The First Eight Days Part Four
Posted on December 14, 2008 - Filed Under Guatemala, Kids, Personal | 5 Comments
The next time I saw Dorian, I was far more composed. It was at the last visiting time I could make it to, 3 pm. There was one more feeding time at 7, but there were no buses running after that, so we left after the 3 pm one.
This time, I stood, watching my baby sleep, his little mouth making sucking noises, until the nurse asked me if I wanted to hold him. I scrubbed up and she wrapped him in a blanket, careful of his IV and put him in my arms. I sat on a little plastic stool in the middle of that room full of sick babies and their mothers and just worshipped that precious little being. He opened his odd gray eyes and looked at me, too.
One of the other mothers in the room knew a trick and she took my numbered tag and went outside to where Irving was waiting and gave it to him so he could come in and we could both admire our son together for the very first time. It was wonderful..
Over the next few days, there were meetings with doctors who assured us that Dorian was healing faster than anyone anticipated and was very healthy and strong. He would be able to go home just a few days after arriving.
Then everything changed. We arrived at the hospital on the fifth day to be informed that Dorian had turned yellow and had to be put under a blue light for treating jaundice. No one knew why he wasn`t processing bilirubin properly. He was vomiting any water or milk that was given to him, as well and he wouldn`t take the breast. A baby suffering from jaundice and unable to eat . . . well, he couldn`t go home.
They tested my blood, thinking that he might have had a reaction to it. Nothing. He did respond well to treatment, though and returned to normal color after a couple of days. When I went in to see him, he was PISSED off about having his eyes covered. Right from the start, he wanted to be looking at everything. I would take him out of his incubator, from under the blue light, wrap him in a soft blanket and remove the little blindfold from his eyes. He would gurgle and stare around with his grey eyes and be nice and calm in my arms as I sang to him, perched on a plastic stool in his ward. But when it was time to put him back . . . he screamed his little head off! The nurses were pretty lenient, letting mothers stay long after the announcement that all visitors must leave, so often the 30 minutes stretched into 45 or even 60, but it always had to end. As I reattached the blindfold to protect his little eyes, Dorian would flail his fists and kick and bawl at the top of his lungs. It broke my heart to have to leave him there, even if it was in his best interest to be under the light!
On December 22, we arrived at the hospital to be told that Dorian was cleared to leave. We were handed our baby with orders to bring him back on the 26th for a checkup. We went home with our little one, terrified and clueless as to how we would look after him. The doctors had told us that he was healing, but the stitches were still there. His colostomy was frightening and we didn`t know what the future would hold, if he would ever be normal, if he could expect to grow up and play like any other child, or if his problem would be something he would deal with all his life. We literally knew nothing about his condition, only that there were several more surgeries on the horizon.
Today, December 14th, Dorian is THREE years old. He not only never had another problem with jaundice, he has been the healthiest kid I`ve ever met! He`s gone through two more surgeries, to reconstruct his anus and reverse the colostomy. These days, my happy little boy has only a scar and some digestive issues to contend with. He`s a little chatterbox, curious and forever asking us to explain things to him. To look at him now, you would never guess he had such a rocky start to life!
Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
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5 Responses to “The First Eight Days Part Four”
Talk to Me, People!
He is truly a blessing! Happy Birthday sweet boy! All hugs for Dorian today! (((((((((hugs!)))))))
Wow, it blows my mind, all that you had to go through. He is a little miracle, isn’t he? Happy Birthday to Dorian! I hope it’s a great one.
Yup, Dorian is our Christmas miracle! We had lost 3 babies before him, too, so it was even more of a miracle. I`m SO SO glad to have him and Dante.
I was wondering about a comment you made in your Mother’s Day post, now it makes sense. I’m so sorry about your first 3 babies. Dante and Dorian are both beautiful miracles and very blessed little boys to have you as their Mommy!
[...] Read Part 2, Part 2, and Part 4 [...]