Lochlan is Jealous of her Boogie
The twins made it to their 1 month on Sunday the 25th and Lochlan was obviously jealous of his sisters jet set lifestyle in the NICU. The short version of the story is this, Lochlan was great after coming home for the hospital until his little sister came home. He started having bouts of crying fits now and then but nothing longer than 2-3 minutes. Then the week after his sister came home, we noticed his irritability increase and getting him to burp during or after feedings was growing more and more unlikely to happen. By Saturday evening the crying fits had grown long (between 4-6 minutes). Our concern grew more and more as we got closer to the weekend that either the he was having an allergic reaction to the formula we were using or maybe he was becoming colicky.
On Sunday morning, while Dad was changing his diaper he noticed a large portion of the right groin was inflamed and it was a hard mass. We called the nurse help line but they said we should just take him into the doctor office the following day to get it checked. Then by dinner poor Lochlan started to have fits where all of a sudden his whole body would cease and he would vomit. The first time it happened I didn’t see it. Then about 20 minutes later I saw what Clem had seen and that was it, he’s going to the ER. Turns out the poor boy had a ingular hernia. Dr. T in the ER was amazing with his familiarity with the condition and forthcoming about his experience with newborns with the condition.
A specialist was called in and he tried to get the intestine pushed back through hernia hole but it wouldn't all go back in. Lochlan was in the OR with in the next hour. The surgery took a lot longer than expected but that was do the large amount of the intestine that was incarcerated. A large portion of the cecum and even his appendix were inside his scrotum still. The cecum came out dark purple but within a few minutes it had pinked up. The surgery was successful and was moved to our good old home the NICU. All of the nurses came by to say hi and check in on him.
We got our on private room because he was a baby coming from the outside, so he had to be tested for MRSA. He slowly woke up but did need some assistance with a red blood cell transfusion. Within a few hours of the transfusion he was waking up and taken off the ventilator. 24 hours passed and he was out of the isolation room and eating and pooping. The doctor said babies usually don’t eat or poop for 2-3 days, thankfully Lochlan is 1-2 days ahead of schedule. After 4 days in the NICU our jealous little boy was on his way home. He’s been home now for 4+ days now and we are just happy to have all the kids under one roof.
We did have a slight scare on the day we brought him home. We weren’t use to his post op discomfort yet and we were alarmed by some little changes since he left the NICU that afternoon. So we ended up in the ER yet again, worried his hernia opened back up. Turns out instead he was diagnosed with a hydracele in his scrotum. Fun! So tylenol was the drug of choice and he was released. So they are all home now, Lochlan is still recovering and not 100% just yet. More fun to come.