Feeling like a Mum!

This week has been interesting!

Zoey has been very congested for about 3 weeks.  It started with just a little bit of a stuffy nose, and then two weeks ago it got pretty bad.  She was having trouble breathing through her nose (babies are "obligate nose breathers" so they won't breath through their mouth except when crying or when they are forced to), which made sleeping a huge challenge.  She would fall asleep, and then wake up soon after because she'd choke on her snot or not be able to breath at all.  We asked the midwives, who gave us some solutions and then told us to follow up with my doctor since we were "graduating" from their care a few days later.  We then followed up with another doctor from the office (since mine wasn't working that day), and he gave us the same advice and told us to follow up in a week. (The advice was saline drops in her nose, suck out the mucous with a bulb thing, and use a humidifier).  Everyone agreed that she wasn't sick, just congested.

When I followed up again with my doctor this Tuesday, she was immediately concerned with how much she had to struggle to breathe.  (Side note: I love my doctor.  She is amazing.  She always takes things seriously, she has called me from her own home twice, she asks opinions, and is generally awesome.)  She brought another doctor from the office in for a second opinion, and they both thought I should go to emergency to make sure there wasn't a blockage in her airway.  At this point, I wasn't really TOO worried, and to be honest I was a little relived that I could take action to find a solution.  It has been exhausting dealing with Zoey in terms of sleep.  Otherwise, she is happy, but to hear her breathe just breaks my heart.

In Emergency

So off to the Children's Hospital we went.  I sat in emergency for a while, and at one point a nurse walked by, heard Zoey breathing, and brought me back to super suck the mucous out of her nose.  It involved tubes right up her nose and down her throat, vacuuming, and blood.  Oh and lots of crying by Zoey.  We eventually got into a room, and they hooked her up to a monitor to make sure she was getting enough oxygen and breathing out enough carbon dioxide.  Everyone who saw her was amazed at how healthy she was, but had never heard a baby so congested.  They were all puzzled.  After a while, they decided to keep her overnight for observation.  That was when I started thinking that maybe things were a little more serious than I thought.  Matt joined us at that point and we were seen by quite a few really nice and thorough doctors.  We got moved to a real room around 12:30 pm and Zoey got the royal treatment with her own little hospital crib, an awesome nurse-strength swaddle, and a cool noise machine.  Matt and I shared a single cot!

Fancy/sad crib!

After many theories (structual problems, RSV which caused us to be quarantined and everyone who entered the room had to be in full gown/mask/gloves, multiple viruses in a row...) no one REALLY knew what was wrong with her.  They all just thought she was completely healthy aside from being terribly congested.  Finally around 4 ish in the afternoon (about 26 hours after we arrived!) an ear/nose/throat doctor visited, put a camera up her nostrils, and decided that she has very small nostrils, a small infection, and that combined with our dry climate is causing her congestion.  The solution? A more powerful saline solution, sucking out the mucous with a bulb thing, and a humidifier.  Oh, and she has to grow.  Sweet.  So after all that, poor Zoey just has to deal with it, and every day it should get better with her growth.

Noise machine = awesome!

It was a bit of a surreal experience, since it was her first time in a hospital, and my first night in the hospital since I was born.  Also, the fact that everyone had to dress in full bio hazard attire made things seem a little more major.  Her poor nose was so red and irritated from everyone repeatedly sticking things up and down it, but she surprisingly was in good spirits in between it all.  I definitely felt like a "real mum" after taking my child to the hospital.  There was something about it that felt like initiation or something!

So now we wait for her to grow and hope that it gets better every day!

Has anyone had scary hospital experiences?  This was pretty minor in the grand scheme of things...