8-9-2009 NICU update

News update for baby Sammy:

I’ve been going back and forth between home and the hospital to feed the baby in the NICU. Honestly, I’m practically living there right now. I come home long enough to shower, eat, and let Anthony spend some time with the baby while I spend an hour with Aubrey, who is having a really hard time with all of this, before heading right back.

Since Sammy is only nursing, the hospital has allowed me to use a boarding room for the next 72 hours. I’m really hoping he’ll be home before then. Otherwise, I’ll probably be sleeping in the waiting room between feedings until he finally gets to come home.

Sammy has a partially collapsed lung, and he’s currently on pressurized oxygen to help open it back up. He received a blood transfusion last night, which helped a little, but not as much as the doctors had hoped, so he’ll be getting another transfusion after his afternoon feeding today.

He’s also on an IV, although they think he may be able to come off of it soon now that he’s eating well. They’ll still leave the line in place just in case he needs another transfusion.

He’s on his final dose of antibiotics right now, and we’re praying that when they check again tonight there will be zero growth so he won’t need any more medication.

At first, we really thought he’d be coming home tomorrow, but now it’s looking more like the middle or even end of next week.

Of course, we want to bring home a healthy baby.

What’s hard is that on the outside he looks perfectly healthy, and I honestly had no idea how sick he could actually be on the inside.

The good news is that he’s a fighter.

He barely fusses through any of this. He loves being held, and he looks so much like Anthony and Zack.

The pictures I’m sharing are from his very first day of life — before we knew about all of his little complications.