Gracie is home!

We are so relieved and happy to have our precious Gracie home with us again. For those of you who have been concerned for, prayed for us, and asked about our daughter, here's the long version of what happened:

On Friday, I was over at school talking to my teammate after having figured out my end-of-year awards. Gracie was nursing, and I sensed her come off my breast, but as I looked down while readjusting everything, I saw what looked like a pinkish blob come out of her mouth - blood mixed with spit-up breastmilk. I flipped her on her tummy and patted her back her so she wouldn't choke. She was breathing, but her color looked funny, and there was a good bit of blood on her dress and blanket. I was so terrified. I asked my teammate to call the school nurse, but she wasn't on campus. However, one of our custodians has EMT training so we got him as well as our principal and one of the AP's. I had my teammate Rhonda call the pediatrician and ask them whether I should bring her in or go to the ER. They said ER. I also had her call Chris to let him know what happened and to ask him to call Matthew's teacher and have Matthew picked up by my mom. Meanwhile, Natalie, another one of my teammates came in. She went and got my van and then Rhonda drove me (in my van) to CCH.

Not long after we arrived, Chris got there, so we gave Rhonda the Corolla to drive back to West. We got called back pretty quickly, but it seemed to take awhile for things to get rolling. I have to say, the physician assistant who asked me (after I told him Gracie was 100% breastfed) if I had fed her anything red didn't impress me much. He also asked HOW did I know for sure it was blood. I showed him the evidence and he finally believed me after he tested it. He then apparently remember I was breastfeeding and asked if the blood could have been mine. (Gee, not unless a SHARK bit off my nipple!! I think I would have a big problem as well as Gracie if all that blood came from my breast!

The MD ( a much more competent fellow IMO) also got involved and then things started getting more sensible. She had a chest x-ray (which showed some patchy areas on her lungs) and was breathing hard so she was given oxygen. Since CCH does not have a PICU, we learned Gracie would need to go to Chapel Hill. They sent her by helicopter and we could not go along. We'd have to drive up and meet her there. While this was happening Pastor Carl came by and stayed with us for a bit.

We stopped by our house so we could grab things for all of us. Chris was going to stay over that night, but I knew (from my experience there with Jamie five years ago) that I could well be stuck several days. I took the fastest shower I could, threw some comfortable clothes and other necessities in a bag, and we headed off up 15-501. Chris dropped me off at the entrance to the Chidren's Hospital and I went ahead to the PICU where Gracie was. I wasn't allowed to nurse her b/c of how hard she was breathing(they were afraid she'd aspirate), but they were able to get me a pump and collection kit. I wasn't allowed to nurse her until Saturday morning. Since it was too late for me to get a nursing mom tray (hospitals feed the patient even if it means feeding the mom who feeds the patient), when Chris and I had to leave while they did a lumber puncture (part of a sepsis workup), we were able to eat in the Cafe which is open all night. When we got back, we were given a key to one of the family rooms (with a single twin bed) and since I was so wired over all of the things that had taken place, I let Chris sleep for awhile and I watched TV, crocheted, pumped twice, and even found a computer with internet access. Finally, Around 4am, I traded spots with CHris and got a little sleep.

The next morning, they were about to get her to a regular room on one of the pediatric floors. That was much better, but she was still hooked up to an IV, monitors, and a challenge to manuever with all that stuff. Chris stayed until early evening, and then went back to Sanford. It was only practical for one of us to stay and it had to be me. Over the course of the next three days, I held her, nursed her,comforted her as much as I could. and was with her for all the procedures that I could be. She a CT scan, an MRI, broncoscopy & endoscopy (performed under general anesthesthia down in the Children's Surgery area), a number of chest x-rays, a full body x-ray scan, tons of blood work, a look at her blood vessels (through the retina) by a peds. opthamologist, an Echocardiogram and essentially...she's fine. We don't know exactly why she threw up the blood, and we may never know. However, so much stuff has been checked and ruled out (plus she's acting normal, nursing well, dirtying diapers - back to her usual sweet self) that with the expception of acid reflux (which we already knoew she had) and a little thrush (yeast) from the antibiotics which she and I shared for a few days, she's perfectly fine.

AT 5 weeks of age, she is a tiny little 8lb 7oz doll baby that I love to hold and thank God every minute that I have her.

On a side note, there was one really cool thing that happened at UNC - we met country singer Jason Michael Carroll (He sings"Alyssa Lies.") He was very nice and was there donating books to the children. He autographed a Bambi board book for little Gracie!