Eli started off his stay in the NICU like a boss! His levels were good, his temperature was normal, he didn't have anything visibly wrong. This is what the NICU nurses call the "honeymoon stage." Preemie babies usually come into the NICU and do really well for a day or two, then the trouble starts. The trouble started for Eli early in the morning on 12/27.
Emily and I went to bed at around midnight, and slept until 3 am when Emily was scheduled to pump again. Emily’s milk volume has amazed all the nurses. I’m the milk man, so I did my duty and delivered the vials to the NICU nurse. While I was there, the monitors started beeping like crazy and before I knew it there were four or five nurses bustling around Eli’s bed. After checking his vitals and assessing the situation, the nurses left the bedside for a few minutes to regroup, and while they were gone, I took the opportunity to give Eli a priesthood blessing. I blessed him that he could be strong and comforted throughout the night, and that the people working on him would be guided by the spirit to know what to do. We found out that he was extubated, which means that his ET tube had come out (the opposite of intubate). The nurses struggled to re-intubate him because for some reason he just wouldn’t cry (when babies cry, their vocal cords separate allowing the nurse to slide the tube through with ease). The finally got the tube down, but his levels weren’t going up. They were using a hand pump to try and get his heart rate up, and they called a radiologist to do an x-ray to make sure the ET tube was in the right place. When the x-ray came back, the tube was fine, but there was another very serious problem: the lungs were filled with blood. When you’re a dad in the NICU, you’re pretty much useless—you’re the milk man and the bearer of news—so the nurses rarely ever looked my way. They were so intent on getting Eli stable. But the neonatologist, Dr. Reddy, turned to me and said that blood in the lungs is very dangerous for premature babies, and that there’s a possibility of the baby not making it through the night. She said it would be a good idea to run and get Emily because it might be the last chance she gets to see Eli before he passes. I then heard them talking about possibly having to do a blood transfusion and remembered a nurse a few days ago talk about that being a possibility and that I would need to sign a consent form. I left and asked the front desk about it and got the form signed. I then left to tell Emily what was going on. I was positive, but realistic and told her what Dr. Reddy had told me.
We got a call about 10 minutes later—we thought the worst, but it was the NICU asking me to come down so Dr. Reddy could talk to me about the blood transfusion. I went down and listened to her tell me about all the scary things that could happen as a result of getting a blood transfusion, then I left. Emily and I sat for a while in silence. We cried. Then we prayed. We prayed for help in understanding Heavenly Father’s plan for this baby, and for strength to be able to accept whatever His will was. Emily and I talked about how many lives this baby has touched and will touch. So many people are rooting for him! If he lives, he will reaffirm the faith of hundreds of people who are praying for him right now. He will be a miracle. If he dies, he will force hundreds of people to apply their faith in God, His plan, and the Atonement. Either way, Eli would be aiding Heavenly Father in the accomplishment of His great and eternal plan. We’re on Earth to be tried and tested; that is the purpose of our time here. Miracles strengthen our faith, and trials break us down, but allow us to utilize the Atonement in our lives to build us up and make us even stronger than we were. It is amazing that a little 2.5 lb. baby can do all that.
At around 6, Emily pumped again and got even more volume. I took the vials down to the NICU and waited for the nurses to tell me what had happened. They were giving Eli the blood transfusion and his vitals were looking stable. Dr. Reddy came in and looked at me with a smile and said, “well, it looks like we made it through this obstacle.” She walked around Eli’s bed with another nurse and commented, “this baby is different; he’s not by the book.” I came back and told Emily the news, and we both were overcome with gratitude. We realized that nothing in this pregnancy has been “by the book.” Everything has happened ‘just right’ from the beginning. Emily had a subchorionic hemorrhage while we were in MI over the summer, but we got to the hospital just in time, and she was in a very comfortable environment to deal with it. Her pre-term labor started right after she came back from Phoenix just a few weeks ago. Last week, she went to her OB on a hunch and found out she was dilated to a two and that her sack was bulging, so she was admitted to the hospital right away. Emily is recovering from her emergency C-section faster than any nurse in High Risk OB has seen in a long time. Scary things have happened, but everything has always worked out in the end. The same holds true for Eli’s situation today. Prayer works. The priesthood is really the power and authority of God. All things are possible through Him.
