And then the phone rang…
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
Tuesday. Was it really only Tuesday? I have to tell you, life in the NICU is different. It runs on its own special time. There are no true weekends, no days of rest, no days off.
But yes, it was just Tuesday.
I had called the nurse in the morning feeling all happy and confident. Kenna had responded so well to the new steroids. Her breathing was much better, her settings changed, and the overall outlook…very positive. And that’s when I always get yanked back down to earth by the universe. The universe was all you’re too happy, too comfortable…take that! And then I heard the report from Kenna’s nurse.
Yes, Kenna had a few bradys the night before. Her heart had slowed dangerously. She had required intervention to get it together. And the end result was that a new echo was ordered and her forward progress instantly halted.
I was beside myself that morning, while S slept. And I tried to distract myself for as long as I could…which was about ten minutes…before I woke him to suffer with me. Only S doesn’t suffer with me. He’s a dad.
S: Kenna’s fine.
Only in my mind, she wasn’t fine and he needed to get up and get his to do list done so we could get the heck up to the hospital. I needed to see my baby.
By the time we were heading up there, it was noon. And he knew not to do anything to hinder our progress. We made it there in record time. I drove. I like driving. And I needed to feel in control of something. That something was my vehicle.
We studied Kenna critically. We worried over what we imagined might be a distended belly. We agonized over her coloring. Was she yellower than before? We saw that she had already removed her gavage tube. Yes, she’s crafty like that. And I’m convinced she’d rather use a bottle than that tube. My baby wants to taste and suck. She had figured out how to get some of the dangling tape into her mouth and was sucking on that for emphasis.
The report from the nurse formerly known as nurse doom…was positive. (Hence my renaming of her to nurse optimist.) And she explained that Kenna’s reaction to our presence…high sats…was a good thing. She told us that her belly was the same exact size it had been. She measured it. And she tried to find the doctor to talk to us. I love this doctor…the same one there for Kenna’s delivery.
While he wasn’t available to talk then, she assured us he would call with news once he had examined her and had received the labs and test results.
That’s why the phone rang mid-afternoon. And that’s why I answered it. And that’s why we had some seriously good news.
This doctor calls Kenna a special case, an unusual case. And she is. She defies the odds. She is a toughy, a fighter. He had moved her to a regular ventilator. He felt her earlier bradys were her way of letting him know that she had had enough of the oscillator. We’ll see how she does. But her labs show that she isn’t having trouble making albumin and he’s convinced the bad bilirubin will be remedied if they can just get her to poop more. That’s why more glycerin has been ordered.
Once again he sounded pleased…amazed even as he reported her results. And I don’t know why. Kenna is one determined baby girl. Just watch her grow.

I should be really happy today. Kenna is three weeks old. She finally pooped and now we’re just waiting to hear that her lungs are improving from the new steroid treatment. She’s old enough that they don’t expect her to suffer any of the potential side effects that are a risk for newborns. While she’s nowhere near the size of the newborns and gestationally she should only be 27 weeks in utero…she is technically…three weeks old.
Babies are a blessing. We all know this. Some of us are just more acutely aware of this than others. Take my cousin, for example, who is even as I write…struggling to get pregnant on another…her last…IVF cycle. And then there are those like me who get pregnant easily, but have the darndest time staying pregnant.
But I think 






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