Thursday, May 17th - Erin Jo Gustafson was born at 11:57 am by c-section. At roughly 4pm, the nurse decided Erin was having some breathing troubles and wanted to run some tests. From there, they sent her to the NICU for observation. She was put on an IV, oxygen, and all sorts of cords and monitors. The best way for me to describe what symptom she was having is that she was (and still) pants like a little bunny -- very quick, fast breaths. For 24 hours, she was under a "low stimulation" rule where we were not allowed to hold her and she couldn't nurse or eat anything. Her respirations went up often: any talking, whenever the nurses came in, or even when the door to her pod was opened. Many visitors stopped by, including big sister Ella, but they were very brief visits.
Friday, May 18 - Derek and I were finally able to hold Erin again in the afternoon. They were very careful about monitoring her response to us. Her breathing actually settled well when we held her, but her respirations went back up when she was placed back in her bed. She was still under a no-eating rule because of that, which was heartbreaking. At this point, I was pumping every 2-3 hours to keep the nursing progress going. Later that day, they allowed me to nurse her one time, but her respirations were not well and she went back on the no-eating rule.
Saturday, May 19th - Some improvements - they lowered her oxygen and her fluids. We were given the okay to begin holding her again, but still did not want to stimulate her too much. At this point, she was very restless and starving which did not help her numbers. I was now getting results from the pumping so they inserted a feeding tube to fill that empty little tummy with what I had refrigerated! They only had to do that once, the next time we fed her my supply from a bottle, and about 3 hours later I got the OK to begin nursing again as long as her respirations < 60.
Sunday, May 20 - Erin's stats have allowed her to nurse ever since Saturday-- she is a nursing champion! She also loves to be rocked and cuddled. The doctor told us that her respirations are still higher than he would like before she should go home. Tomorrow agenda involves more labs/tests, and the soonest she could go home is Tuesday. I have been discharged from my room and will now live in Erin's room. Derek will be staying in Denver with Ella at night and in the mornings, and will come to the hospital during the day. This is probably better, because we have one very hard couch to sleep on in a very small room. This arrangement also allows him to bring necessities from home, since I did not pack for a week's stay!
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