Piper in the NICU=a very sad Mommy and Daddy

HI everyone!!! Its been a pretty Crazy 5ish days...so this is the start of the "Piper Chronicles" ;) I will write about Pipers birth story soon, but so many people have been asking about her NICU stay that I thought I would start with that...

Immediately after Piper was born, she was very grunty...I noticed it when she was put on my chest all gooey. They took her to the other side of the room to check things out...which was a total bummer because I really wanted to nurse. Jake of course stayed with her while I was getting all "put back together" ;) A few minutes later, the pediatrician told me that they are going to give Piper an hour to see how she does and if she is still grunty that she will have to go straight to NICU. After an hour of the 3 of us bonding and just loving on each other, they came back in and took her. I truly still had no idea what was the matter. I just knew something was wrong with her breathing. We were pretty scared. We had all these big plans to nurse right away, Jake to get "skin to skin" bonding time and for family to come in and meet the baby and announce the name....well...all that went out the window. We called our family (who went to dinner once they knew she was born) and told them that the baby had to go to the NICU and just to come to the birthing suite when they got back. Without Piper, we announced that it was a little girl and that her name was Piper Ann...everyone was so excited...but of course worried about Piper. The Grandmas were the first to go to the NICU to meet her and to find out what was going on. Jake came back down and explained... Piper had Pneumothorax....which is basically collapsed lung...it happened when she took her first breath in this outside world and her lung could not handle it. They told us that she would have to spend the first 24 hours of her life in the NICU being monitored and x-rayed. Once family left and we got settled into our room, Jake and I headed up to see her....she was so beautiful and I was so in love... first thing the next morning we go see her and they let me nurse!! They told us that the x-rays are not getting any better and she would have to stay there a while. The next two days we were in and out of the NICU, hanging out with family and just trying to recover (yes from 27 hours of natural childbirth...whole other story!! :). Each time we went to see her we expected good news that we would get to take her down to our room and that she was all better...wasn’t happening. Finally Sunday morning we were told the bad news that I was being discharged...but Piper was not. There is nothing like going home from the hospital without your baby! We come home Sunday night around 7pm, take showers, pump, and eat dinner...then we were back up at the hospital till around midnight...just trying to spend every moment we can with her. It was very strange to me to see this "huge", 8lb, post-term, baby with all these tiny preemies. Monday morning Jake and I were back at the hospital by 7am....planning on setting up camp in her little corner and hanging out with her all day long! All day we nursed, she slept on us, we changed her, we just loved on her all day, trying to get as much bonding in as possible...we were really 3 days behind! It was also breastfeeding boot camp! I nursed every time she stirred! and pumped in between that...again i was 3 days behind on that relationship as well. Our nurse came in mid morning and told us...that we would probably get to go home today (Monday) and she started us on the discharge process (paper work, things to read, and videos to watch)...she assured us we would be out of there by 5pm!! WHOOOOO-HOOOO!! wait...6:30pm rolls around and she says...Just kidding there has been a mistake...your not going home...but we are moving Piper to "the village" (its rooms in the NICU that you can spend the night in with your baby)...so you at least can be with her. WAIT JUST A MINUTE!!!!! We were told earlier that morning that the Pneumothorax had resolved and that she was healthy enough to go home??? We asked to speak to the attending doctor....WE WERE NOT HAPPY. But the nurse had to do what she was told and we all moved down to "the village". Once they got us settled in that room...Jake and I broke down...we both just started crying...we were tired, we were angry, and we just wanted to go home with our healthy little girl!!! Jake started praying...and in the middle of his prayer, the attending doctor walks in and says... "I am so sorry guys, but there has been a BIG mistake...you ARE going home!!!!!!!!!" I wanted to kiss that Doctor!!!! There was a miscommunication between the attending doctors on her conditions...but I didn’t care anymore...we were going home!!!! We were home with our little Piper by 9pm last night...and today had just been amazing...a lot of sleeping and feeding....but amazing!!

I will leave you with pictures from Pipers NICU stay...