Day 2: still intubated, lungs looked slightly immature so she was given meds to help although they *shouldn't* have been a problem. CT scan was done and nothing stuck out but they would be doing an MRI to get a better look though. She wasn't having as many apnea spells but she was still having them so she would stay on the vent.
Day 3: I had to go home without my baby...something no mama should have to do! The MRI was schedule for the afternoon. This was also the day I sent out the info to Dan that he had a new baby girl! I remember getting a call from the hospital..which I knew they don't call unless something happens so of course my heart sank, what now?! It was the doctor calling to tell me that Caroline, who was always quiet, too quiet, went down for her MRI and needed to be sedated! She would not stop crying and stay still. He kept holding off giving her anything but after 30mins of her crying he gave in a gave her something. They had to keep her sedated for the rest of the day because she kept trying to pull the tube out (that's my girl!)
Day 4: It was a monday, i walked Jilian to school just as I normally would...trying to keep things as normal for her as possible. Dan STILL didn't know about Caroline. That day they decided to take the tube out and put her on c-pap...she hadn't had an apnea spell in 24hrs. She went on CPAP because he didn't wanted to just "send her up the river without a paddle". It was so nice to see that thing out of there and see more of her face! and what a beautiful face it was. She looked so much like her daddy then. Oh this was also the first day I got to hold her!!!
Day 5: They didn't want to take the CPAP off just yet but she had other plans and pulled it off while they were doing their morning rounds. They came back to her and it was off and her numbers looked great so they left it off. I'm pretty sure this was the day I had gotten a message from Dan...he finally knew she was here! He had no clue what was going on though.
Over the next couple of weeks (23 days total in the NICU) we had so many things done I still can't keep everything straight. She had a total of 2 MRIs, 2 EEGs, a CT scan, 2 hearing tests, LOTS of blood tests, spent some time under the bili lights and started to learn how to eat. Dan came home when she was 12 days old, poor guy had no idea what he was walking in to. When they were sure that all of the sedation was out of her system they noticed that her overall tone was very low. When a baby would normally keep their arms and legs close to them she kept hers very loose. She was VERY floppy. When we started working with a bottle she would get tired so very quickly. After a couple of weeks we were taught how to use her feeding tube and sent home with all sorts of equipment but we were getting to go home! They don't normally discharge babies on the weekends from the NICU but they new we were ready for her! Everyone came in and said their good-byes and we hugged and kissed and cried. They had become our family over those weeks and we would hopefully never be seeing them again! We had no really answers as to why she had stopped breathing or why her tone was so low. Every test they had run had come back negative or normal and while I am so grateful for that, it's a very frustrating spot to be in. On one hand I want my girl to be perfect...I want nothing more than all of this to amount to her just needing some extra time to do things. On the other hand I would love to say "Ok, this is what she has" and move on.
This was Caroline about a week after coming home!!!
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