Sadie's MRI @ 6 mos

Today Sadie had her first MRI since we left the NICU, in total, this was her 4th MRI. I was told no breastmilk after 8am, show up at 11am, the procedure is scheduled for noon, and we should be done between 1:30 and 2. It almost went like that!

Sadie had an excellent night of sleep, woke up to nurse at 6:30, but went back to sleep. When Brian got up at 7:45, I debated as to whether I should wake her up or just let her sleep until basically until the doorbell rings for OT! I figured since she doesn't usually want to eat right when she wakes up, letting her sleep as long as possible is my best bet. She woke up on her own at 8:25!


OT went great this morning. Sadie was pretty relaxed and, as you can see above, did a good job bending and stretching. She actually sat like this for 10-15 minutes! She had some good tummy time and she laid on her back and we tried to get her to kick stuff, but she wasn't in the mood. And she actually didn't tell me really that she was hungry until about 10, and we had to leave at 10:30, so it wasn't that bad.


When we got there, Sadie was screaming her head off, which I think was residual from the car ride mostly, but it probably didn't help to be held by mommy, who smells like milk and won't give me any!! Enter daddy. As soon as Brian took her, she calmed down. We got her checked in, got her little hospital bracelet, and then we went back to the MRI center, where we waiting in this little room, and where Sadie continued her screaming. By this time she was starving, I'm sure, having not eaten since 6:30 and it's now 11:30!


They weighed her, answered our questions, asked us a bunch of questions, told us about the anesthesia, etc etc etc. Sadie screamed her head off the entire time. Then we waited for the doctor, and when he finally came in, the nurse offered to take Sadie out so we could actually TALK to him!! Then he took her, we kissed her and said we'd see her in a little bit, and we were escorted out to the waiting room.


We spent the next hour sitting here. We did crossword puzzles, watched people, and tried not to get sucked in to One Life to Live on the television! We also ate the lunch we had brought with us, and visited with some friends, who unfortunately have been "residents" of the hospital for the last few months since their son got a lung infection.

When Sadie was done, we were escorted back to her recovery room. She was so cute all bundled up on the HUGE bed! Her eyes were open and the nurse told us she had woken up pretty quickly and easily. So I held her and tried to feed her, she took a few sucks, but decided she was too upset to nurse. Her throat was all raspy, her crying gurgly, even her voice sounded funny. The nurse told us they had put in a breathing tube, but not the big huge one, and that older patients have said it doesn't leave them with a sore throat. But I think Sadie had some throat irritation. She also had an IV in her hand and the nurse gave her some fluids since she wasn't nursing right away. This helped her from being dehydrated. Later, we asked the nurse to just take it out because we were pretty sure it was bothering her. I tried several more times to nurse and she was just too upset/tired/groggy...eventually she fell asleep in my arms, we signed the paperwork, and walked out of there. I don't have any pictures of this, it was pretty stressful for almost an hour.


We decided to drop by and see our friends again because they really wanted to see Sadie, and I'm glad we did. She was so out that I handed her to Donna, who REALLY wanted to hold her, and she slept for almost 2 hours while we visited. She really needed that sleep...and who doesn't love to hold a sleeping baby? They're so cuddly. Sadie woke up when Donna handed her back to me, but she was still calm enough that we made it home without any screaming.


When we got home, she had a good meal and went right back to sleep, so I laid her down and we were able to eat in peace. I think I may have woken her up taking that picture, but she looked so precious, I couldn't help it.

We were told to try to call Dr. Jarrar's office by the end of the week for results. I'm not excited to hear from her what Sadie's brain looks like, so we may wait until we see the pediatrician next week, or we may cross our fingers that she's still on vacation and we can get results from a nurse. Either way, look for an update to hear how it looks. Hopefully better than when she was 1 week old!