Our Sweet Ian was born on July 27th, 2007 at 8:12 in the morning. Coincidentally, he weighed 8lbs, 12 oz. He was about a week early, or he might have been my biggest baby. There were a lot more people in the OR than with my other two boys. Hemotology people, Nicu nurses, and medical students. Apparently, giving birth to a known hemophiliac does not happen that often! Ian was delivered by Dr Sentell. She did a wider than usual incision to limit trauma to his head and he was typed and tested immediately. He was given an infusion of Factor 8 through an IV in his hand as soon as the tests were confirmed. Michael kept going back and forth between me in recovery and Ian in the nursery. He and Nanny told me that lots of medical people came by to see the "little hemophiliac baby".
After just a little while, although it seemed like forever, they brought him to me. He was so sweet and tiny, with brown eyes and lots of black hair. He took to nursing right away, and practically taught me how to do it. He loved to cuddle and be held.
We had lots of visitors, family and friends stopping by to meet Ian. I asked them to remove jewlery and/or nametags before holding him. Newborn skin seems so thin and even if un-necessary this helped everyone remember to be extra careful. Also, Ian can never have asprin products as they act as a blood thinner. So I would ask everytime what he and I were being given. I just needed extra strength Tylenol to deal with the surgery pain--what a miracle!
Once I asked a night nurse what she was giving me, and she replied "We're not going to give you anything that could hurt you or your baby."
"But what is it?" I asked. "Advil." she answered. "Well, since he can't have any asprin, and I'm nursing him, I can't take that." I informed her. Except for this one instance all the nurses and staff were great with him and with all my worries and cautions.
Our only problem occurred when we were headed home and they were removing his ankle security braclet. As the nurse was cutting it off, I started to ask if there was any other way to remove it when Ian began screaming. She had not cut him with the blades, but the screw that holds the scissors together had scraped his heel and HE WAS BLEEDING!!!
We all froze! Michael had gone with the older boys to get the car and I began issuing orders for a pressure bandage and an ice pack. All I could think was "lets get this stopped so we can go home"
The nurse came back with 2x2 gauze and a gallon ziploc bag of ice. We used a bandaid to hold the gauze in place tightly and I held ice on the scrape. None of us really knew what to expect. I still wanted to go home. I told them we would be back if it did not stop, and we were finally headed home.
It did stop, but it was 10 days before the bandaid came off on its own. I didn't want to pull it and re-open the wound or tear more of that papery baby skin. Once we got home and he was asleep, I cried and cried. I don't know if it was exhaustion, relief, or hormones, but I felt like I had tried to anticipate every problem and had let down my guard in an effort to hurry up and get home.
