Rose's Life: Heating Up

Sunday, 13 April 2008

Jason brought to Cami & Graham to the hospital after a struggle at church. They bounced around for about an hour & then Jason took them away for Rose's safety.

I thought it was just me. I kept feeling warm, but I finally mentioned it to one of the nursing staff & she called the maintenance crew to come turn off the heater. When Jason brought the munchkins back for an evening visit, the room was actually a bit chilly. But by bedtime, the temperature was on the rise. And Rose overheated.

Because Graham had been hospitalized early on in his life, there was the suspicion that I may be a carrier for something that makes my babies sick. So, sweet baby had to have blood drawn for both an immediate white blood cell count & a cultured test.

Monday, 14 April 2008

When I woke up the next morning, with my baby cuddled up with me, I was sweaty. I looked at the thermostat and saw that the heat was up to 79.3. I took Rose to the nursery to get her cool & then sat by the open doorway to my room to keep myself cool. The maintenance crew returned & spent about an hour exploring. It turned out that my room was one of at least three that was overly-warm.

Unfortunately, Rose didn't shed the heat quickly enough to make the pediatricians happy. Even though the white blood cell test showed that she wasn't fighting an infection, it was deemed unwise to release her without one more night of observation.

I admit it. I cried. I had promised myself that I was not going to make all the overly-confident mistakes that I'd made with Cami & Graham which had landed both of them in the hospital before they were six weeks old. And here I was, unable to even take my baby home.

Arrangements were made for me to stay in a hospital room on a different floor, when Rose was transferred to a regular sick-baby nursery. My wonderful neighbor, Lesley, drove me home (the kids were already asleep, so Jason stayed with them); I packed up a backpack with clothes, food & Advil; & then I kissed my kids goodnight (they still don't know I came home that night) before breaking all sorts of postpartum recovery rules by driving myself back to the hospital. Where I cuddled my sweet baby again.