March Madness

Hi Family and Friends!!


March was a pretty eventful month for us. In the beginning of the month my (Steph) friend Lauren flew down from NYC to hang out with us for a long weekend. It was still pretty chilly here and Noah was fighting  a virus in his lungs so we didn't get to spend to much time outside. But, while Lauren was here we were able to swing over to the Elon University Campus and hang out with Jorge during one of his study breaks. 


On March 18th we celebrated Jorge's birthday by dining outside at the Cheesecake Factory. The weather was gorgeous and we figured it would be the perfect way to spend the spring evening together. Noah got a kick out of watching all the people walk by us. On March 19th we were supposed to continue the celebration by going out with Steph's family to Red Robin. Unfortunately, we experienced probably one of the scariest days of our lives. 

The week before Jorge's birthday we began supplementing my breastmilk with formula (Noah gave me thrush making it very difficult for me to pump and keep up with his bottles at daycare). For the first few days on formula Noah did great. On Thursday and Friday Noah began projectile vomiting a majority of his formula bottles. He did fine with his milk bottles and the fruits and veggies. Because formula digests slower than breast milk, we figured Noah was drinking too much and all of his moving around caused the formula to jostle around in his stomach making him queasy and throw it back up. Because, oddly enough, he always threw up an hour after he was given the formula. 


On Saturday we fed him less volume of the formula to see if that would do the trick. About 45 minutes after the bottle, Noah and I headed to the grocery store. While in the grocery store Noah began to throw up and in the midst of all the commotion his head tilted back and he inhaled some of his throw up. I don't know how I knew something was wrong, but, looking at Noah's face I felt like he was saying to me "Mommy something is not right." I ran outside with him and ripped off his vomit soaked clothes. His eyes started rolling back and he began to spasm, I thought he was having a seizure, but he was just trying to shake his body to get a breath into his lungs. 

Fortunately, the hospital was only 2 miles away. I threw him into the car seat and drove to the hospital as fast as I could (hitting every red light on the way). The whole time, I could here him fighting in the back for air. By the time I got to the hospital his skin was grey and his lips were blue. I ran him into the ER and immediately a team of nurses and doctors began to fight to clear his lungs. After a scary 3-4 minutes I began to hear some healthy cries coming from Noah. They had to intubate him for a couple minutes in order to allow his body to get some rest from all the fighting he was doing to breath. I called Jorge and told him to come to the ER immediately. (He listened and admitted to going 90 on the highway to get to the hospital). After the scariest ten minutes of my life they were able to completely restore Noah's breathing. Of course by now he was completely freaked out by all the needles and breathing apparatuses being used on him. Around this time Jorge got to the ER and saw me being hysterical and the great team working on his son. 
Once Noah was stabilized the doctors thought it would be best to send Noah to UNC where their pediatric ER department would be better suited to assess him. Noah was transferred, via ambulance, to UNC (with Jorge and I following closely behind). Noah ended up staying overnight at UNC. Noah's bubbly personality immediately made him a big hit with his nurses. After some evaluation, the doctors believed that Noah had an intolerance to regular formula (different from lactose intolerance or an milk allergy). It was interesting to learn the ins and outs of formula and how many doctors avoid soy-based formula and other hypoallergenic formulas due to the utilization of table sugar in them. It's amazing all of the things corporations get away with putting in baby food...but i digress.  
Apparently, due to the digestion process in my body, the cow milk  proteins in my breast milk are cut much smaller than the proteins found in traditional formulas. Noah had to be given formula in which the cow milk proteins are comparable in size to those in breast milk. Unfortunately, this formula tastes and smells disgusting and Noah was not a big fan of it. I mixed it with some of my milk and he's been doing great drinking it. 


After Noah was released from the hospital on Sunday (the 20th), Jorge and I had to take the Monday off to recover from our big scare. Noah even slept in the bed with us for the following week. All in all this experience was scary but eye opening. I truly believe that God directed me to the hospital and I am so grateful and blessed that everything turned out the way it did. Thank God that we were so close to the hospital. Thank God for the amazing team that took care of us at the hospital. Thank God for the support we received from family and friends. And Thank God for my great insurance that prevented us from paying the crazy hospital bill racked up in a day and a half :) 


All in all March was a month of blessings and even though typing up the story brought tears to my eyes, I'm glad we went through it and came out stronger.


God Bless,


Steph, Jorge, and Noah