Our new world....the NICU

I was relieved when the nurse finally came back to tell me they were bringing me to my room. Up until now, I hadn't put much thought into why they had asked me what kind of health coverage I had. For any of you who know me, you'll also know I had just lost my job as a manager with Movie Gallery for the last 8 years, so needless to say, the coverage was pretty basic.  The hospital was great though with our situation, and we found ourselves in a private room. It was nice to be on our own, to share time with our family and friends, and not have to be in a room with another set of new parents, with a perfectly healthy newborn. ( I hope that doesn't sound terribly insensitive, but I know other preemie moms will understand )
A few hours , and a couple rounds of pain meds later, the nurse came and asked if we were ready to see our son. Ready ?!?!?! Are you kidding ?!?!?! We had been waiting for this moment for hours !!!! Dave helped me into the wheelchair, and we made our way down to the NICU. I don't know what was going through either one of our minds at that moment really...I have to admit, I think there was just as much fear as there was excitement.
I think our hearts were both racing, as they showed us where to wash our hands before entering the NICU. I was a picture of pure 'hotness" in my hospital gown and humongous cankles...but at that moment none of it mattered. The only thing that mattered was that we were going to meet our son.....Liam.
The NICU at St.Joe's has since moved to Children's Hospital but at the time it was a level 3 NICU, meaning the sickest , and smallest babies were born or transported there. Liam was in the main unit of the NICU where the babies needing the highest level of care were.
Nothing, and I mean nothing could have prepared us for what we were about to see........

New roomates !!!!

The next morning, when they saw that I was feeling better, they administered the second round of steroids, and decided I was stable enough to be moved to Antenatal. We packed up our bags, and they wheeled us down to our new room. When we got there, there were already two girls tucked away in their beds....it was crazy to think that all these women in this area were having different problems with their pregnancies !!! The idea that women had perfect pregnancies, and went home with perfect, robust babies was starting to fall to pieces in my mind.
My roomates J & L turned out to be the most beautiful women...a second pregnancy for J, and a first for L. We shared our stories, and were prepared that this could be a long haul for all of us. We agonized over our meal choices ( yes, this quickly became the highlight of our day...lol ) , met each others families, and prayed for our babies to be ok !!!
There were a steady stream of family members and friends coming to visit us each day, bringing us fun things to help pass the days.....the Drs came to us asking if we would like a tour of the NICU, and of course we said yes !!! Unfortunately, that never happened...every time they tried to coordinate something for us, it ended up being too busy in the NICU, something that frustrated me at the time, but that I can totally appreciate now. I don't think it would have lessened the fear and anxiety we felt walking through those doors everyday anyways .
Another fairly good sleep, and we both realized, we had made it through 1 more day !!! I was scheduled for an ultrasound that day, and it was then that they discovered that baby "P" was breech......super !!!! I was told that it was not uncommon for baby to be flipped that way at this stage, however most people aren't 3cm dilated at 24 weeks with a baby in breech position....ughhhh !!!
I was still banned from using the bathroom....but eating again at this point, so I was terrified to eat too much....I had conquered peeing in the bedpan, but that was as far as I was taking it !!!! I had roomates and a curtain separating us.....poor girls !!! I will always remember my nurse that last night before Liam was born. I had called for her, thinking for sure that I had missed the bed pan, my sheets and gown felt wet. She kept trying to tell me I was sweaty...lol....we went back and forth for a few minutes with this conversation, and here I am admitting that I did indeed pee in my bed !!!!