Forget adjusting- how about surviving?!!

It's been awhile since I posted and I feel like a lifetime has passed since those first few crazy, painful, days. Things are still crazy. I am still nursing and it is getting easier, except that E seems to be going through a growth spurt perhaps and suddenly wants to eat almost hourly. Talk about sore nipples again and exhaustion.

But anything back to normal is good because we spent this past week in the hospital. I noticed last Sunday that E wasn't eating as well as she usually did. She was so congested she would latch on, pull off-ouch!, and then start all over again just to fall asleep after 5 minutes. She was very sleepy when she was just starting to have awake times. And the ever present diaper analysis was that there weren't as many. I felt like a crazy first time mom and called the doctor and they told me to bring her in Monday because of her age. I thought I was going to feel like a fool because she has a little cold and there's nothing to do. Well, we brought her to the doctor and they did a test for RSV and it came back positive. I guess RSV is a cold virus that in normal people isn't so bad but in a 2 week old, it can be very bad. They put on an oximeter to test her oxygen levels and weren't happy with the results. E's doctor said they wanted her to go to the hospital. We said okay we'd stop by the house and get some things and go to the hospital. He said "no, she has to go now by ambulance." Cue the freakout!

Almost a year after R went in an ambulance to Boston with Stella, I got in an ambulance with Eleanor. She spent the night in the NICU on oxygen. Luckily she never had to get an IV. They tried before she went in the ambulance but couldn't get it in. Once she had the oxygen she went back to being a great eater. R and I spent the night in the horrible parents' room and I went back and forth to feed her and sleep. She was moved to a regular room the next day but, honestly, it was almost worse than being in the NICU. We had to share a room with another sick baby and his equally sick parents-yuck! R couldn't stay in the room and we weren't allowed to keep the sleep room so I had to sleep on the chair-turned-cot with strangers while my 2 week old baby was on oxygen. I almost lost it. I did lose it a little. I cried and freaked out quite a bit but held it together for E.

The criteria for her release was to be off oxygen and keep her oxygen levels up. I know all too well the readings on those monitors and was watching them like a hawk. She failed twice on being off the oxygen. The third time they tried I was alseep, or more passed out, and when I came to to feed her I noticed she was off. This was overnight on Wednesday. Thursday they told us she passed and could go home. I don't think I have felt so giddy in a long time. R had gone home and was on his way in so I called and I could hear the relief in his voice too. I think we were possibly more happy to bring her home from the hospital this time than when she was born!

All is still good. She is a lot less congested and feeding better. Except for wanting to eat all the time. Her newest thing though is crying. Sigh.