This has been one of the toughest 10 days of my life. Our little boy, Liam,
has been, and continues to be, in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at
Fletcher Allen Hospital in Burlington, fighting to come home. I divide my
time between home, work, and the hospital; Jen stays up there at night to
make sure he eats well; Maeve keeps asking when Jen and Liam are going to
come home; and Cuervo just wonders when she's going to be on a regular
schedule for walks again.
If Jen's parents hadn't been here last week to take care of us all, I think
I would have gone insane. We've met several other parents who have been
there many weeks, with many weeks still ahead, and I wonder how they can do
it, how they can keep up hope.
Liam is doing well, actually. The round of antibiotics is done,
phototreatment ended last week, and he has passed the "eat, pee, poop, and
act like a baby" requirement to come home. However, his blood sugar has
taken quite some time to stabilize.
The doctors think that because Liam was born into a cold environment, and
hadn't had a chance to develop blood sugar reserves (because he was born
early), he's simply been catching up. They have wanted the weaning process
of removing him from the glucose drip to be closely monitored and gradual,
because if his blood sugar gets too low, it could affect brain development.
So, for the past week, poor Liam's been having his little feet pricked every
3-4 hours so they can test blood sugar, and if the numbers are high enough
enough times in succession, they titrate the glucose solution. The poor
kid's heels are puffy and striated with little red marks, and even the
nurses are tut-tutting every time they have to do it. Every time his numbers
are high enough to turn down the drip, there's a little cheer from us, and
we start counting the feedings until he can come off it.
Tonight it all paid off -- they finally were able to take him off the IV. I
was holding him at the time that they flushed the line and removed it
(though he retains an IV in his arm just in case they should need to
re-attach him later). Liam was wide awake, rooting for a nipple, and happy
as could be. My heart swelled to be able to pick him up and walk him around
the NICU, untethered for the first time since he was born.
I found Jen and Maeve in the breastfeeding room, reading stories. I handed
him to Jen, shut the door, and, for the first time, the four of us got to
spend some time alone, just us. It didn't last forever, but it was a good
start.
Please send some positive energy Liam's way over the next day -- if the
blood sugar stays up, he'll be able to come home with his loving family so
we can begin our new life with him!
