As I alluded to in earlier posts, Rebekah was delivered in Houston. This was due to concerns with her heart. We had been followed by a pediatric cardiologist for this pregnancy as part of her heart (called the aortic arch) was measuring small. The concern with that is when the PDA closes - this is something all babies have that close once they are born - that the blood flow through the arch would be restricted, causing issues with sweet Rebekah's lower extremeties. If this was the case, Rebekah would require surgery to remove the area that was too small.
Almost immediately after birth, Rebekah was taken to the NICU at Texas Children's to stay until it was determined whether or not she would need surgery to fix her arch. Her first echocardiogram showed that there was no narrowing of the arch. Praise the Lord! However, she was to remain in the NICU until her PDA closed to be 100% sure that there would be no further issues. In fact, the neonatologist that made rounds told me that he hoped that RJ would be his most boring patient. :)
Another answered prayer was the fact that despite being in the NICU, I was able to nurse Rebekah. We would follow up each session with a bottle, just to make sure she was getting enough, but I knew that that was just a temporary thing.
On October 15 (if I'm remembering correctly), Rebekah had a follow-up echo and it was found that her PDA was, in fact, closed. And there were no issues with her arch whatsoever! Unfortunately, the next day we found out her bilirubin was a tad high, so she had to be under the bili lights. We were so afraid that this would hamper us from going home, but 24 hours later, we were headed out of the hospital!
Our hospital stay wouldn't have been complete without the amazing nursing staff! Our favorite day time nurse was phenomenal and she was there for 3 of the 4 days we were there. She was Rebekah's nurse two of the days, but she always stopped the check in on her on the day she was assigned to a different patient. She was our nurse while Rebekah was on the bili light, and she was so eager for us to get to go home she put the bili blanket on Rebekah's back, while her front was being bathed in the actual light. Each night we had a new nurse, but two of the nights we had Aggie nurses! The first one was so sweet! She even went so far as to fashion RJ an A&M hat, complete with bow! The next night we had two nurses. They were also Aggie's, but one went to A&M Corpus as opposed to College Station. This night, Rebekah was their only patient, so I know she got tons of attention from those sweet girls.
Since being home, Rebekah has been a champ at nursing, in fact, she only gets a bottle once a day, just so she won't ever refuse one... She is such a sweet, snugly baby, and we couldn't be more thankful for her and the fact that she is our perfect little angel!
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| Ready to go home! |
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| The car ride home! |
