Our sweet Janie ended up in the hospital for 7 days when she was almost two weeks old. When her cord was cut it always looked funny to me, not like the boy's cord, but couldn't tell anything with the stub still in. So her cord finally fell out on Saturday ( 9days old) and my mom and I thought her belly button just didn't look right. By Monday it was getting bigger and starting to look a little red around. Then Tuesday she was especially fussy and didn't sleep at all that night so Wednesday the red had spread and I decided I had better take her in just to get it checked. I figured it wasn't anything but wanted to make sure. So when we got to the doctor he looked at it and right away said you have to go to the hospital. I started crying and was so confused that it was actually very serious. The doctor thought it might be Omphalitis (and infection in her belly button). He said he hasn't seen it in like six years and got a second opinion, the other doctor thought the same and so we headed down to the hospital.
We were supposed to go to the ER and then get straight up to the Pediatric unit... but of course that didn't happen so we were in the sickly ER for a couple hours. Pete by the way was in the Dominican Republic doing dental work and at this time in the Jungle and we couldn't get a hold of him :( Thank heavens my mom was here! I called Justin Heaton to grab someone and come give Janie a blessing. We finally got up to the room and like 5 or so people came in at different times asking the story ( I wish they could all come in at the same time so I could just tell it once). I was super emotional and really having a hard time being there with my two week old baby! Finally (not sure what time... it is all a blurr) an intern came in said they wanted to do a spinal tap to see if the infection has gone to her brain. The thought of that of course brought lots more tears. So we headed down and she got blood drawn to see if the infection was in her blood, then an IV put in her foot where they drew her blood and then the spinal tap. The intern said she had done tons of spinal taps and it would be no problem, well when we got in there two other residents (this place is just like Greys Anatomy) were walking her through it, so obviously she hasn't' done tons. Janie was screaming and I was crying of course. Well they wanted to get 4o drops of spinal fluid but the first girl didn't get it so the other one tried and couldn't get even one drop so another one tried and couldn't get anything. I was so mad by this time and just wanted to cuddle poor Janie. They let us go, came in and drew a line around the redness so they could see if it was getting better. They were supposed to get her right on antibiotics but that took almost three more hours before they came in to get that going. She was hooked up to these cords which wouldn't stretch very far so we had to keep her in her bed or right by it to feed her and hold her. Plus they would keep falling off and the stupid beeper would go off and someone would have to come shut that off and fix it. It was so frustrating and about two days before we went home I actually took them off and no one said anything so I guess they weren't that important anyway.
Then we had to just wait to for 48 hours to see what the blood cultures were and if it had spread to her blood. She was on IV antibiotics every six hours. It didn't hurt her at first but by about Friday night it started hurting her as they would put it in because the IV had gone bad. Well Thursday evening her BB got really big and and started oozing before it actually popped and lots of puss came out. It freaked my mom and I out but the nurses said it was a good thing. They took a swab and it came back positive for staph. So Friday everyone was happy and thinking we could actually go home Saturday (her blood cultures came back negative, thank heavens). But then I think it was either Friday or Saturday afternoon her bb got big again and popped some more. Well this time they weren't so happy that it did it again so no going home for us. One night not sure which one they did an ultra sound on her at like two in the morning and it took the girl and hour and half to do it. We were so tired. It was getting annoying too that every time we'd get her calmed down and to sleep someone wanted to come in and check her out or poke around or something and wake her up.
By Sunday it was looking pretty good but they weren't thinking we'd be leaving soon so an IV doctor (resident) came to put a new IV in since her other was getting old and starting to make her foot puff up. So she tried three times and they all blew up, both her hands and her other foot. Can I say I was so sick of dumb people poking her who were learning and really didn't know what they were doing. I know its a learning hospital but come on, it my baby and she's only two weeks old! So that lady only saw one more good vein and wanted to save it in case they needed to do a pick line. Back to our room with poor sad Janie. Oh we got a hold of Pete Thursday evening and he got a plane to come back Friday night. It was so great to have him here as a support and I was glad he decided to come home early. Then he and my mom switched on and off watching boys and being with me and Jaine. So Monday morning things turned bad. She had to get another ultra sound (this one faster) to see if there were more pockets of the staph under her bb. So we hear there is one more and they want us to stay till Wednesday as the soonest we could leave. I so sick of being there, she was doing better and my mom was leaving Friday morning so I broke down again so upset! They had given her a shot Sunday that last for 24 hours since her IV wasn't in. I couldn't understand if she was doing so well why they wouldn't let us go home with oral antibiotics and check in with her doctor even everyday if they wanted. I know they were being cautious where she is so young and the last thing I wanted was to be right back there a few days after going home, but I was ready to LEAVE!!! So they were going to have the Pick line team come and put one in (poor thing, I was so sick of seeing her being poked and crying!) Then the ID doctor ( the real doctor called the attending) came and thought it looked so good, and everything changed. YAY!!! So they decided to forgo the the pick line and just do another shot on Monday night and then hopefully home Tuesday with oral antibiotics for eight more days. Things went smoothly and we even got everyone to kind of leave us alone and quit picking and poking her every hour so we could all get some rest.
Things were still good Tuesday morning so we got to come home that afternoon. Wow it felt good to come home after almost a week and I think Janie was happy about it too! The oral antibiotics made her tummy pretty upset and of course her sleeping was super messed up from being there so its been a tough eight more days but so much better then being at the hospital. She got off them Wednesday morning the 2nd and has been doing better now. Her bb looks great and the doctor said everything is good. Thank heavens it worked out so good for her and thank heavens for the priesthood, and great friends who hold the priesthood to help when Pete is gone. We are truly blessed to have amazing friends out here to help!
Not sure what day this was but it was looking so much better and the redness was gone around her bb.
Snuggle time with dad :)
Snuggle time with grandma :) In fact the only pictures we got of Janie and Grams while she was here. I'm telling ya this thing threw us though a loop!
I guess some of these are out of order because the picture up a bit looks better then these so this was probably like Friday maybe Saturday, still looking better then the first! Sorry for such a long post but I wanted to get the details in here before I start to forget them... if that's possible! So glad to have my Janie home and healthy!!
