Abigail Renee Johnson
Born February 17, 2010 at 4:59pm
8 lbs, 20 1/4 inches long
Her first picture
This was the first time we were discharged and ready to go home. Abigail had other plans for us though!
When we were ready to leave the hospital, Paul put Abigail in her car seat so we could go. She all the sudden started choking and turning blue/purple. We tried to suction it out of her, we tried patting her on the back.. Everything we could think of-we tried. Paul called the nurse and they hurried in and took her to the nursery to suction her out. They found some very thick, mucus like stuff in her. It was probably amniotic fluid. I delivered her very fast (only pushed for 30 minutes) so all the fluid wasn't pushed out of her like in a usual birth. The doctors then told us they were going to take her to the NICU to do additional testing and we wouldn't be able to take her home till Monday (this all happened on Friday, the 19th). Those words broke our hearts. They brought Abby into us one last time and we had to say goodbye for a few hours until she was all hooked up down in the NICU and they were going to get started with the tests.
This was the first time we were able to see her in the NICU. We were very scared to see her in there. My last experience with the NICU was when my half sister, McKenzie was born. She had tubes, iv's, and all kind of monitors in/on her. I didn't want to see Abigail like that. When we walked in, she looked a little different than in this picture. She had her arms above her head sleeping. She was very content and looked perfect as ever. It was very comforting to see her just as she was before, but with only things hooked up for one monitor for her heart beat, pulse ox, and the amount of breaths shes taking. All the normal stuff. Even though she was probably the most healthy baby in the NICU, it was still the hardest thing we've ever had to do leaving her there. It felt like my heart was broken every time we left. We purposely only told family about this happening because it was hard enough to talk to them about it, much less all our friends. Abigail had a CT scan, an upper GI test, EEG, and EKG done. In the CT scan, they found some bleeding in the back of her head, but thats completely normal for brand new, vaginally birthed babies. In the upper GI test, they found she has acid reflux. The acid reflux is what the doctors accredit the choking and turning blue/purple to the day we were discharged. The rest of these pictures are ones of Abigail in the NICU.
She peed on the scale when she was done. Showed that nurse who was boss :)
Her bath in NICU. She wasn't a big fan of it.
So much more happy when her bath is over!
I love how much of a daddy's girl she is. She just lights up for him all the time.
The day before she went home we were asked to "room in" with her at the hospital to see how everything would go. She was put on lights for jaundice.
We finally got to take Abigail home on Monday, the 22nd. It was a very happy day for us. She is such an amazing baby and I'm just awestruck by her daily. She has the cutest face, toes, feet, hands, fingers, legs... her whole little body! We love her more than we ever could have imagined we would.
She was sent home on a monitor that she has to wear 24/7. Her first doctors appointment is tomorrow and hopefully we will get good news about how long she has to wear it. The doctor at the hospital said 30-60 days. The lady that came and hooked Abigail up to the monitor said the average time babies have it on is 9 months... Her pediatrician has the final call, so we will see what he says tomorrow morning!
Thank you so much for all your prayers, thoughts, and help. Our families have been absolutely amazing and so helpful through this short chaos in our lives! We could never thank them enough.
There are more pictures, but they haven't been uploaded yet. I'll post them soon. Sorry if you don't like baby pictures! :)
