So after Emma was born we were in our room and she stayed in the NICU. This just broke our hearts that our baby was unable to stay in the room with us. Adam and I would take turns sleeping and visiting her. It also was very hard on me because I wanted to nurse her and do skin to skin, these things were both out of the question since we were unable to hold her. It was VERY difficult not being able to hold our sweet baby girl, I just wanted her to know our touch (I just knew that would help heal her). Family and friends were able to come in and visit her but her "Big Sister" had to look through the window. Ellie wanted to kiss her but she had to blow kisses through the window. One evening Ellie was waving bye to Emma and Emma flung an arm up and Ellie went crazy, "Baby Sister just waved at me!". Touching!! We were able to hold Emma on the 19th for the first time since she was born!! We had to start off slow with holding and nursing her. We were soooo thankful we got to hold our sweet girl, The majority of the nurses were very caring and informative. Our favorite nurse was Rosemary, I think she really helped Emma's progression. Emma was on oxygen and they were having to feed her through a feeding tube. Her white blood cell count was also high and they think because of infection in the lungs. So they started her on antibiotics. The antibiotics did their job and brought the white blood cell count down. The doctors felt an xray needed to be done on her lungs to make sure their were no abnormalites. A culture was also was admitted to see if their indeed was an infection in her lungs. It took a few days for the results of xray & culture to come back. Nothing was found on the xrays and the culture came back negative for infection, praise the Lord! So the doctors came to the conclusion that she was lacking surfactant in her lungs, which is a lubricant that helps the lungs expand and contract. They said it is rare that a full term baby's lungs are not fully developed but with oxygen assitance her lungs would be able to complete their growth. I immediately blamed myself for not sleeping on my left side every night, the doctor laughed and said it was nothing I did. The doctor said a possiblity could be that they had my due date wrong and Emma was just not ready yet. Emma started out on a CPAP, then was switched to high flow oxygen and gradually worked her way down to low flow. My hospital stay was up and we had to do the dreaded leave Emma!! But with much prayer I knew that I just had to stay strong and live all this in God's hands. Emma was oxygen for a total of 5 days. Emma pretty much took her self of the oxygen. When we went to visit her during the night the nurse that was taking care of her said Emma had knocked the nasal canualar (sp) out of her nose. Turns our her stats were great as she was breathing on her own so they decided to keep it out!! That is our girl!! Once Emma was able to breath on her own and keeping her feedings down she was considered stable. So they informed us she could move up to the Penthouse. This was the 6th floor NICU where the stable babies go and this would be where she would eventually get discharged!!
Sweet Baby! Emma rarely cried, the nurses commented on how peaceful she was.
FINALLY, holding our Emma Rose!!
Big Sister riding with Mommy to visit Baby Sister.
Ellie was so excited to see her baby, even if it was through a window.
Emma had lots of family visit her. It was so nice to have our family by our side during this uncertain time. In this pic - Great Grandma, Aunt Bobbie, and Mimi
Off the oxygen!! Now we need to get this feeding tube out!
Gigi came to hold and sing to Miss Emma.
Leaving the hospital, at least I had one of my girls to sit on my lap as they wheeled me out.
Emma with Rene
Re came to visit too!
Cuzzie & Aunt Lala came over too
Sleeping sweetly on Daddy. Priceless!!
Ellie's friend Sophie came to visit with her Mommy & Daddy. Sophie will soon be a Big Sister!
Uncle Kevie loves the Emma too!
Emma resting in her swing while a Cow is on the loose.
Emma smiling with Beffies.
Uncle Brandon checking out the Sweet Baby!
All these visitors are wearing me out!
Grandaddy and Liz came to visit too!
Listening to Grandaddy
The first bath at home went well until she had to get out!
Emma enjoying her first bath!
Look at that belly and those skinny legs! Someone has Daddy's long toes : )
Sleeping with some friends of Big Sissy's!
Emma has been trying out some new faces. She has been working on her smile : )
Silly girl!
Woo hoo!! She is finishing her bottles!!
This sweet thing rarely makes a peep!
.JPG)
