SVT Baby

I blog this just to have the memory. I'm sure Adrie will want to read about it some day. If it were up to me, I would just forget the whole thing. Not an experience I enjoyed or want to relive. I'm sure part of it was being a new mom with zero sleep didn't help...

When Adrie was around 12 days old, Brian noticed that her heart was beating pretty fast. He could tell just by putting his hand over her chest. We thought maybe we were just being paranoid parents, but we wanted to be sure. Brian called his dad (Scott) and he and another doctor came by our house. They both listened to her little heart beat and said they couldn't count it, it was beating so fast. They recommended heading to her pediatrician to get her monitored. Of course by the time we got there, her heart had slowed. She said we should still head over to Primary Children's Hospital just to be sure. Off we went. I cried the whole way.

12 days old. Around 12 a.m. and yes I was as tired as I look

They monitored her over night and her heart stayed steady. I'm pretty sure that they thought that we were just the typical new parents, but we knew that something was wrong. They sent us home that next day, with a stethoscope this time, and life went back to normal.

On our way home. It was snowing so we made sure she was warm. Cute baby

One week later, Brian came home from work and he noticed that something was wrong. She was really lethargic. We could hold her up and her arms and legs would just dangle. He listened to her with our new friend the stethoscope, and counted over 300 beats per minute. Just to be sure, Brian's dad came by again (thank heavens for this man). He agreed with Brian and off to Primary's we went again. Scott came with us so he could listen on the way.

When we arrived, Brian and Scott took Adrie in and I parked the car. I think I wanted to delay watching what they were going to do to my brand new baby. When I got in there, she was already hooked up to the monitor and they were working on her IV. I looked at the monitor and it read 336. My heart sank. 336 beats per minute. That is over 5 beats per second. The next few hours were kind of a blur. Mostly because I was crying so hard that it literally was blurry.

What she had was Superventricular tachycardia, or SVT. You can google it if you want a scientific explanation, but basically it is a rapid heart beat that she could not get down herself. They tried vagal maneuvers to get it down (ice pressed hard against her face, tipping her upside down) and the ice worked for a minute, but she went back into SVT a few moments later. They tried a drug that usually works, nothing. Eventually after several attempts of both the vagal maneuvers and the medicine, they decided they would need to shock her heart. Yes, that is with the paddles. The took us up the the PICU where they would try shocking her heart and then she would need to stay there. They had to bring in a crash cart in case they couldn't get her heart started back up. Luckily for Brian and me, a nurse distracted us during this time. They had to shock it twice for it to work. It was over before we even realized they had started. Unfortunately, the shocking only kept her out of it for a minute. They finally used a different medication that worked.

Overnight went well, considering. Adrie was able to get some sleep. Her parents? Not so much. They had a parents area where we could go sleep, but I couldn't stand the thought of not being by my baby girl. The nurses were great though, and brought in a couch for Brian and I to share. I think it's the first time in our lives that we were both so grateful to be so small.

The next morning I was able to feed her and I was so happy to get to hold her for a minute. During her feeding though, the monitors started beeping like crazy and I watched as her heart beat got faster and faster. The nurses and doctors came rushing in and wanted to try the ice again. Since I was holding her, they thought I should continue to hold her and hopefully keep her relatively calm. They brought the ice over and basically smother her for 10-15 seconds. Up until that point, I had never heard her cry like that. I lost it.

The ice brought it down for just a minute again. They eventually had to up the dosage to get it steady. Once it was down, they wanted us to stay in the ICU for at least 2 days, and then move to the floor for a couple more. Adrie was such a good baby in the hospital. All the nurses loved her because other than her heart, she is a pretty healthy baby. They loved to hold her and feed her because she was so good at it. They had a baby next door to us that had some neurological problems and couldn't figure out how to eat. It made me realize that although Adrie's situation is less than ideal, we were not the worst case by a mile.

My sweet baby. So concerned

My first Mother's Day was spent in the ICU and while I was sad, there were a couple of neat things that day. We were sitting in the ICU that Sunday morning and in walked two men dressed in suits. They were there to see if we wanted the Sacrament. I was surprised by how touched I was by this. It was such a calming experience to know that we weren't alone. How grateful I was for the Priesthood during this whole ordeal.

Happy Mother's Day

My brother Brian and his family stopped by, unfortunately while we were gone to get things from home. They left a flower plant for me for Mother's Day and an elephant stuffed animal that Bennett picked out for Adrie. It was such a fun surprise to come back to.

Later that day, my parents came up the hospital to bring us a home cooked meal. I told my Mom that she didn't really get how Mother's Day is supposed to work. She didn't care. By this time, we had figured out that Adrie cannot have dairy which means I cannot have dairy. My Mom made sure that my whole meal was made without dairy. We had steak, strawberry salad, baked potato, green beans, and rolls (I did have to omit the roll). It was the best meal I had ever eaten. They left shortly after to go back and do dinner with my brothers and their families. I was sad to see them go. Everything just seems better when my Mom is around. We love her and were especially grateful for her that day.

The next few days were pretty uneventful. FINALLY! We stayed a few more days and they did a lot of tests but finally determined we could go home. I was happy and nervous. It was a little reassuring to be able to see her heart rate at any given time. We have to do medicine 3 times a day at specific times. Adrie doesn't love the medicine, but she is getting better at it. It is working (knock on wood) and we pray it continues to do so. I have to remind myself when I get irritated that medicine time sometimes interferes with nap time, that it's okay because she is doing better.

We are hoping this is something that she will grow out of, if not, there is a surgery that they can do when she is around 3 or 4. We are so blessed to have such great hospitals and modern medicine around us. We wouldn't have this sweet baby girl if it weren't for them.