Support Hailey and Ryan's Baby in Intensive Care Nursery

On August 5, Baby B was born via planned c section in Nashua, NH at St Joseph’s. She showed no signs of concern, her lungs cried a big cry, her complexion was appropriate, she nursed with no issues, and emptied her bowels / voided appropriately. August 6th She was taken away from Hailey’s bed space to get the newborn screenings. Hailey grew concerned when her daughter was gone out of room for longer than expected. The pediatrician came back into the room without baby and said, “I’m sorry but your daughter failed the CCHD test and we will unfortunately need to transport her to a higher level of care either Dartmouth Lebanon NH or Boston’s Children’s” She was put on oxygen and a CPAP in the hospitals nursery while waiting for transportation via ambulance by Dartmouth. Her blood sugar was also scoring a score of 46, which is on the low side indicating neonatal hypoglycemia. This shattered mom’s heart as Hailey was only 1 day postpartum and post c section. She cried and begged to get transferred to be with her daughter, because they both still needed the appropriate care.

Hailey did get allowed to transfer with her daughter due to the baby needing cardiac evaluation. Unfortunately this also left Hailey with a 9K ambulance bill because according to ACR, it was non medical transfer. When baby girl arrived at Dartmouth’s ICN, she was placed on a warmer with the CPAP still intact and had an echocardiogram to see how well her heart is functioning and why she had failed the test.

According to this test, her heart is structurally appropriate but she is showing signs of pulmonary hypertension. The doctors explained that it’s something in her heart that is thicker than normal, but expected with newborns. It’s her heart transitioning from being in utero to the outside world. Typically this resolves within a few days of birth. Due to having a CPAP, mom was not able to nurse her due to potential aspiration. When she was able to eat, she was taken off cpap and placed on oxygen and was giving a feeding tube. After 24 hrs of being admitted, mom was giving the ok to feed baby since she was now on an oxygen cannula. The doctors explained that increasing the oxygen flow will help prevent serious complications and that this is the best approach for her at the moment - oxygen. Mom and Dad were informed that she could be here for almost a week.

Wednesday afternoon, she was taken off on oxygen and breathing on her own!! Her oxygen levels remained in the low 90’s, which is acceptable range for her. She was showing some slight signs of improvement .. until she wasn’t.

Wednesday night/Early Thursday morning, her oxygen levels started to get low again so the doctors decided to place her back on oxygen. Her glucose levels continued to get tested but we finally saw the increase in numbers that we wanted.

Friday, Mom got the “ok” to be discharged as mom was recovering well enough that she did not need care. However, baby girl could not be discharged as she was not stable enough and needs to be breathing room air for a certain amount of time before discharge could even be thought about. This instantly brought panic to both parents as they live an hour and a half away and knew transporting back and forth wouldn’t be in the best interest so they made the decision to stay close by to allow skin to skin bonding and to be on close standby. They had to rule out where to stay and how they’re going to get food during their daughter’s hospital stay while also getting help and support for their other children back at home. Baby B was set to have her follow up echocardiogram today to see if any improvements occurred. Her echocardiogram showed nothing worsening but no improvement too. She did also get moved from critical floor to the “carpet” side as the ICN team calls it, which is somewhat of a positive note. She is expected to receive another echocardiogram on Monday and consultation with the cardiology / ICN team to see what are the next steps…

This is a really hard time for Hailey and Dad, Ryan. Hailey is on an unpaid leave and Ryan is on vacation from work to spend time with the baby. They have had to spend more than they have just to ensure they can properly care for themselves while their daughter is under ICN care. Hailey left the hospital Friday with no extra clothes only loose fitting shorts and tanks, because she had never been through this with any of her kids. It’s usually a few days in hospital and then discharge home. She was not expecting this at all. She went from hospital to hospital transfer by ambulance. She did not have postpartum supplies or medications, only what hospital provided which wasn’t much.

Hailey was so excited to bring her baby girl home and talked with such pride of getting newborn and family photos done when the baby was born. Due to the events that happened, she had to cancel them. I greatly worry for them because I know how hard this is. They have two beautiful boys back home and they haven’t been able to see them or let them see the baby in almost a week now. This is really hard for all involved and I’m sure those boys are confused and just as sad as mom and dad. What was supposed to be an easy and relaxing maternity leave for mom, has now turned into pure chaos. With the likelihood of needing outpatient services, this will create needing to supply gas in their car. Gas that mom cannot financially afford at the moment, because she’s not working which leaves Ryan to pay for everything. I really would like to help ease the financial burdens on them so that when baby girl can finally come home, they are not scrapping by and mom can relax as much as possible with out having to stress.

Funds will be used for medical expenses, gas reimbursement, food, hotel, and whatever this precious baby girl needs.

Until then, We are just taking it day by day. Monday is the big day for all so I will update when I hear more.