Back at the NICU

*** I will try and post updates every couple of days under the comment section of this post.

Our precious little girl is back at the NICU. The last 4 or 5 days have been terrifying for us and we are in the middle of it all, waiting, praying that things will get better for Hayden soon.

Last Friday night I was up with Hayden from 2 am until 6 am and Hayden would repeat a pattern of where she would stop breathing, go completely limp, then after 5-10 sec she would arch her back, throw her head back, take a huge gasp of air, then cry, breathe rapidly, then her breathing would slow... she would be calm for a few minutes, then her breathing would stop again and the whole pattern would start all over again. It was scary and on top of that she was totally congested and I was worried that all of that was due to her being so congested that she couldn't breathe. I woke John up at 5:30 am in a panic and he came in and listened to her heart and lungs (they sounded fine), he took her temperature (it was 98.2) and he suctioned out her nose. She seemed to calm down and went to sleep. So, we let her sleep in her room while listening to her on our baby monitor.



Also, one piece to mention is that we have been keeping Hayden out public places and basically sequestering her until she gets big enough to no longer be at risk of getting severly sick. Poor John came home from the hospital last Thursday with a severe cold and congestion. There was an anesthesiologist that had been sick at work on Wed. and coughed all over everything. John was terrified that he would get Hayden sick so he had stayed away from her and if he was around her, he wore a surgical mask and purelled his hands incessantly.



Saturday afternoon Kathy (John's mom) was holding Hayden and noticed that Hayden had this really bad, deep cough. That was it, I called the pediatrician's office, who passed us to a triage nurse and she told us to head to the hospital. So, Sat. night we ended up at the ER at Children's Hospital in Pittsburg. They ran a ton of tests on Hayden: blood tests, urine tests, spinal fluid tests, checked for RSV and Flu, a CT scan to check her brain for problems, x-rays to check her heart, and they put about 100 probes on her head to check for seizures. They checked us into the NICU that night and that's where Hayden has been since now. The poor thing has been poked and prodded and cried her eyes out, but the worst of all the testing is over.

Everything has come back negative and so far the verdict seems to be that she has a combination of reflux, a urinary tract infection and a cold. Her cough and congestion has gotten much worse over the past couple of days and she is still having these non-breathing episodes. They have started her on medications for the reflux that take 5-7 days to really start working. We just have to wait out the cold (which we have now found out is pnuemonia) but we're hoping that that will resolve itself in another couple of days too.



It has been really hard for John, I and Kathy to see Hayden like this. Sick. We keep praying that the worst is over and the next day will be better. We are trying stay positive and optimistic. You know the funny thing is is that yesterday (March 2) was Hayden's due date. I just re-read over this, and I apologize if it sounds so... dramatic. I'm sure that Hayden will be fine. John gave her a blessing and we both keep telling ourselves that it is just going to take a few days for her to fight her way through this. She is a strong little girl.

Please pray for her.
love,
John & Jeanette