Cash's Trip To The ER

On Thursday, the monitor Cash was sent home on alarmed that he had an apnea episode. I was home alone with him as Johnny had run across the street to grab us a bite to eat for lunch. Cash was in the bassinet sleeping, so I reached in, laid my hand on his belly and gently shook him. The apnea alarm cleared but then the low heart rate alarm went off. That's set to go off if his heart rate gets down to 80 or below. He was extremely pale which concerned me a bit. When Johnny got back home, he thought Cash looked very pale also but by that point Cash seemed to be fine. I checked the leads (the sensor pads) to make sure they were on him in the right location and that they were snug and they appeared to be. We ate our lunch then Johnny left for work. He had only been gone about 5 minutes or so when Cash's apnea alarm went off again. He was still in his bassinet so again I reached in and gently shook him. He didn't respond so I picked him up and tried to wake him up. He was very lethargic and didn't want to wake up for me. I called Johnny (bawling, of course) and he told me to call Cash's doctor's office and that he was coming back home. When he got home, I was on the phone with the triage nurse who directed us to take Cash into the emergency room unless we needed an ambulance. Johnny had taken Cash from me when he got home and was able to get Cash woke up. He had his eyes open, but still was relatively unresponsive and lethargic. We got Cash bundled up in his car seat and headed into Waterloo to the ER. Once there, they had us bypass the ER and just admitted him to pediatrics per his doctor's orders as she was the doctor on call. While waiting for the doctor to show up, the nurses did some blood tests and chest x-rays to check for infections, pneumonia, RSV, flu, etc. The tests all came back that everything was normal which was good news. The doctor said it could just be that Cash has a little bit of a cold that he's fighting off, but that we would know more once they were able to get the information downloaded from Cash's home monitor. Friday morning, Apria came and picked up Cash's monitor, leaving us with a new one. They took his monitor back to their office to download the information from it. The information they downloaded showed that Cash's leads were loose so the apnea and low heart rate alarms were false alarms. I was surprised to hear that considering we've had a couple false alarms before and when I checked the leads those times, they were loose and in the wrong spot. This time when I double checked them, they seemed fine. We still aren't really sure why Cash was so pale and lethargic when the alarms went off - other than as his doctor said, maybe he is fighting off a cold. He also didn't sleep very well Wednesday night so maybe he was just needing some really good sleep. He did wake up about 9:50 pm on Thursday night to eat and stayed wide awake and alert until about 2:30 am. He seemed like his "old self" which was reassuring to us. Johnny and I both agreed we hope we never have to go through this again - but I have a feeling this is only the beginning with this guy. Especially if he's anything like his daddy was as a kid!!!! Plus with me being such a "Psycho Mom", I'll be taking him to the doctor or ER for every bump, bruise and cough he gets! Poor Cash. I commented to Johnny that I'm going to have a full head of gray hair by the time Cash turns one. Johnny said he won't have any hair left by Cash's first birthday. Sigh. Better break out the rocking chairs now and make our reservations for the old folk's home.

Mommy's Handsome Guy

Me & My Bunny

Cash got this adorable sleep sack, hat, socks & bunny from Aunt Stephanie. The bunny is so cute and is just his size!

Fussy Baby

Johnny went back to work yesterday and left me & Cash to our own devices. I was, of course, upset that he had to go, but Cash & I did ok. Mom came over about 3:00 with some food for me and she stayed with us until around 10:00. Think she enjoyed getting to spend more time with Cash and hold him. He's been horribly fussy since last Thursday evening and it seems to get worse each day. On Saturday evening, we called the after hours numbers for the home health nurse (Johnny talked to a nurse who wasn't a pediatric nurse but said it sounded to her like colic), the NICU (again the nurse Johnny spoke with said colic) and Cash's doctor (the doctor I talked to said colic isn't very common in a baby so young. I asked if it could be the multi-vitamin he was put on as it has iron in it and seems like when we started giving that to him is when he started getting fussy. She said the multi-vitamin wouldn't have anything to do with why he's uncomfortable.). The home health nurse came to visit today and I questioned her about Cash being so fussy. I brought up the multi-vitamin with iron and she said that's exactly what's causing him to be uncomfortable and in pain. We're supposed to stop his vitamins for two days then start giving it to him again but break up the dose into two 1/2 doses and see if that for sure is the issue. We've been giving him Mylicon drops for gas and seems to help but he's still in obvious discomfort. It's much worse at night so none of us is getting much sleep. Hopefully it is just the iron in the multi-vitamin that's causing him to be so fussy and breaking the dose up into two doses will take care of that. Other than that, Cash is doing great. His check-up from Deb, the home health nurse, went great. He gained 4 oz since Thursday and is up to 4 lbs 15.5 oz. I was a little bummed out that he wasn't 5 lbs -missed it by 1/2 oz!!! That's ok, though. We know when she comes back to see him Friday he'll be over 5 lbs. That's so exciting!!!

Loveable (but unhappy!)

Winnie the Pooh Outfit

Cash got this super-cute Winnie the Pooh outfit from his great-aunt Debbie. He's growing like a weed so I had to make sure I got a picture of him wearing it since it won't fit him for long! He's very close to outgrowing almost all his preemie clothes but newborn clothes are still too big for him - although they won't be for long!

Cash's Room

Cash's 2nd Visit From the Home Health Nurse

Today Cash had his second Home Health nurse visit. He gained 2 1/2 oz from Tuesday to today. Besides showing how extremely adorable he is, you can see in these pictures that he does look like he's chunking up a little bit. Hopefully we'll be hitting the 5 lb mark really soon!!!

Cash with Daddy & Mommy

Cash in his crib & pack 'n play + Doctor appointments

I know Cash is small, but he looks especially tiny in his crib. In his pack 'n play he doesn't look quite as small. As you can see, we keep him really bundled up because he still can't really keep his own body temperature up where it needs to be.

Yesterday the home health nurse came for her first visit. On her scale, Cash weighed 4 lbs 9 oz which is up from what he weighed last at the hospital, but we don't know what the difference is from the hospital scale to her scale. We'll have a better idea of how much weight he's gaining when she comes back tomorrow to weigh him. She takes his temperature, looks him all over, listens to his lungs, weighs him and answers any questions we have. With her coming to our house, we don't have to take him out in public to the doctor and expose him to everyone's illnesses and germs.

We also had a doctor appointment today, which went ok. They measured Cash and said he's now 18 inches long (he was 17.5 when born). We weren't impressed with the clinic his doctor is located in. It doesn't appear to be the cleanest place and isn't in a very nice part of town, but it's where our insurance pays for us to go. Also, the first nurse who came in and did some of his check up was pretty dirty and stank of cigarette smoke. We don't have to take him back until his 8 week appointment the beginning of April when he'll have some of his immunizations. I think at that point Johnny & I will decide if we're going to keep taking him there. We talked of taking him elsewhere and just paying the portion that insurance won't pay. We'll see.

Cash Comes Home

Today Cash was discharged from the hospital and went on his first car ride. Mommy's pretty nervous about him being out of the hospital, but very thankful we were able to get a monitor sent home with him. If Cash has any episodes of apnea or if he has a high or low heart rate, the monitor will go off to warn us.

Khloee & Lily aren't quite sure what to think of Cash yet. Hopefully they'll be really good with him.

Car Seat Test

Cash had to pass the car seat test before we could take him home. The nurse adjusted the straps on the car seat to fit Cash. He had to sit in his car seat for an hour without having any episodes of apnea. Of course, he passed with flying colors!!! His car seat completely swallows him up, he's so tiny!!!

Cash's First Bath From Mommy

Go Vols!

This onesie is what Cash had his hospital picture taken in. It's way too big for him, but he had to show his colors!

I Still Live With My Parents

Holding Daddy's Hand

My Balloons

Balloons from my mom & dad and from my aunt Julie & uncle Ron.

My Flowers and Balloons

While in the hospital I received flowers from Johnny & Cash, my grandma & grandpa Russell and my aunt Julie & uncle Ron.