Two day old neice has had a lumber puncture.....what are they testing for?

[nobodysfool]

My Neice was born on tuesday.
Normal pregnancy, text book labour and birth.
My SIL was told she had a small hernia on her chest but was fine.
She fed fine and seemed well.
This morning whilst still in hospital my SIL noticed her DD breathing had got laboured and she was making a grunting noise when she was breathing in and out.
She was moved onto the special care unit as her oxygen levels were low and put on a drip to feed her and oxygen my SIL wasn't allowed to see her till this afternoon.
They have done many tests and are awaiting the results.She also had an x-ray which showed shadows on her lungs/chest.
They have also done a lumber puncture.The only info i could get from the staff was that they were looking for infection.
Does anybody have any experience of this or any ideas?
We are all worried sick so any ides would be welcome.
Thanks.

My SIL has come home but lo is still in.Feeding isn't going to well as she doesn't seem to have any appetite.They had lowered her direct feed in the hope that she would want her mums milk but she doesn't seem too bothered.She is still on the antibiotics and will be for the next couple of days.
I'm a bit miffed why my SIL has gone home.Surely the best place for them both is together?What do you think?

I am sorry to hear that SIL has come home but understand why she has done it, I wanted to as I felt a bit useless as everything was done by the nurses; they seemed to know much more about looking after the baby than I did. Also being in hospital isnt very nice, the foods disgusting and sleeping is difficult in noisy rooms. However the nurses were very keen that I spend as much time as possible with dd, and so I put up with hospital for her. Does she live far away from hosp, and does she visit often? I hope that she is encouraged to keep expressing to keep up her supply. She will prob have to go backk in as the drs will want to see that she is feeding well for 24 - 48 hrs before they are discharged, so perhaps best to regard her going home as a couple of days break to catch up on sleep etc before going back. Hope all goes well.

She doesn't live far from the hosp but she was getting plenty of rest there.I know hospitals are really boring places but i thought that every Mum would want to be near there baby-especially if they were pooly.
She has told the hosp to give her a bottle if she gets hungry.
I don't think she is expressing.
I understand that she feels useless as everything is being done for her lo by the nurses,but they are not her mum.Even if she sat by her cot abd read or whatever she would still be there.
I'm so saddened by the fact that she came home because she was bored......i want to shake her and ask her what's more important,being bored or being there for her lo.
I know it's not about me but i just feel so disapointed in how she's acting.
I had a pretty rough time of it when my ds was born but wild horses wouldn't have parted us.
I'm concerned about the lack of apparant maternal feelings,it's obvious she loves her but.........

Please don't judge her too harshly. It's very difficult having a baby in hospital. My dd was in hospital for a long time when she was small (not newborn though) and, whilst I was there 24/7, I sort of loved her at arm's length for a while IYSWIM. My mental health suffered TBH. I think I didn't want to get too close in case she was taken away.

I hope the staff are encouraging her to be there and making her feel needed and included though. They usually involve you with as much of the care as is possible. Sometimes you do sort of get to the point when you feel like you need to ask permission to do anything with your baby. Could you go along with her and encourage her to to do nappy changes, wash her etc. She's probably scared to death to even handle her dd.

My DS was admitted for 3 days when he was 10 days old with really high temp. They did lumbar, bloods etc. It was a really really horrific time but TBH, I could quite happily have come home and left him there and just visited.

The enormity of it was just too much to bare post-natally. I was exhausted anyway, desperately scared of losing him but equally wanting some distance between us.

I wouldn't have left him but I can see where your SIL is coming from.

Please don't judge her - you're not in her shoes - just support her.

I have been there for her through her pregnancy when most of her family were up in arms about her becoming a single mum,she had just split from her drug dealer boyfriend.
Her Dad is still "worried" incase the baby is half cast (the dad is mixed race).
I was the only one who fought her corner with her own dad and as a result i'm sure i've damaged our relationship.
I was brought up in a family where colour didn't come into it so i don't understand the mentalilty.
I love my SIL dearly and have tried to get her to open up to me and talk about how she is feeling but all she keeps saying is that she is bored in hosp.I'm worried she is missing vital bonding time with her dd.
The lo in in a normal cot with only a canula(sp?) in her hand and is allowed to be touched and cuddled as much as possible.So i just don't understand......
I can totally understand the keeping at arms length in case the worst happened but she is out of the woods now and needs her mummy.

It sounds like she's struggling to come to terms with what has happened. My DS1 was taken straight to NICU with very little introduction. For the days he was in NICU I didn't feel like he was mine yet. It was as though he wasn't born yet, but i was only getting a sneak preview of what he looked like. I was unable to hold him at all for the first few days and to be honest there is only so much time you can spend hanging around NICU looking at your sleeping baby before you feel in the way. And truthfully, it is boring. And i definitely hated hanging around the ward with all the other mums with their babies. It is a terrible thing to have a sick baby and to be living throught the possibility of losing them. So you don't know how you would react. You might just want to go home to your own bed. I only survived those nights because the ward let my DH stay with me at night if I was feeling low.
And none of what happened in those early days affected the long term bonding between me and DS1. There will be plenty time to bond.

I really hope so.x

Could you go in to the hospital with her to see baby? Has she had visitors?

She has had visitors at every visiting time.we always checked to see if she wanted visitors or not.We sat her room for quite a while before we asked if we could go and see dd so we didn't make her feel as if we were only ther for the lo.

Sounds like you're doing plenty. Just be there if she needs you. She just needs time to come to terms with what it probably the shittest time of her life when it should be the happiest. But you're right to be concerned as a bad start like this very often triggers PND.

She lives with her Mum so at least she has somebody around.Thanks for the advice. x

my ds2 had this done at 2 days old.he had temp and was 'lazy' just slept constantly,wouldnt feed etc.was ok but was so scary.nobody explained-they just whisked him off

Anytime. Update if you can.

Baby has had a feed today-90 ml.
They are keeping her on the antibiotics till midweeks but her mum says she looks fine.

Cheesesarnie- hope your lo is ok now x

It all sounds very similar to DS1 who had Group B strep pneumonia. Does baby have a diagnosis?

Nobodysfool, it sounds like you've been a great support to your SIL, please don't be too harsh on her. It is very understandable that she wants to go home. SCBU is frightening and alien and so unlike anything any first time mother is prepared for - you feel in the way and out of place and it is very common to feel that the baby doesn't need you because the nurses can do everything so much better than you can. And it is boring - no matter how much you love your baby sitting next to a cot all day on your own is very dull.

I went home as soon as I was allowed and left ds in SCBU. I loved him very much and went in every day - but he didn't feel very much like mine. Until he actually came home, I really couldn't comprehend how I would feel leaving him after he had actually become "mine". It's probably very difficult to understand that if you have never had a baby in SCBU. I worry very much about having another prem because I don't know how I could leave them in SCBU knowing how it is possible to feel about leaving your baby, iyswim. But I didn't know that with ds.

Has she had any support with the bfing or expressing? Has anyone explained to her that it takes practice to express, she will probably only get a few mls on her first attempts? If not she might be feeling really disheartened and have given up because she thinks she is no good at it. Is there a bf councillor attached to the SCBU to give her advice.

Really hope her dd is on the mend and is able to come home soon. Keep up the good work

Still no diagnosis and they don't there will be one.
I don't mean to seem harsh.
I do understand that she may be feeling lost and very scared.
The Lo wasn't prem in fact she is a big baby-8 lb 9 oz.
She spent a whole day and night and the next morning together it is then that her problems started and was taken into scubu.
My SIl seems un phased by it all and just wanted to go home as she was bored.
I have spent many weeks in hospital with my mum and never once felt like i would go home as i was bored and my Mum is a tough old boot-God i hope she never reads that!
I really don't know what else i can do for my SIL.
We can't visit my neice as we can only be there when SIL is there and we are never sure if she will be there..............feel like i'm letting everyone down.

Don;t be harsh on her. I went home the day after having DD1, Dd2 and DS2 all premtaurely. I loved them so much, but I felt I was better off at home, because I couldn't do anything for them, just sit by their incubators and watch them. I also found it more relaxing to express at home too.

I hope the LO comes home soon.

nobodysfool-thanks.hes totally fine.a very energetic toddler!
hope all turns out well.

At last the LO has started to feed.
They have said she is a lazy sucker......had to be carefull typing that
It looks like she will be coming home on Wednesday so we are all keeing our fingers crossed.
SIL and boyfriend are staying overnight at SCUBU tomorrow.

glad shes started feeding and is coming home.ds was lazy feeder too-he was tube feed a bit then we had to hold him in certain way to get him to feed awake.but amazingly when i got home he went from bottle to boob!only for a bit though.

Fantastic news:
The LO has been allowed to go home.
They are not sure what the infection was but whatever it was it has gone.
She has started feeding properly from the bottle and is well and happy.
I'm going to see them both tomorrow.