Zane's First Week

We made it home but weren't at all prepared for him to be with us! We had left in such a rush...although we had everything, no diapers or wipes were opened, nothing was out and ready to use....Tony was starving and we were both very tired so I called Kim and Miranda to come help! And to our rescue they came! They helped us get our changing stations setup both upstairs and downstairs, they got us unpacked and got Zane's clothes in his dresser.

While we were in the hospital Angela and Kim helped do laundry and Angela got the bassinet setup for him. What we didn't expect was his tiny size so they were washing all the newborn size stuff that Tori had given me - thank goodness for that!!

Of course it was choas just trying to get situated and unfortunately I was retaining a tremendous amout of fluid. While I was in the hospital I had several bags of saline, petocin and antibiotics from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday night and the fluid build up was really bad! I called for a water pill and they gave me a very mild one which didn't do much good. This was bad because not only were my feet about to split on top, but Zane was having some trouble latching on to my very full from fluid breasts.

So he began to get a little dehydrated and yellow and we knew jaundice was setting in so we talked to his pediatrician Dr Eisner and she had us to get him a blood test from NW Memorial. Since he was only days old she sent us to specific people who took his blood in a secluded location so we didn't have to wait in the waiting room and expose him to lots of germs. Saturday after the blood test we had to pump him full of fluids, which meant giving him formula and we took him outside in the sun in just his diaper. On Sunday we thought he was getting better.

On Monday we had our first office visit with Dr Eisner and she sent us for another blood test...by now he was more yellow and we could tell it wasn't getting better. That afternoon his level was almost 18 and we had to take him down to Texas Childrens Hopistal. Again the doctor called ahead so we were taken to a private room, then private waiting area until he got a bed in the NICU nursery. It was a stressful and scary experience all around!

Once admitted to Tx Childrens they said he would be there at least 24 hours under the lights to get his levels under control and the doctor there conviced us to go home and get some rest. Reluctantly I did and we both got a good nights sleep and I felt like a new person the next day! Then we got a call that Zane's level were low enough we could bring him home so we went to get him just 17 hours after he was admitted. Of course getting him out of there was a long process but we got him back home Tuesday late afternoon.

By now my milk was really in and we didn't have to supplement formula anymore. My doctor had by now given me a stronger water pill to get my fluid retention down, which was making me feel better. Zane was over the jaundice hump and that would no longer be an issue either. It was a very stressful first week, but we made it through. He is an amazing and resilient little guy!!