Off Topic: My Brother's Baby, update #10, #16, #24, #26 - Page 2

[LittleBrownDog]

Oh your poor SIL My MIL wasn't allowed to see DH after her c-section for two full days. Her regular OB was on vacation when she went into labor and she saw a fill-in doctor who took off as soon as he was done stitching her up (after the c-section she had because DH was "too big"). When her regular doc came back he pitched a fit and it still took another 1/2 day before she was allowed to see him 32 years later she still really struggles with the loss of that time She did, however, go on to breastfeed DH for over a year! In the early 70s! Go MIL!

I'll be thinking of your SIL and nephew! I hope things continue to look up!

[Rikki Jean]

Congratulations Aunt Gina! I can't wait to be an aunt, one sweet day (it'll be awhile; DH's sister, his only sibling, is married but doesn't want kids; my siblings are 14, 11, and 5, so it will be a while for them!).

Your brother's family will be in my prayers, specifically mom and baby for a quick recovery and road to normalness. I'll be praying that nursing will still go well for them, despite all of the road blocks.


I actually dreamt last night that I went into labor now. I think it's because DH and I were talking about the boys that were lost here, and a few other related things, so it was still on my mind, subconciously. In my dream though, I couldn't figure out if I was really just 20 weeks, or if I was just a few weeks away from my "EDD" (quoting since I don't have a real one yet ). Even when I woke up, it took me a minute to figure it out! :

Originally Posted by GinaRae

One can only imagine! She has to come TO the baby as he's in the NICU. Policies, don't you know. And most likely no one there knows they should fight to get the baby out to see her. Hopefully today is her lucky day??

She can't be taken to see him? Sorry if I missed something (I did read the whole thread )...

A friend of mine who lives in Ireland had a very scary birth and emergency c-section (one of the very rare times that a c-section was absolutely necessary); mom and baby almost died, baby was in the NICU for weeks, etc. Anyway, she was allowed to go be with the baby whenever she needded/wanted to, for the most part, but there were no elevators in the hospital, so her DH had to carry her up and down the stairs every day.

Nursing was really hard for them in the beginning too (when they finally got to; they couldn't touch the baby for quite a few days, because everytime that they did, he would have a seizure), but 19 months later, they still have a great nursing relationship. I hope that's encouraging to you, in terms of worrying about SIL and how she'll do with nursing because of all this.

Originally Posted by LittleBrownDog

Oh your poor SIL My MIL wasn't allowed to see DH after her c-section for two full days. Her regular OB was on vacation when she went into labor and she saw a fill-in doctor who took off as soon as he was done stitching her up (after the c-section she had because DH was "too big"). When her regular doc came back he pitched a fit and it still took another 1/2 day before she was allowed to see him 32 years later she still really struggles with the loss of that time She did, however, go on to breastfeed DH for over a year! In the early 70s! Go MIL!

Yes, definitely, Go MIL! That's awesome!

[myjulybabes]

Originally Posted by GinaRae

One can only imagine! She has to come TO the baby as he's in the NICU. Policies, don't you know. And most likely no one there knows they should fight to get the baby out to see her. Hopefully today is her lucky day??

This is the hospital I had my last birth at that scarred and jaded me for life. They were the ones that stole the baby from us basically - completely lied to us pre-birth and then did what they pleased and stood behind policy after. It's supposedly a good place to be if you need a NICU, but oh my gawd, it is an awful, militant hospital.

Between the infection, the fruitless second surgery, the fact that they aren't getting her up... I am really paranoid about the hospital now. I am wondering what their rates are for something like this.

For a lot of reasons, it's really not practical to take a baby in the NICU around the hospital. The nurses have more than 1 patient to care for per shift, there's bunches of equipment, even if he's not on a ventilator, etc. They brought my ds to my room because he was being transported to another hospital, and my room was on the way from the NICU to the ambulance. OMG, you should have seen that isolette! Took 2-3 people just to move it! Doesn't make it suck any less, but there probably are pretty good reasons for it.

What I'd focus on would be the mom's nurses helping HER get up and around so she can go bond with her precious baby! It should be a lot less complicated to get her mobile. Once she's able to sit up in a wheelchair, she can help drag her own IV pole and such. And if they aren't doing it, I'd raise heck. Well, I'd raise more than that, but I'm trying to stay within the UA here.

[GinaRae]

So baby was supposed to be out of the NICU and mom out of ICU and they were scheduled to go home. She finally got to hold/see baby about 49 hours after he was born.

BUT now he has jaundice. How bad, I don't know. But they're keeping him in the NICU. I have NO faith in this hospital, so I don't know if it's a janudice she could have gone home with or if it's serious. I won't be able to speak with mom until tomorrow.

Also, they've now said they feel the baby WAS 37 or 38 weeks, not the 34 weeks. *sigh*
I love getting all this stuff second hand and sometimes third hand. Mom swore up and down no, he was 34 weeks and then suddenly it changed, so I don't know if she even really knew. she's being a ripping pain lately!

But anywhoo, this may be the last update on my part as it seems they're finally headed in the right direction and SIL pulled through the sepsis and surgeries okay. Yay!

(P.S., when I reference "mom" in this post, it's my mom, not my SIL!)

[De-lovely]

Woohoo! Good news regardless! Elena had jaundice and because she was already in NICU I think they were MORE apprehensive about discharging her quickly. I had to come home without her. :

[GinaRae]

Latest update, they should be going home today, almost a week after labor. I can onliy imagine how hard the breastfeeding relationship is going, but hopefully because she doesn't like to give up or "lose" she will be able to make it work.

She actually did not hold the baby for THREE days. He was born Friday and she saw him Monday. She's very angry at the ICU staff and at my brother. The staff would talk over her as she lay there and say things that made her feel they didn't know what they were doing. In fact, she asked them at one point if they knew what they were doing.

She feels he let them keep her on a vent and what-not and he tells her he was concentrated on the baby. This also angers her because he was changing and feeding the baby while she was stuck on a vent. She couldn't get off the vent quickly because per policy she had to have the right "numbers" on the machine and because she would get so angry, she would have shortness of breath and mess up her numbers.

I know it's not him but rather the situation she's angry about. I worry that this will be hard to get over. It's hard to wait three hours to see your baby, let alone three days, and as wonderful as I am told she is, she has anger issues when she feels out of control.

When she was in ICU, the NICU staff would come talk to her about how well the baby was doing, but she didn't BELIEVE them because no one would let her see him and when she had seen him the first time, they'd whisked her away because he had breathing trouble as he was coming off the vent.

They're pretty sure his arm was stuck behind his head and that's why he wasn't coming out and they had the c-section after 18 hours and 1.5 of pushing and his arm was so purple.

So, they're finally going to be heading home and I can only hope she can find some peace with everything. I read the stories all the time here at MDC about moms like me who have trauma from some of our births and hers was exceptionally traumatic for quite a few days!

[Lexi_029]

I am glad that physically she is doing better and they are ready to send her and the baby home. I hope that she can find a way to handle the traumatic birth experience though, that would be terrible.