One Month Old!

On tax day, April 15th, Brooklynn was one month old--and what a month it's been!  I am glad to announce that she's finally gaining some weight, but it took a three day stay in the hospital to put some meat on her bones.  Here's the story of our lovely hospital stay:

Last Friday, I took Brooklynn back to the doctor's office to weigh her in again.  I was nervous, but felt positive that she had to have gained at least one ounce since Monday.  When the nurse put her on the scale, I gasped because she had not gained anything and might have even dropped a little.  I went back to the exam room to wait for the doctor.  When she came in, I was surprised to see that it was a completely new doctor that I had never seen before.  She looked at the chart on the computer and then told me that she thought Brooklynn might need to go back to the hospital.  I was so shocked because it never crossed my mind that that would be her suggestion.  I was expecting her to suggest tons of formula and to give up on nursing completely.  I asked her why and she said that she was afraid we had waited too long to take action.  Too long for what?!  She then left the room to consult with the other doctors; I then immediately started to cry and called Brian, my mom, and my sisters. 

When she came back in, it didn't get any better.  She said that everyone agreed a hospital stay was necessary and that we should go immediately.  She thought her eyes looked sunken in (even though she had never seen Brooklynn before) and was very concerned about her blood sugar levels.  I asked if I could just go home and give her tons of formula, but she said no.  (If you can't tell, I am not a big fan of this doctor or her reactions.)  I sadly went home and prepared to go back to the hospital.  Luckily, Toni and Keri were down for the week and could take care of Bailey.  Brian left work early and we drove down to San Diego.

Once we checked in we met with a really nice doctor who didn't freak out and clearly explained everything and answered all of Brian's questions.  They took Brooklynn and took a bunch of blood--from her hand, both arms, and the worst one was from her head.  Their main concern was that at 24 days old she still had not gotten back up to her birth weight.  They had me nursing her every 2 1/2 hours and then supplementing with formula.  I had to write down how long she nursed and how much formula she ate, to measure her intake; they also weighed each diaper to measure her output.  I was so nervous and stressed because it reminded me too much of when Bailey was in the NICU for two months.  I was not up to another two month stay in the hospital.

It was a long first night in the hospital by myself on the world's worst excuse for a bed/chair.  By Saturday morning some of her test results were back and the only abnormal thing was her liver enzyme count.  The doctor said that it was 2 1/2 times higher than it should be.  Because of the liver test, they now had to run a million other tests to make sure that it wasn't some weird virus or that her liver was shutting down or many other horrific scenarios that played out in my head.  I can kind of be a worst case scenario girl some of the time.

Saturday my mom came and spent the day with me and Brooklynn, while my sisters took care of Bailey and Brian flew to Kentucky for his Pop's funeral.  They continued to run tests on her all day in between her very frequent feeding schedule.  She was eating a ton of food and loving it!  I felt like everything with Brooklynn was going to be just fine and that her liver count was up simply because she had been starving for the first 24 days of her life.  Knowing that your child has been starving and it's only because of you, it can kind of make a mom feel bad.  By Saturday night, I was about to lose my mind and had decided that we really needed to go home tomorrow.

Sunday morning I met with the GI specialist and the dietician and they felt like we would probably go home today.  I was so excited to leave the hospital and be able to be comfortable back in our house and able to sleep in my wonderful bed.  Later that morning the really nice Dr. Suarez came back to talk with us and she said they had to run more tests and should probably stay until Monday.  I know that I probably looked like the world was about to end when she said that we might have to stay another day.  My mom was there for that meeting, so she asked a lot of questions to try to see if there was any way that we could leave today as long as Brooklynn was gaining weight.  Bottom line is that she had gained weight (because she was eating a ton) and we were able to come home.  She now just has to get more blood tests done every week and frequent doctor's visits to make sure she's chunking up.  I had to write this to get it out of my head, but it made me stressed just thinking about it.  To prove how much I hated it and stressed I was, I did not even bring my camera to take any pics during our entire stay.  I'm glad it's over and so glad we're home and can be normal again.  At her last appointment, she was up to almost 8.8 and the liver tests were looking much better.

Now for some cute pics not related to the hospital:

Photo session with Toni :)

So glad that Keri came down to meet Brooklynn and then was able to help watch Bailey while we had our hospital stay.

Keri and the girls

I just love her cute little face in this picture.  I might use this for her announcement because she looks so adorable.

Bailey and Grammy--thank goodness for my family being able to help out with everything.  Bailey didn't miss me for one second because she was always having fun.

This look is why I think she and Bailey might be twins.  This is a classic Bailey look that she still uses today and Brooklynn has it too.

Bailey and Keri in her sweet 80's wind breaker!

Another photo session with Toni.  Notice the lovely stick on earrings.

I couldn't leave out Doby and Shorty; they were so happy to be reunited.

Ty came down for a few days this past week for a training at the YMCA and he was able to meet Brooklynn.  She was so happy that she even smiled for the picture!