Bug is finally home...

Bug was born on November 16th at 9:56pm, 9lbs 8oz, 20.5in long. (Yes labor was rough, couldn't understand why it wasn't going like labor was with Cake, but he did eventually come out! [:D]).

We just finally got home today, after a 4 day stay in NICU, he landed there with low blood sugar 24hrs after he was born, (because he was large for gestational age they automatically test blood sugar for a specified amount of time, this is typically an issue with GD moms although I was negative at the time they do the diabetes testing, its possible I developed it late term without knowing), and it just seemed to go downhill from there for a bit. He had a heart murmur, which the doctor was pretty sure would clear up on its own but because he was registering different pulse rates and O2 saturation's from the monitors on his left foot and right hand was a bit worrisome. He also had elevated C-R-P values, and increased WBC's and bands (yeah, I am vague on how to explain those) which basically pointed to a possible infection, so he wanted to do a antibiotic regimen to nip that in the bud (I was GBS+, but this is not the only reason I guess), he said it was more preventative and didn't want to wait for the blood cultures to come back 3 days later (would have added to the stay, plus possible complications), the blood cultures did eventually come back negative.

The first night was roughest, as I was angry at a nurse in the mother/child unit who had horrible bedside manner about my son being whisked away from me to the NICU (basically said "oh yeah, this baby is going to the NICU" and swept out the door really quickly after taking a blood sugar reading) and just basically feeling helpless, but after the initial shock wore off, Husband and I were able to push through the fear and just get through it you know? For 3 days, Bug had a Dextrose 10% IV bag that they stepped down the dosage of as his blood sugar tests improved, for the first couple days of life we had to supplement his breast feedings with formula (until my milk was in completely) to try to help his sugar levels that way as well, and he was treated with gentimicin and ampicillin for the possible infection. Our poor baby has pokes in both his hands from IV sites and what seems like hundreds of nicks all over both his heels from all the glucose tests.

We are very thankful that our son is healthy and at home now, there are so many babies there that are there for so much longer, and I truly feel for those parents. We are also thankful that our hospital offered me a room on the mother/child unit to stay in while he was being treated so that I could more easily breastfeed him at will. We are most thankful that Cake had her grandparents here so that we could spend so much time with Bug, it was so hard to be away from her, I saw her a total of 3 hours in 5 days, Husband was able to leave for a few hours each day to go home and shower and spend time with her while my parents came to visit Bug and I.

I am positively exhausted now, but will post pictures as soon as I have gotten more in the groove of things here, right now, I am just enjoying being home with my family!