The Life of Stephen

Well it seemed like any other Saturday of a three day weekend, some family coming into town and everyone looking forward to some relaxation. Until we tried to give Stephen some formula. Mom has been under the weather lately so she had had a hard time keeping up the food supply for Stephen. So we tried some formula – BIG MISTAKE. We had another throwing-up repeatedly scenario and a dehydrated and listless baby at the end of it. So off to the emergency room again and to make a short story of it, Stephen is allergic to baby formula. We went through the whole IV, blood test, x-ray scenario all over again. Very similar to last time except that there was no obstruction this time.

So, Stephen was kept overnight to get some fluids into him and get him hydrated again and he came home yesterday afternoon. So today mom, dad and Stephen are all relaxing and catching up on their sleep. Happy Labor Day everyone!

Good news today – Stephen got to come home.

After a day of clear fluids and then starting normal feedings again, Stephen was given the ok to go home. The ailment turned out to be acute gastroenteritis which doesn’t sound that great but it a lot better than surgery for an obstruction. It’s been a dizzying few days with not much sleep, but we are happy to have Stephen back home and feeling better. He smiling and sleeping well and needless to say a lot less fussy.

Now if we could do something about the temperature outside we’d be over the moon.

Well after last night’s scare we got some good news about the little guy. After giving Stephen a barium test to see where the obstruction was it turned out that he had no obstruction. No obstruction – no surgery – that works for me.

Today there were more tests, more blood being drawn, more waiting, more wearing big lead vests to x-ray Stephen (if I need the vest, what the hell is it doing to him?), more waiting, and then finally admittance to the hospital. They want to monitor Stephen to determine the cause of the throwing up. He is on clear fluids right now to see how he handles them and so far he’s been great. No more throwing up, and he’s put back on some of the weight that he had lost. He was down a pound from last Friday. He also seems more alive and active today as well as having better color. All good signs.

I believe the next step is to see how he handles breast milk again and that may be as soon as tomorrow.

We had ourselves a little scare last night with Stephen – he threw up a few times during the day and we had to take him into Children’s Hospital to have him checked out. The night/morning ended with the doctor telling us that the x-rays looked like he had an obstruction in his small intestine and the he would probably need surgery. The word surgery combined with 9-week-old do not sound good no matter how you say it. With all the blood being drawn and tubes being fed through Stephen’s nose I was really feeling for the litte guy and was hoping for the best. Around 3 in the morning we got confirmation that the radiologist agreed with the doctor and the surgeons were going to do a consult in the morning.

Crap.

After an overnight stay in the the hospital of one night and almost a day under the blue lights to treat Stephen’s jaundice, we were able to take him home. It was such a weird feeling to be able to finally go after so much had happened in a short time. Everything felt like it went so quickly and the part at the hospital is the part the gets the most focus – we found ourselves arriving home and going “now what?”. We got him in the car and he pretty much slept all the way home – on the right there is how he looked. We’ve already been told he looked like and old man .

So what do they do when your newborn has jaundice? They put them under bilirubin lights to help clear it out of their system. Stephen was a little yellow which is normal especially in premature babies so he had to spend some time under the lights.

I’d never heard of these, so it was a little bit of a shock to see your newly born baby under lights that I can only describe as looking like a tanning bed for kids. It looks more serious than it is, and very common from what I was told, which calmed me down. But at least the kid had good tunes to listen to as you can see in the picture. Luckily he was only in there for a little less than a day as his jaundice was leaving his system. Hopefully we get to go home tomorrow.

On April 18, 2008 at 11:45 am Stephen Leslie Barkema make his way into the world.

He arrived three weeks early (still trying to figure out where he gets the early bit from) weighing in at 5 lbs 12 oz. and 19 inches long. Mom was in labor for roughly 12 hours – not too bad for the first go around. We are both happy that we have a healthy baby.

Upon arriving home from 2 hours of indoor soccer I was told those words – “I think my water broke”. A quick call to the doctor, and an even quicker shower by me and it was off for the half-hour drive to the hospital we were checked in and actually got in a decent nights sleep all things considering.