Caleb was born on a Friday. By that afternoon, the on call pediatrician was concerned about Caleb's irregular heartbeat. We've known since my 8th month of pregnancy that his heartbeat was irregular. After two ultrasounds with a fetal heart specialists, it was determined the irregular heartbeat would eventually go away either before birth or shortly after.
Caleb's little heart was still beating irregular after he was born. He had an EKG done. It was so hard to watch his little body hooked up to all those wires.
The pediatrician at the hospital wanted him to spend the night in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) to monitor his heart.
After dinner, we kissed and hugged Caleb good bye and the nurse wheeled him away.
Richard, my dad, and I spent hours in the NICU, holding and talking to Caleb. He was constantly hooked up to monitors. Black and grey cords hanging out the bottom of his blanket, tethering him to the machine.
On Saturday morning, he had a second EKG and an Echo (ultrasound) of his tiny heart. A pediatric cardiologist at Childrens Hospital in Milwaukee reviewed the results of both tests. It was determined his heart was healthy: it was a good size, the valves were all working correctly, and it was beating at the right pace. The irregular beats were in the upper chambers of the heart and should not effect his quality of life. Because the irregular beats were random and not in clusters, it wasn't as concerning to the cardiologist.
We were waiting for the OBGYN to perform Caleb's circumcision when he spiked a fever. Doctors and nurses take fevers in infants very seriously. It is usually a sign of infection. Blood was drawn from Caleb's heal to count blood cells. Although his blood cell count was healthy, a preventative IV was ordered with antibiotics and fluid.
Inserting the IV was the worst part of the NICU. Because Caleb is so little and he was dehydrated, the nurses struggled to get the IV in. They tried in several places including his hand, wrist, foot and scalp. After several failed tries, they decided to wait a few hours and try again.
Luckily, the second round proved effective. The nurse was able to put an IV in his wrist.
Because of Caleb's fever, he had to stay in the NICU until Tuesday.
Caleb continued to improve on Monday with no signs of infection. It was determined the fever was caused by dehydration. Because my milk hadn't fully come in yet, we had to supplement with formula in order quickly hydrate Caleb. I was adamantly against giving him a bottle for fear he would resist breastfeeding. So one of the NICU nurses suggested the S & S system. This system consisted of a bottle with a tiny tube coming out of the nipple. The bottle was filled with formula. Once Caleb latched onto my breast, the tube was slid in next to my nipple so he sucked milk and formula at the same time. It was a finicky system, but successful. Caleb stopped losing weight and he was no longer dehydrated.
Caleb's circumcision was performed late Tuesday afternoon. He was all set to go home as soon as he urinated. Caleb was flat against peeing. We tried every college trick we could think of including running water next to him, putting his hand in warm water, but still no pee. An hour later, the nurse practitioner pushed on his bladder and he peed all over the place! We were all overjoyed!
So Tuesday, November 1st, at 6:30 pm, Caleb was able to come home.
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