I am still here.  We have been busy lately with fitting in seeing everyone and doing all that we want to do in our short summer time.  This is sort of how it is every year, so I have gotten used to a life of 3 months of busy times, followed by 9 months of slow paced life while we are overseas.

I did say about a month ago that I would write up more about the hospital stay with Isaiah.  Thank you for the many people who have asked about how he is doing these days.  We did spend a few extra days in the hospital after his birth due to the concern about his low heart rate.  There has been no other sign of that being a problem, whcih we are very thankful for.  He is doing well, besides a mild case of reflux.  But for those of you who are still wondering what was going on with the low heart rate, I wrote up the full story for his baby book finally, so here it is if you are interested.  Thank you for all those who were praying for us in that time!

The Hospital Stay:
I had planned to only stay in the hospital one night since we were paying out of pocket for my hospital expenses (Isaiah got on Joe’s health insurance as soon as he was born). The hospital staff knew this, so the next morning after the birth, they started to get all the typical tests taken care of so Isaiah and I could be discharged. They took blood from me and continued to monitor me during the morning and everything was looking good. Then one of the nurses was checking Isaiah’s heart rate when she told me that she was going to have the pediatrician also take a listen to it. She felt like the heart rate she was getting was a bit low. So they took him away and came back to say that the pediatrician was also getting a heart rate of around 70 beats per minute, which is a bit low for an infant and lower than what his had been a birth. They said because of this they were going to hook him up to an EKG machine for about an hour to get a look and see if they noticed anything strange going on there. At this point I had thought I was going home in a few hours, plus I was already hormonal from just having had a baby, so this threw me for a loop! Joe was at church, so I couldn’t get a hold of him, so I just sat and waited in the room while he was monitored.

After the EKG was done, the nurse came back and told me that they hadn’t seen anything concerning on the EKG, but the pediatrician still wanted to do some more monitoring. The monitoring was going to need to be done in the intermediate care nursery (ICN) in the hospital. So she walked with Isaiah and I down there and they got him all hooked up to the monitor there. At first, his heart rate was causing the alarm to go off about every minute. It was set so that anything under 80 would cause the alarm to go off. After a few minutes, the nurse reduced the low number to 70, but it would still go off from time to time. She told me not to be alarmed by it, but to keep looking at Isaiah and seeing that he was a good pink color. She also showed me the oxygen monitor he was wearing on his foot and that his number was almost 100%, which meant the heart was getting good oxygenated blood around the body.

After awhile the pediatrician came to talk to me and said that they wanted to try and see if there was any problem that was causing his heart rate to be low. They wanted to do a 24-hour EKG on him to make sure there was no heart abnormality that could be causing it. They were also going to test a number called the C reactive protein that could given an indication of whether he might have an infection that was causing the low heart. When I heard about the 24-hour EKG, I knew I wasn’t going home that day, but wasn’t sure what the situation would be for me. One of the nurses in the ICN said that she heard I had wanted to be discharged that day and explained that there was a breastfeeding room in the hospital for mothers who were not patients there but wanted to keep breastfeeding their babies in the ICN. She said it currently wasn’t in use and would check into whether I could use it. She came back and said it was available and I could use it, but that it was basically just a room with a bed and phone. I would have to provide my own food and use the bathroom in the hallway. So I went and checked it out and decided it would definitely be preferable to trying to drive back and forth between feedings or pumping for nighttime feedings.

At this point, I went back to my regular room to wait for my parents to arrive. My mom had planned to stay with us for a week after Isaiah’s birth to help out. Once my parents arrived, my dad and I went to the ICN so he could meet Isaiah and talk to the pediatrician as well (he works in health care and is always in touch with top pediatricians for me whenever I have questions). Then I took my mom down to meet Isaiah and sit with me for a while. They then headed back to the house to relieve Joe of the kids so he could come in and see me.

A short time later Joe arrived and we were able to discuss everything. He also felt the breastfeeding room was a good option, especially since my mom was going to be stay to help out with the other 3 kids at home. So I went through being discharged from the hospital and moving my things down to the breastfeeding room. At this point, we thought maybe it would be for another 24 hours until Monday evening. So I really didn’t need too much else from home. I went through learning all the ins and outs of the ICN though. You had to go through a hand-washing regimen each time you entered. And only two people could be at a baby’s bed at a time. They also did shifts changes every 12 hours between the hours of 6 to 7 in the morning and evening, at which time everyone else had to be out of the nursery so each baby’s case could be discussed confidentially. Once we were settled, Joe and I decided to go out for dinner before he headed back home.
When we got back from dinner, Joe left and I went back into the nursery to feed Isaiah. The new nurses there told me that they had the results back from the C reactive protein sample and it was showing there was a possibility of an infection. This meant Isaiah had been started on antibiotics immediately. They also needed to do a blood culture to see if there indeed was an infection, which would take 48 hours to come back. That meant that we were now there until at least Tuesday evening. At this pint I was pretty emotional and was struggling to be on my own there for my first night, The nurses were really supportive and understanding, which I was really thankful for. They explained that right now it looked like he was doing ok, since he was eating well and did not have a temperature. Joe’s mom and sister also headed in at this point to be with me and see how Isaiah was doing. Joe’s sister, Kellie, had been through a low heart rate and arrhythmia with their first-born son, so she knew a lot of what I was feeling.

My first night in the breastfeeding room went rather smoothly. Whenever Isaiah woke up to eat, one of the nurses would call the phone in the room to wake me up and I would come over and feed him and then go back to sleep. At some point during the night, one of the nurses told me that she had asked the pediatrician for permission to take the lowest threshold heart rate number on the monitor down to 60 since they were starting to see that Isaiah’s heart rate was usually a bit lower. The pediatrician felt that was fine, especially since he was having an elevated heart rate when he cried or was feeding and the lower heart rate was mostly when he was sleeping and at rest.

The next day, I had some snacks Joe and brought me for breakfast and spent most of the morning in the ICN with Isaiah. After talking to Joe, we decided his Gram would come visit me around lunchtime and then bring me back for lunch. His Gram and worked at the hospital we were at for a number of years and people around there usually asked me if I was related to her. So she got there and visited with Isaiah and asked some more questions to those who were there. After that we headed home and I got a shower, some lunch and a little time with the other three kids. Then Joe and I headed back to the hospital so he could spend some time with Isaiah. After he left, the rest of the evening was pretty much uneventful. I did find out in the middle of the night that the 24-hour check of the blood culture had come back clear, which was good news. The 24-hour EKG was also removed and sent in to be evaluated at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

The next day was Tuesday and I was hoping we would hear news of the blood culture early enough to head home that evening. The day was a rainy day, but I decided to head out of the hospital for a bit of a walk around lunchtime. We heard back on the EKG that everything looked good. I kept waiting for the result of the blood culture, until I finally heard we probably wouldn’t hear until that night. Finally around 10pm we got the news that the blood culture was clear. Of course, I wanted to go home right then, but they said we would have to wait until the morning.

The next morning I was all packed up and ready to go around 7am! I gave Isaiah his first feed and waited around to see the pediatrician. All of the sudden the ICN had gotten very busy in the last 12 hours. That morning a new baby came in who needed a spinal tap, sot he pediatrician was understandably busy, so I kept waiting. Then the pediatricians had a shift change, so it took some time to go over all the new cases that were in the ICN. Around 11am, the pediatrician had reviewed all of Isaiah’s information and came over to examine him. He explained that the major causes of a low heart rate were not coming up as problems with Isaiah, so from what they saw he was healthy and just happened to have a naturally low heart rate. This all lined up with what Isaiah’s pediatrician had believed from all the information that I was passing onto him while we were in the hospital. So the resident pediatrician said all was clear and we were good to go as soon as one of the nurses had a chance to discharge him. At that point, it was pretty busy so I wasn’t sure when one would have a break to do that. But another nurse came from another area and offered to help me out. She got him all disconnected from his monitors and by that time Joe was there with Isaiah’s car seat. Joe went to get the car and the nurse walked us down. She made mention that maybe he was just going to be an athlete like his dad with a low resting heart rate.

Joe and I got Isaiah and all of our things loaded up and a little over 4 days after arriving to give birth to him, we were headed home. We were thankful that we were coming home with a healthy baby and for the great work of all the staff at the hospital.

May 19, 2010: Arrived Home with Isaiah