~NBICU~

Such a sweetheart! He was such a good baby, even though it seemed like someone was always picking on him. 

Chillin' under his billi lights, and blanket, with THREE IV's in.

I said that the ICU story would come later, so here it is, we'll see what I can remember. Asher spent two days short of three weeks in the NICU. So after waiting the three hours after delivering him we finally got to go the NBICU to see him. He was wearing oxygen and had some pretty big bruises all over his face from the forceps. He looked just like Jason's newborn picture.  We only stayed for a little while because I was getting light headed. So I went back to my room, which was in the lower north 40, and laid down for a while. While Jason took my mom to meet Asher. That night Jason's parents arrived and stayed until Sunday. Saturday my brother and sister-in-law, Jaden and Julie came down to see him and stayed until Sunday. And my dad finally got to come and Sunday, and him and my mom went home Monday. My brother and sister-in-law Krey and Brandi came Friday to see him, and a few other times during our stay. Jason's friend Jake and his wife Amy also came to see  us one night, and even took us out to dinner. It was great to be able to have so much family there at different times even though we were so far away. The entire time in the NICU is kind of a blur. We moved to different rooms, and different spots in the same room a lot, I think a total of about 7 times. During his stay Asher had jaundice, and was under three different lights as well as laying on the Billi-blanket. He also had many IV's and even had three in at the same  time at one point. One in each hand and one in his head. It was after that, that they decided  to put in his PICC line on Monday (a sort of IV that has a really long cannula that goes in your upper arm and the end of the catheter is right outside the heart.) The PICC line worked much better and he didn't have to have another IV placed his entire stay! He received most of his nutrients through his IV for almost the first week, until they put down his NG tube (a tube that goes through the nose and into the stomach to deliver nutrients), then they started slowly giving him his food through that until that is where he was getting all his food from (the little stinker wouldn't eat. Of course it could have something to do with the fact that he was basically starve for the first two days of his life, because they weren't sure if he was going to need  surgery, and didn't want him to have eaten in case he did. After he was finally getting all of his food through his NG, and his antibiotic was done (I think it was the Saturday after he was born) they were able to take out his PICC line. It was so nice to have one less cord to worry about pulling. He was also taken off his O2 (oxygen) for a while, but ended up having to have it put back on. He did this for a while before they finally just left it on. Jason (and I) decided that he was going to go back to work the week of the 31st through the 4 so that he would still be able to take some time off when Asher got home. So his parents brought down my mom on Sunday, and took Jason back that same day. It was EXTREMELY hard on me, and was the closest that I have EVER see Jason to crying. He had a really hard time leaving his baby in ICU while he was three hours away. That night Mom and I stayed in one of the hospital rooms that they can reserve for parents (Jason and I had stayed in the same room the night before). It was his nurse Yvonne's idea to try and see if we could get him better at eating, since he seem more awake at night. But of course he slept really well both nights so it didn't work so great. Jason's "week" gone didn't last too long since I kept calling him crying, and Wednesday night after he got off work he headed back down. I felt bad that I couldn't last the whole week but I was just so glad to have him back (we had only spent ONE night apart in four years before this). Me and Asher both needed him. While Jason was gone, I had them pull Asher's NG tube, to see if he could get enough from me, that he didn't need it anymore. NOT the case. He ended up losing a bunch of weight, and was below his birth weight again. I felt so bad, and even worse that they then had to place another NG tube the next day. Asher cried FOREVER after they place the first one, and his nose kept bleeding for days afterwords. So when I was pumping Jason told them to hurry and put it in, since I had such a hard time the first time. It was a sweet gesture, especially since I blamed myself for it having to be done. (if I wouldn't have had them pull it, then he wouldn't have had to have another put in). Unfortunately, Asher began SCREAMING when they tried to place it and since I was only a few feet away, I heard him and immediately knew it was him. I stopped pumping and ran to my baby. I held him close while he cried, and blamed myself for his pain. When he had calmed down, I went to rinse my bottles, and they got another nurse, who was really good at placing them to come and put his back in. They sucked out his nose first this time and got a huge booger, which is why they couldn't get it in the first time, and it went in no problems. He didn't even let out a peep. I couldn't be in there, so Jason stood by his side while they placed it. The only good to come was that this time they put in a smaller tube which Asher seemed to handle a lot better. He was always gagging on the old one. That Friday night when he ate, they didn't have to give him any through his tube, and never had to again. He got everything PO (by mouth) from then on. We were usually there all day, and at night they would give him a bottle from what I had pumped.  That Sunday we came home for Jason'. birthday.  It was one of the hardest thing I've had to do, but the break was much needed, and I got to see my dogs, which was also MUCH needed. We went back on Monday, and they said that they were going to do another echo on Tuesday to see if he could come home. He had to have improved in order to come home. So we waited all day Tuesday, and they finally came late afternoon, (they were playing catch up from the holiday the day before). Wednesday the ninth ( Our anniversary!) we called first thing when we got up to see if they had the results back yet, they didn't but told us they should soon, so we packed everything up at our room in the Ronald McDonald House, just in case we got to go home. We went to the hospital and............ still nothing. They still didn't have the results back yet. So we waited and waited and waited. Finally we told them that we had to let RMH know by noon if we were staying another night. So they told us to go check out, because they were pretty sure we could go. So we checked out, ate lunch, and went back, and they told us we could start packing up his stuff. We packed and feed him one more time for the road. The people with his home oxygen tank and monitor had come the day before to give us what we needed for the ride home since he was going home on O2. So we feed him, get him all plugged into his O2 tank and monitor and............................................. the monitor doesn't work. It was suppose to have been charging all night, but as soon as you unplug it, it shuts down. At this point I'm thinking that we will NEVER get to go home. So we had to wait for about 45 minutes for the guy to come back to the hospital and give us a new monitor. Then we finally, GOT TO GO HOME!!!!!!!!!!!! The ride took FOREVER especially since we were trying to leave Salt Lake right at 5:00pm, and we had to keep stopping to feed Asher, (our plan of feeding RIGHT before we left didn't work out so well) but we finally made it home at 9:00pm. (the monitor still ended up dying right before Poky) but we got home, and our puppies were already there! Thanks to both of our parents for all of the support, and for taking turns watching our dogs over the three weeks we were gone. Also thank you Julie for cleaning my very messy house, and to Krey and Dad for mowing our jungle! Our families are  the greatest! It's good to be home with our sweet baby.
Written on 3/11/10