The Boyles Family: Because I still feel like reminscing...

This time last year I was concerned because Ella hadn't nursed well all night, and refused to nurse at all in the morning. Then while the lactation nurse was in the room, and we were trying to get her to eat, she spit up bile. Things moved pretty quickly after that. She had ultrasounds and x-rays, and we were told (what felt like years later) that she had a meconium plug. She had her stomach suctioned out, a tube inserted in her nose and down to her stomach, an IV in her foot and then later in her arm, and so many sticks in her heels that they ran out of places to take blood. :( But the absolute worst part of the whole thing was that she was starving, and every time I came around she was miserable because all she wanted was for me to pick her up and feed her. And I couldn't. My presence made her feel worse, and that was almost more than I could bear. She was born on a Wednesday morning, ate last Wednesday night late, spit up bile Thursday morning, went to the NICU then, and they finally let me nurse her Friday at 6:00 PM. After that she was so much more content. We were able to move into a room inside the NICU on Sunday where we could keep her in the room with us that day and that night. Then we came home Monday morning! We were so very blessed that Ella's meconium plug was not a result of something more serious, and that with treatment she was able to pass the blockage on her own. I cannot even being to express the gratitude I feel towards the nurses in the NICU who held my baby for me when my holding her made her more upset, who held me when I cried and reassured Chris and me that everything would be okay, who brought Cooper a hot dog from the cafeteria because they had been out the day before when he wanted one, who made a scary, sad, miserable situation as comfortable for us all as they could.