Jackson's Birth and Minor Complications

12 days after we moved into our house, Jackson decided it was time to come. He was exactly 3 weeks early and in such a hurry, I didn't get any pain meds (for those trying to decided whether an epidural is right for them, I have to say DO IT!). Jackson was born 50 minutes after we arrived at the hospital. He weighed in at 6 lbs 3 oz and was 19 inches long. He had a full head of beautiful hair. It was one of the best days of my life because he was healthy and beautiful and I was no longer pregnant!!

When Jackson was 5 days old, he was readmitted to the hospital for Jaundice his billi was 23 and I was freaking out. After a day under the lights we were able to go home. His billi had dropped to 17. Jackson was on the billi blanket for another week, and had to get his blood tested almost every day until he was 15 days old. Finally, it dropped low enough to quit testing.

We were so happy to get past that point, and about 2 weeks later we got a call from the pediatrician saying that Jackson's PKU had come back with a couple of problems. Anybody that knows me knows I am good at worrying and the worrying began. The doctors were concerned that he might have Hypothyroidism (if not treated babies slowly go mentally retarded) and another metabolic disorder. We went for the 3rd PKU. Three very long weeks later we found out that the one metabolic disorder was ok. But, they still didn't know if he had Hypothyroidism. So, more blood had to be taken and I was going crazy. About a week later we learned Jack doesn’t have Hypothyroidism but does have TBU deficiency. This isn't a big deal luckily; it just shows up on Lab work.

Once again, I could finally take a breath of relief. But two weeks later, we ran into another problem. We came home from church at 4 one Sunday, and Jack just started crying (at first this was no big deal because he had been colicky), at one point we decided to give him Tylenol because this helps colic sometimes. But, a couple hours later I noticed he had a fever. It was 101.4. Once again I started freaking out. Then Jack just stared acting weird. Every time we touched him or moved him, he would scream this horrible sad cry. So, off to the emergency room we went. It was at about 10:00. After the doctor checked out Jack he said they wanted to check his urine, blood, and do a spinal tap. The first attempt failed, but finally they got some spinal fluid. Finally at 3:00 am we found out he was being admitted because he had white blood cells in his spinal fluid. At 5:30 am we were finally settled into our room. Then at 7 the doc came in. He totally freaked me out with all of the problems that he "could" have and told me we just had to wait for the cultures to grow out.

They put in a pick line on Wednesday. This was the breaking point for me. He had had 4
IV's in 3 days and when I heard him start to cry through the door, I broke down. It was a miserable 5 days for him and for our family. He was finally released on Thursday afternoon, when the cultures had grown back.

Jack had strep pnemoniae , which children are vaccinated 3 times for in the first 6 months of life (pneumococcal conjugate vaccine). We never found out if he had meningitis because his white
blood cell count was fairly low in the spinal cord and the doc in the ER gave him an antibiotic before the spinal tap, duh! But, they treated him for meningitis. He was on IV therapy at home for 10 more days.

It has been a month since then, and Jack is happy and healthy. We are so grateful that Heavenly Father watched over our little guy and he won't have any long term complications.