Brantly Christopher Smith

We welcomed into the world our beautiful baby boy Brantly Christopher Smith on the 5th of September at 8:55 AM. He weighed a whopping 9 lbs 3 oz and was 20 inches long. Big Boy! My labor was not fun (that's a whole post in of itself that probably wont ever happen...not a fan of sharing that stuff haha) but my actual delivery was a breeze so that's cool. Here is what happened with this little guy. (sorry if its a little scatter brained)

Wednesday the 5th. It was a nice sunny day. After he was born we had him with us for a few hours. We wanted Emery to be the first to meet him so my mom brought her over at about 10 am (she was watching her for us) Justin was in the nursery with Brantly and Emery saw him through the window and was sooo excited. Unfortunately she watched another baby get shots and instantly became concerned about her brother and what they were doing to her. When they were done with the nursery they came back to my room and she got to hold him and was very proud to be a sister. You could tell that she was stressed about making sure he was OK and that they weren't going to do any mean things to him. We visited with Justin's dad, and my mom for a while. This is when the nurse noticed that he was breathing really fast and was making some sounds...we thought they were just cute baby sounds. She decided to take him to the nursery with Justin. Emery wanted to go to make sure he was going to be OK so my mom took her to look at the babies in the nursery. They hooked him up to a vital tracking machine in the nursery and his oxygen levels kept dipping below 90. You want them to be over 90 and for his size in the upper 90's. I rolled over there in a wheelchair and my dad and Rhonda came and were standing outside the nursery. (Emery and my mom had gone back to my room) Just being in the nursery watching his numbers dip...i thought i was going to lose it. How could my little guy who was doing totally fine all of a sudden not be OK anymore. Justin and me went from totally elated to completely devastated in a matter of seconds. I went back to my room..i couldn't be in the nursery anymore. Then the N.I.C.U. nurse and respiratory technician came and watched him for a bit and decided that he should be admitted into the N.I.C.U. and be on oxygen due to his levels not staying above 90 on his own. They brought him back to my room and told me the plan, let me hold him for a minute before they took him to the n.i.c.u. I asked if he was going to be OK and they told me yes and that if it was real serious they wouldn't have brought him back to my room to see me (this made me feel a tiny bit better that he wasn't going to die). They hooked him up on oxygen and an i.v. for nutrition. They took some blood tests which came back and some number was at .59 and shouldn't be over .3 so Dr. Le (he is also emery's Dr he is great!) decided to start him on antibiotics in case he had a bacterial infection. My dad and Justin's dad came and gave him a blessing. The nurse and Dr. Le were wondering about reflux. Night nurse finally decided to suck his stomach out since she thought that he may have swallowed amniotic fluid. Justin asked what a lot would be and she said 5ml and she sucked out 6ml of amniotic fluid that he had swallowed. He was not allowed to eat anything for about 29 hours and he hated to be touched...like it really hurt him.

Thursday the 6th. Rainy/Cloudy day...pretty much describes how i was feeling about everything that was happening. Night nurse was able to weened him down on his oxygen level and he was doing good with keeping his numbers above 90. They did another thing of blood work and the numbers had come down to .41 and a few hours after that it was down below .3. Dr. Le called my room (Justin was in the n.i.c.u) around 5pm and gave the go ahead to start feeding Brantly at increased intervals starting at 10 ml, 15 ml, 20 ml, 25 ml etc. He was so excited to eat so I ran back to the n.i.c.u. (i had been waiting for my pain meds...who needs those anyways :P) and his oxygen tube was taken all the way out and Justin had fed him. We were thrilled! Brantly wasn't a huge fan of only getting to eat very small amounts as he had gone 29 hours without eating and was surviving on lemon flavored cotton swab sucker things. He started to get a hang of his Binky. He had his first poop. Justin gave him a bed bath which he hated but was so cute anyways. Justin's family came up and got to meet him that evening. Emery wondered where Brantly was (she couldn't go into the n.i.c.u.) and we just told her he was in his special sleeping spot. Night nurse had to change his i.v. location from his hand to his head since that vein had gone bad. Sad day seeing little man with an i.v. in his noodle.

The hospital does a special dinner for couples Justin had salmon and i had streak. Yum

Friday the 7th. Sunny/Cloudy day. Brantly was able to stay off of his oxygen and had been eating really well. We noticed that he was getting a little yellow. Blood culture came back from Wednesday and didn't show any type of weird results but Dr. Le wants to finish the full 7 days of antibiotics. We were discharged from the hospital and that was really hard to leave and not have him with us. We got home and spent some good time with Emery since we hadn't been with her for a while. She took a nap and Justin and I laid down in the bed and both passed out. Justin was sleeping on his stomach and pickle (our cat) came and laid on his back. He wasn't to happy about that. Emery went with her dad and we went to dinner with my mom Kevin and Nicole at the red lantern. Then to the n.i.c.u. so Kevin and Nicole could meet him. They were able to take him off the sugar water i.v. which was awesome because he was eating so well. He still had the actual i.v. in him for the antibiotics. Dr. Le ordered blood work for Saturday to check bilirubin levels.

Saturday the 8th. Sunny day. Came to n.i.c.u. at 9 in the morning. Brantly is doing good. We were changing his diaper and the second it came off he peed haha! Luckily Justin caught most of it with the diaper. He also pooped more while he was getting changed. I also got the more poop while being changed treatment. We brought the blanket that i made him and he's been in that. Dr. Le came and saw him and showed us his bilirubin levels and that they were high. He got started on the lights. He gets to wear awesome sunglasses though and i love to look at his nakedness even though he wasn't a fan of being naked...he likes to be wrapped up tight. He hasn't seemed to be sleeping as good today and is having a harder time with his oxygen so he might have to get a tube again. Also if he doesn't eat real good at his next feeding he might have to get a tube in his tummy to make him eat to help get the bilirubin out (poop). Nurse called Dr. Le and told him what was going on. Dr. Le didn't want to do oxygen yet and Brantly ate great for us so no tummy tube. X-ray was ordered as well as another round of blood work since he is having a hard time staying above 90 for his oxygen. Dr. Le will call us if anything looks weird (it's like 1am in the morning right now)

Sunday the 9th. Sunny day. Talked to Dr. Le and he wrote orders for oxygen if Brantly continued to Dsat (oxygen levels) His bilirubin levels came down so he got to be off the lights. Once he got all bundled up he stopped dsating and didn't need oxygen at all. He was eating really good in about 2 hr intervals. His head i.v. went back so they got him in his other hand. He did get to be i.v.less for a few hours which was super awesome. He has been doing great with pooping and pee which is great. Pooping gets the bilirubin out. He likes to poop when we are changing him. Discovered he is to big for his going home outfit but his boots fit :) Grandma Sue and Uncle Jesse got to hold him for the first time. He is also a pro burper and he has a really strong neck and loves to look around.

N.I.C.U. pics

Emery visiting Brantly. We got to wheel him up to the window for her.

Awesome Shades under the lights

Under the lights

His going home outfit

The next couple of days went by great and he was only in there just to finish up his antibiotics. It was hard to be patient with him being in there but Justin and I kept saying we'd rather overstay then understay and have to go back. We got to bring him home on Wednesday. He had to pass his car seat test which is when they put them in their car seat for 2 hours and monitor their stats to make sure that they don't suffocate etc. We also got to watch a CPR video which was informative. He then got circumcised which neither Justin or i watched. Before they took him to have that done though i was changing him and he cannon pooped all over my shirt...(i guess i deserved it :P) and that was really exciting! Like crazy amount of poop right down the front of my and onto my shoe haha. Then after that he finished his last dose of antibiotics and i put him in his new leaving hospital outfit...freaking cute and off we went! He had a pretty good night but his little pecker looks like it really hurts! I feel bad but i know it's better this way when he's just little. He also has a horrid rash on his little bum which the n.i.c.u. nurse told us would happen from his antibiotics so they gave us heavy duty butt paste for that. Last night he did pretty great as well and ate almost a whole 4 oz bottle each time he ate...chunker. We had his follow up Dr. visit and the Dr. noticed that he has a yeast infection in his mouth called Thresh. Also from all the antibiotics he was on...stupid antibiotics. Justin had been wondering about this since his tongue was covered in white stuff i thought it was normal...it's been a while. Poor guy having troubles all over the place! But other than that he is doing super great. It's been really hard to get in the swing of things...i expect this to take a while. Emery hates it when he cries...she gets super concerned about him and puts herself into a fit of panic...sensitive little miss. He hates getting his butt changed (can't blame him with the rash and the circ...) He is feisty when he is hungry and makes sure you know about it...then when you put the bottle in his mouth he's like a shark nom nom nom! He really loves his little seat that vibrates and could probably sleep for hours on end if we let him in it. He also isn't a fan of baths. Sometimes when he cries i think it sounds like he's laughing...a really sad laugh but still. Anywho we are glad he is home and extremely grateful he is doing so well. Our whole perception of the N.I.C.U. has changed. I always thought that it was for really tiny babies and really sick babies...Yay for baby Brantly being home!