Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We have all had a very busy first few days but things are great! Nikki was given permission to be discharged at 6:00 AM this morning but wanted to stay a little longer because she was feeling some pain and wanted easy access to Caelin's room during the day while having a place to go back to and rest. This ended up being a good decision because Caelin received his first blood transfusion and he needed some undisturbed rest afterward. So Nikki ended up asking to be officially discharged around 4:30PM. She is doing well; only on minor pain medication and iron supplements.

During rounds this morning, Dr. Decker and Dr. Pettigrew (Cardiologists in our unit) gave us updates on Caelin. They decided to go ahead with the blood transfusion because Caelin has had so much blood taken from him and not enough time to reproduce the amount they want. Also, the test results came back from one of the initial screens when Caelin was born- he had a very minor brain hemorrhage called a germinal matrix. Many babies are born with this and typically causes no concern in normal babies because it heals itself relatively quickly with no negative effects; however, since Cael is going to have open heart surgery tentatively on Wednesday, it can be a concern because he will be put on heparin, an anticoagulant, and bypass. With heparin and bypass, the hemorrhage could get worse or not clot, so a CT scan will be done before surgery to ensure the hemorrhage has healed itself as expected. The doctors are very confident that the hemorrhage is not a concern, but it may push surgery back a few days if it is not fully healed. Nikki was given permission to attempt to breastfeed once today. They are concerned with the acidity in his blood and therefore do not want to push the breastfeeding because it will require more energy from him and this would cause the acidic blood to move throughout his body more and absorbed into his muscles and organs at an increased rate. Additionally, with breastfeeding, more blood would be needed in the gut to digest the breast milk, which can strain the heart further. Also, when blood is restricted in the body one of the first things to have blood levels reduced is the gut, and if there is food to digest it can lead to further problems.

Since Nikki was discharged from the hospital and still not feeling 100%, she stayed the night at home. It was incredibly difficult for her to not be with Sean or Caelin at the hospital. The dogs were happy to see her and even looked for the baby when she got home. Nikki washed some blankets to bring to the hospital and while she was washing them, Louee went into Caelin's room and stared at the crib, whining. He came back out, looked at Nikki, whined, then went back into Caelin's room. He did this three times before Nikki closed the door to keep him out. After some tears before bed, she was able to get a solid 6 hours of rest with only waking up to pump her milk. Then it was back to the hospital in the early morning!

Sean and Caelin had a good night at the hospital. Caelin is a good boy and likes to sleep; he has really taken to a pacifier- We think him sucking his thumb in the womb made it easier and got him to liking being soothed that way.

Hope everyone had a fun and safe St. Patty's Day!