeds and dark womb like rooms.
But remember, BRADLEY came at 44 weeks! NOT 34!
It is really a shame how many babies come before they are ready
because of induction and c-section and then HAVE to spend time in the NICU,
but that is really a whole other THING :)
TANGENT!
And so we were moved to the
NICU and every nurse had their theory about our Bradley.
His first nurse said he had an infection from the meconium
that surrounded him at birth and had he come at the hospital
they would have done a better job of getting it out of his lungs.
She told me to go home, get some rest and she would grow my baby.
The next nurse was Joanne.
She was a sweet lady from Tennessee.
She had been born at home.
She believed in breast milk and nursing.
She let me nurse Bradley twice.
I will always be grateful to her for that.
It would be the last time he ever nursed.
The next nurse was Chuck.
He was a big burley man with tatoos and a fu-man-chu.
He told me I needed to drink a beer to up my milk production.
He told Tom and I that CPS could come take our
children for Bradley being diagnosed with failure to thrive.
He also said home birth was fine
but we should have done something to get him out
before 44 weeks and that our midwife was crazy for letting him cook that long.
He believes babies lose weight the longer they cook and
that we had in fact hurt Bradley by not coming to the hospital to be induced.
Several times that I left Bradley with Chuck I didn't understand how
Chuck could grow Bradley but I could not.
The last day that Chuck was our nurse the Doctor came in and talked about Bradley with me.
He had been in the NICU for four days and was starting to show signs of an infection AGAIN!
He had been in the NICU for four days and was starting to show signs of an infection AGAIN!
He was having trouble eating and Chuck had been putting his food in his gavage tube.
I knew he was starting to show a reaction to his food like he had before.
I knew he was starting to show a reaction to his food like he had before.
BUT IT WASN'T AN ALLERGY BECAUSE IT WAS A DELAYED REACTION.
Allergic reactions come on sudden or soon after.
Allergy symptoms include, vomiting, blood in the stools, anaphylaxis.
None of which Bradley had ever had.
The Doctor in the NICU thought there was something more to Bradley that would explain WHY he didn't come till 44 weeks and why he was sooooooo small at birth.
So she sent out tests for micro deletions and micro duplications of Bradley's chromosomes.
And he got another infection. And he got another spinal tap.
And he got another blood transfusion.
And his belly got distended.
And his intestines twisted.
And Chuck used a bulb syringe to keep Bradley's binki in his mouth. And while Chuck did the best swaddling job I had ever seen, I knew he was wrong about us.
I WAS A GOOD MOM.
I HAD DONE EVERYTHING I COULD TO HELP BRADLEY.
BRADLEY HAD JUST STOPPED WORKING ON ME!
And I think Chuck and the other nurses were starting to see that.
