Watching This mornings story of Kaiden was so close to home. As a matter of fact my story is about My husband and I’s son;
Kaden.
He was born 4/15/03 at Anderson Hospital in Maryville IL. Just before he had been born he experienced meconium. He became extremely exasperated and his Dr. was afraid he was going to crash. 16 hours after he was born he was rushed to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital; May have a different name now.
We weren’t allowed to ride the ambulance and We had to make arrangements for our other children to be taken care of. My Sister Ranae picked them up after my Mom had gotten them some things together. My Mom had been with them since we left to go deliver Kaden. Once we finally made it to Cardinal Glennon it seemed like forever.
I was not recovered from delivery and felt like I was wearing a pillow. I was still swollen and in pain. Once my husband was finally able to get a wheelchair for me to use, we made our way to the NICU. He was in a hood with oxygen and had an oxygen tube in his nose as well. We weren’t allowed to hold him 😓💔😭
The staff was very comforting and good at explaining they wanted to keep him calm in order for him to inhale as much of the oxygen as possible. They; we all, wanted him to get his lungs clear. The oxygen hood had a lid on it in order to reach his nose tube and keep a check on it staying in place. We joked and called it a crock pot.
I was able to reach in and touch his little hand with my finger. He was a very healthy weight and the staff was not use to a newborn of his size being in NICU.
9lbs 5.5 oz
St. Louis Cardinal Glennon Staff were very
empathetic and went above and beyond. We wanted to stay at the hospital with him. We didn’t want to leave. They found us a room, I called it a broom closet. I didn’t care. I wanted to be there so that I could be with Kaden as much as possible. The NICU nurses arranged for me to get a breast pump so that I could provide breast milk for my son! He was able to eat from a bottle and began to come out of crisis🤗
He was only there for a week or so and we could not have been happier to bring home our beautiful bundle of joy! I believe his foot print/s May be on the wall in the NICU
One day we’ll have to go find out ❤️

Cari McCollum