Operation Noah Recovery: Day 3

The nurses all ask if I feel burned out or trapped in the 4 walls of this hospital room and I have to say, surprisingly no! Although I haven't left this room or looked out a window since Tuesday, I don't feel isolated at all because of all the uplifting messages, cards, offers to babysit Natallie, prayers and food that has come our way. So in a way I feel like all 300+ people who have read about Noah are in this room with me and supporting us in this time. We are so blessed. This morning when Simon came to see us briefly before work, Noah even started cooing in daddy's arms! Nothing brings me more joy than to see my Noah-bear starting to act like himself again!

Noah was switched from the antibiotics via his IV to oral amoxicillin last night. He needs to be able to take his medicine orally for us to go home. The first time the nurse administered it, he puked it up right after. I was a bit discouraged but the nurse said we could try again and this time we did tiny little drops in his mouth at a time. The process took much longer to get the dosage in but he didn't spit it up!

Noah was so good last night. He nursed for the first time ever since Sunday! A good 10 minutes and didn't puke it up after. He nursed again at midnight for 10 minutes and then slept until 7:30am! Yes! Yes! Yes! I have to be standing up and rocking him while he is nursing but that's OK, I am so glad he has nursed twice that I didn't even mind that my arms were numb from holding him. Simon and I are going to have some really toned biceps and triceps once this is all over with.

We had to administer the amoxicillin orally again today. Again we did it a few drops at a time and it took a long time and he didn't puke it up after! We will have to keep giving it to him 3 times a day and if he keeps it down that's very promising that we will go home soon.

And I don't know if you believe in miracles but I do. Yesterday he had several large white patches inside his mouth and a nurse and three different doctors looked at it...even the senior resident doctor and they were thinking it was probably oral thrush. Later that evening, I was feeling sore after breastfeeding which is likely because the bacteria can pass back and forth from Noah's mouth to me during feedings. I was feeling again discouraged that there was yet another hurdle to jump over but this morning the same doctors came in to examine in and they couldn't see those white patches anymore. Completely gone! The doctors were puzzled because all three of them saw it yesterday and now there's nothing and it hasn't hurt me anymore to breastfeed? Miracle? God answering prayers? I think so!

Miracles do happen! Just look at this boy!

So another new thing today is the removal of Noah's IV. The nurse explained to me that with babies this young, IVs don't tend to stay in for much longer than 3 days and it might pop out from the vein but still be under the skin and this causes problems and pain. Noah's IV kept on getting twisted up and the nurse noticed that he didn't like anyone coming close to where the IV was going in his leg so although they wanted to keep the IV in him until nursing was well established they took it out earlier because it was hurting him. So one less cord and machine to be attached to and a leap of faith that Noah will continue nursing well. He has had one good feed since the IV was removed this morning and I have faith that he will continue to do well.

He has been mostly awake, alert and happy today. Got some big Noah-like smiles and even a little chortle. He's come a long, long ways from the lifeless ghost that he was on Tuesday. The doctors came in and said that they are really pleased with his progress. He is officially not dehydrated anymore and although his lungs still aren't normal yet, he has improved a lot. They said the RSV cough could linger for weeks but it seems like the worst is over. His temperature and oxygen intake has been stable. He has taken 2 of doses of amoxicillin orally. The only thing left now is for him to nurse for a whole day and once he proves he won't need the IV to meet his fluid needs, we are good to go! It could be as early as tomorrow!

The nurse told us she is so pleased to see how quickly he has made progress. She said he was in terrible condition downstairs and they didn't want to scare us at the time when we were in ER but they thought he was in very critical condition. He was showing all the signs for sepsis and they were worried about him going in sceptic shock and that his organs would start shutting down. It was by God's grace that we were in the ER on Tuesday or I may not even be holding Noah today. Again, thank you for your prayers. God is good. Very, very, very good. We are so glad Jesus did not want Noah up with Him just yet. 


 

The though of going home tomorrow makes me very, very, very ecstatic. With the amount of people praying and rooting for our little guy, I am optimistic that we'll be discharged soon. I miss Natallie so much. Grandma and Grandpa Neufeld are driving down from Enderby as I type this and will be staying at our house and watching her tonight and over the weekend. But maybe Noah and I won't be here this weekend....I hope my next blog post will be about us going home. Home sweet home. Soon enough my little bear will be strong enough to go home!