David's "Throw Down"

I've been trying to think of how to describe the events of last night but still haven't decided the most eloquent way to put it. Well, I'll just say it... David had a miniature breakdown.

It all started when he found out that we had a new nurse. New in the sense that she had never taken care of Jack and Ella but not new to the NICU. In fact, this nurse has been one for a very long time. However, whenever someone new is introduced to Jack and Ella, papa bear gets very protective. That new person must prove themselves. So let's just say that David was already on edge because we had someone new...

Next, Jack's oxygen support has been up lately. What we are hoping for is that Jack's level of support decreases not increases, so this is not the trend that we want. More O2 makes David worried and sometimes this translates into 'someone might not be trying to wean him very well'

It gets much better...

It was feeding time, so I stood on one side of the isolette, the nurse was on the other side, and David stood off the end. Just as the nurse started Ella's feeding, Ella decided to Brady (her heart rate plummeted, her O2 level dropped, and her breathing rate came crashing down). A Brady in itself is bad enough, but with her food just going into her tummy, it was even worse. She spit everything up... it went out her nose into her CPAP and out her mouth onto her clothes and in her eyes. While this is happening, the nurse grabbed the little suction device (think dentist's office) and plunged it into Ella's mouth. Now, David didn't see her spit-up. All he saw was the nurse suctioning Ella when the monitor showed that she was not breathing. To say the least, David got visably upset. Now he never yelled, but he did question the nurse's actions in a very "stern and authoritative" manner. Needless to say, the nurse got flustered. All the while the alarm is going off, Ella is twitching, and I am wiping spit-up out of her eyes.

I will be the first to admit - I was scared. Seeing Ella like that was awful, but afterward it made sense of what the nurse was trying to do. The last thing that we would want is for Ella to get something foreign into her lungs. The nurse was trying to get the liquid out of her mouth and nose so that Ella could take a breath. But during the whole episode, I was unsure what was happening as was David.

Well, the nurse offered to switch with someone else and was visibly shaken; David turned back to a normal color (from the red that he became), and Ella laid there and smiled at us. We were all frazzled.

Overall, everything was fine. The nurse explained to us what she did, and why she did it. After everything we've been through.... David was just trying to protect his little girl. I'm sure there will be many times that papa bear comes out - I feel sorry for the guys that try to date her. :)