She Wanted to Fit In

Saturday started off as a normal day at the hospital.  We had some visitors and then had some pictures taken.  Brooke did so well.  She was quite content laying there and posing.

At night, Chris and I were watching a movie and Brooke was laying in the bassinet.  It was around 10pm and I heard Brooke spit up.  I turned to look and saw a bright red pool of blood next to her.  I immediately jumped up and called the nurse.  She rushed in and took her to the nursery.  I was absolutely freaking out.

I cannot even begin to explain the fear that took ahold of me.  I thought I was going to lose my precious baby.  The nurse came back in to tell us that the neonatologist was coming to assess her.  Shortly after, the doctor came in.  He explained that he had not seen this much blood before and that if she swallowed my blood, it would have been brown when she spit up.  He said they were going to take her to the NICU and take some X-rays.

We walked with them down to the NICU.  It was not lost on us that we had 3 NICU babies.  We explained this to the doctor who then asked us which hospital we were at.  After telling him it was Evanston, he proceeded to tell us that Evanston was a lot better than Northwest.  Thanks for the reassurance!  It is often said that smart people do not possess a good repertoire with others.  Very true in this case.

We had to leave the room while they put an IV in her little hand and got her hooked up to all the machines.  Again, I was inconsolable.  The X-rays came back okay.  They put in a line down her nose into her belly to pump everything out.  Thankfully, there was no more blood.  The nurse let me sit and hold her for a while.  She was not allowed to eat anything all night to make sure everything was okay.  

As soon as we got back to our room, I had to pump.  My angel nurse got everything ready for me.  After pumping, we were quite surprised to see the vast difference in color between the left and right breast milk.  My right breast produced almost pink milk.  The nurse rushed the milk down to the NICU to show them.  The nurse urged us to get some rest.  Of course, I called down to the NICU a couple of times throughout the night and heard nothing but good news.

In the morning, I got to go down to the NICU and feed her twice.  They had to see if the same thing would happen.  By the afternoon, she was discharged and back in my room.  Thank God!

We originally planned to go home that day, but decided to stay another day just in case.

It was concluded that the blood did come from my breast.  I was just so happy that she was back in my  arms and healthy.  The next day, the NICU nurse called me in my room to make sure everything was okay.  The nurses really are the people who run the hospital!