The Next 48 Hours Were Miraculous
It was 6:00AM on May 14th. The nurse came in to do her morning rounds to check my vitals and monitor the baby’s heartbeat. This was day 8 in antepartum, so these checkups throughout the day had become second nature. I was 1 day away from being 33 weeks pregnant and planned to be in antepartum for much longer. We had become quite comfortable, almost falling into a routine. I had navigated through the hospital menu and even looked forward to my daily bran muffin. But today was different. The baby’s heart rate was elevated. He was in distress. Two hours and 1 minute later, our son was born via C-section. When I heard him cry, I cried. After a quick kiss, he was rushed off to the NICU with his team of NICU Superheroes. My husband went with our son, while I went to recovery and captured some colostrum.
The next 24 hours were a blur. We were fortunate in that we had met with the NICU charge nurse while we were camping out in antepartum. She did her best to prepare us for what our son might need when he arrived prematurely. He might need oxygen, he might have a high bilirubin count, he would probably need help regulating his temperature. But nothing would prepare us for him being born with an infection. That was why his heart rate was elevated. Until they knew what the infection was, he was immediately placed on 3 different types of antibiotics. I was not able to see him at first, but my husband FaceTime me from the NICU as I recovered. That night, the NICU nurse called my room and told us that his heart rate was really high and they were trying to get it to slow down. I could hear the concern in her voice. When I got to see him the next day, he was very sick. He had so many wires and monitors connected. We would watch his heart rate numbers flashing and pray that they would come down, only to have them set off the alarms from time to time. We were scared. We would take turns touching the top of his head. It was just a waiting game. The doctors and nurses were so amazing and attentive. They would keep us informed as soon as they had information. We rarely left his side. The next 48 hours were miraculous. He started to respond to his medicines, he no longer needed oxygen, and we were able to hold him and do kangaroo care with him. He continued to make so much progress each day, and we were blessed to be able to see every moment happen.
Our son fought so hard for the first few days of his life. He remained on the 4th floor NICU for 11 days and then he graduated to “step down” (the 3rd floor NICU) until he turned 5 weeks old. That was the day our family went home with our perfect son who has had no lasting effects from his dramatic, early arrival.
