So what has changed? EVERYTHING!!! In a good way :) The hubs and I are two very happy parents to an amazingly resilient little angel. So why haven't I posted? Well, considering we are first time parents, you can say we were a bit overwhelmed in the first few months. Exhausted and useless as everyone assured us, not so much. So what left us so overwhelmed? After a smooth pregnancy and a pretty easy labor (see my last post and see what I mean) we had a pretty horrific 6 week recovery.
At 10 days old, we rushed our baby girl to the pediatrician because I found her in her crib with a blood on her hands, pajamas and crib sheets. Talk about panic! All I remember from that morning is sobbing on the phone with a nurse begging to come in. Good thing we did. Somehow our little girl had picked up a staph infection through a hangnail (yes, a hangnail - seriously) and the sore had burst while she was sleeping. Two days later at a follow up appointment, the pediatrician noticed a bump on my husband's hand. He took a good look at it and sent him to his doctor. Yup. You got it. Staph infection on his hand. While all this was going on, I thought I was safe - I had been on antibiotics for a week due to mastitis. Yes, mastitis - for those of you who don't know what that is, it is an inflammation of the breast tissue due to clogged milk ducts. I had been dealing with that since Juliana was only three days old because of a bad latch. Oh, that was after they told me that she was not eating enough and was severely jaundiced. Hello stress!
So both our daughter and the hubs were put on antibiotics and we thought we were through the worst. Not so much. A week later I was at a breast specialist due to the increased pain and swelling in my left breast (my OB believed the mastitis had returned). The specialist took one look at me and sent me to the ER recommending immediate surgery to release an abscess hat had formed and was causing the pain and swelling. So there we were, dropping our THREE WEEK old daughter with my sister so I could go to the hospital for SURGERY. By the way, I had NEVER been in a hospital/ER before giving birth so you can understand that I was scared to my wit's end! After laying in a bed in the ER for 6 hours, I was finally swept away into surgery and woke the next morning to a sore chest, lots of bandages and a mastectomy bra. Yes, a mastectomy bra - talk about scary! My poor husband looked so worried as we waited for the surgeon to make his follow up visit. My surgery, which he had said would take only 20-30 minutes actually lasted close to an hour and a half earlier that night. We feared terrible news.
When the surgeon finally made it to my room, he informed us that the mastitis had lead to an infection and he had drained nearly 4 oz of fluid and had to remove some infected/dead tissue. We waited three days for test results confirming that yes, I had also gotten a staph infection and even worse it was MRSA. I ended up staying in the hospital for 6 days, not once being able to see my daughter, needed a PICC line and was put on a very aggressive antibiotic treatment for 3 weeks. Talk about hell. Not only had I missed almost a full week of my infant daughter's life, but because of the PICC line, I was not able to lift anything over 10 lbs for the next 30 days. Guess who weighed just over 10 lbs.
And you'd think that would be enough to balance the scales of a perfect pregnancy and labor, right? Not so much. At just over 4 weeks old, Juliana began sleeping longer and not eating as much as usual. The day of her one month check up we had trouble waking her and she ate very little. When the pediatrician saw her, he had me put her back in the car seat and immediately take her to the emergency room. Yup. Roughly two weeks after my stay, I was back at the hospital with a lethargic baby who was running a fever and not eating. Again, PANIC. Because of her age at the time, the staff was obliged to do every test under the sun. Even a spinal tap. I can't believe my tiny, beautiful daughter had a spinal tap. I still can't fathom the pain she must have felt. After 4 days in the pediatric ICU we got a clean bill of health and were sent home. What's the most frustrating part? No diagnosis - at all. We still don't know what happened, but we are grateful that it is over.
So how are we now. Amazing! All are healthy and strong in this house. All I can do is thank God for His healing and grace. After all of these struggles I have seen what an amazing husband I have and how blessed I am to have him as my little girl's father. He was our rock. I saw a side of him that made me love and respect him even more.
So, now if you come over or see me out and about and you need hand sanitizer, clorox wipes, soap or anything else like that, I've got it. Lots of it. We are not going to let this mess hospitalize us again!
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