Maddie�s NICU Story
Maddison Amanda Elizabeth was born on April 30,1999 at 4.18pm. She weighed in at 2lbs 15oz and measured 15 inches in length. As I had had such a traumatic birth, I didn�t get to see Maddison until she was 2 days old. Her agpars were 2 and 8 and she was diagnosed with RDS, then she was immediately intubated. She had an umbilical catheter to draw blood. In the first few days she also suffered from high blood pressure. Because, I missed the first few days of her life being zonked out on so much pain medication, I really am very sketchy on what happened here.
The first time I saw Maddie, I was wheeled in on my bed. I was so excited to finally see her. I had driven the poor nurse crazy in the ICU. They had placed the polaroid picture of her on the window, and I kept asking her to take it down and bring it over so I could see it up close!! By the time I finally got to the high dependancy unit, I just had to see her. That�s when they wheeled me in. I also got to go back at midnight that night. She looked fragile but she also looked like a fighter.
She stayed on the vent for 5 days and was weaned onto c-pap after being given some surfactant. At 3 days she developed jaundice and was placed under the billi lights. She also received her first blood transfusion about this time. At her lowest she got down to 1180grams or 2lbs 9oz. After 10 days she was moved into the Special Care Nursery 2. This is the transition nursery. She was still under the care of intensive care nurses, but as the NICU only holds 20 babies, they were running out of room. She did well here for 3 days, then she started having tons of brady�s and apnea. She was bagged and raced back into the NICU. After some more blood tests, it was discovered she had sepsis. She was put back on the vent and given some heavy antibiotics to try and get her well again. She also needed another small blood transfusion at this time. She did great and 3 days later she was back on the c-pap and 2 days after that back to Special Care 2. She was finally weaned down to an oxygen hood in her isolette and then to nasal cannula. She was taking her formula well through her nasal gastric tube and was thriving. At one stage they believed she had gastric reflux, so a PH Probe was set up to check this out. The results came back that she had very mild reflux and we decided no treatment was necessary for this.
Maddie was moved to an open crib when she was about 4 weeks old. This was great news for us. We could touch her so much more now. We had been able to take her out of her isolette and kangaroo cuddle with her and hold her. But it just seemed so much nicer to see her in the open crib. She also had her first bath in a real baby bath with bubbles. It didn�t seem like it would be much longer till we got to bring her home.
When she was 5 weeks old she was moved into Special Care 1 or as it is more affectionately known �The Fat Farm�. This was where she had to learn to give up the whiff of oxygen she just seemed to love and to how to drink from a bottle. These both seemed quite difficult problems for Maddie. She had lots of problems coming to terms with that pesky bottle. The day they decided to take her off oxygen was funny. No-one really believed she would be able to last more than a few hours without it. She sure showed them and we have come to learn that Maddison does things when she wants to and not when anyone expects her to. I will never forget the first day we saw her with no tape on her face. I went in and there she was with big red cheeks and I turned to Mike and said �she has a rash on her face!� Then I looked again and started laughing. No tape�wow!!!!!!! The bottle took a little longer for her to get the hang of. She kept losing her breath and kind of choking. It seemed the liquid was too thin for her. Our wonderful nurse Maria, noticed this and suggested we try her on a thickened formula. This did the trick and within days she was so much better. With all this learning new stuff, she had become a little tired and anemic. Another blood transfusion was needed.
We finally got the news we were waiting for. We could room in for 2 days and then take her home. Maddie had no lasting problems from her prematurity and the only drugs we had to give her when she came home were vitamins and iron.
On day number 63 we brought Maddie home. She came home with no monitors or equipment whatsoever. This was a little scary but she was fine.
She now weighed a whopping 6lb 9oz. Welcome home Maddie. Our family is now complete and we love you!!!
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