intensive care-less

Immediately following Rohan’s birth, the nurse attempted to help the baby to clear his lungs. All babies need to cough out the amniotic fluid upon delivery and start using their lungs for the first time. Rohan decided he liked excitement and would take his time. The nurse helped suction a lot of it out, but he still wasn’t breathing deeply – but rather grunting more than deep breathing.

So an attending pediatrician and two residents quickly descended upon our delivery room to check Rohan out. They decided he wasn’t clearing his lungs fast enough and wanted him ushered to the Nursery Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to see if anything else was the matter and / or contributing to his condition.

Our doula ensured that L got to at least hold the baby before whisking him away and made sure that I would be able to accompany him immediately. We were so swept up with everything that was going on, that these simple actions may never have occurred. I was able to follow him up to the entrance of the NICU where I was asked to wait while they got him “set up.”

That basically just meant putting him in a box with hand holes and hooking him up to a bunch of monitors. Painless enough for him, at least it’s warm, but relatively painful for a parent who has no idea what is going on. Adding to the distress….I had to leave his mom behind and had no way to get a hold of her. Not only is cell phone use prohibited in the NICU, but through a twist of fate, I had her cell phone in my pocket as well.

Looking back on it now, my attitude at the time was excessively worried – but it’s hard to imagine another first time father not feeling the same way. Though I hadn’t carried the baby for 10 lunar cycles, I did still feel attached to him. Watching him through the glass while nurses and doctors poked and discussed various readings did nothing to ease my concern.

The doctors did provide a fairly detailed explanation of what was going on and continued to re-iterate that everything was pretty much okay, but they preferred having him in the NICU where he would be constantly monitored vs. the well nursery. In addition the nurse / baby ratio is significantly higher in the NICU (usually 1 / 3) vs. the well nursery (around 1 / 10+) so he (and us for that matter) would get great care.

STILL…having him in our arms, in our room, would have been a far smoother roller coaster ride.