Jonah's First Day

I suppose most babies by now are enjoying the warm embrace of their parents, wrapped up tight in blankets, and content with being passed around friends and family members.  But Jonah gets the special treatment and has the best cardiologists, neonatologists, surgeons and nurses working around the clock to keep him healthy.  

Stacie was moved from labor & delivery to a postpartum recovery room just down the hall (and still close to NICU).  The room is a little smaller and I get a poor man's lazy boy to sleep in, but at least there is a shower.  Her fainting spell took quite a toll, but Stacie is feeling better and is much more alert than before.   Around 8:30pm, Mr. Schwab and I drove down the street to get burgers and Italian beef sandwiches from Portillo's.   Stacie originally requested McDonalds, but the least we could do was raise it up a notch after the day she had.  Wolfing down a good burger definitely brought her back to life.

Before dinner, I did take Mr. and Mrs. Schwab over to the NICU to visit Jonah.  There are rules.  1)  Must scrub arms for 2 minutes from fingers to elbows.  There is even a finger nail pick.  2)  Gown must be worn.  3) Only 2 visitors at a time and 1 of those must be a parent.  4) All cell phones must be turned off.

Mr. Schwab and I went first.  The nurse taking care of Jonah immediately overwhelmed me with medical jargon.  That's all right, I told her she would have to repeat all this to my wife the RN.  I could see Jonah intubated and other various tubes and cords running all over his body.  He's hooked up to a good handful of computers, all displaying different graphs, lines, numbers, beeps and blinkies on the monitors.  Other than that, he looks really good.  He looks bigger than 6lbs 11oz, he has blond hair, and he already needs his nails trimmed!
The nurse explained that he would be getting an echo cardiogram tonight and that the cardiologist could discuss the results asap.  Well, the cardiologist fellow just stopped by our room and spent a good 30 minutes talking with us.  The first impression of Jason was awesome (just like everyone else we've met here).  Although he basically confirmed much of the same diagnosis that was discovered inutero, he was very optimistic of Jonah's overall condition.  Jonah's sats (i.e. oxygen saturations in the blood) we're high, which means he has too much blood circulating through his lungs and not enough circulating throughout the rest of his body.  By intubating him, they can better control this.  He's on Prostaglandin to keep the PDA hole open.  He's on Fentanyl and Versed to keep him sedated and comfortable.  Also, we had to sign our first consent form for an invasive procedure.  They were hoping to use the umbilical artery to draw blood, however the artery clamped down before they could insert the catheter (which is normal).  So as an alternative, they will do what's called a femoral line in his groin tonight.

So Jonah's first few hours in this life have been unique to say the least.  Thank God we can sleep tonight knowing he's a fighter and he's in the best of hands.  Tomorrow, our goal is to get Stacie into a wheelchair and wheel her over to visit Jonah in the NICU.  I will also work on getting pictures posted, but I forgot the digital camera's USB cable back home - guess we all have to settle with cell phone quality the next couple days.