Sunday, April 19, 2009

Induced Hypothermia - No Fun!

At this point, Eddie is quickly started with his induced hypothermia. He was placed on a cooling mat, or hypothermia blanket, completely naked and had a cooling mechanism above him. He was cold, full of tubes and naked. It was so hard to see. I wanted to hug him, cover him up....anything! But he had experienced some seizures, and we were instructed to do no more than hold his hand. The doctors did not want us to stimulate him. It was EXTREMELY hard. But we hoped it would have a good outcome for Eddie. The hope is that Induced Hypothermia will reduce or prevent brain damage, which, in our case was made a possibility due to the hypoxia Eddie experienced at birth. He was cooled down for 72 hours and then slowly warmed. The 72 hours seemed to drag on and on and he looked so cold. I wanted to warm him up and hug him. We had to watch our baby just lay there and receive no love. I tried to just be there and talk to him so he would know he had a lot of love waiting for him. My poor baby. That was the longest 3 days I have ever experienced. I wanted him to be warm and comfortable.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Hypoxia? Hypothermia?

I had not seen Eddie yet and it had been a couple of hours after delivery. I really wanted to see him, but now I had to wait until they implemented the voluntary induced hypothermia. I had no idea what to expect, I just wanted to see my baby boy.

When I finally did get to see him, I was surprised. First, I was surprised by the amount of IV's and tubes and wires that they can fit into one little baby boy. He even had a thing covering his nose that made him look like pinocchio. Second, I was surprised by the head of hair on that boy! He was beautiful, tiny and naked. I was shocked to see that he had nothing on. He had a cooling mat, under and was being "cooled" from the top, too. Induced Hypothermia is implemented with the hopes it will reduce the development of irreversable brain damage/injury. I had a hard time seeing him like that.

I wanted to hug him. But, we were told that he had had seizures and we were not to to touch him or stimulate him. That is the hardest thing! I wanted to hug him, kiss him, touch him. I couldn't. My baby was cold and full of wires and no one was able to give him any love or affection. A mother's instinct is to comfort and hold a baby who had to deal with all he had to deal with, I could not. I resolved to be strong and present. It was all I could do.