Daniel and the ER

Daniel's third full day of life started out just like any other day. We were a little slow getting going, but were planning on getting things done that day. It was my first full day home from the hospital and we needed to get caught up on the things we'd let slide while we were in the hospital. Around 10:30 I fed Daniel and then laid him down on the changing table to change his diaper. Hannah and Sarah Kate were watching me when Sarah made a grossed out noise and said Daniel spit up something. I just thought it was milk, but when I looked at it I noticed it looked a little like blood. I called Kenny in and we decided to watch him and see what else he did. As he threw up a few more times we decided to call the doctor. It took a long time to get a hold of anyone, but when we finally did they told us to watch him and if he keeps spitting it up then we should take him to the ER. After about 5 or 6 times of spitting up a light colored blood, Daniel spit up a fair amount of bright colored, normal looking blood. At that point we decided to go to the ER. I ran to the neighbor's and asked if she would watch the kids and then we rushed Daniel to the hospital.

When we got there they took Daniel back as soon as we arrived. They took his temperature, listened to his heart and lungs, and hooked him up to find his pulse. Everything looked fine and from what they could tell he was healthy. They had me feed him and then observed him for an hour. At that point he still hadn't spit up any more blood so they decided to send us home, telling us if he spit up more blood to bring him back. We were relieved that he seemed to be fine and went home, took a nap, and went about the rest of our day. I made dinner and after dinner I went back to the bedroom to feed Dan again. Hannah saw him first and told me Daniel spit up yuckies. I looked at him and sure enough he had spit up some black, mucus stuff.

I called Kenny in again and we decided to call the doctor. They told us that he shouldn't be spitting up anything but milk and that we should take him back to the ER. So again, we called another neighbor to watch the kids and took Dan back to the ER. This time it took awhile for them to see us, but when we finally got back they decided to run some test to make sure Dan was fine this time. Kenny had to go back to the other kids so he left me there to find out what was going on with Dan. They drew some blood, took some x-rays of his tummy and then we sat and waited for the results. After awhile they came and asked for the bloody blanket from earlier. They ran some tests on the blood and determined that it was my blood and not his that he had spit up.

So much was explained when they determined this. The knot in Dan's umbilical cord had cut off his oxygen and blood supply during delivery, so to survive he had tried to start breathing early. Instead he just ended up ingesting fluids. Newborns don't have stomach acid so the blood he swallowed just sat in his stomach for those first three days until he finally spit it up. That's why it was still bright red, which is what really scared us. They told us we may see some more as it moves through his system, but not to worry.

We were so relieved that he was OK and that all his parts were in working condition. The x-ray came back normal and his blood count was actually higher than normal. We have a very healthy baby boy and there is nothing for us to worry about. What a relief that is. We love this little boy, but he has been quite worrisome. I much prefer to bring my babies home and have no issues. We're happy Dan's healthy and we're grateful to our wonderful neighbors who helped us out when we needed them. Needless to say we didn't get anything done that day, but we found out Dan's OK so that what really matters.