Saturday, November 05, 2005

My Son's Birth Story - RSV

Friday my baby son and I rode in my dads truck. My mom rode in our Tacoma with my husband. We drove to Albuquerque. That was a very long drive. My baby loved the ride and slept almost the entire way. I had to wake him for feedings. We got to our apartment to discover that the new carpet we were promised was not in. We had to stay in a hotel room across the street for a night so they could finish installing it. My dad and my husband unpacked all our belongings into our house. That Sunday my parents went home. The next day, Monday, my husband started his new job. I started to feel more like myself. I had only gained 23 pounds during my pregnancy with my son. I was back into my pre-pregnancy jeans two weeks after delivery. His face and head straightened out in just a few days. No he doesn't look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

A few days before Christmas I developed a clogged duct. That evening while watching a movie I started to get chills, and I developed a fever. I went to bed and ached all over, I couldn't stop shivering. My husband was freaking out. We had only been in Albuquerque for a few weeks and we didn't have anyone we could call. At 11pm my husband called my doctor back in Phoenix. She told us what had happened and what needed to be done.

A day or two after Christmas my in-laws came down for a visit. It was a wonderful visit and we were so glad they came. The first week of January my baby developed a cold. At first I wasn't too worried, but as the days went on it quickly got worse. He was very wheezy and I was scared to even leave him in his crib, even though it was in the same room. He slept on my chest so I could hear him breathing. I called the pediatrician, and they told me to bring him in immediately. The doctor was concerned, thinking it might develop to phnemonia. He had to have x-rays of his lungs. Luckily he didn't have phnemonia. They tested his blood to see what his oxygen saturation levels were. They weren't too low so they let me take him home. I was instructed to keep a bulb syringe near by to keep his nasal passages clear and to bring him in the next day for another test.

The next day it was even lower. They told me it was right on the borderline for hospital admittance for RSV. They would rather play it safe and have him monitored at the hospital just in case it got worse. I called my husband from the doctors office and told him to meet me at the hospital. I cried as I drove to the hospital. He was admitted on January 8th. I was a new mom, what mistake had I made already that allowed my baby to get RSV. Had I waited too long once he got a cold to bring him to the doctor? I was an inexperienced mom that didn't understand the dangers of such a young baby getting a cold.

The Relief Society president and the secretary had called the day before (Jan 7th) to see if they could come visit me that day(Jan 8th). When they went to my apartment and I wasn't there they immediately knew where I was. They called the hospital to find out if a baby had been admitted under our last name. When they found out they rushed to the hospital to be there with me. They hadn't even met me. They arrived before my husband did. They walked in to his room, here I am sitting on the bed, looking at him lying there on the other bed with oxygen tubes in his nose. When I looked up and they introduced themselves I immediately started to cry. I didn't have to be strong anymore, there was somone else there to hold me up.

Looking back at the 3 days I spent in the hospital with my baby I realize how naive I was. I assumed that because my baby was the size of a 4 month old at 6 weeks old he was 4 month old. He only had to stay in the hospital for 3 days, but those were the longest 3 days of my life. Every night while he was sleeping his saturation levels would drop and the alarm would go off. Every time I changed his diaper the nurse would take it to weigh it to see how much urine he had put out in a certain number of hours. I read through all the paperwork they gave me on RSV while I stayed there for 3 days.

He was lucky. He had a very mild case. I have heard of other babies having scarred lung tissue, they have to have breathing treatments for years. Children that get wheezy every time they get a cold. Children developing Asthma. Childrens getting Croup once or twice a year. I had thought my son wasn't going to have any side effects from having RSV. This week, watching my son fight a cold he's had going on 3 weeks now; I realized that maybe my son didn't luck out completely. I believe he does have a side effect of getting RSV so young. I believe a cold that he should be over in a week hangs on for two to three weeks, or sometimes longer. If thats the only side effect that he got from it I am so greatful.

So many other things have happened to my son since that time, but none of them required a trip to the hospital. Even though his RSV occurred at 6 weeks of age I consider that the end of his birth story. Anything that happened after that is part of his baby story. There are many of those baby stories, and toddler stories and I'm sure there will be many more as he grows to preschooler. I feel just as inexperienced for every hurdle I come to with him as a toddler as I did with a newborn. I guess thats just part of the world of mommyhood. Learn a little as you go.
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 11/05/2005 07:43:00 PM :: 0 Comments:

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