the NICU

Crazy to think my baby is already 3 weeks old!

I need to catch up on his little life so far...

I'm not sure why I thought things would slow down a bit.

Anyway, Franky was born at 4:05 in the afternoon and by the next morning he wasn't passing his blood sugar tests yet. It is more common in big babies like Franky, or little preemies to have this issue right after birth. He was getting tested every time he would eat, so basically every three hours and they wanted him to have 3 good tests in a row. He would pass two tests and fail the third, so they would start them over. By the next morning they wanted to admit him to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) so they could give him a continuous glucose IV in his head, which meant he had to be monitored one-on-one in the NICU. 

Adam hadn't come back to the hospital for the day yet (he went home at night with the boys) and they asked if I wanted to come down while they got Franky settled. I was kind of in shock and still in my hospital gown (read: backless AND butless gown!) and couldn't imagine walking through the hospital halls in that so I told them to go ahead and I would come when Adam got there. 

This is how we found Mister Franky-- in his special spaceship bed with a million cords hanging off of him. They had to monitor his heart rate and his temperature and all this other stuff, so really, like six cords hanging off of his feet, chest and head were what we had to work with during feeding time- it was hard. Things would fall off and beep so the nurse would have to fix his monitors while I fed him. Also, walking down those long halls through the NICU, especially by myself at night was kind of a weird feeling. By the time I would get back to my room I would set the alarm on my phone for 2 hours so I could wake up in time to walk the halls to feed Franky again.

The pediatrician had come in the morning before they took him to the NICU to tell me what was going on and he said, "Remember, the hospital is making him seem sicker than he is. He isn't sick, his body just needs to start working right." I held on to this little bit of info like it was my lifeline. I wasn't too scared about him not getting better- I knew he would. 

Franky's poor head! It took forever to get that tape stickiness off.

Isn't Adam such a cute Daddy??

I am nursing Franky, but they wanted me to "top him off" with formula after I fed him.

Tiny baby feet! His poor little heel was pricked so many times for the tests every three hours!

His cheeks were still so soft and kissable... even in the NICU.

Aunt Linds came to visit, which was great because the boys weren't allowed in the NICU and Adam wasn't able to come in that day for very long. He was planning to bring the boys to see me, but it was getting later and we decided they just needed to stay home. So it was nice to talk with Linds for a while and show her how cute Franky was. 

Franky was finally passing his tests so they were weaning him off the glucose, but there was still a chance he wouldn't be released the same time I was. I was a little nervous about that situation. I even talked to the nurse about rooming options. His pancreas finally started processing sugars right and after his 90 minute car seat test (what?!) he got to come home with us. (If your baby stays in the NICU they let them sleep in their car seat for 90 minutes before they send them home to make sure their neck is strong enough because NICU babies often have weaker necks... But we didn't have a preemie here, we had a big Franky so he was fine, after they took out the extra support that they said was making his neck go forward. I thought it was for newborns but they said to use it later.) 

We didn't know he would be released until a few minutes before we were supposed to go. So exciting!

Franky was only in the NICU for two days and a night, but it seemed like forever. I don't know how people do it when their kid is in there for months! We learned a lot from the nurses and are thankful for them taking care of our little babe! They also kept talking about how BIG he was since a lot of their patients are teeny tiny :)

Tiny Franky in his BIG car seat all ready to go home and see his brothers again!!

P.S. We are so grateful for Linds and Melissa for helping watch the boys and pick them up from school for us while we were in the hospital. We could not have done this without them!