One Week Old & The NICU...

After being with my sweet Paige for only a week my worst nightmare happened...
I realized that something wasn't right with her around noon on Sunday March 25th. She had a temperature, hadn't eaten since 11:30 pm(Saturday night), was lethargic and winced every time you touched her. I also couldn't get her to wake up, open her eyes and she hadn't had a wet diaper since Sunday morning. I called my grandfather(a pediatrician) to make sure I wasn't over reacting before I called my pediatrician here in town. He told me that I needed to call my doctor asap...which immediately made me start crying. When we heard back from our doctor's office they told us we needed to take Paige to Children's ER right away. So around 7:00pm on Sunday night we packed up the family and headed to the ER. I was scared to death and could not stop crying. She was so little and innocent...I hated seeing her like this. When we got to the ER they took us back to a room since she was so young and started checking her out. It was very visible that she was jaundice...but as for what was causing the other symptoms the doctor's weren't sure...which meant they would have to run every test imaginable on her to make sure they didn't miss anything. They started IV's and blew veins in her hand she was so dehydrated, Paige was so sick she didn't even cry. They took lots of blood and finally got IV's in her right hand and left foot. Then came one of the scariest tests I can imagine on a one week old baby...a spinal tap. I buried my face in to my mom's shoulder and cried my heart out...bless Paige's heart, she barely wimpered. I could tell she didn't have any fight in her she was so sick. They started antibiotics and brought in bili lights for her jaundice. The doctor's had to list off all of the awful things that could be wrong with her, which made my heart break in to pieces. Around midnight they were ready to take her up to NICU. At 1:00am Mark and I were allowed back in the NICU to see Paige and talk with the nurses about their plan for her. An hour later Mark and I decided to go home and get what little rest we could get so that we could be back at 8:00am when visitation started back. I didn't sleep a wink that night...all I could do is worry, cry and pray.
A few hours after geting home from the hospital Mark and I got up and ready to go to the hospital. (Mark was having to go back to work so he would only be able to visit at lunch.) When I got to the hospital I had high hopes that they were going to tell me Paige had done a total 180 and we would be able to go home today, at the latest tomorrow...however when the doctor came by to do rounds, that's not what I heard. He said due to the tests they were running and having to wait on cultures to grow, we were going to be there all week maybe longer if some of the tests come back positive. Thus started the longest and hardest week of our life as parents.