I had to have an "emergency" c-section in order to deliver Levi. Because of this, Levi has some residual mucus in his lungs. Thus far they are considered "normal" and have not required the NICU or anything... which we are thankful for. However, Levi has been spitting up these things and basically he is unable to get them out of his mouth. This makes for gurgling, choking, gagging and possible color change due to not breathing. We had not experienced it ourselves (just reported from the nursery) until yesterday afternoon. He had an episode in our room, but my nurse was walking into the room and handled it well.
Then, last night Levi was having a fussy period. There was lots of crying between eleven and two. No big deal except we were exhausted. Our baby nurse, E, said she needed to do some 36 hour testing on LEvi so at 2am she took him to the nursery for that. He was expected to feed again at 3 and so she said she'd just bring him back them. William and I jumped at the change to get an hour of sleep. We both crashed hard. At 3am, Erin brought Levi in and told me (William is a very hard sleeper we are learning) that at 3:30 we should try to wake him to get him to eat. I set my alarm and went back to sleep with him in the crib next to me.
Everything happened so fast after that... I woke up to a tiny gurlging sound. At first I had trouble placing the sound and then panic set in. Levi was making it and I couldn't get up. I started screaming at William praying that William would hear me and wake up... because William is a very hard sleeper and it has been taking me throwing a pillow at him to wake him up. William heard me on the second yell (a record for him) and I said I think Levi is spitting up. I turned on the light and William looked at him and said, he's fine. He wasn't making the noise anymore. So as I started to turn off the light, William said to wait and I realized William had already started to use the suction bulb on him trying to clear some of the mucus. I yelled for William to pick him up and turn him over and I pushed my call button. I tried to yell "the baby is choking" like they asked us to do, but my voice cracked. The nurse said "what??" so I tried again... "THE BABY IS CHOKING". Five mommy nurses filled the room. One grabbed Levi and flipped him upside down and started slapping him on the back. The other grabbed the suction bulb and started suctioning him as fast as possible. The other's kept asking "has he taken a breath" and things like that. I called the nursery nurse and someone came running in from there as well. It took about 5 minutes to get everything cleared out of his airway and for him to be breathingly clearly on his own.
I'm so thankful that I woke up to his noises, I can't believe that I did and I can't imagine how bad it would have been if I didn't. We now have a new way of him sleeping in his crib. He gets to break the back to sleep rule and needs to sleep propped up and on his side. I was also given permission to sleep with pillows surrounding me and him with him in skin to skin. They said that it's not allowed in the hospital typically but with him it was almost necessary.
Since that episode Levi hasn't really fed. This is frustrating. He has basically only eaten every 6 hours since he was born. And now he is going longer. I'm going to begin pumping today to try and make things progress with my body and we will feed him with a syringe.
Other than that, I am doing very well. Yesterday I got to take a "half" shower and I even walked around the recovery floor. Today I got my epidural out and plan on getting my IV out and taking a real shower! We will probably be in the hospital until Saturday morning/afternoon.
1 comment:
I can't even imagine how terrifying that was! Ya'll are in our prayers. Levi is so lucky to have you and Will as parents!
We'll probably be up in Dallas towards the end of next week. If ya'll are up for visitors we'd love to meet your angel! I'll let you know when we have our trip finalized.
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