Worst Thing in the World Part V

He' probably 3 or 4 days old here.

When Stanley was born he scored a 9 out of 10 on both of his APGAR tests. When he was finally handed to me I tried to nurse him but he didn't seem that into it. He also was breathing funny. Maybe every 20 seconds he would make this adorable breathing sound...but it was concerning enough to bring it to the nurses attention. When I told her that he was breathing funny she took him and listened to his lungs and heart and then called the Pedes team back up. Apparently he turned blue. They put an oxygen mask on his face and his dusky spell was slowly resolved with "vigorous stimulation." Because of that he spent his first 48 hours in the NICU for observation. Nothing strange was ever found. They think he just had some fluid down the wrong pipe.

Our second actual day home with him the midwife came to visit. She checked on me and Stanley. She even watched me nurse. While I was nursing him she and Mike and I were talking and I looked down and Stanley was blue. I panicked. I think I said, "HE'S BLUE! HE'S BLUE!" and the midwife said in the most calm voice, "Just hold him up and pat his back." I was terrified. I did what the midwife told me and his peachy pink color came back to him rather quickly. She then said calmly, "They say that babies' noses are designed to take in breath when they are nursing with their faces pushed up against the mom's soft breast, but I never believed it." Basically, she thought that he couldn't breath due to breast obstruction. Ever since that day I made sure that I pressed one finger down on my breast right where his nose was so that he could breathe without any obstruction and we've never had an issue since. That is something I never want to see again. Something that I hope no parent should have to see because it was eerie (looking back) and I went into full on panic mode.