August 2010 Babies

Well, I've gone through my scariest time as a mom this week. Little Charlie got sick on Tuesday. She started having diarrhea and after a few of those diapers she started throwing up. Serious throwing up - out of mouth and nose! We took her to dr Wed because she was still throwing everything up. He told us to do pedialyte and when that wasn't enough give diluted formula. She kept the pedialyte down but threw up formula. Wed Rylie started having diarrhea also. Thursday Charlie couldn't keep anything down even pedialyte. We called dr and he said 2 Tbsp pedialyte every 15 minutes. Well Charlie was screaming the entire time because this poor kid was starving. We called dr again after hours and he sent us to er. The iv took 5 tries on this tiny baby. I was sobbing while trying to comfort her. I wanted to punch the nurses but I know they were doing their best. They drew blood before the iv tries. They finally get the iv in her foot and the first nurse comes back saying the sample got contaminated and they had to draw blood again. I was livid!!! So they drew blood out of the other arm. This kid looks like a pin cushion. So they gave her fluid. Blood work looked good, but she was dehydrated (which is why they couldn't get the iv, her veins were flat). The er dr thought it was formula related. Gave some pedialyte, came right back up so they admitted her at 2am. At 5 am we were finally brought to her room on peds floor. She threw up pedialyte again so they gave more fluids. Yesterday they started her on soy formula. She kept that down thank God. The on call ped dr said she is very confident it is a gastro bug especially with Rylie having diarrhea (Rylie's better and never threw up). She said Charlie can't be thought of as a 4 week old, but a 1 day old because of her due date. She said they don't catch up until 6 months, so her immune system couldn't handle this bug. She threw up the soy last night, but today she's kept it down. The dr just came and said if she keeps the next feeding down and her weight is up she's in good shape. They are going to give her something to help her poop (she hasn't since we've been admitted) to make sure it isn't building up. Then she will let us go home. I'm so relieved it was a bug. There were so many things that preemies can have wrong with stomach and digestion and I was terrified!! DH has been home with Rylie and I haven't left the hospital. They come up a couple times a day, but Rylie is a little scared seeing Charlie hooked up to everything. Anyway, I wanted to update you and if you are the praying kind, please say a little prayer that Charlie gets better quickly. This poor baby has been through the ringer.