| The NICU Experience | Aaron update 37 |
| Subject: Aaron update 37 Date: Saturday, January 11, 2003 1:22 PM From: Kevin Quick To: Aaron Update List We had one of life’s genuine peak experiences yesterday. We got to hold our baby for the first time. I’ve been trying to figure out how to express in words what it was like to first see Kathleen holding Aaron in her arms, with all the emotions of the past six weeks percolating within her. Or how to express my feelings of holding Aaron for the first time, looking into his eyes through my own glassy eyes. But words just won’t do it; not any words that I can come up with, anyway. Those of you who are parents, I’m sure you have an idea of what I’m talking about, but for us, this was an entirely new and almost surreal experience. Nurse Lisa surprised us when we went to see Aaron yesterday. “How would you like to hold Aaron today?” We were only expecting a quick visit with Aaron before leaving to go to Macworld Expo at the Moscone Center, a 10-minute drive away from the hospital. But we put off our trek to the Oz of the Macintosh world for an hour so we could experience something that we’d been looking forward to for over six weeks. The nurses and respiratory therapist removed Aaron’s CPAP mask, and put a tiny nasal cannula onto Aaron’s nose to give him oxygen. Nurse Lisa handed Aaron to Kathleen, who was sitting in a nice, comfortable rocking chair. It was quite the experience for me, just watching Kathleen cuddling and kissing her baby for the first time. Then, I got a chance to hold him, too. Again, words just escape me. It’s kind of like having your life flash before you, and then trying to write down what you saw in a few sentences; you just can’t do it. Aaron was out of his isolette for a total of about 30 minutes. We were forewarned that Aaron might need to be snatched from our arms at any moment, if he started having any problems. But he just cruised right along, just as happy and content as can be, with no trouble at all. Again, the whole experience was just wonderful. I was able to take some nice pictures, and one of the nurses took some pictures of the three of us together, too. I hope to send some of these along to you over the next couple of days. Today, Kathleen got to hold Aaron again, but only for a short time this time. His oxygen saturation level went down a bit too far, so we had to put him back into the isolette and back on CPAP. Then, his oxygen saturation and heart rate both went way down, and we had a few tense moments as the nurse worked to get him breathing again. He was back to normal after about two or three minutes. Just a reminder, I guess, that all of Aaron’s systems are still very immature, and that he’s still too fragile to be able to handle a lot of stimulation. This reminder will help us to remember that yes, he really does need a couple more months in the NICU before he’ll be ready to come home with us. He weighed in at 1200 grams, or 2.6 pounds this morning. (To convert from grams to pounds, divide the number of grams by 454.) He is tolerating his feeds very, very well, and this is helping him to grow at a good rate. The main thing now is just for Aaron to keep growing. His little lungs, brain, liver, kidneys, eyes and other vital organs just need some time to mature to the point where he’ll be able to function on his own. God willing, we’ll get there! Love, Kevin, Kathleen & Aaron |
  |