This post is a little late...in fact, Watson will be two months old in two weeks, but hey...at least I'm posting this before then, right?!
What a month it has been! Our sweet baby boy is growing like a weed and is bringing more and more joy to our lives every day. I absolutely adore him and cannot imagine life without his precious presence in our family! Our family has been through a lot in this first month, but I trust and pray that it has only grown us stronger and am honestly thankful for all that the Lord taught me through everything. Let me catch you all up.... (this is going to be LONG...I am including details for my own record)
Six days after Watson was born, we noticed three small abscesses on him that we decided to watch over the next 24 hours or so before calling the doctor to make sure it was not a type of diaper rash. The next morning, they had grown significantly, so I called our pediatrician and they had me bring him in. They were able to drain the sites, send them off to be cultured, and send us home with some cream to apply three times a day. Later that night I received a phone call from the doctor saying that his cultures had tested positive for MRSA. The only thing they could think, due to its location, is that he somehow acquired this form of a staph infection during his circumcision. After talking with the doctor I did what a newly postpartum mom should NEVER do...I got on google. Well, if you google newborns and MRSA the one recurring word that continued to stick out in everything I read was "fatal." It makes me feel sick again just typing that. We prayed. And we prayed. And we prayed some more, that God would heal these spots and the MRSA would not get into Watson's bloodstream. The spots quickly disappeared with the cream. However, that Saturday night, as I was changing his diaper, I noticed that one of the spots looked like it was coming back so I called the on-call pediatrician. They said to watch him over the weekend and come in to the office first thing Monday morning. I felt better that they did not seem too concerned. Fifteen minutes later, my phone rings with another doctor on the other end of the line saying that a couple of the pediatricians had consulted one another and I needed to take Watson straight in to the emergency room at Children's Hospital. Again, NOTHING that a newly postpartum mom needs to hear. I was a
wreck. Since Watson was only 9 days old at this time, the last place I wanted to take him was a hospital. My mom and dad went ahead of us to make sure that we could go straight back and not have to sit in the waiting room. Once we got there, we were thankfully sent straight to triage and in to a room. While we were in triage I ran in to a friend of mine from high school who is a nurse at Children's. Though we had lost touch over the years, she had seen on facebook that I had named my son Watson and then saw "Watson Hill" on the ER board and put it together that I would be coming in. I am so thankful she was there - seeing a sweet, familiar face at that time was exactly what I needed to help calm me down. I love how God works! We saw two doctors while we were there. The first said we were good to go home (the spot had disappeared by this point as well, thank the Lord!) so we got all ready to go home. The second doctor came in and said that she wanted to keep him for at least 48 hours and they would have to do their routine tests for a newborn...which included a spinal tap. I could not even let my mind go to thinking about my 9 day old son having to go through that. Both of those doctors then consulted a third doctor who thankfully agreed with the first that we could go home as long as we followed up with our pediatrician on Monday. Praise God, the spots are gone and we have not seen any sign of them since that night! Watson never had any fever, fussiness, lack of appetite, lack of sleep..anything that would be sign of an infection. The Lord is good!!! The whole time he was going through this I continued to say and think, "I wish I could take this from him...I would do anything to take this from him." I meant that with all of my heart, and it is a good thing that I truly did mean it because...
The same day that we originally took Watson in to the doctor for his abscesses, I started feeling really sick. I thought I was just extremely tired from getting up with a newborn all night, but I knew when we got home from the doctor that there was more to it. I was achy all over like I had the flu, I felt like I was going to fall out at any second, and my fever was quickly going up to 100...101...102... My mom was still at my house, thankfully, so she and Graham sent me to bed while they took care of Watson and called my OB doctor. Putting it all together, I had a classic case of mastitis. I cannot even begin to explain to you the pain that comes with mastitis! My doctor called me in some antibiotics and said that should take care of everything. Ten painful days later, my prescription was up and I was still not any better. I called the doctor again and they put me on another round of the same medicine saying that sometimes it takes two rounds to knock it out. I had a few days of relief, but nine days in to the second round of meds, I began feeling the same way as before...achy, extremely tired, my entire chest had changed from bright red to purple at this point and my fever was 102.7...so we called the doctor again. Of course, it was a weekend (I only get sick on weekends. Convenient.) The on-call OB sent me to the ER at St. Vincents. My OB called while I was getting ready to go to see what all was going on and warned me that I would probably be admitted. She was right. Turns out I was resistant to the antibiotics that they had given me for mastitis because I was now infected with MRSA. We guess since I was breastfeeding Watson while he was sick, I contracted it from him and it showed up in the form of MRSA and Mastitis. I was in the hospital for four days with heavy IV meds given four times a day. I cannot describe the pain I felt from being away from Watson during those days. I can say, though, that I have never been more thankful for Graham and the incredible husband and dad that he is. He stayed at the hospital taking care of me, while my family kept Watson. Knowing that he was in good hands made it somewhat bearable for me to be away, but thankfully I had sweet nurses who understood my incredibly emotional state of mind while in the hospital! On the fourth day of being in the hospital, the doctor said I could go home but I would have to get a PICC line put in (a line that runs from my arm to right above my heart) and I would have a home health care service set me up with IV meds at home that would be administered twice a day. Not ideal, but at that point I just wanted to hold my baby. Given that I was incredibly weak...and still very sick...my mom moved back in with us to help take care of me while Graham and I took care of Watson. I was on the IV's at home for twelve days when my PICC line clotted, sending us back in the ER. Luckily, we did not have to stay overnight and were able to come home. At this point my OB said that I was no longer able to breastfeed and needed to go ahead and let my milk dry up so that we could distinguish between MRSA and mastitis. Having to stop breastfeeding and switch to formula was incredibly difficult for me. I had always envisioned breastfeeding Watson for the first year. God, however, had other plans and I have to trust in Him and know that His ways are perfect. Two days later, my fever spiked again to 102.3. When this happened, Graham was on his way to Atlanta for the wedding of two of our best friends, my parents were in Chicago for an anniversary trip, my sister and her family were at the lake, and it was just me and Watson at our house. I called my OB and Infectious Disease doctors (both of which had been keeping tabs on me since my first time in the hospital) and they both said I needed to go back in to the ER. Thankfully, my mother in law had come in town a few days before to help us during the nights, so she came over to take care of Watson while my aunt took me back to the hospital. Though they are not exactly sure what caused my fever to spike while on such heavy medicines, they suspect that I was having a drug fever and/or an infection in my PICC line. They switched my meds while in the hospital, but eventually decided to take me off all of the medicines, take my PICC line out, and monitor me for 24 more hours to see what happened. Three days later, I was able to come home...medicine free, PICC line free, and
hopefully infection free!
I have now been home for a little over a week, and other than a few remaining side effects from the meds they had me on, I am feeling MUCH better and gaining more strength with each new day. I pray that this is the end of that crazy road and that we can now focus all of our attention and strength on our precious little boy!
So, needless to say, our first couple months of parenthood looked quite different than we ever expected, but as I said before, we trust that we are stronger from it all! Even though we are beyond exhausted...as all new parents are...we are incredibly thankful to be home and be able to wake up in the middle of the night with Watson. Those are such special bonding moments that we would not trade for anything!
Speaking of our precious boy, let's now focus on him :) Watson is an incredibly easy baby so far! He really only fusses when he is hungry...and boy does he let us (and all of our neighbors) know he is hungry! He LOVES to cuddle and be held by everyone, but especially his mommy :) He would be perfectly content in my arms all day long! The swing has been a huge help as it always works to calm him down as well. We did tummy time a little during his first month, but mainly starting at 4 weeks. He seems to be a very strong baby as he loves to hold his head and neck up while being held on his stomach or on someones shoulder. He sleeps very well for his age. We are trying to do Baby Wise, so we put him down at 7 and he typically sleeps for about 3 1/2 - 4 hour increments at night, and eats about every 2 1/2 - 3 hours during the day. At his one month appointment, he weighed 9lbs 12 oz (50%), his head was 15" (50%), and he was 22 3/4" long (90%). Looks like we have a tall, skinny boy on our hands! He got a big A+ at his appointment! He is having some acid reflux issues, though, so our pediatrician put him on some medicine for that which seems to be helping some, but not as much as I would like. We will re-evaluate that medicine at his two month appointment...in two weeks... :)
This precious boy is a JOY and and BLESSING to me and his daddy...we love him so very, very much!!
Tummy time...sometimes turns in to sleep time :)
This boy LOVES riding in the car. He instantly falls asleep when the car starts moving.
He is a miniature Graham - it is scary how much they look alike!!
First real bath :)
We get this concerned expression a lot!
Watson's nursery
And for some more exciting news.....this precious girl is going to have a little BROTHER in February!!! We cannot wait to welcome another boy to the family! :)
