Emmett's MRI

Well today was the day... the dreaded MRI.

We were told to stop feeding him at 6 this morning, so I had Scott set the alarm for 5:20 so I could wake up and give him a nice long nursing session before he had to go without food. And you know how sometimes when you are expecting something, your body goes that extra mile and helps you out? Since I was anticipating waking up at 5:20, my body decided to wake up all antsy around 4:40.So I laid in bed waiting, waiting, waiting until 5:10 and then I woke Emmett up ~I couldn't wait any longer, the anticipation was too much. He nursed from 5:15 until 5:30. I didn't think it was nearly long enough so I woke him back up and he nursed for another 6 minutes and then was gone gone. When he woke again at 7:30 he was hungry... and the nurse said he could have water until 8, so I tried a bottle of warm water. He started drinking...his eyebrows furrowed... he tongue pushed the bottle's nipple out and the water went dribbling down the front of his night clothes! He didn't want anything to do with that boring stuff!

He went back to sleep and was fine until we were half way to the hospital and he woke up at 9:30 and cried a little until we got there and I was able to get him out of the car seat. So my fear of how terrible it was going to be with a starving baby never came to be. He was pretty wonderful - keeping up with par for his personality!

So we sign in at the hospital and are taken back right away after filling out the paperwork. He cried a little when they were checking his oxygen level (only because it involved taping things around his big toe, and he still has some feet issues from when he was first born!) But he stopped, we changed a diaper, switched him into an outfit that had no metal (do you know how hard it is to find baby outfits without snaps?! Luckily we had one bag-a-baby that didn't have anything metal on it so he would wear clothes in the MRI machine) I swaddled him, gave him his pacifier and he was still again.

The nurses came in and put his IV in and he didn't even whimper!!! He looked at them with a scowl, but he was such a great little man about it all! She even pushed two vials of saline in him and he stayed still - that is one of the yuckiest feelings for me, that cold, metal feeling sliding in your vein and the terrible smell it gives you... yuck! The anesthesiologist came in to talk to us and check his lungs and heart and he stayed still and was the perfect patient! So my fear about the IV hurting him never came to pass either.

Then the anesthesiologist gave us blessed news - we didn't have to stay overnight with him! They keep babies that are younger than a month overnight, but Emmett is a month and 2 days! Bless those two wonderful days! So there went another concern of mine - having to stay overnight! I like to be home in my own little nest with all my little birdies gathered in the same place when I am sleeping, and me staying the night with Emmett up at the hospital away from the other three wasn't a fun thought.

THEN, as if it could get any better, we were able to carry him into the MRI room - they didn't take him away from us. (That was heart wrenching when we had to do it with a 2 year old Teagan; screaming and crying and loopy!) Scott carried him in and help him while they pushed in the sedating meds. He slowly relaxed his eyes, his hands relaxed and his arms slid to his sides, and then the rest of his body relaxed and his diaper got immediately filled! So we changed his diaper on the MRI table and went to the recovery room to wait. Less than 20 minutes later they brought him and put him a recovery crib! It was done!

His blood pressure afterwards was on the low side for the first hour or so, but they upped his IV fluids and it went higher and he was okay to discharge after the second hour. We had to stay for 2 hours to let him wake up and nurse, and then we got to go home... it was that easy! He has been loopy today, and you can tell he doesn't feel like himself and it is bothering him a bit, but he is still as quiet about it as he is about most everything else! He just wants to be held more than normal today, and we are all okay with that!

The doctor's office finally called us back in the last hour to give us the results of the MRI. Everything was within okay limits, we will watch it, but no surgery needed!!!! How wonderful is that?!

So all the prayers, the fasting, the temple trips, the concern... they all worked wonderfully to make the coin toss land emphatically on heads! Absolutely everything went as perfectly as we could have hoped they would! Emmett is back home in Teagan's loving arms where he belongs, my mind is relieved that this roller coaster ride is over, and life can resume its normalcy!