I know this may be boring to some but...

I want to record my memories...so here goes blog #2...I will take all advice and not write my paragraphs without taking a breath (lol).

Back to Sam and the morning he was born...

After a few minutes, I asked how my son was breathing. His O2 sats were holding their own at 98%...

Next, I asked about his heartbeat and if she heard a murmur, the nurse told me his heartbeat was strong and she did not hear a murmur...

Next, was the wt. question...6 pounds, 4 1/2 ounces...(no wonder he came out so easy, lol)

The nurse asked me, why do you want to know all this stuff...I responded, because he has Downs and I want to make sure he will be able to stay here and not be life flighted to Little Rock...the nurse said, no he doesn't...I said well the amnio said he does...she said, you're kidding...this baby looks normal...I said, why would I kid, he is normal, he just has DS...she turned to one of the other nurses and said, did you know this baby has Downs...and on it went from nurse to nurse...I do believe that every nurse on the floor came to see him and let me know that they didn't think he had downs...(guess they know more than the geneticist)

When my doctor showed up, she examined him closely and told me he looks good, Terri...He can stay here...I was so relieved...Not only did he get to stay in the little town of Lake Village, but he got to room in with me...The only thing they could find wrong was that he failed the newborn hearing test in his right ear...We were finally allowed to leave the hospital at 9:45 pm on May 08, after alot of negotiations with the doctor and begging by me...Sam went home with me...

The doctor made me promise to get him to a pediatrician ASAP for a complete thorough checkup...Since I knew we would be moving, Sam, Michaela, Jakob (yep, I let him skip school) and I followed Paul back to Conway...Paul went back to work on Thurs, May 10, and we went up on Friday morning.

We found the greatest Pediatric group in Conway...They saw him that Friday, May 11. The result of the visit was that he looked a little jaundiced, so they wanted to do a billi test...It was 15.2...wanted him to repeat labs on Tuesday, told me to sunbathe him in the meantime (which I did)...I returned to Montrose for the weekend...Monday, I drove back to Conway...repeated labs on Tuesday...Billi was 19.8...

Doctor said no choice but to hospitalize and put him under the Billi-lights...so his second hospital stay began on May 15...

When he checked into the hospital at 4:15 pm on the 15th, he weighed 5 pounds, 14 ounces...I asked what I could do to help him...I was told that the billirubin would drop faster if I gave him formula instead of breast...so I fed him from a bottle and pumped...This combined with the billi-lights, worked wonders...by 5:30 pm. on the 16th, his billi was 11.9, he was released with the understanding that I bring him back for a repeat lab the next day and return to the clinic on the 22nd...and, Sam took right back to the breast that night.

Repeat lab on 17th (4:30 am--I needed to get back to my two children in south Arkansas as soon as I could) 10.9...So we drove back "home" and stayed there for the rest of the week.

More later...