Last year at this time, my son had only been home two days. He was born February 2 and ended up spending 10 days in the NICU. When he was born, he had a few things go wrong. There was a small case of pneumonia and his oxygen levels weren't quite where they needed to be. The main reason of Lane being in NICU was an infection. To be honest, I can't remember what type of infection it was.
One morning, I left my room in the hospital to slowly make my way to the NICU to see Lane. I had an unplanned C-section with Little Man, so I was still pretty sore and would be for roughly the next 2 months. Once I was back in Lane's little private room, one of our wonderful nurses informed me that they would have to change the placing of his IV. The IV's had previously been in his arms and legs. This time, it would be in his head. Our nurse wanted to tell me because some parents aren't able to handle the sight of a needle in their child's head. Later that afternoon, I came back with Matt to spend time with Lane. Sure enough, the IV had been moved to his head. At first, it didn't bother me so much. Then I really got to thinking about it. Yes, I started crying because I felt so bad for my little guy.
In the first 5 days or so that Lane was in NICU, he was on Oxygen and had a feeding tube. A few times, he ripped the feeding tube out. He didn't like it so much when the nurses had to put it back in. It always made me nervous when his monitors went off too. I was a new parent worried about her child. I think that's a normal reaction.
In the time that Lane was there, he had some really awesome and amazing nurses and doctors. I appreciated that they explained what they were going to do in ways that I could understand. I could also tell that they really cared about these precious little babies and the job they were there to do.
Lane finally got to go home February 12, 2015. My mom was down from Kansas and stayed with us for another two weeks to help us out.
Lately, some friends/acquaintances haven't been having the best of luck with their little babies. A childhood friend and her husband just lost their newborn son. From what little information I got, it was from some sort of complication at birth. A friend from high school and his wife are fighting for their son who has problems with his heart. He's gone through several surgeries (he's close to Lane's age, if not a little younger). When they were ready to deliver him, they had to travel from Kansas to Michigan or Minnesota where there were more experienced doctors to deal with what their son was going to need. A few weeks ago, they were told their son's heart was failing and he was being put on a transplant list. A friend of mine from college and her husband just got to bring their daughter home after spending about a month or so in the hospital from being born about 1-2 months early. This little girl is tough and a fighter.
For each of these families, what they have been going through is far worse than what we went through with Lane. My heart goes out to each of them and to all parents who struggling with their newborn children. If you are one of these families, please know you are not alone. Love to you all.
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