On day 3, I was discharged from "my" room in Labor and Delivery and moved in with Ethan for the remainder of his stay. The NICU is SO nice at this hospital. Each baby has their own room which is huge and has a window bed for me to sleep on. They also have 2 family rooms with a lounge and bathroom with a shower. We're so blessed that Charlie could be home with Brendan and Carter so that I could be at the hospital with Ethan.
We knew by now that Ethan would most likely not be going home for Christmas. This was hard to deal with. This was NOT the Christmas we had planned. We had really hoped he'd be well enough to go home but it just wasn't the case. The doctors continued to be stumped by his body's inability to keep his blood sugar stabilized on its own. Even though this is normal for small babies in the beginning, it was unusual for it to be lingering this long. Many tests were run but with no answers. All we could do now was wait for his body to start doing its thing. How long? we had no idea but we were just praying and trusting God to get us through this.
His breathing was still too fast to feed by mouth very much (bottle or breast) so he got his milk mostly by feeding tube and had an IV in his bellybutton for his glucose. Having the IV in that place was not the most convenient for me to spend much time holding him. It could have easily come out, causing a lot of bleeding, so I didn't get to hold him as much as I wanted to. When he was born they started him on a standard 7 day antibiotic as a safety precaution. So he had to stay in the NICU at least 1 week after starting the antibiotics, whether or not his blood sugar and breathing problems were resolved.
It was really nice to be in the room full time. I really enjoyed helping and taking care of my baby. I didn't sleep much at night but it was worth it. I missed my other babies too like crazy and was soooo ready to go home!!
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