I paced all morning and busied myself with errands waiting for the phone call to pick up the baby. Finally in the early afternoon, the hospital decided that baby D is much sicker than they thought. The good news is the hosiptal is keeping her for the weekend and will make a discharge determination on Monday. The longer she is in the hospital, the better their chances of figuring out what is up with her. They've at least ruled out heart problems. They think it might be genetic or GI so they are doing more testing.
Anyhow: The hospital social worker said if baby D can tolerate feedings, she will need to be on oxygen when feeding. Otherwise they'll do a naso-gastric tube which she'll keep in after discharge. The hospital social worker thought she should be discharged to a medically skilled foster home. Yeah. So do we. Apparently there are not any around here - otherwise they wouldn't be thinking of placing her with us...YIKES. This is more than a little reflux and Failure To Thrive. She needs to be where she'll get the best care - even if it means, sadly, that she'll be too far away to frequently see her bio-Mom.
The Other Mother and I were relieved baby D is getting the best care in a hospital setting- and relieved to know it is a medical thing - not lack of food/care from her Mom. Our two boys were a little sad that she wasn't here when they got home from school. Tomorrow I think I need to re-explain that the baby is very very sick and she may be too sick to come home to our house and may need to go to a house where there is a nurse all the time. I think the boys have it in their minds they are going to teach her football next week...I think I need to re-explain it to myself as well. I sort of feel like I've been on a roller coaster ride.
It was a crazy 24 hour rush of borrowing things from our neighbors and heading to WalMart for basic basic baby supplies like diapers and blankets and onesies. Now we have our house outfitted with changing stations on each floor, a swing in the kitchen, a wrap around bolster next to the recliner, a bouncy chair in the living room, a basket of bottles in the kitchen, a diaper bag in the van and at the back door and a cradle and a little clothes nightstand in our bedroom.. A great email to/from Dia on diapers and sling advice, a trip this morning to two libraries to get books on premie care, attachment parenting, basic baby care, ....we have everything but the baby. It is all very Strange.
Which brings me to the next issue. Now DFS knows that even though we said NO NO NO BABIES we were (and still are) willing to take a medically challenged infant. Even if baby D does not come to our home on Monday, I probably shouldn't put the baby supplies away just yet.
Well I am glad for bio mom that it looks like some of the issues are really things that were out of her control. KC was preemie also and was only 4lbs 2 oz when we brought him home. He had a "heart incident" at the NICU the night before we were supposed to bring him home but was cleared for the next day. I have no idea to this day what consituted a heart incident but it was a big part of why we drove 22 hrs home from Chicago instead of flying. Thankfully he was always a good eater, though he had a severe milk allergy and what they thought was reflux wasn't, it was allergy related. I hope the wee one can feed w/out the tube but I have also known kids who used those for a comparitively short term and really thrived. Good luck for whichever way this goes.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed hoping D is healthy....and that you get to bring her home Monday!
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