Day One in the NICU

So much has happened in the first few hours of Brigham's life. Here's a try at catching up a bit.

Justin with Brigham when he's only about 20 minutes old. His first few minutes in the NICU were spent getting connected to the ventilator and getting IVs started etc.

Mommy's first time meeting Brigham (not counting the few short seconds in the delivery room). He's also getting an ultrasound of his heart done in this picture.

Pretty pale, but doing good on the oscillating ventilator. Look at all that hair!

Another view of all his gorgeous hair! It's lighter than Carrie's was, which somehow,we all seemed to guess! I wonder if it'll stay light?...

Daddy and his boy. It's weird to me that now we have a girl AND and boy!

Bonding with Daddy, holding hands

A view of Brigham's room and some of his equipment. Just to the right of his bed is the ventilator, and on the far right is a machine that gives him Nitrous Oxide. That helps the blood pressure in his lungs try to relax.

Alright. Time to explain all the tubes. It's a long list... (You can see them all in the picture below)

~The bigger tube coming out of his mouth is connected to the ventilator. It goes down between his vocal chords, into his lungs and breaths for him. Because it goes through his vocal chords, he cannot make any noise or cry. The most we've heard from him was two tiny little squeak sounds right after delivery.

~The little tube coming out of his mouth on his bottom lip is a small tube coming from his stomach connected to suction. This helps keeps pressure down in his stomach, which makes it easier for his lungs to work.

~On his right wrist is a monitor that reads the level of oxygen in his blood that's getting to his brain.

~On his right foot is the monitor that reads oxygen levels in the blood going to the rest of his body.

~On the backside of his left hand is an IV (in his palm is just a cotton ball, taped to help keep his IV still).

~He also has another IV in his scalp, right at the hairline. Between these two IVs there are a couple different medications that help his heart function, some sedatives, some healthy fats, and a fluid called TPN that has proteins and carbohydrates to give him nutrition.

~The clear tube in the right side of his chest is a chest tube they had to put in to fix a pneumothorax in his right lung. (That's a fancy word for a collapsed lung).

~The black cord on his left chest is yet another monitor that checks oxygen levels through his skin.

~The two white rectangle stickers on his chest are heart rate and respiration monitors.

~The shiny gold thing on his tummy is a temperature monitor that's connected to his bed. The bed/warmer changes temperature to help keep his temp regulated.

~Last but not least, you can't really see it, but he has another IV in an artery in his umbilical cord. They use this IV to continuously monitor blood pressure and draw labwork to check exact CO2, and oxygen levels in his blood every few hours.
~CRAZY HUH?!

Now I said earlier that he's unable to make noise or cry. Don't worry though. He's sedated and on pain medications so even though he's being poked and prodded, he's not feeling any pain. There are other signs of pain that the nurses and doctors are keeping an eye on to make sure his pain is taken care of. (For example, elevated heart rate, trying to breath over the ventilator)

I made these little signs a few weeks ago to put up in Brigham's room. I'm excited that even if Brigham can't see them, the staff will know who we all are. (Especially since Carrie is not allowed to come to the NICU at all. It's RSV season....)

They've also encouraged us to bring more things from home to make his room his own. We have a couple small toys/stuffed animals we plan on bringing in, and one or two of his own blankets to cover the isolette.

So far, we're doing ok. I'm tired and mostly just have sore back muscles from standing, sitting and doing so much. I'm feeling good and we're doing our best to get some rest while we can.