The NICU

Three days after Radley was born, the nurse checked his temperature and it was 100.1  The doctor in the nursery was concerned and consulted with the doctors in the NICU.  They all thought it was best to admit him to the NICU just in case he had an infection.  The situation with his kidney made them more concerned because they wanted to make sure he did not have a kidney infection.  So by 10am Wednesday he was admitted.  So our forever long week began, and we came home without our baby.

We were blessed to have Oma and Papa Dude take Kyler and Damon to my Nanny's in Brownwood, and we didn't have to worry about them at all.  We then started making a trip to the hospital every 3 hours to feed Radley.  It was nice to have the comfort that he was pretty stable and healthy during the entire time, but it was really hard on all of us.  Poor Radely went through so much.  He had blood work and other tests run daily and had to have 4 catheters during his short NICU stay.  He was such a trooper.  He never seemed extra fussy or upset (except when the nurses strated messing with him).  He did spit-up really bad right in front of the doctor, and she was concerned that he would get dehydrated so even more IV fluids began.

I was also blessed because Kenney was able to come with me to almost every feeding.  Even though he had class and other church responsibilities, he made every effort to be there with me.  He was my driver to and from the hospital and kept me company while I fed the baby.  We both got tired of the long walk from the parking lot into the hospital, and our hands and forearms were raw from scrubbing in 8 times a day to get inside the NICU.  We were both exhausted.  Finally, on Sunday we were able to bring our sweet baby home and our other boys came home too.  It was so nice having our family back together again!

This is his bed after he upgraded from the first one.  He was moved closer to the more stable babies within 24 hrs and put back into the bassinet type bed.

Some of the cords and wires he had coming from him.

We were some of the lucky parents in the NICU that acutally got to hold our baby and not just touch him through a hole in his bed.  However, wearing the yellow gowns was extremely annoying.

This face pretty much tells the story about our feelings regarding our situation, and it's a good view of  his IV.  It was extremely hard to change his clothes with that IV strapped to his arm.

It was so much easier to hold and feed Radley once he was unhooked from all the machines.  I'm not sure how long it will take his poor little heels to recover from all the pokes he got and all the tests they ran.

I showed up one morning and this how I found him.  I thought for sure they were going to make us stay an extra week longer, but luckily the photo lights made his bilirubin go down quickly.  He only had the lights for a day and a half.

Hanging out under the lights with his cool shades!

Radley was just trying to be like his brothers by going without clothes!

Enjoying the lights.  It looks like he is tanning, but just the opposite is happening.  His cute 'tan' is going away.  They were calling him the beach baby because of his highlighted hair, tan skin, and cool shades!

He pulled off about 5 pair of glasses and left two big red marks on the side of his face.  One time when he pulled them off, we heard his skin getting ripped off.  He screamed so loud.  We felt really bad for him, but he kept both hands by the side of his face tugging at the velcro pieces even when the glasses were off his face.

Nanny came to visit, along with Aunt Edna, Aunt Natalie, and Uncle Richie.  Nanny even got him to grin if you look close.

All the nurses in the NICU knew who Radely was because of his hair.  Multiple times while we were there random nurses would come by just to see the baby with all the beautiful hair.  The last nurse we had was excited to get the 'cute' baby everyone had been talking about!

One side of his face where he pulled off the glasses.  Poor kid went through a lot in the first week of his life!