Alex's NICU Journey

So, as I said in the last blog, Alex was born 11 weeks early, on April 21, 2007, weighing only 2 pounds 2 ounces. Babies this small of course cannot go straight home. In fact, they took him straight from my stomach, into a part of the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit)where they checked his breathing and all of his levels and put him onto a bunch of machines that would basically keep him alive for the next few weeks or months. The first oxygen machine they tried Alex on was the ventilator to see how well he did. He did really well and didn't need quite that much help so they put him on what they call CPAP. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. A lot of adults use a CPAP machine for sleep apnea. Alex had what is called Apnea of prematurity, which is why this machine worked well for him. He would forget to breathe and in that case, we could turn up the machine so that it gave him more air. The way that the CPAP mask is made for infants is that there is a fat tube that goes across his face and up each side of his face. They attach the tubing to a little hat so that it can't move around much when the baby moves. The first time I saw Alex he was wearing the CPAP, and he had a feeding tube in his nose. He was so tiny at the time. When I saw him I was sad because he was so helpless. He also had wires coming from his chest and stomach. These wires were to watch Alex's heart rate and breathing stats.

When he was about 10 days old, I was told that Alex had a PDA (Patent Ductus Arteriosis, basically a small hole between his heart and the arteries going from his heart to his lungs). Because of this, the blood that carries the oxygen to the lungs was not able to get through. First the Dr's tried giving him Ibuprofen which was supposed to help close up the hole. They did one round of the medicine and they said that it was working, so they did a second round. After that they thought that the hole had closed almost all the way but the next day they told me that it had opened back up on its own and they needed to do surgery. My baby boy was still so tiny and helpless and they wanted to do a heart surgery on him! This was so scary. They closed the entire NICU to other parents, no one was allowed to visit. They took all the other babies that were in Alex's area out and moved them to other areas. They did the surgery on May 9th, 2007 and they did it right in his bed. The lid of his incubator went up and the walls came down so they were able to do the surgery there. The surgery only took about an hour but it seemed like forever.

The time after he had his surgery was even worse. Alex had more trouble breathing after the surgery than he had before, he was on more oxygen and on more meds, he looked like he was in so much pain. He was swollen all over, especially in his face, because his body was "retaining water." I stayed at the hospital that night until 4 am. Kristy had texted me around 1 asking how things were going and I told her that I was still there and that I was worried so she came to the hospital to be with me and Alex. Around 4 we decided Alex was doing a little bit better and the nurses kept telling me that I needed to go home and get some rest so we both left. Within a few days, Alex was doing so much better. There were lots more ups and down while Alex was in the NICU but this had to be the scariest.

Alex had his very first bottle on May 25, 2007. It was so cute feeding such a little baby such a big bottle... and it was only a 2 ounce bottle! LOL. The first few times were really hard but after a few days Alex got really good at sucking on the bottle and he was able to get rid of the feeding tube after not too long.


Alex moved into his "Big Boy Bed" on May 29, 2007. He had been in an incubator until this day. He got to be in a regular bed where I could come in and hold him whenever I wanted and love on him as much as I wanted. I was so excited when I walked into the NICU and saw him in a regular bed! This is a really big step because it means that the baby is learning how to regulate their own body temperature. Babies in the NICU can't go home until they are able to do that.

Another thing Alex had to do before he could come home from the hospital was he had to pass a "Car Seat Test." Basically, because Alex had the Apnea of Prematurity problem, they had to make sure that being strapped into a car seat wouldn't freak him out and make him have another one of his apnea spells. They put him in the car seat the day before he came home and they left him there for an hour, while they watched his monitors. He did very well! This meant that he was able to come home!!! After 69 long stressful scary days in the NICU, my baby boy came home. On June 28, he was out of the hospital and I brought him home.