De Ja Vu All Over Again...

We went to our regularly scheduled check up Tuesday, only to have the Dr send us back to the hospital. She noticed Sloan breathing quickly and laboring rather hard to do so, so she sent us to the ER. Not really what first time parents want to hear. (and on top of it, they almost had us take an ambulance up there because the UN General Session causes crazy traffic.) We had noticed that she was not eating as much the last 18-24 hours either, so off to the hospital we went...

Our Pediatrician is affiliated with Cornell-NY Presbyterian Hospital on 68th & 1st, not NYU where she was delivered, so this was kind of a new experience for us. Cornell does have a Pediatric Emergency Room which was a huge blessing - we showed up and they saw us right away. Preemies have more sensitive respiratory systems than full term babies, so it was important that they do all sorts of tests to make sure her labored breathing wasn't indicative of a larger problem. They hooked her up to an IV, took x-rays of her lungs, drew several ml's of blood for cultures, put her on a catheter for a urinalysis, and performed a spinal tap (of which we are told she was a model patient). Our little girl was put through the ringer!

Our little patient...

Yes, they wheeled her up to her room in that big ol' bed...
hospital procedure!

Most of the test results take about 48 hours, but the good news is that the initial test from the spinal tap showed that we were negative for meningitis. That meant we could go to the regular pediatric floor as opposed to Intensive Care, but she was put on precautionary antibiotics in the event it was bronchiolitis or some other sort of virus/infection. We had our precious girl home for a full week before she was back in the hospital...

We spent the next two days by her bedside waiting for the results. The pediatric floor is so much different from PICU/NICU. This time she was not hooked up to beeping monitors, just a simple IV. She was not under constant watch either, so one of us was there the whole time. Despite her diminutive size, she was a regular ol' patient at the hospital...

Finally, after two days of waiting our test results came back negative. There was slight bacteria growth in one of the cultures but it was a contaminant and nothing to worry about. In the end, she likely had either bronchiolitis or the common cold. Either way, she is getting back to her cute little self - eating and pooping up a storm. Mom and Dad are so happy to bring her home again...let's hope it sticks this time.

Taxi ride #2