The Wilfords: The longest 9 days of my life!

As posted in the earlier post our little Brooklyn Sherie had a rough go. Once they found the blood culture they had to keep her in the NICU because she was on IV antibiotics, along with she was struggling to keep her oxygen up.

Wednesday March 6: While I was still in the hospital I was able to go see her every time they did "cluster care". Which is every 3-4 hours they take her vitals, change her diaper, and feed her. They like the babies to sleep uninterrupted as much as possible to get better. That was hard for me, because I just wanted to sit there and watch her all day long. At first, they had to give her formula, but luckily my milk came in and they allowed me to feed her. In the hospital Ethan and I went to all the feedings. (Except Ethan missed one cause he was sleeping, and wouldn't wake up. ;) ). We had amazing family that came in to give their support. Dad Wright, my sister Sara, Ethan's sister Ali, my brother Mark, and my Brother Mike and his girls all were able to come. Most of them did not see our angel, but they came and gave support to me which meant the world to me. Ethan and I were able to get a little sleep in between feedings and visitors.

Thursday March 7: They tried all day to wean our little girl off the oxygen, but her oxygen levels kept dropping, until the last try of the night. She was able to go without oxygen for the first time on Thursday night. We were very happy! Today was a boring day for me. Sitting around a hospital can get pretty boring! We were able to a surprise visit from Matt and Michelle from HONG KONG! Yes, they surprised us. They came for a week, because my family had a lot of big things that happened. But it was cool to see them walk in. Along with them, my sister Sara and Dede were able to come. I am so thankful for family! The nurses in the NICU were great at telling us everything that was going on. Unfourtunalty, the doctors were not as good of communicators as we would of liked. They did great at telling us what was going on, but kind of gave us false hope of when she could come home. So we would get our hopes up, and then when they told us she couldn't come home we would get very sad.

Friday March 8: One of the hardest days for both Ethan and I was the day that I was discharged. We were going home without our baby girl. The house was spotless, her nursey was all set up, all for when she came home. Walking into our house I just started to cry. What a hard thing to leave your baby girl. That night in between feedings Ethan and I were able to go celebrate my Grandpa and Grandma Porters 60th wedding anniversary down at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, with a special guest Jenny Oaks Baker. It was very theraputic to go down and celebrate with them. What an amazing couple they are, and I am so lucky they fell in love, or they would not of had my mom, who then would not of had me. They are 2 of the people I look up to the most, and try to shape my life around. We were lucky to celebrate with them. Still the same thing at the hospital with our girl. Still on Antibiotics, but was off her oxygen.

Saturday March 9: Nothing new with our girl, but we were able to have her meet her Grandma and Grandpa Wilford, and her aunts Amanda and Ali. Ethan's family was able to come down from Star Valley to see her. We had to take them one at a time into the NICU, but the nurses were very patient with us, and it meant a lot for them to see her.

Sunday March 10: Today was the one year anniversary of my mom's death. I suspected it would be hard. But there were a lot of tender mercies that came also. When we arrived at the hospital for the early morning feeding Brooklyn was in a lavender onsie (my mom's favorite color). We then were able to spend the day at my Dad's house inbetween feedings with all of my family. At the end of the night when we went to the last feeding, Brooklyn was in a nightgown that said "Grandma loves me". The nurses had no idea. I just started to cry again! (I was pretty emotional). Even though we thought we could take our angel home today, we were bless by the tender mercies that we received on this hard day.

Monday March 11: We went in this morning hoping to take our little girl home, but she had a bad night! Ethan and I were devastated, but grateful she was getting taken care of. In the middle of the night her oxygen levels dropped pretty low, and they would not go back up. So she was back on oxygen. And the doctors decided to keep her antibiotics going until Wednesday. I was having a hard time to, because Ethan went back to work. I was all alone at home. I ended up getting a suprise visit from the Fausett family which made my whole day!

Tuesday and Wednesday: Nothing new happened on Tuesday. Wednesday Brooklyn finished her antibiotics. The infection was gone. She still was having drops in her oxygen when they tried to wean her off of it. The doctor gave us a choice. To try and see how she does without oxygen, but if she dropped low enough they would have to keep her for at least more days, or to have a set day to take her home Friday with oxygen. After thinking about it we decided to take her home on oxygen for 2 reasons. Reason 1 being that I would not sleep if she did not have her oxygen, I would stay awake and make sure she was breathing, and Reason 2 is we had a for sure day that we could take her home. So we went with the second option and to bring her home on oxygen.

Thursday March 14: In order for us to take her home on oxygen the NICU requires parents to sleep at the hospital with Brooklyn all hooked up to her home equipment to make sure we know how to use it. So we were stuck at the hospital from 7 pm until we took her home. But we got to spend our first night with her! We also got to help with a bath for the first time for us. We were so excited. The night for Brooklyn went fine, she only woke up once, but for Ethan and I we did not get as much sleep. We did not hook her apnea monitor up right, so it kept going off. And everyone in the hospital could probably hear how loud the machine was. But we were just lucky we were able to take her home.

Friday March 15: WE FINALLY GET TO TAKE OUR GIRL HOME!!! After the doctor came in at about 10 am, we were able to go over discharge teaching and take our girl home. We were so excited!

We are so blessed to have our little girl home with us! We are also grateful for all the family and friends who dropped by, called us, and texted us. We are so grateful to have so many wonderful people in our lives!