MADISON IN NICU

Madison's 4th day in the NICU (Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit) at Spring Valley Hospital. She liked the baby boy in the crib next to her, they had some sort of baby talk or communication going on.

She finally got the tubes removed from her tummy and the IV's had been removed, so as long as she kept her food down she was able to go home with us.

She was admitted into NICU the first day of life. She had a bowel movement while in the womb. The meconium got into the placenta and the baby digested it. Once she was born respiratory was there right away to check to make sure she did not inhale any of it. She was vacuumed to make sure it was clear. Unfortunately they did not realize it was a bigger problem. She began throwing up brown goo. They took her NICU to have her chest, lungs, and intestines to be x-rayed. Her lungs were coated with mucus along with her tummy. She had to have her tummy pumped and was placed on an IV and NO FOOD BY MOUTH for the first couple of days. In NICU she lost 25oz from birth.

I went into the NICU to see her and I started crying. The tiniest little tube was taped to her mouth and was pulling garbage out of her tummy. She had IV's and was being monitored to make sure she was okay.

We were told she would be able to eat Saturday night. I went to begin breast pumping. I was determined to make sure she would not receive any junk formula. Then on I was on a 2 hour schedule where I pumped every 2 hours and had to return to the hospital for feedings. I was not able to actually breast feed because they needed to measure how many ml she was drinking. We began with 15ml and went up from there. If she kept her food down she would be allowed to have the tubes removed, and once she got to 60ml they said they would stop the antibiotics and IV. Finally on Sunday they removed the tubes.