All I can really say about these days is back and forth to the hospital and SO EXHAUSTED. Lily was still in the NICU and we were just waiting for those oxygen levels to get better. The doctor continued to decrease the amount she was needing and each day seemed like a feat in itself. I can not tell you how glued we were to her monitors to make sure her levels stayed in the 90's. Poor Dan wanted to buy a machine for home as we were so nervous about her breathing. Luckily we were assured she would not come home until they were confident she was fine. Here is a pic of the monitor...its the bottom number we were worried about and I think we were cheering when she would reach 100!
During this time Lily also developed Jaundice. I was not too scared at this point as I knew what it was and was a bit relieved that she was getting it taken care of while she was in the hospital. I know people who have had to bring their babies back for it. So instead of stressing over it we found the humor in calling her our little glow worm...
We were also a little amused by her little eye mask. The nurse decided to give her some eyelashes and we were cracking up. It was just to keep the light from the bili blanket out of her eyes...
Thursday around noon (about 5 minutes before I arrived) the tubes were removed! I was so happy. Lily kept trying to pull them out of her nose and I was told that once the nurse got one side off and out Lily ripped the other one off. She REALLY didnt like it. Here is my little girl tubeless...
Once the tubes were removed we were put on the wait list for a private room. At 10pm on thursday night we were moved to a private NICU room where they take babies who are almost ready to go home. This also meant that Dan and I could stay overnight with her. So thursday night we had our first all nighter with Miss Lily. Dan and I became her parents and had ZERO help from the nurses. I figured if we could survive a night in the hospital with horrible chair cot thingys and alarms going off we could survive anything. Here is a pic of the room with my cozy bed :) ha ha
I felt horrible that Dan had to sleep on it but my mom did give him a nice break the beginning of our hospital stay so I guess a couple days was not going to kill him.
Once we moved into our private room I knew it would be any day that we would be able to take Lily home. It had already been a rough week but I think by the time we hit this point I was done. I needed to bring her home. Of course we got a new doctor once we moved and it felt like we were starting over. I was hoping like crazy Friday would be the day we could take her home but no luck. I will say I am thankful Lily had a relatively short stay in the NICU. I know it could have been so much worse but any amount of time spent there is still tough on anyone.
Day 8/9: Friday/Saturday
Friday was a long day spent hanging out with Lily. We made sure either Dan, Me or my Mom was with her at all times. Which meant we took turns running to get food or anything else we needed. I know the nurse was there to help but there was no way I would leave her alone. At this point I felt the whole responsibility and knew that we would need to take care of her once she was home anyway. Doctor checked on her friday and said no way going home. All I can say is if it was not a Sat homecoming I was going to lose it. It had already been hard enough and I could not handle one more day of living at the hospital. When the doctor came in to check on her on Sat am she asked us "How we were feeling?" I just looked at Dan as the tears came. I couldnt even answer her. My mom had said to make sure I didnt act like it was all about me wanting to get out of there but I know that was a lot of it. I could not handle the stress anymore and just needed to be able to go home and take care of Lily. I was afraid to do anything in the hospital and honestly...I really needed a shower! LOL. Just kidding. Feeding was a struggle and they were very strict on when Lily ate and how much. So my stress was so bad I could barely feed her that last morning. If she didnt do good we were going to be stuck another night. I know Lily probably felt my stress I know everyone else could. The doctor admitted that keeping us there another night was not going to help anyone. Lily was doing so much better and if we had any problems we could call. THANK GOODNESS! My little girl was able to come home! I felt like we were breaking out of Jail as we quickly loaded up all our stuff and ran away. Bye Bye hospital hope its forever before I have to visit again.
HOME! We made it! If you finished all this that is the last weeks recap. Now its just home time and fun posts. Stay tuned next for baby pool results. Dont worry there is still a winner even though EVERYONE was way off on the date!
~Whitney
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