About 15 minutes later after Myles had changed Elin's diaper he turned to me and said she's turning purple. Once a caught a glimpse of her pallor I felt my heart collapse into despair. We called the doctors and they quickly responded. Dr Hildebrand removed her shirt and rubbed her back vigorously. She was a horrible color purple and obviously not breathing. They rushed her out of the room and ran down the hallway with her.
I was left sitting in my bed wondering if my baby had just died in front of my eyes. It was the most horrific feeling a mother can ever experience. I heard alarms and code blue being announced over the loud speaker. People were rushing down the hallway toward my child. I just sat there in shock and couldn't move. Part of me wanted to remain in bed and believe all was fine but after a minute or two I gathered my senses and got out of bed. I had given birth 13 hours earlier so I was sore and unstable but I slowly made my way down the hall. Myles had gone with the rush of doctors so he was already down there.When I entered the room there were at least 20 people in the NICU trying to help bring my daughter back. She had a bag valve mask on her face and they were pumping oxygen into her lungs. My doctor came to me and hugged me as I entered. She reassured me by telling me she was "pinking up". In my stupor I asked her what that meant- I think I just wanted someone to tell me she would be okay. SHE WAS BREATHING. They put an IV in her little hand and attached more monitors and things to her little bare body. Myles was white, I was ashen, but our baby was pink again. She had gone from a dusky eggplant color to a pink baby again. We were by no means feeling better but a small amount of relief waved over both Myles and I. Seeing our baby attended to by so many professionals was reassuring and terrifying at the same time.
This occurred around 8am on Wednesday July 25th only 13 hours after Elin had been born. We remained at Swedish Issaquah and Elin was monitored and tested relentlessly. She had a chest X-ray, a heart echo and blood drawn for multiple tests. They started her on antibiotics in case she had an infection. I tried to nurse her but she was not responsive. Then the word came that she would need to be transferred to a hospital where they could monitor her. Swedish Issaquah did not have the level of NICU monitoring they wanted for Elin. We were devastated and didn't want to have our baby take a trip in an ambulance and go to another hospital especially a NICU unit. But of course we did whatever the doctors suggested.So about 3pm the ambulance came and they put Elin in a special incubator transporter where she could remain monitored in the ambulance. We were to follow behind in our car. I was discharged from the hospital and we made our way to Swedish First Hill. The car ride was excruciating. I didn't want to be more then 2 feet away from my baby let alone an entire car behind her. I was thankful for the privacy of our own car though because for the first time that day I was able to let the entire event wash over me and I was overcome with emotion. Myles consoled me the best he could while he drove but the combination of post pregnancy hormones with nearly losing your newborn baby emotions meant I was one mess of a mom.
Once at First Hill we navigated our way to the NICU and tried to find out how we could find our daughter. We were let in by a Chaplin and showed the proper handwashing technique. The NICU is a very sterile place and they require strict procedures for visitors and parents. We were led back and were astonished by the amount of babies in the NICU and the set up of rooms. They were partitioned off into cubes with 4-8 babies in each section. Elin was hooked up to monitors and had one nurse who was monitoring 4 babies. There were monitor alarms beeping all the time and we were constantly on edge that it might be Elin's alerting us to some problem. 99% of the time it was nothing major but it still was disconcerting to hear the beeps. Most the other babies were preemies, some had been in the NICU for months. Knowing our baby was term and healthy (despite her apneic episode) was comforting; things could be a lot worse and being in the NICU reminded us of that every second we were there.
Since I had been discharged we had no room or place to stay. Fortunately First Hill has 6 rooms that are donated for parents of NICU babies to stay in for free. We were able to snag a room for the first night. I made arrangements with the night nurse to check on Elin if I woke up and to have her call me if Elin woke and was hungry. I went up once at 12:30 but she wasn't hungry. The nurse called me at 3:30 and I fed her. She called again at 7 right before shift change and I had to wait until 7:45 to go up and feed her because no one can leave or come during shift change. We actually slept fairly well because we knew our daughter was being watched constantly by a nurse. It was much needed rest.
Day 2 in the NICU was more of the same until we received the welcome news that Elin was being "downgraded" into a sleeping in room with us. She would still be monitored and the nurse checked on her often but we had our own private room complete with a bed for me and a "sleeping chair" for Myles. We were so excited to be out of the sterile NICU an into the more comforting feel of a hospital room- as ridiculous as that sounds! Elin's bilirubin levels were increasing (her jaundice was getting worse) so she spent a full 24 hours under the blue lights. She was naked except for her diaper and had to wear black out shades on her eyes. She looked kind of pathetic and we were only supposed to take her out to feed her. No cuddling for hours like normal and poor Myles hardly held her during that time. She seemed to like it though and was fine as long as we had the heat in the room cranked up to 85 degrees. Sleeping at night was very challenging. Monitors would go off, nurses would be in and out, Elin would wake up to eat and the room was lit up like an aquarium. Despite all those factors we were overjoyed to be sharing the space with our little girl. We spent Thursday and Friday night in that room and were told late Friday that we would most likely be leaving on Saturday. We couldn't wait to get out of there and return home and start our new life as a foursome. Plus we were feeling increasing guilty about not being able to see Anya. Myles was able to go and spend some time with her Friday so he gave my parents a break and helped Anya feel like we hadn't totally abandoned her. I had to remain at the hospital to feed Elin and I couldn't will myself to leave her side anyway.On Saturday morning we anxiously awaited the doctors visit. Elin had not had anymore apneic episodes and her jaundice was getting better. HOWEVER her platelet count had come back very low and they needed to retest before we could leave. Our hopes were crushed but we kept our fingers crossed that the second test results would differ.
After waiting several hours we were informed the second test clotted as well and they needed to draw blood again. Our poor daughter had been poked so many times they couldn't even draw blood out of her little heels anymore. They took the third sample from her head. Yes, her head-poor thing. By this point she didn't even cry anymore when they poked her- I on the other hand had just about had it with all the messed up lab results. Finally by 2pm the third test worked and her platelets were high enough for us to go home.I cried as we dressed Elin in her going home outfit and placed her in her carseat. I have never been so happy to leave anywhere in my entire life. Elin made quite a splash as she entered our world.
