All Things Haley: Story #23

Today was a day of ups...

...and a day of downs...

I had a big day at work again today, so Ben took last night's baby duty which was a bit worse than it has been the last few nights. The babies were, of course, super cute this morning though.

Biggest up for the day- my mom offered to make Ben and I her famous homemade vegetable beef soup to raise our spirits!!! My dad dropped it off and got to meet our nanny and see the babies in the middle of the day! That soup came in oh-so-handy tonight because the biggest down of the day was Caleb's horrific blood draw...

So we know that Caleb is a tough baby to get a good vein on. He's chunky. He has tiny veins. They are nearly impossible to find and even when they think they have one, the vein somehow sneaks away or is incredibly difficult to actually thread. So, I called my pediatrician and got a recommendation for the best "baby phlebotemist" in town. His name is Josh and he is at Scottsdale Shea and works in the outpatient lab. I called over and found out his work times- he's off on the weekends so I decided today had to be the day. I'd been putting it off for far too long.

I left work a little early and picked up Caleb's lab order and then went home to get the little man. He was still napping when I got there at 3:30 so I had to wake him up, unfortunately. He was in pretty good spirits though and seemed happy and playful when we got to the hospital. I went in through a different entrance so he wouldn't recognize the surroundings from his last several experiences at that hospital.

We actually had a lot of fun together! He was playful and doing really well with his fine motor skills and even a little bit of babbling! He actually reached up and ripped out one of my earrings and tried to immediately put it in his mouth...terrifying and pretty impressive all at once.

I had to wait for Josh to get back from his lunch because I didn't want anyone else to try to stick him- he's had so many bad experiences. After about 15 minutes of waiting (and this was after about 15 minutes of waiting for registration as well) he came out and gave me a form to fill out regarding the chromosomal testing. He also asked how much Caleb weighs with a pretty concerned look on his face. I said 24lbs and he went back to the back. He came out again to tell me that he's surprised at how much and the type of tests they ordered and has worked to cut down on the number of vials needed but the absolute minimum they could do was seven. SEVEN vials of blood on my little baby boy. I remember freaking out at those tiny little miniature vials of blood that they got from his heel pricks when he was a newborn. And all of his other testing has been maybe one or two. Never seven- especially full sized vials!

So now it was time for the test- the actual poking. He searched, with the help of another nurse, for a vein for a really long time. They had a lot of trouble even finding one and then finally decided to try his left arm. He stuck him and wiggled the needle around for a while, but never actually got the vein. Caleb wasn't happy, but wasn't completely freaking out. So then the other nurse tried around the same spot. Again, not a happy Caleb but no uber-panic like I've seen from him before. Oh, and no success.

So then they tried the other arm. Josh tried again but couldn't actually thread the line. So they brought in a third nurse. He tried the right arm in another spot but missed. Now Caleb was starting to get mad. So they brought in a different nurse. She searched for a REALLY long time and then finally decided to try his bicep area on his right arm. She got a tiny amount of blood but it was pumping really slowly and then quickly just stopped completely.

We had four nurses in the room with Caleb and I at this point. It was a hot mess.

Caleb completely freaked out during that puncture because they tried having Josh hold his head and shoulders rather than me and he held him pretty tight, which Caleb truly hates. He doesn't like any sort of restriction. So he was in full on tantrum panic, his face and head were bright red. His eyes were bugging out. He was shaking violently. The look of terror on his face was awful.

After that one we stopped for a break and I got to hold Caleb and sing to him to get him calmed down. About ten minutes later, we tried again. This time the foot. No luck. Then they went for the big dog. They went to his inner wrist on his right arm. Apparently this one is really painful, but it was the only vein that looked like it might actually be closer to the surface so they could thread it easier. After a LOT of wiggling the needle around and a very frantic Caleb, the second female nurse, Joanna, finally got the vein! We got some terrific blood flow and were able to fill up five vials before she lost the vein and we had to stop. We got a tiny bit in the other two vials from both the puncture before and the end of that puncture, so we thought we might be able to get away with it. They took it all back but asked us to stay and wait. About ten minutes later, they came out and said that we could send it all off but there was a chance that those vials wouldn't be usable and we'd need to come back.

No. way.

So it was back into the room and more sticks. Two more tries and then finally his left wrist worked out and we got the rest of the vials filled. He was FURIOUS. Just absolutely traumatized. He kept looking at me as he was screaming bloody murder like I was failing him.

I don't know how, but I somehow didn't lose it completely. I think I've run out of tears from the last several days.

By the time we left the hospital, it was 6:45. We had been there for three hours. Caleb was hungry, tired, and sore. He passed out on the drive home and then we had to wake him up again to feed him and put him down. After Ben put him in his crib, he woke back up and screamed so Ben picked him up- he just couldn't imagine the thought of letting him cry anymore. I left to go get some groceries, so luckily I wasn't there or I might have just broken down.

We finally put him back down for bed around 8:45. He fell asleep pretty quickly- he just needed some more cuddle time before being left alone. Poor, poor baby.

We will hopefully get the results in a couple weeks. I hope it was worth it.