Day 5 of the virus. The day where it normally peaks at its worst. And peak it did.

We knew that this day would probably be her worst day, and it was. Thankfully though, we never had to intubate her, which was the fear. They were able to keep her at the right levels just by bumping up her cpap.

The day went pretty smoothly, just because the nurses were so on top of things and always watching her. It felt good to know that we didn’t have to worry about the care she was getting. Every time her oxygen would drop or respirations or heart rate get too high, her nurse was immediately in there to check on her. She looked so pitiful and swollen from the fluids, and you could just tell she didn’t feel good at all.

They started the day by putting her feeding tube in. Since they do NOT want the babies to spit up and risk aspirating, they like to put the feeding tubes into the small intestine. That wasn’t fun to watch, but it only took a few minutes to get it in place, and she fell back asleep as soon as they were done.

It had been hard on me not being able to nurse her and comfort her, but I was so happy that they were going to use my milk in her feeding tube. I felt like I was helping again. And WOW! Those hospital grade breast pumps are the bees knees! We will be going home with a huge freezer stash just from what I pumped in a couple of days.

They got a little more aggressive with her suctions, and did them a little more frequently to help keep her lungs clear. The babies absolutely hate having it done, but man does it help them breathe better.

The best part of our day though, was getting to see our boys. After a small (or not so small) breakdown that morning, Jake called my parents to have them bring Grady and Porter up. Absolutely no children are allowed to visit the PICU, but mom and dad were able to sit with Finley while we ate lunch with the boys and played in the Ronald McDonald room.

My mom got the sweetest video that I treasure so much. When I walked out of the PICU doors the boys were standing there waiting for me. They both ran to me, and I dropped to my knees to hold them both. I had shed enough sad tears, and it was nice to shed a few happy ones. It was so good to have them back in my arms. It wasn’t so fun to tell them goodbye again after a couple of hours.

Right after they left our chiropractor showed up with a huge box of food for us. It felt so, so good to eat a real home cooked meal. She brought us BBQ beef brisket with every side you could imagine. I’m so thankful that I have a chiropractor that cares so much about their clients and goes above and beyond!

After supper Finley was sleeping good, so Jake convinced me to walk to spangles with him for some ice cream. I didn’t realize until I stepped outside that that was the first time I had been outside of the hospital since we got there.

By the time it started getting late Jake and I were starting to realize just how exhausted we really were. The PICU has family rooms where the parents can sleep, but up until this point we had both opted for the couch so we could be in her room with her. I told Jake to get a family room so he could sleep better, and I would sleep on the couch again. At about one in the morning I hadn’t even got a chance to lie down yet, so Jake took over and gave me a few hours of sleep. The 3 hours of sleep on that twin sized bed with the plastic sheet and thin blanket felt like heaven!

She wasn’t  getting worse through the evening and I went to bed counting my blessings and thanking God that it seemed like we were turning a corner for the better!

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