Friday, 06 June 2008

• One more day

  It was 6 AM when my mother in law called my hubby, we slept through it. She then called my phone, she doesn't usually do that, so I knew something was up. I answered in my groggy-mommy-hasn't-had-enough-sleep-voice. she told me that we need to take James to the ER because he looks bad. I knew he looked bad, he'd been looking bad since he came from from the hospital. I had just told Neil the day before that we need to think about taking James into the ER because something is wrong. And there was something very wrong. His eyes were sunken in, he was almost an ashy gray color and his little fontanel was sunken too. That's not healthy.
      I first noticed something was wrong one night when Neil was in class and I was at home with James, we'd been watching one of the reality shows I like. I can't tell you how old he was then, probably almost a month old- yeah, I think. I had just given him 2 ounces of formula and he was doing really good. I burped him and put him back in his bouncy chair that was nestled on the couch with me. Then out of nowhere James threw up, not spit up, projectile barfing. I knew that when babies have projectile vomiting, something was wrong. So I kind of freaked out and called my mom, who kind of talked me down. This went on for a long time, I was first time mom and he had been to the doctor for this, but the doctor said it was reflux and prescribed him some baby antacid stuff. It seemed to work in the beginning, we propped his bed up at the head so he slept at an incline, he constantly help him straight up when eating, we rarely let him lay flat. One day I remember Neil's dad telling me he had pyloric stenosis as a baby. It affects the first born white male, how weird. Instantly, a light bulb went off. I knew, my motherly instinct told me this is what James had. Nobody thought I was right though, no one. (If you hear a mom tell people something is wrong, don't shoot her down, chances are she's right) One night while my mom was having her Girls' Night out, James had cried for 45 minutes straight. Seriously, and not a little cute baby cry, like a possessed baby cry. He was not happy with anything I did. I sang, I tried burping(only to get thrown up on), I did everything I could think of. I called my mom and she told me to bring him to her. I happily ran at the offer and met up with her at the restaurant. And got a good vodka tonic out of the deal too- hey, after dealing with that all night, I deserved a strong drink!! So we all went home, all was good. I took James to my parent's house one day, I was there for some reason over night. I left to go do something and so mom and dad had James. Mom had taken his clothes off so he could enjoy his freedom and my dad had mentioned he look like an Ethiopian kid. You could clearly see his ribs and his face was creepy looking anyway. So she sent my dad out to buy some Nutrimigen, the most expensive baby formula out there. He did good with it! I was so happy, we'd found a cure! (I should tell you at this point, we had switched to more than 5 different formulas) But not for long, James eventually barfed it all up. you can't imagine how hopeless I was. I had always had this fear that I would bond with my baby and then I'd lose him, and I knew I couldn't deal with that. That weekend, that's when my mother in law called. She just kind of confirmed what I had wanted to do. So we all drove to the Children's Hospital in Houston, it was well worth the 30 minute drive. We got there, no one was there! Awesome. They checked all of his vitals. I think the scariest part was when he finally got admitted, one of the nurses had asked me if I had noticed that James would occasionally stop breathing. It freaked me out, I hadn't noticed it, and seeing it really put chills all over my already clamy skin. They did an ultrasoun, lo and behold, who was right? MOM! I WAS RIGHT! I was happy that he had this because I knew the surgery was a 15 minute surgery, quick and there was only a few steps. At the same time, I felt so bad that this little guy had to go through this turmoil, a little one shouldn't have to go through anything like that. They couldn't schedule the surgery for a while because James had so little energy and so little electrolytes, they had to build him up for a while. On the day they came and got him, it was a bitter-sweet moment. Right before they took him out, James threw up ALL of his stomach acid, it was really gross looking. James also had burns on his mouth from his saliva, so I'm sure it hurt him even more. the doctors who did the surgery were SO awesome, they were...there are no words to describe them, there just aren't. Once he was done with his surgery, we probably waited a total of 30 minutes, we got to go back and see him in recovery. After that, back to NICU.
      From the time he came back from surgery to the time we left, James had totally done a 360. He had spunk in his eyes, and it was the first time he smiled without having gas. James spent his very first Easter laying in that hospital bed. It was a good Easter though, he got his health as a gift and that's all I could have asked for. Even now me and Neil have trouble looking at pictures from when he was sick. People ask me how James was at 2 months old and there is nothing I can say, I didn't have a normal 2 month old. So when we finally got home from the hospital, James ate more than I'd ever seen! He was drinking 6 ounces in no time and he finally got some meat on his bones. I was so happy our baby was healthy. the reason why I titled this One More Day is because I felt like if we would have waited one more, I don't think James would be with us today. He's a great kid, he keeps me on my toes and what I love the most is he suffered no set backs from this. He's an awesome kid, I wouldn't have done anything different looking back.
  
  If you want info on Pyloric Stenosis, just look here.
  
  

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