PICU Detour

After being at home for several hours on Sunday and lots and lots and lots of tears, I knew something was wrong. Jackson was absolutely inconsolable. He was screaming so much that he was hoarse, his mouth was really dry, and he had a temperature. We called our pediatricians (who are absolutely amazing) and Dr. Kovar called us back within two minutes. Because Jackson's fever was 101 degrees, he told us to go to the ER. I felt better on the way there knowing that we were going to get some help but when the doctor told me we would be there for a couple days, I lost it. I was already a mess but then they said they had to do a spinal tap, place a catheter to get a urine sample, and place an IV. I went to the waiting room and bawled. It was so hard hearing my baby cry like that. They had to do three different sticks to get this IV started.
Comfortable in Daddy's arms.

The first night was really rough. He was not feeling well still and had a really hard time sleeping. I was trying to exclusively breastfeed but it was clear that he was really hungry and I wasn't able to get him what he needed yet. He weighed 6lbs, 14ozs at birth and was down to 6lbs, 1oz by Sunday night. Bryan and I decided that he needed some formula to supplement. He sucked down the formula like it was going out of style. Bryan and I were up all night with him and we all three cried!

Part of the fun of the ICU is all the monitors. Luckily he didn't have to be hooked up to too many but he did have one on his foot that kept moving and setting off the alarms. Socks were needed to hold it in place but they only had pink. Usually babies as small as he is are in the NICU but since we left and came back, we were in the Pediatric ICU. They were very capable of taking care of him but were not set up for babies so small.

Once he started to feel better he was pretty comfortable in his hospital crib. He was either here or in our arms for a couple of days while we waiting for his antibiotics to be giving and to get results back from all the tests they ran. On Monday morning I went home and slept for several hours and when I returned, the news was that there was some bacteria in his urine. They thought he had a kidney or bladder infection. They did an ultrasound on both organs to check for abnormalities but it all looked fine. After another culture, it was determined that there was no infection in his urine. Our pediatrician said that the bacteria probably came from his skin at the circumcision site when they placed the catheter. Because it was still so sore, they didn't want to scrub it with alcohol like they usually do and some bacteria was picked up in the process.

I thought this was funny. His hair is over his ears and he already needs a hair cut!

The final diagnosis was that he probably got some type of virus while he was in the hospital the first time. In case it was an infection, the 48 hours of antibiotics should have taken care of it and he was sent home with 7 more days of meds. We are so happy to be back home with our sweet baby where we can continue to fall in love with him. Thank you God for a healthy boy!