Ryad's Double Diapers

 Ryad was discharged from Children's Hospital three days after he got in. We were just happy we didn't have to travel 30 miles just to see him anymore. All we had to do now was take care of his super pubic catheter. To do that we kept him in one diaper of his regular size for his poop and covered that with a layer of a larger size diaper to wrap his catheter tube. I don't remember very often changing his diaper (or diapers) on my own, I always needed a hand to hold the tube so that his pee-pee wouldn't spill all over the place. It was connected to his bladder so it was continuously dripping. This had to go on for a month. Till the doctors made sure he was able to do his business through the usual tract. 
Here are pictures of him during the first few days at home.

Ryad, ready to see the Pediatrician

 Both Ryad and Nael received daily massages (which is supposed to be awesome for good bone and body growth). And no, I'm not squeezing is hands so hard that he is crying.

Ryad and the famous double diapers.

Ryad's tiny hands. 

We always tried keeping them close together. That is what they were used to in the womb. Didn't get a lot of chance to do it in the NICU

One of the many 15 minute power naps they used to take.

Babies At Home

Thirteen days after birth everybody was at home together for the first time (except for the 3 hours we bought Ryad and rushed him back to the hospital again).
Elated and overwhelmed we were trying not to desperately take pictures of their every move. Here are a few of us doting over them with our camera.

Brothers in their matching sweaters.

Note How Ryad is holding his paci all by himself. For that moment I had thought I might just have independent babies!

 

Shhh, babies at sleep

  

This has got be Ryad's first pic at home. He had lost a little weight but it was awesome to have him sleep in his own crib

 

One of my favorites. Dad (exhausted but not stirred) with Ryad (sleepy but not asleep)

Weather Report: Hazy, Blury, Cloudy for Next Two Weeks

So was the state of my mind. One baby was in the hospital, some 30 miles away and the other was at home. I wanted to breast feed both. I know, it sounds impossible to do but my family's support made it happen. So, feeding Nael was not  a problem because he was at home with me. I would pump and store milk for him so that his grandma could give him when I went to visit Ryad in the hospital. While I was there I would pump some for him so that he would have breast milk when I was at home. Of course we supplemented when needed, there was no way I could do it on my own. Now, I look back and wonder how I did it, must be the morphine. Or the great people around me that made it happen.

Here are pictures of Nael's first visit to the pediatrician while his brother was still at the hospital.

Mommy, I don't want to get up!!

Let me sleep some more, please

All set to go

Back to Square One

So, after surviving the night with Nael we woke up the next day in the hopes of bringing Ryad home. I got up around 9:00 AM and scrambled to call Reston Hospital NICU. The nurse cheerfully reported that he was doing well and it would be OK for us to take him home. Finally, both my boys at home!!  No more NICU visits, our family would soon be complete, at least that's what I thought.


When the nurse told me the morning before that they had both been circumcised, a cloud  of concern engulfed me. We had planned to get them circumcised before they left the hospital but I had wanted to be there for the procedure. The Neonatologist assured be that the procedure was simple and the boys were doing fine.


Comforted by her words I carried on planning for their homecoming. In no way was I ready to face what would soon happen.


We got Ryad home at 7:00 later that evening. We rushed him back to the hospital aroundng 11:00 pm that same night. When at home he had refused to eat (that's a big alarm when it comes to newborns) and looked very pale. He hadn't wet his daiper either. At that time we assumed that it was becuase he didn't feed well, it was only later that we would find out why.


He didn't move or respond when we tried playing with him. Although no one expects a week old baby to giggle back when tickled, in Ryad's case he would be almost statuesque. He just wasn't the same fiesty baby we had seen earlier. There was something amiss in his personality.


The Doc was more surprized than concerned to see us back. She had it all figured out in her mind the moment she saw us walking through the door; new parents, over-read, over-concerened, over-reacting. But at our insistence they readmitted him. It felt like walking backwards when you should been moving ahead. Putting the h wrist hospital bands back on after we had finally cut them earlier that evening, Ryad going back into the isolette, his temprature check, his weigth check, his re-examination, all seemed to have happened in a haze.


In the wee hours of the morning we got news that the doctors had finally figured out what was wrong. Apparently, Ryad had excessive bleeding during his circumsicion (we weren't informed about that). They used sutures to stop the bleeding and the Dr performing the procedure accidently inserted a suture in the uretheral track. This made him incapable of passing urine.


Can you imagine? The poor little guy went 2 days without peeing! No wonder he was so pale.
Reston Hospital realized the case was beyond their reach. Ryad was transferred to Children's Hospital located in Washington DC.


A helicopter crew made their way into the NICU to take him away. They unhooked him from all the machines took him out of the warm incubator and put him in theirs (a portable one, I have'nt seen those anywhere else) before securing his ears with cutest little infant ear plugs.


We made our way by road, it was a 40 minute drive and we caught the worst part of the morning traffic. We had barely parked our car when the Neonatologist called us saying that they were about to perform a procedure to attach a super pubic catheder onto Ryad's abdomen (a super duper what??) Neither me nor my husband had any idea what that was but by the time we made our way to the NICU the procedure had been done with and Ryad was in the recovery section. Mind you, it took us over 35 minutes to reach the NICU from the parking.
Children's in DC is huge huge huge.


The first thing I noticed when I saw Ryad there was how much better he looked. Turned out that what the Urological Surgeon did was make an incision right over his swollen bladder and sucked out the accumulation (which was lot even according to him)  then connected his bladder with a thin tube that went all the way into daiper. From over the skin it looked like a tube protruded out of his lower abdomen. So basically he peed through that tube instead of his usual track. How long would he have to stay like this? Was my main concern. Until the suture blocking the Urethra disolved on its own.
Ryad was discharged after 3 days in the hospital and we kept him in double daipers (one for his pee tube and one for his stool) for the next 1 month.
He was a strong little baby to go through so much in his first week of life and we love him for that (and more:))!

Ryad at Children's Hospital NICU, Washington DC

More needles, probes and monitors

My brave little Man!!

From the NICU, with love

Mr R, barely an hour old. We joked that he wanted to really stretch after the cramped space he had to share with his brother

Mr R,  we found it amusing how he slept sideways for most of his stay in the NICU

Only at the hospital where they were born  does the Dad get to feed the babies before the Mother. Note Mr Daddy's Blackberry with the diapers. A sign of the things to follow in the next few months.

Poor Mr N had to be on the oxygen tube the first hour after birth.

Sleepy Nael in my arms. This picture was taken after I was discharged and the babies were still in the hospital. Although it was difficult to go home without them, I now reckon them as the luxury days, sleep wise at least.

Nael being burped in his incubator after his feed.

Let’s Start From the Start

The start of new life, or lives I should say.

Mr R was born into this world on November 22nd 2008. He weighed 4 lbs and came four weeks before he was supposed to.

Mr N followed his brother into the world a minute later. He weighed 4 lbs and 14 oz







That is the hospital building they spent the first week of their lives in. They spent their days being fed, changed, monitored and basking in their toasty incubators.
We got lots of comments on their small size. But they were the most beautiful things that I had ever seen! And honestly they didn't look that small to me (although now I realize that they were *sheepish grin*)
Below is a picture of them in their incubators. Mr R is on the left and Mr N on the right.