NICU

Poor baby hooked up to all of those monitors!!! Nothing was keeping her alive, she was doing all of that on her own, but she did have an IV feeding her and monitors making sure she was maintaining a constant lower heart rate.
A few hours after Kendall was born, we got to go see her in the NICU--this is not how a parent wants to see their child!!!
Bryce's first time holding Kendall
My first time holding Kendall Poor pooper!!!!

After Kendall was born, I got to have her in the delivery room with me for about an hour and a half. They took her to the nursery to give her her bath and that's where she had her first episode. Her heart rate skyrocketed to 260 (normal is between 80 and 130ish....it varies, but you get the point). We were waiting in our post-delivery room for her to come in with us when a nurse walked in and told Bryce and me about the "episode" and let us know she had been taken to the NICU. We didn't know what to say....we didn't know what would happen from there. We didn't understand the condition our daughter has and if they were trying to tell us we didnt' have much time with her....After awhile, we were able to go up to the NICU and see her, but all we could do was touch her-- we couldn't hold her that first night. They had her hooked up to so many things, it was crazy! I remember just sitting in the chair staring at her half way passing out from being so tired, but refusing to leave her!

The NICU opens and closes throughout the day, so we were in there every moment we could be just sitting with her, holding her, hoping for her...They were open from 11:30pm until 6:30am, so we were in there with her most of that time. It was pretty rough because holding her was difficult due to all of the wires and the IV in her head, but we didn't care, we had to hold her anyway! We couldn't just pick her up and walk around or anything like that, of course, we had to pick her up and basically sit in a rocking chair near her area. I got to change her diapers almost immediately, which was pretty difficult, again, due to the wires everywhere!

I have so many things to update, I'm overwhelmed! It's nearly 1am, so I need to get to bed...I wanted to let everyone know we were finally able to bring Kendall home yesterday afternoon around 2pm. She's doing excellently! We're taking her to see the cardiologist tomorrow morning to get a heart monitor for her. We'll monitor her heart rate for 24 hours and then we will go back again Thursday to make sure everything is still going well. She's on medication that we give her orally every 6 hours. It's difficult to give a newborn medication and especially that frequently, but we know that it is helping her poor little heart maintain its normal rhythm, so we're managing. I'll update the blog more when I get a chance....I have tons and tons and tons of pictures to share!!!!