Days 1-4

Psalm 139:13-18

Early the next morning, the pediatrician comes to my room, and tells us what we already knew – he likely had Down Syndrome, but they would do some genetic tests to determine for sure (we still haven’t received the results of that test nearly a week later, but a clinical diagnosis is made).  The echocardiogram shows that baby’s heart is ok!  AND he passes meconium stool, so bowel obstruction doesn’t seem to be a problem! 

These days we discover several things.

• C-Sections hurt.
• His blood sugars are super low, so they put in an IV with some sugar.
• His platelet count was super low.
• His white blood count was very high which is an indicator for infection, so they put him on 2 kinds of aggressive antibiotics through the IV.
• He was Jaundice, and needed Bili-lights
• There are lots of other possible health related issues that occur with babies who have Down Syndrome

But considering that he is a month premature, he is strong and does what babies should do.  He just needs a little extra time to catch up to where he would be at his due date.

He spent days under the bili-lights and I spent days going back and forth to the nursery.  Platelet counts continued to drop, and they transfused him, only to discover 12 hours later they were almost as low as where he started.  Because of this they wanted him handled as little as possible to prevent bruising, which was so hard for me not to hold him!!  His blood sugars kept lowering, requiring more sugar, then sodium, and on day 2 he tried nursing.  They started doing tube feeding, and his stomach was not emptying into his intestines.

All along the pediatricians at the hospital were on the phone multiple times per day with the specialists at St. Mary’s in Rochester.

Friday morning my milk came in, and I couldn’t feed my baby.  I was being discharged, and Noah had to stay.  It was a hard morning.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light with you. -Psalm 139:11-12

Friday he broke out into a full body rash and his bottom had some
intestines sticking out a bit, along with his wacky blood numbers and
not digesting, or pooping for a couple days the doctors in Mankato
decided Noah needed more specialized care than what they could do for
him.

After I was discharged, Dave and I went home for a few hours, and hung
out with the boys.  Calvin called for grandma instead of me, and
Josiah had no less than 3 tantrums in that time.  It was hard on them
to have mom gone.  We got a call from the pediatrician
while we were home, with lab results that were not
good.  We agreed he should be transferred to Rochester.

So at 4 days old, he was airlifted to St. Mary’s Hospital in
Rochester.  As the team arrived at the hospital to take him we felt
such peace about it.