Update: Yes!

Archie and I are going home today! The pediatrician said Archie’s recovery has exceeded all his expectations. This morning’s checkup shows a thriving baby boy with a clean bill of health. He is like an entirely new baby—even from last night, when I thought he looked good.

Praise the Lord, O my soul

(more spiritual thoughts to come…reflecting back over this week I have some amazing things to share beginning with the wee hours of Monday morning, before I had any inkling Archie would be born that very day…)

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It appears the only time I have to write is at 4:00 am.

I can’t believe it’s been 24 hours since my last update. Time is strange in the land of the rising blood pressures. I had no idea this experience would feature so many highs and lows, and all within minutes of each other.

There were several discouraging moments yesterday, like when Archie wouldn’t wake to eat for hours. He was doing spectacularly with everything else—breathing room air now, holding his temperature steady, bilirubin and sugars normal, x-ray improvement. They said I could try to nurse him, but he wanted nothing to do with it. Nothing. I returned to my room for lunch and cried.

Little did I know, a few hours later, he’d nurse for almost an hour solid while wide awake! The rest of his feedings yesterday went beyond my hopes. Archie nursed like a champ. Not quite like he invented it, but more like he was a big investor in the scheme and was on hand for the ribbon cutting ceremony. It was that good.

Then the word “home” was mentioned…

I have to leave today. I can’t imagine leaving without him.

Today’s x-ray has to show improvement, again. What are they looking for?

They want to make sure the air in his chest cavity is gone. What happened anyway, Gretchen?

When he was born, a small hole tore in one of his lungs. The sheer force of his first breath caused a leak of air into his chest cavity which slowly built up so much pressure each time he inhaled that his chest organs were distorted, displaced, and on the right side, collapsed. Usually, it is apparent very soon after birth, but with Archie they are speculating that his hole was very small and tore a little more on Tuesday afternoon (hence the sudden appearance of serious trouble).

It’s called pneumothorax. He was (this close) to needing a chest tube.

This brings me back to thoughts of home. He isn’t far from moving in to our happy yellow house. Will it be today?

UPDATE to the update: I expressed frustration and sadness at my pathetic pumping attempts. I just visited Archie to see how it went with my offering. My husband and the nurse told me the amount I sent was EXACTLY on-the-nose what the doctor ordered him to have! To the mililiter! Totally buoyed by that little bit of news and had to share.

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THANK YOU, everyone, for your prayers. I am completely overwhelmed by all of you. I am completely overwhelmed.

Archie held steady through the night with fast respiration rate (think 100+ per minute), 100% oxygen under his little Spaceman Spiff helmet, 2 different antibiotics via IV, blood draws, chest x-rays, and general caring unfriendliness. God bless those nurses! I could never do their job.

This morning’s x-rays look a little better, but show air in his chest, streaking and “consolodation” on his right lung. The scariest thing about last night’s news was that his heart was muffled and not in the “right” place! It was in the center of his chest. Today, his heart appears to be where it is supposed to be—on the left. How, why, HOW? Why? Thank God, is all I can say.

The plan of action is to monitor him very closely (he has the bed closest to the nurse’s desks), keep up the antibiotics since the blood cultures aren’t back, and allow him to eat via tube (but only a little). He will also have labs and x-rays, of course.

My update is courtesy of pumping—which isn’t going that well. Archie has only been around for a day and half, and only nursed for about 20 hours, so my milk supply isn’t fantastic and pumping just isn’t doing it. It is milk, not colostrum any more, so there is a positive. You should have seen the bottle I sent with my husband back to the NICU—wouldn’t feed a flea. Please pray my mammary glands pull it together. I really want him to have mama milk, but understand if he can’t.

Thanks again for your prayers and even for posting about him on your own blogs. I’ll update more later, when I can.