Miss M: arrival, NICU and update #1

I attempted to blog from my iPhone but couldn't quite get it done. So this is the past two days worth of information on Molly Nicole, born April 5th, 2009 at 6:11 a.m. She will so forth be referred to as Miss M...

On Saturday, April 4th, at 11:00 p.m. I was admitted to labor and delivery. While in the 'gateway' to the real L&D, the place from whence I did the walk of shame with Miss F for not quite being ready for the real show, the nurse noticed the baby (she wasn't named yet) had a rapid heartbeat. She called in doctors, ultrasound techs and eventually even the attending physician to decide what to do. By the time everyone was in the room and had taken turns looking at the ultrasound, the heart rate had become normal. And...even though I was supposed to take the walk of shame again (wasn't quite as dilated as they liked, even though I was having regular contractions, etc. etc.) they kept me there, admitted me and began to induce labor. During the 5 hours of so before her arrival, the baby (still not named at this point) had several episodes of rapid heart rate (300+) and then becoming normal again. So...at 5:45 a.m. I was dilated to a 6 and enjoying my nice epidural (boy, they really ARE nice when they work). About 10 minutes later, I was ready for the big show. And at 6:11 a.m., Miss M arrived only to be whisked away by the pediatric team because her heart rate was again dangerously high.

Miss M gave the NICU/Ped. Cardio a good run for their money for the first 2 hours of her life--she was medicated (didn't work), shocked (didn't work), and then, while they were arranging for yet another med (the last ditch effort), she decided to regulate her heart by herself. Thank you very much. Later that day she had another episode when she got the hiccups but it only lasted 3 minutes and she then had a peaceful evening under the warming lamp with a tube down her throat, IV in her hand and feed tube through her bellybutton.

Yesterday she had another episode due to hiccups (I now believe hiccups are the devil's work) but it only lasted a few seconds. However, the ped. cardio folks decided to put her on a regular dose of medicine. By 3 o'clock yesterday they had removed her breathing tube and allowed me to give her a bottle (but I still couldn't hold her...so for the first 30 or so hours of her life, none of us could hold her). She took another bottle at 6 p.m. and they decided to take out her feed tube.

So....at 9 a.m. today I got to HOLD her and FEED her. Note: I'm attemting to BF but nothing has arrived from the milk fairy yet. I pump every 2 hours but have nada. So after my faux-feeding, Rick was able to hold her also and give her a bottle.

Meanwhile, I'm being discharged from the hospital and when we arrive for the noon feeding there has been a set back. It appears Miss M had a bit of projectile spit-up after this morning's feeding. And some nasty poops. Now, I think most babies have both but to err on the side of caution they called in X-rays, Drs., etc. and decided to stop feeding her for a bit and see what happens. Oh, and now her heart rate is too LOW due to the meds so they're trying a new dose. And so there we are....Miss M is still in the NICU. I'm home. I promised the big sister, Miss F, that I would pick her up from daycare today so I need to run and do that.

I will try to update every day in between trying to learn how to live somewhere between home and the hospital and how to navigate parenting this time around.