The NICU

We were prepared to have Ashlyn in the NICU.  It was weird to have to visit her, but we knew what a wonderful blessing it was to have access to these facilities and that they were in the same building that I was recovering in.  All of the doctors and nurses were great from the very beginning.  They were kind, understanding and willing to explain things to us over and over again.  We felt very comfortable leaving Ashlyn in their very capable hands.

Of course we were never very far away.  After Ashlyn was born I stayed one more night in the hospital before I was discharged.  Even though I was discharged I didn't go very far.  The hospital has a really nice option for parents.  They have several parent rooms for parents who have a baby in the NICU.  I knew the rooms filled up fast so I reserved a room as soon as I could.  I was fortunate to get a room for as long as I needed it.  At first, I was only going to stay for a week or so (partly because of my spinal headache), but as time went on I decided to stay until Ashlyn came home.  I felt better being in the same building with her, plus once I started nursing it helped to be close by, especially in the middle of the night.

The day after Ashlyn was born I was able to go to the NICU by wheelchair.  That was much better than going in by bed.  Ashlyn was in a warmer bed.  We weren't able to hold her right away, but we could touch her.  In fact, we were encouraged to cup our hands and arms around her.  This simulated being in the womb.  We loved standing or sitting by Ashlyn's bed cradling her.

When I cradled Ashlyn with my hands I often found myself stroking her skin.  Chad had to keep reminding me not to stroke her, but her skin was so soft and it is a motherly instinct, I couldn't help it.  We weren't supposed to stroke her skin because babies that young aren't ready for physical touch yet and the motion can actually make them feel uncomfortable.  It was wonderful to be able to touch Ashlyn though.  Holding her little hand was such a sweet experience!  I think that is the first thing I did every time I visited, besides giving her a kiss of course!

Those first couple of days in the NICU were were really informative and special.  The NICU is an impressive place.  There are so many machines and tubes and alarms.  The site of these things make some parents nervous, but they were comforting to us.  We knew that all the machines and tubes were for Ashlyn's good.  Each day we were there we came to know these machines and tubes better and we learned what to watch for and what to treat carefully.  We are truly grateful for those who put in so many hours developing the technologies that keep babies thriving in the NICU.

Everyday we checked Ashlyn's arm to see how it was improving.  Her right arm was the last part of her body to return to normal coloring.  Each day we saw an improvement.  There were three main spots on her hand/lower arm that seemed to be holding on the longest.  It was amazing to see how quickly Ashlyn's body was able to heal itself.  It took about a week for the purple mottling to go away.  A funny thing happened a day or so before Ashlyn's arm cleared up.  Our regular doctor had a couple of days off and the doctor covering for him looked at Ashlyn's arm and told us it would probably be a couple more weeks before it all cleared up.  Chad, the nurse and I all looked at each other in disbelief.  We didn't think it would be that long.  From the progress we had seen, we thought it would be days.  Sure enough the next day Ashlyn's arm had pretty much cleared up and the doctor came around and said something like, "Oh, I guess I was wrong."

Because of the incident with Ashlyn's circulation, the doctors and nurses were always very aware of Ashlyn.  They were always very careful with her and her tubing.  Since Ashlyn turned purple the doctor had the machine checked out and Ashlyn was given an ultrasound to make sure all her organs were performing perfectly.  If the problem was caused by an air bubble it could have gotten into Ashlyn's organs and caused problems.  Luckily, the doctor did not find any air bubbles or any irregularities in Ashlyn's organs.  Unfortunately, we still had to wait a couple of weeks to make sure there were no problems.  A couple of days after the mottling, the machine came back, no problems had been detected.  We were back to square one.  Now the doctors started looking at many different causes.

Normally, when a baby goes into the NICU she receives a central line that goes into her umbilical cord.  That is the line that caused Ashlyn to lose circulation.  The central line stays in for two weeks at the longest (because they generally don't last that long), then they put in a Pic line.  Since they didn't know what caused Ashlyn's reaction they didn't want to have to take out the central line and put in a pic line.  We had to be extremely careful with Ashlyn's tubing to ensure the central line wouldn't be compromised.  It had to last longer than two weeks because it was the only line we could use for feedings, blood draws and medicine.

We were ever watchful, and if ever we saw an air bubble (which we did) we were alerting the nurses right away.  Air bubbles are present sometimes, but they usually pop before they get close to entering the body, but we weren't taking any chances.  The nurses were always more than happy to fix the problem.  We were grateful to have so many wonderful nurses.  Over the course of our five weeks in the NICU, we grew very close to the entire NICU staff.  The doctors, nurses, administrative staff and cleaning staff all took a special interest in the family with five boys who "finally" got a little girl.  We will always remember our time in the NICU as a very sweet experience.  One that drew us closer to one another, to our boys and to our sweet little girl.