Jett's New Tummy

Since birth Jett was never a 'spit up' baby so on Friday when he spit up 2 times I had mothers intuition that something was wrong. It made me worried that he was getting a sickness that was going around. I took his temperature a few times during the day but it showed no fever. On Saturday he continued to spit up a few times in the morning. Spit up wasn't the only thing he was doing. He would also gag and dry heave. I took him with me and my mom to Super Saturday at the church building. That was our first official outing (besides the doctor) since he was born. The whole time I was there I was concerned with Jett and wondered what was going on. He spit up on the car ride over. At church he started gagging a couple times and once I took him out to the foyer to take him out of his car seat. I tried to burp him hoping that would solve the problem. We were there for only a couple hours and I told my mom that we needed to get home (my mind was racing). Once I was home Jett spit up a couple more times. My friend Kristel came over and I asked her if any of her kids were spit up babies. She said that a couple of her kids were and we talked about Jett becoming a spit up baby. As the night progressed it wasn't getting any better, but worse. Cirdan called his dad and Richard told him that for the first 6 months of his life he had to sleep in his car seat because he spit up so much. That must be it!! He was just like Cirdan! Nothing to worry about (I thought). During that same time he was talking to his dad I called my cousin Steph because I knew that her kids spit up a lot. We talked for a bit and she mentioned it could be something that I ate. Maybe his tummy didn't like the milk I drank in my bowl of cereal....or the yogurt I ate. My dad was allergic to milk when he was little so I guess that's a possibility I thought?

The spit up continued, we went through all of Jett's blankets and also had 2 full packages of cloth diaper/burp rags that he had to be washed. Around 1:30AM Cirdan called the doctors office and talked to someone. They said that we should probably take him to the hospital. I thought we should take him in to urgent care when they opened at 8:00 am. Soon after the phone call Cirdan made, Jett's spit up started turning an orange color. He was not spitting up at this point, he was vomiting pretty tough. Cirdan spent hours on the internet looking for what might be the issue (more on this later). Neither Cirdan or I got any sleep that night. I started to think about it and realized that if we did take him to urgent care they would probably just send us home and tell us he had a stomach bug. I had a feeling that is not what we needed to do and we needed to go to the emergency room. Something else was up. At 4:00 I called my mom and asked her to come over to stay with the girls while we took Jett to the hospital.

The car ride there seemed to take forever. No one wants to have to take their newborn to the ER. Cirdan and I were worried and very concerned. The new Emergency section of the hospital is very nice. There are a lot of rooms and the 2 times we have been there this past year they were able to get us in right away with no waiting. This time was no exception. They rushed us to a room and soon after the doctor came and talked to us. We told him what was going on and he said that they would run some tests on Jett. They wanted him to get an xray and take some blood and urine samples (which meant a catheter). They wanted to do a spinal tap on him to see if he had meningitis which confused me since he didn't have a fever. I questioned that when the doctor said they would want to do that test.

Before they got started, I left the room. (Cirdan)- The doctor turned off the lights and used some red light to illuminate his arms, hands and feet to look for his veins. They are tiny! His veins were about as big as dental floss. Plus he was dehydrated which only made things more difficult. My poor guy :( He was laying down while the doc, a nurse and an assistant were getting the IV in. I just knew by him laying down that he would get upset and puke. I was right there making sure that he didn't aspirate. This was my biggest concern. I held him under his head and shoulders, waiting.....sure enough when he started crying and getting upset he puked a little and then a lot! The nurse was so slow to react- good thing I wasn't counting on them. I sat up him right away. He couldn't catch his breath. I just stayed as calm as I could. I was looking at him from just a few inches away from his face. I couldn't believe how focused he was on me, he looked me right in the eyes and focused. I told him to breathe. "Take a breath Jett......take a breath" It's hard to put those few moments into words. He just looked at me and listened. He caught his breath and calmed down so quickly. Then he had to have a catheter so they could take a urine sample. Heidi came in shortly after and we both went with him and helped him through the x-ray that was taken of his chest.

(Heidi)

I was so glad that Cirdan was there so that he could be with him in the room when they did what they needed to do. I went out to the hallway and it was horrible. I could hear him cry so loud and I seriously thought I would have a mental breakdown. My baby was going through so much. After about 45 minutes the doctor came back and told us that the tests all came back okay and they wanted to transfer us to Swedish Hospital where there was pediatric sub-specialists there that would be able to run more in depth tests. I didn't even know where Swedish Hospital was. I was extremely scared. Would my baby be okay?? The tri-med ambulance guys came by very soon after to take us to the ambulance. I thought that I would lose it having to go in the ambulance but the guys were very nice and made me feel comfortable. Valley had already called Swedish and told them we were on our way so there was a room waiting for us. As soon as we got to Swedish the tri med guys walked us to where our room and checked us in. The service that we got from them was very comforting.

Once we were in the room the nurses came in and got us all set up. They put him in his little bed and hooked him up to the IV. The doctor came in soon afterward. He said that he wanted to do some tests on him but first they would start with an ultrasound. He suspected that it was something called Pyloric Stenosis. Cirdan went with Jett to get and ultrasound and when they got back to the room he told me that the ultrasound doctor told him that it was in fact what Jett had. It was bitter sweet. I was happy that they found out what it was but then got nervous/sad again because I knew that it would mean surgery. The doctor who saw us said that if he could choose what the issue was- this would be it, which again was a bit comforting. He also said the surgeon would be in shortly to talk to us about surgery and what would happen.

(Cirdan)

I spent hours reading about every issue that could potentially could be causing his vomiting. From about 9PM through the night I was googling. I read about so many things it was ridiculous. Pyloric stenosis is something that really stood out. I actually copy and pasted the info on it and emailed to myself. I had a strong feeling this was the issue. I mentioned it to Heidi but she didn't want to hear anymore after she heard that the remedy was surgery. It wasn't a coincidence that A) I found it, and B) this ended up being the issue.

Definition-

Pyloric stenosis is an uncommon condition in newborns and infants that affects the muscles of the pylorus, which is at the lower end of the stomach. The muscles of the pylorus (pyloric sphincter) connect the stomach and small intestine.
In pyloric stenosis, the pyloric sphincter becomes abnormally large. The enlarged muscles block food from entering the baby's small intestine. Pyloric stenosis can lead to forceful vomiting, dehydration and weight loss. Babies with this condition may seem to always be hungry.
Prompt treatment of pyloric stenosis is important for preventing complications. Pyloric stenosis can be corrected with surgery.

Every minute that went by felt like an hour. Jett was still spitting up, gurgling and gagging. The surgeon that came to talk to us sat us down and explained what it was that Jett had (the doctor had also explained it). He was very informative. Since Jett at that point had barely any wet diapers he wanted to keep him on the IV for the rest of the night so they could make sure he would be hydrated for surgery. My friend Kristel called and I told her what was happening. She offered to have her husband come give Jett a blessing. I told her that would be wonderful and he called our home teacher Bro. Lance to come with. Soon after they left, Jett spit up only a couple more times and he started to get wet diapers. I felt much better at this point and knew that everything would be okay. My dad stopped by the hospital to bring us some of our stuff from home and Cirdan went home to get some stuff for us and take a shower. I had gotten not even a minute of sleep the night before and I was extremely tired but let Cirdan take a nap from 9 until midnight thinking he could take the next shift and keep an eye on Jett while I took a nap. I could barely keep my eyes open so at midnight I woke him up and I traded him the uncomfortable couch for the uncomfortable chair I was in. I woke up sometime after midnight and Cirdan was asleep. I was so mad! I was way too tired to do anything though and fell back asleep. The next day we laughed about it.

The surgeon told us that surgery was scheduled between 7:00-7:30am. I was awake by 5:30 anxious and waiting. At 7:15 we still hadn't heard anything so I went out to the nurses station and asked them if they knew what time. They said they would call and shortly after that the nurse came in to tell us they were on the way up to pick up Jett. She told us we would have to come back up to the room during surgery and would bring Jett back once he was done. It killed me to think about being so far away from him. Cirdan sat in the wheelchair with Jett and I walked behind them to the pre surgery room. There was a nurse (not sure if her title is a nurse...she actually helped out in surgery...so maybe surgeon's assistant??) there that came and checked us in. She was very nice, we could see she was going to take care of our son. Soon after another assistant came over. This lady had a nice smile and she immediately started talking about how cute Jett was and assured us that he would be in good hands. She took him from Cirdan and we gave him a kiss.

Thankfully there was a room down where the surgery took place where we could sit and wait. I was pretty calm while we waited. I had faith that everything would go okay and I am sure all the prayers that we said and that people said for us helped. The whole procedure took about 2 hours. Only about 30 minutes of that was actual surgery. The doctor came in as soon as it was over to tell us that everything went well. They would let us go and see him once he was awake. About 15 minutes later someone came said he was ready. They warned us that he had a tube in his nose to his stomach because there was some blood and "stuff" they wanted to get out before he started to eat again. We stood with Jett for about 30 minutes while they were watching him to make sure everything was okay. He cried a few times and his cry was so sad. It sounded all muffled and slow. He was coming to from the anesthesia and had a dry mouth and throat.

We finally walked back to our room (they transported Jett on a baby hospital bed). He had an IV in one hand prior to surgery. They put one in the other hand while he was under, just in case the other came out. It was really hard for me to see my newborn baby with all the tubes coming out of him. Thinking back about it now...I never want to relive that moment again. I was hoping I would get the go ahead to start feeding him in the next couple of hours. They wanted to get the stuff out of his stomach and decided to start feedings the next morning. I was bummed that we needed to wait another day. The poor baby hadn't ate since Sunday around 3:00 am. All day Monday after surgery Jett slept. I was worried that he was sleeping too long but the nurse said that it was good...that he was recovering. We were able to hold him a few times during the day which was nice.

Tuesday morning came after a long day Monday and the surgeon came in to check on him. He said that we could begin to try feedings. The first 2 bottles would be 1/2 ounce of pedialite, then 1 ounce of breast milk to 2 ounces of milk. During this time I was pumping so I had a supply of milk for him once he started to eat. Jett kept the pedialite down with no issue. His first feeding of milk he had just a tiny spit up. Round 2, no issue. Round 3 he spit up, only because he had to burp. Next few feedings went well, things were looking good.

(Cirdan)

The next morning Jett started fussing, crying a bit and pulling at his ear. Jett is too tough for his own good, Heidi knew something was up. She noticed that his little fingers were white and they looked puffy. She checked him out and his right arm was enormous. I called the nurse in and Heidi showed her. The nurse immediately rushed out to get scissors to cut off the tape on the small cast that helped hold his IV and a couple other nurses to help. Heidi jumped up and passed Jett to me and went to the other side of the room to try to keep it together. His IV had come out of his vein and was filling up his arm (tissue). His forearm was yellow and was as hard as a rock. From his shoulder to his fingertips his arm was three times the size of his normal arm. Are you serious?! I was with him while they put in the IV days prior and felt super guilty. It was rough...I just felt like I should have kept a closer eye on it. The nurses said they had been checking his IV every 2 hours so it must have taken only 2 hours. I don't know, but I doubt it. His surgeon came to check on him and told us he should have no problem looking the same within 24 hours. We kept it wrapped and elevated all day until around midnight. It was almost back to normal in just a little over 12 hours. More ups and downs, worry and relief. Good grief we were drained. BUT our little dude was okay which is the only thing that matters.

Jett responded so well to his surgery. If it was one of us, we would be on pain killers, complaining, taking weeks to recover. He had numbing cream on his tummy that lasted roughly 12 hours. After that he had 3 doses of Tylenol- that's it.

We went home on Wednesday morning around 10:30. Since Jett had been bottle fed all day Tuesady Heidi wanted to nurse him once or twice before leaving.

Our little man is home doing fine now. He is hungrier than ever, he must be making up for lost time. His new tummy is working perfectly. We are thankful for our friends and family. Their encouragement, prayers and thoughts absolutely helped all of us get through.

(Heidi)

I am so thankful for all of our family and friends. I was overwhelmed by the phone calls, texts, facebook messages, dinners that were brought over, plates of cookies that were delivered and even a card in the mail from someone at church I barely know. There were so many people praying for Jett and thinking about him and our family. A lot of people have been asking how he is. With Thanksgiving next week I have so many things to think about and be thankful for. I love my family so much and I love my little guy Jett. He has brought so much joy. I am grateful that he is okay and healthy.

On the way to surgery...

Jett and the Surgeon...

His scar...