Life in the PCH NICU 11-3-09 to 12-24-09

At 12:14PM on November 3, 2009 our William George Leon was born via c-section weighing 2 pounds 14 oz and just 14 inches long. He was admitted to the PCH NICU immediately after birth for poor respiratory concerns among other concerns. This was the scariest day of my husband and I's life. When William was born he was taken to the NICU and being that I just had a c-section and lets just say I was not feeling great so I didn't get to see much of my little baby, but I got to wave to him as he was taken to the by our high risk delivery NICU nurse and neonatologist... and of course Richie went with William to the NICU and I had to go to a surgery recovery room for a while. After the NICU staff took a good look ant William and got him all set up in his NICU suite Richie came to my recovery room to give me details! He came in the room and with a tear in his eye, he told me there were alot of things wrong with our little buddy but that the doctors and nurses were working away on him. I was dying to know what all they were doing for my baby.When he was taken to the NICU, the nurses and doctors immediately got him hooked up to necessary monitors, started an IV. He had ultrasounds performed on his brain, heart and abdomen. He had basically full body x-rays. And they examined baby William from head to toe. This is how they discovered his multiple congenital anomalies.

 After I got situated in my hospital room after the c-section and was doing good (like 4 hours later) I finally got to take a wheelchair ride to the NICU and meet my baby! When I got to meet William I was shocked that my amazing little baby was such a fighter and boy was he the cutest little 2 pounder in the whole world. He just totally melted my heart. At that moment, our learning experience started. We knew nothing about the conditions William was born with. But Richie and I thought William was the most amazing little creature ever and wanted to learn all about him, and be 110% involved with the care he received in the NICU. Anytime I learned a new term or learned new things when caring for baby William I was constantly asking our nurses and doctors questions, or researching it online. 

As I held this 2 pound 14 ounce baby in my hands, with all these cords and tubes attached to him and the most amazing nurses and doctors caring for him- I just knew he was going to fight through all he was faced with. 

Although William had all of his special tubes and monitors attached to him and had to stay in the heated isolette most of the time to maintain his body temp- we were encouraged to open the isolette port holes and touch and talk and interact with our baby boy as much as we wanted as long as he continued to be stable and was not getting into distress from the stimulation. Luckily he did well wit the interaction and stimulation, and him and I had the most amazing special bond. He is for sure a mommas boy and has been since day 1.

November 7, 2009 - First Surgery 4 days old

William was a hard stick and he was receiving IV nutrition. His IV kept blowing out his veins and his nurses were having to stick the poor little guy a few times daily and that was so terrible. After multiple blown veins we came up with a plan, to place a central line. Its a deeper stick, and there is a special team at PCH called the IV team and together a IV team nurse and NICU nurse Jaime tried to place that central line by hand, and I am not kidding... they tried for an entire hour to get the job done without success. Our only other option was to have a central line called a broviac surgically placed. In order to do this he has to be transferred from the PCH McDowell NICU to the main PCH Thomas campus NICU. Also had to be intubated for the surgery as they cut 2 small incisions and insert a catheter tubing into a deep vein to receive IV fluids and nutrition with ease! So we took an ambulance transfer ride to PCH Thomas NICU on Saturday November 7th, 2009 around 3 pm, and surgery was at 4pm by on call pediatric surgeon Dr. Craig Egan. I knew nothing about Dr. Egan, but I am now so very thankful that he is William's pediatric surgeon, as he has performed multiple surgeries on William and is an amazing surgeon and we just love him. We also met more amazing NICU staff at Thomas NICU. That day, PPA NNP Camilla Miller was on and after meeting her, I just fell in love with her. Funny story,  we introduced her to William, and I told her his full name, WIlliam George Leon, she looked at me with a look and said your kidding me because her fathers name was William George Labe. From that day forward, she fell in love with her little William George and I felt like we had a fun personal connection! I also met all of the other PPA neonatologists and NNP's and love them every bit as much as well. 

When William was a week or so old, every so often he would turn bright red in the face and his arms would stiffin and slightly shake and it looked like suspicious seizure like activity and we were all concerned. So William had to get and EEG test performed. It looks worse than it is, but he was perfectly fine. They just have to stick a bunch of electrodes to his head and to make them stick in place they wrap his head in gauze and monitor his brain activity on computer and also video record him. Thank goodness the tests came out normal and the suspicious like activity was just William's way of crying or showing that he was upset.

One day when I arrived to the NICU to be with my little bubba, nurse Kelly Ackerman was having fun playing with and entertaining my sweet little guy. She got him a book about puppies and put one of his stuffed dogs atop his isolette. She must have worn him out playing with him!

Another time I called in at night to check on my little man and nurse Katie Bell was caring for William and she told me he was doing great that night and he was actually on a bear hunt. I was like bear hunt? And she told me that she dressed him in his camouflage gear and got out his beenie baby bear, fox and lion and her and the other night nurses were leading William on a NICU bear hunt. This was the funniest and cutest report I got on William. It was so hard having my baby in the NICU for 8 weeks, and I wasn't able to stay there 24/7 and when I was home at night and missing my baby and I would call in to check on him before bed, in the middle of the night or early in the morning I always felt so lucky to have such amazing NICU staff there at PCH caring for William. They truly love their babies and I know they really loved their little William.

We had alot of visitors during the 8 week NICU stay. My mom visited nearly every single day! All of our family was very supportive of our situation, and were always a huge help with caring for Isabell. I was able to spend ALOT of time in the NICU and therefore was able to stay completely involved in William's NICU hospitalization.

PCH NICU also has such an amazing staff. They are all so caring and compassionate.  I admire each and every one of them for they job they do. I send thanks to all who was a part of Williams NICU stay. Special thanks to my primaries Jaime Belisle, Ian Penne (who both were only able to primary for us while at McDowell NICU) and Ashley Felipe and Randa Hunt. I call them all our Amazing NICU family. 

We were discharged from the NICU on Christmas eve when William was about 4 1/2 pounds. He had a surgery to fix an inguinal hernia before we discharged. He recovered well from the surgery and we took our little fighter home! He was the best Christmas gift ever.