Gideon update – part 1

I’m going to take a quick break from the timeline of our life on this blog and give a quick update on our sweet little Giddy.

Gideon Uriah was born on Thanksgiving with the most adorable little face, but unfortunately there was a lot of bruising and swelling.  I had been induced on Monday evening, and did not deliver until a C-section on Thursday morning, after no progression of labor and some distress in him. Talk about a long and stressful few days! The doctors thought that the damage to his face was from how he was positioned against my cervix and that it would heal in a few days. Lots of it did improve, swelling and redness went down. Then his nose appeared to have a scab on it, which we thought would just fall off. The pediatricians in the hospital were great, and we put antibiotic ointment on it and continued to watch it. We were discharged Sunday.

Tuesday we went to the pediatrician, and the “scab” was found to be necrotic (dead) tissue, and was beginning to block his little nostril from breathing (side note that is very important – babies don’t breathe out of their mouths, so it is very important that their nose functions well). The pediatrician called an ENT (ear nose throat doctor), and decided we need to see him the next morning, as well as a plastic surgeon. Gideon really was itty bitty Giddy now, as he had lost some weight (due to difficulties nursing with the nose), and was now in the 2% for weight, and 6% for height. So we were on the very exhausting plan of nursing every two hours around the clock. 

Wednesday we went to the ENT bright and early, and he looked at his nose for a couple seconds and quickly said we have to go to UofM to see their pediatric plastic surgery department, and ENT. He said he would call personally and get an appointment as soon as possible – which was Tuesday of the next week.

Thursday we had to go back to the pediatrician for a weight check and nose check. The necrotic tissue was getting worse, and more skin seemed to be dying. She watched him breathe and saw how much he was struggling, and said she was going to call UofM to see what they think we should do. They told us to come to Motts Children’s Hospital ER. They said they could evaluate us and do some temporary treatment for his nose, or admit us to the hospital if that was needed. So we went home, packed some bags, made plans for my awesome Mom to pick up D from daycare and took off on a 2 hour drive to the ER to get our baby some help.

It seemed like every time we went to a doctor’s appointment the news got worse for little Gideon, and the poor little guy was one week old!  We went to UofM and did end up getting admitted, but after seeing about 80 doctors there, we feel very hopeful. I will post more about our trip there next.

Here is the progression of his little nose over the first week. 

So his nose is a little banged up, but can we not agree that he is the most precious, beautiful little guy you have ever seen?

Love,
Brittany