Daniel stayed in the NICU for 1 month. That was a long time to us, although we have friends that stayed so much longer. I got to see Dan the 1st night, they brought him down to me! I did not see him again for 2 days. Daniel was tube-fed, as is the norm in 'our' babies. His weight dropped to 1.200 grams, not a bad loss at all. He had hypoglycemia (low-blood sugar) which they think this was due to his low birth weight. He was pumped with saline to try and make him gain weight. My husband kept asking me for milk. It had not come in yet, I was drugged and it upset me. Two days later, while I was visiting with Dan, his pediatrician asked the same thing! Give him formula I said. They said I had signed a form telling them he was to have breast milk only!!! NO WAY!!! They had the wrong baby, so Dan had gone 2 days without milk while another baby got the formula that was not allowed. They gave Dan formula ASAP, within 5 minutes of this being found out.

We hoped now maybe he would stabilize. NO WAY!!! So they pumped more saline into him. This caused Daniel to have fluid retention which in turn opened his patent-ductus AGAIN (this closes after birth). There was talk of heart surgery if it did not close, but first they gave him a diuretic to drain the fluid. WELL, yes it drained the fluid and the ductus closed, but this also caused Heart failure! Oh my boy! I am crying for you, why can it not be me?

I really to this day don't know what happened then. I know he has no damage to the heart (this was checked), but I was so out of it I just don't remember a whole lot. Daniel's blood sugar levels still would not stabilize and we were in the third week. They tried an experimental drug (hormone) DIAOZIOD 2ml every 8 hours. IT WORKED! PRAISE JAH! Here we are doing Kangaroo Care!

So Daniel was now put on the bottle, he drank the lot! He was blood sugar level tested every 4 hours. His weight was again 1,300 .. We could take him home! A month in the NICU .. Somebody said these words and they are so true:

"Nobody knows the NICU exists unless you are forced through the doors"

To all the Doctors and nurses, Thank you so much for caring for this special person named Daniel. He lived thanks to you and to the ALMIGHTY JEHOVAH GOD! Now we had to prepare for him to come home! What a shock that was!