The Oley Family: July 2006

We're home with our little man! Now a family of four (five if counting poor Brock). Little Marek's first week of life was a tough one. Born on 7-7-06 at 1:02 am weighing in at 7 lb 15 oz and 18.5" long.

7-7-06
He wasn't breathing well when he came out and his color wasn't looking great so they sent him to the NICU in a little plastic box. They assumed he had a lot of fluid in his lungs (common with c-section babies). I didn't even get to hold him . . . They wheeled my be

d into the NICU at about 5:00 am to let me see and hold Marek. I was thrilled but still so sad. They finally brought him back to me at 9:30 am that day - I hadn't slept all night worrying and crying. His breathing was still very strange - he was really struggling and his chest was moving abnormally. We were still in the L&D room because the hospital had so many deliveries and there were no post partum rooms available. When they were finally able to move us around 5:00 pm - they checked little Marek again and the nurses got concerned about his breathing yet again. They took him from me again at 5:30 pm. They sent him back to the nursery for observation and from there he was sent back to NICU. A mothers worst nightmare. I felt so helpless. I was so

thankful to have my friends and family around - I really needed the support. Tom and I finally got a call at 11:00 pm from the neonatologist in NICU - Marek had a hole in his little lung. It had caused his chest cavity to fill with air and his lung was partially collapsed. This was most likely caused from him coughing so hard to remove the fluid in his lungs. The nurse that caught this is an angel.

Things get fuzzy here - we were so distraught. I couldn't call anyone because it was too late - everyone had been up from Thursday night (when I went into labor) and hadn't slept all night Thursday or Friday. I could hardly sleep all night because I was in pain and my heart hurt for my poor child who I couldn't even hold or say "it's ok - mommy's here" to. Tommy spent most of his time with Marek in NICU. The nurses let him hold him but they didn't want him to be stirred too much because crying could cause the hole to get larger which in turn could cause his chest cavity to fill with air even more and crush his little heart. I was unrecognizable by Saturday because I hadn't slept and I had cried all night and day.

7-8-06
I couldn't wait any longer. Tom was with Marek and hadn't called to let me know how he was. I couldn't move because of my c-section. I finally called Kelly at 5:45 am - I figured she'd almost be awake with her two early risers! She didn't hesistate and said she was on her way. I have only seen my husband cry 3 times in the 10 years I've known him. One of those times was Saturday morning when he came back from holding Marek at 6:30 am. He was weeping- I almost threw up - now I had to be strong for him. Kelly arrived looking tired but ready to cheer me up. We let Tom rest and she wheeled me down to see my little man. Marek had tubes all over his tiny little body - they even had an IV in his forehead. It was hard for me to look at my own child. I couldn't stop the tears from falling.

The nurse could not have been more rude. She told me I couldn't hold him (Tom just had for 2 hours) because at 3:00 am he had a "really bad screaming crying fit and the nurses had to sedate him". No mother of a 2 day old wants to hear that. She didn't give us any indication that we'd ever leave the hospital with him. Dr. Juliao (our angel neonatologist) walked up and in his calm way explained to me that everything would be ok. He then proceeded to ask the nurse a series of questions and then said to start a catheter in his chest. I thought I was going to be sick. Now they're talking about poking holes into my newborn to remove the air from his chest cavity. Kelly asked if we could pray over him and the nurse acted very annoyed. This was a long day.

We continued to get a little bit of good news followed by terrible news all day Saturday. Tom called a family friend in Houston who was a doctor because we weren't getting a lot of questions answered. The doctor happened to be best friends with our neonatologist. Another prayer answered from God. He called Dr. Juliao at home and gave us the reassurance we needed. This was a spontaneous pneumothorax and happens in about 1 - 2% of all c-section births. It was very very very rarely fatal. We now knew that the chances of our son leaving the hospital someday was really good. It made us feel so much better. They kept telling us that they usually heal on their own in about 2 - 3 days. Relief.

Saturday night we got a call from another neonatologist on call that the chest was filling up with more air and the catheter wasn't working - they would need to insert a chest tube. Although it was another bit of bad news - we still felt confident that our prayers would be answered.

7-9-06
All day Sunday we got nothing but good news and that continued all week. I was discharged on Tuesday night (they let me stay until midnight). My mom drove me up to the hospital every morning to be with Marek all day. I'm surrounded by angels. Our priest, Fr. Jim, and his wife (that's right - wife!) visited us on Sunday night and prayed over Marek and gave us communion. Tom and I "roomed in" at the NICU Thursday night and after a final check Marek was discharged on Friday at 5:00 pm - just in time for rush hour!!