I never imagined I would have a baby that needed to be in the NICU. I thought that was something that happened to "other people." Suddenly, there I was, learning to navigate what felt like an entirely different world!
The first few days Cedar was in the NICU, I was still a patient in the hospital. This made it easy to go see her whenever I could. The NICU nurses would call down to my room when they thought she might be willing to breastfeed, and I would get wheeled down there, sometimes in the middle of the night. It was definitely difficult to feel like I was recovering when I was getting little sleep, but I was happy to do what I could to help transition her to all oral feeding. This was one of the requirements for her to leave the NICU. She would also have to be weaned off oxygen, which took a few days. I knew we could go home with oxygen if we needed to, but I REALLY did not want to do that.
Daniel was supposed to take that first week off of work, but when we realized Cedar would be in the NICU for longer than we thought, he decided to go back to work and take time off later once we got home. My mom stayed at my house that week to watch my boys. Daniel and I would leave in the morning and he would drop me off at the hospital at about 8am. He would continue on to work and then pick me up after work at about 6pm. This way I could stay with Cedar all day and still eat dinner with the boys and spend some time with them in the evening. I would pump during the night and bring the milk with my every morning.
One of the very best days in the NICU was when we got to bring the boys in to meet Cedar for the first time! It was a big ordeal. We had to have their pediatrician fax over their immunization records, and they were only allowed 15 minutes. Their name tags even had the time they had to leave clearly marked. It was worth it though because they were VERY excited!
One of the nice things about the lower-level NICU (compared to the level 1 NICU she was in those first couple days) is that the nurses let family hold her with my permission. We were only allowed one person other than the parent at a time, but my family was SUPER excited to get to finally hold her!! Uncle Nick also came several times with a Diet Coke...talk about a lifesaver!
The nurses were all about the parents getting involved with the baby's care, so we would change diapers, take her temperature, etc. Daniel would jump in on this whenever he could be there.
One of the problems that gave Cedar an extra day or day in the NICU was her bilirubin levels. She developed some jaundice a couple days in. First, they tried just laying her on the light mat:
Unfortunately, the next morning her levels had actually gone up instead of down, so they had her be under the full lights for an entire day.
I thought long days in the NICU would pass slowly, but somehow they went by quickly. I was either feeding Cedar, staring at her, talking with doctors, pumping, or working on my computer. There was always something to do.
Once they took Cedar off the bed warmer, they were able to put her in clothes and wrap her up to see if she was able to maintain an appropriate body temperature. I was really bummed that they didn't let us bring clothes for her, so we had to use whatever the NICU had available. I came in one morning to find my beloved daughter in this atrocious hat:
An occupational therapist came around and worked with Cedar a few times to show me how to stretch her feet and do some tummy time.
The best day every finally arrived! We were schedule to go home at noon. I was able to put Cedar in her first real outfit that I had picked out for her to come home in. I was worried it would drown her, but it ended up being alright!
The first few days Cedar was in the NICU, I was still a patient in the hospital. This made it easy to go see her whenever I could. The NICU nurses would call down to my room when they thought she might be willing to breastfeed, and I would get wheeled down there, sometimes in the middle of the night. It was definitely difficult to feel like I was recovering when I was getting little sleep, but I was happy to do what I could to help transition her to all oral feeding. This was one of the requirements for her to leave the NICU. She would also have to be weaned off oxygen, which took a few days. I knew we could go home with oxygen if we needed to, but I REALLY did not want to do that.
Daniel was supposed to take that first week off of work, but when we realized Cedar would be in the NICU for longer than we thought, he decided to go back to work and take time off later once we got home. My mom stayed at my house that week to watch my boys. Daniel and I would leave in the morning and he would drop me off at the hospital at about 8am. He would continue on to work and then pick me up after work at about 6pm. This way I could stay with Cedar all day and still eat dinner with the boys and spend some time with them in the evening. I would pump during the night and bring the milk with my every morning.
Baby Cedar hooked up to a million things. The worst was when I came to see her in the night and they had moved her IV from her hand to her head! I teared up seeing that big thing poking out of her scalp! We called it her antenna:
NOT happy:
First photo of our the Faulk Family of Five!
Grandma Anderson's first time holding Cedar:
Uncle Ty getting his turn:
Aunt Kim was next!
The nurses were all about the parents getting involved with the baby's care, so we would change diapers, take her temperature, etc. Daniel would jump in on this whenever he could be there.
Dad changing a diaper:
Dad's favorite part of the day was coming to pick up Mom so he could hold Cedar!
One of the problems that gave Cedar an extra day or day in the NICU was her bilirubin levels. She developed some jaundice a couple days in. First, they tried just laying her on the light mat:
Unfortunately, the next morning her levels had actually gone up instead of down, so they had her be under the full lights for an entire day.
Cedar in the "tanning salon:"
I thought long days in the NICU would pass slowly, but somehow they went by quickly. I was either feeding Cedar, staring at her, talking with doctors, pumping, or working on my computer. There was always something to do.
Sometimes I just liked to stare at her...I mean, who wouldn't:
This was Cedar's preferred position...exactly how she was in the womb, which we think caused her calcaneus valgus (her feet being bent up to her shins) and hip dysplasia.
Once they took Cedar off the bed warmer, they were able to put her in clothes and wrap her up to see if she was able to maintain an appropriate body temperature. I was really bummed that they didn't let us bring clothes for her, so we had to use whatever the NICU had available. I came in one morning to find my beloved daughter in this atrocious hat:
I could at least turn it around so you couldn't see the logo! It also liked to slip down and cover her eyes, but she didn't seem to mind:
I took every chance I could to snuggle with my new daughter! Not going to lie though...it took a lot of patience to deal with all her cords everywhere! It made holding her and especially nursing her very difficult:
An occupational therapist came around and worked with Cedar a few times to show me how to stretch her feet and do some tummy time.
We would do tummy time on a pillow on my lap, and she seemed to really like it:
Cedar turned one week old in the NICU. We celebrated by taking off most of her wires! By this day she had completely weaned off oxygen and was taking all of her feeds orally and not through her feeding tube. We were told that if she stayed stable, we would be able to go home the next day!
Of course, to go home, we had to pass the car seat test. Cedar had to stay in her carseat for an hour and a half without her stats going down. She passed!
When I came in the morning of Cedar's departure, I found her like this. I asked, WHERE ARE HER LEGS?! haha
The best day every finally arrived! We were schedule to go home at noon. I was able to put Cedar in her first real outfit that I had picked out for her to come home in. I was worried it would drown her, but it ended up being alright!
Baby Cedar waiting for Daddy to come pick us up!
So. Cute.
Our favorite nurse and lactation consultant!
So tiny in her car seat:
Taking our baby girl home!
When we got home, we found that grandma and the boys had decorated our front yard!
Our time in the NICU felt short in some ways and long in others. To be honest, we could not BELIEVE we somehow made it out of the hospital without having to cath her and without a shunt. The nurses catheterized Cedar several days in a row and determined that she wasn't retaining enough fluid to be worth cathing. At 3 months old, she will have a big urodynamics test to see how she is doing and to see if we will need to start cathing her at that time. She also did not show any signs of hydrocephalus in the NICU, so we left with no brain surgery, which is AWESOME! We are over the moon to have her home and finally settle in to our new family life!
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