Josiah's NICU Journey

NICU. Now there is a place I never wanted to be. At least not to see MY baby. I had been in NICUs before with different jobs I have had in the past and I always felt that they were terrifying. Now I had to go see MY baby all hooked up to wires and tubes. It was not an easy sight at all.

For the first 2 days Josiah was on CPAP to help him breath without his lungs retracting. During this this time we could not hold him at all. The doctor said that because he was early his skin was very sensitive almost like a sunburn so when we touched him not to rub him all soft and gentle but to just hold a hand on him still. The doctor also wanted us to be very careful not to stimulate him too much because it could make him breath to fast and cause problems. This was a VERY hard 2 days for me.

Finally, Wednesday night he was able to come off of the CPAP and just have a nasal canula for oxygen. This was the first time that we were able to hold him and it felt LONG awaited! We could only hold him for 30 minutes and then he had to go back under the warmer. 

The nurse warned us that he was probably going to have to have phototherapy for jaundice the next morning. Sure enough, when we got up there Thursday morning he was under the jaundice lights. 

 

He would have to be under them for 2 days which meant that for the next 2 days we could only hold him for 30 minutes a day. Words cannot describe how much I wanted to cuddle my sweet boy and this was torture. Everyone kept saying how good he was doing and I was thankful for that but that did not make the situation suck any less. Instead of nursing and cuddling my new baby I was having to use a breast pump and being told not to stare at him under the jaundice light because it was bad for my eyes.

FINALLY, Saturday morning he came off of the jaundice treatment and we could hold him anytime we wanted. BEST. NEWS. EVER. If a child could be spoiled in just one day, Josiah would be rotten! Of course mom and dad were the first to hold him but through the weekend Grumps, Gram and Aunt Wendy all got a turn.

Now he was jaundice free, breathing on his own, and holding his own temperature so what were we waiting on, let's get this kid home! Well, he had to learn to eat. Who knew? I thought anyone related to me would have this skill at birth, but I guess not. ;) 

He had feedings through an NG tube in his nose for the first several days, then he began getting to have 2 bottles a day.The goal was to be taking all 8 daily feedings from a bottle instead of the ng tube and to be at "full feeding" level which was 46ml. 

 

This took what felt like forever, but finally 2 weeks after his birthday, we were walking out with our sweet boy in tow.

Another one of our sweet amazing friends had our kids that morning so we were able to get home and put Josiah in his bouncy seat in the living room to surprise them. They were very excited. Adah was confused at first and asked why here was there. She was pleased with my answer of "he is going to live here now."

For a while when people came over this is how Nate would introduce his baby brother, "This is my brother. His name is Josiah and he gets to live with us!" That is something we were ALL happy about!