A Rough Start

So Andrew is 2 1/2 weeks old now. He's been home for a week and a half! Seems like he's been here a lot longer though.



We've had quite the rough start though. First his whole NICU stay. Then it took a lot longer than usual for me to feel "back to myself" after the c-section. The doctor said it was because I spent the first week of my recovery back and forth to and from the NICU instead of recovering at home. Ended up back at the doctor due to swelling in my legs and a pain in my calf. After that appt I ended up in the ER because they were afraid I had a blood clot in my leg. No blood clot, but the ER found something wrong with my heart. Seems my heart rate is extremely low. By low I mean instead of the average 79 beats a minute, my heart is beating at 38 beats a minute. They haven't been able to find a blood pressure on me. When they do find one it's extremely low at 96/70 or something like that. ER ran a bunch of tests and everything came back fine. I was then referred to a cardiologist. The cardiologist wanted to put me on a heart monitor for 24 hours and do an Echocardiograham. They also did an EKG on me too. During the EKG they found an extended QT interval. I did the 24 hour heart monitor and when I went back to turn it in they did the Echo on me.



I got a phone call this morning saying they couldn't get anything off of the 24 hour monitor because there was to much "interference". I went back this afternoon to have a new 24 hour monitor put on and was then told that they couldn't do another 24 hour monitor because it was the breastfeeding that was causing the interference. They talked to the doctor to see if there was another monitor they could put on me. They said that me lifting the netting on the monitor to nurse Andrew and my milk coming in caused the interference. They asked if I had thought about not nursing. I told her "the baby is only 2 weeks old." At that point I was told until I stop nursing there wasn't anything they could do. They told me to call back when I stop nursing to have a new monitor put on. Until then "if you experience any symptoms of heart problems go straight to the ER"



I know my health is more important than breastfeeding Andrew, but he's only 2 weeks old!



*sigh*



I'm really having a rough start here. I'm sure Andrew senses it too cause he's been crying constantly the last few days. I'm up every hour and a half to 2 hours with him at night and still getting up to get the boys off to school even though my mother in law has been here helping out. She's doing all the running around taking them to and from school and cleaning and cooking and everything, but I just feel like I'm not getting any breaks.



My Mother in law leaves Saturday morning and in one sense I'm looking forward to getting into our own routine and figuring things out on my own. On the other hand I just don't know how I'm gonna handle it all on my own.



I feel like the world is leaving me behind. I haven't had time to get online lately and it's almost like no one calls me anymore "just to talk".



I know this entry sounds like I'm depressed or have a touch of the "baby blues" but I promise I don't. I'm just trying to find my way with all this stuff going on.