FIRE!

Today was a dramatic day. When we arrived in the NICU around lunch time, I smelled smoke. It smelled like burned popcorn, so I didn't think much of it. After we were back with Katie for several minutes, the fire alarms started sounding. At first, the nurses said it was probably just a false alarm, and not to worry. Several minutes later, the alarms were still flashing, and one of the nurses said they didn't know exactly where the fire was, but we could smell smoke. At this point, it seemed like A LOT of time was going by and nothing was happening. Eventually, about 12 extra nurses started carrying in incubators, oxygen tanks and emergency equipment. At this point, I was thinking, "Ok....where are we going, and how are they going to get my baby there? She's hooked up to all these monitors, her ventilator and pumps--she needs all those things!" They would have to unplug her from electricity and from the oxygen! They said she would be OK if they could bag her to the evacuation area (when they hand-pump a bag to help her breathe).

We ended up in a labor and delivery room for a few hours. A doctor from somewhere (I don't know which department) had to bag Katie until they managed to bring her ventilator down. It was probably only 10 min. or so, but it seemed like a long time. She got a little cold b/c her heater was turned off, but she made it through.

We didn't find out until later that her PAL line (her arterial line that they draw blood froom and give her the blood transfusions through) somehow got messed up during the move. It started to leak. They removed it, and we'll find out tomorrow if they will replace it, or just do heel sticks for any blood they need.

It turns out there was some kind of electrical fire in the lights just in front of the NICU front desk. (For those of you who have visited, I think it was in that cloud light that has the color-changing fiber optic lights.)

At about 4:00, they moved us back to our pod and all was well. One thing I didn't mention earlier, when the doctor was bagging Katie, she was taking a lot of the breaths all by herself. She would breathe for a few minutes, then get tired and the doctor would have to give her some. It was scary for me when she wasn't hooked up to the vent. and monitors, but I was glad to see she could kind of breathe on her own!