Home at last

I had my baby girl Kiara on May 31st, 2009. She was just released yesterday and after 26 days of being at San Diego’s Rady’s Children’s hospital it is such a relief. We found out at 20 weeks that she had Gastroschisis and at first we were in shock and our world almost fell apart. I had a c-section date for one week before her due date but she ended up coming out 4 weeks early. When she was born her intestines were dialated 13mm, parts of her small and large were out. She was taken to her first surgery right away and gave her a silo. She had the silo for four days then finally closed her up after slowly pushing them in day by day.  She was highly sedated and put on morphin, adivan, and antibiotics in case of infection. She had TPN fluids and lipids. She started bottle feeding on breastmilk about 2 weeks after the final closure. We had a hard time getting her to start eating and even once she did she had spit up most of it.

After she got up to about 30mls every 3 hours they put her on prilosec for reflux. She was still spitting up a lot but gaining wait. The doctors were worried about her spit ups and wouldn’t let us take her home until she could eat 55mls every 3 hours with minimum to no spit ups. I finally started breastfeeeding 5 days before we got to take her home. This changed everything. She had less spit ups and did really well breastfeeding. She was gaining weight very slowly but they finally let us go home because she was eating enough to gain weight, as little as it was, and having less spit ups. I was definitely frustrated by the last couple of days because everything they were doing for her I could do at home. She is home now and still spitting up at almost every feeding but this is to be expected in gastroschisis babies. Don’t let doctors discourage you when they say your baby is spitting up to much because they will spit up a lot especially with their condition. As long as they are gaining weight and stooling there is no reason they shouldn’t let you go home.

I thought we would be in the hospital forever but the more effort you put into helping them get better the sooner they can come home! It’s frustrating being at the hospital all day long everyday watching your child fight through it all but they are little miracles and even when it seems like forever… they will come home eventually and that’s worth every stress you go through while they are in the hospital.

Best of luck to everyone expecting and those who are still in the hospital with their little one. Trust me… it will get better soon enough .