Austin in the hospital

We have been staying at Children's Hospital of Atlanta since Wednesday. Let me start at the beginning.
Wednesday - we went shopping with Daddy and then over to Mimi and Papa's house to go out to eat. After Austin ate, Mimi was holding him and all of a sudden he was limp and unresponsive. We had to gently shake him and blow in his face to make him take a breath. It was very scary. However I thought it was just a fluke. I took the boys home after we ate. I put Logan to bed and then fed Austin. After Austin ate I put him in the boppy and he became unresponsive again. After getting him back, I called the pediatrician who directed that we take Austin to the nearest hospital NOW. So Brian and I left the sleeping Logan with my parents and rushed to Gwinnett Medical Center's Pediatric ER. Once there the doctor told us he would be admitted (at Children's Hospital) for observation. They did blood work, put an iv in, and called for an ambulance - a big yellow one from the Children's hospital. I rode with Austin and Brian followed.
We got to CHOA (Children's Health care of Atlanta) at 2am. By 4am the doctor (resident) came in and got info on Logan. I asked that the metal crib be taken out and a bed be brought in for Austin and I to sleep in. By this time Brian went home to get some rest before opening the restaurant.
Thursday - I was alone at the hospital with Austin all morning while his vials were taken and he was monitored. He had to have an X-ray after the pediatric doctor came in to see what was going on. On the way to x-ray Austin couldn't breath and had to be put on oxygen (he had a little O2 mask - it made my heart sink). This was a special x-ray where he couldn't eat for three hours prior and he had to drink some white chalking stuff. We could see the fluid going down on the x-ray. The technician said he had really bad reflux (you could see the liquid go back up his esophagus. After that the pediatric nurse came in to talk to me. My mom-in-law came in at this time so she was able to listen also. The doctor thought Austin had malrotation (the intestines were backwards causing reflux) and would need corrective surgery for the birth defect. She told us that the surgeons would have to look at the film and get back to us later that evening.
My mom came with food, Brian came with stuff for me to change and shower, my dad came with Logan to visit, my brother Kevin and his girlfriend Amy came to see Austin, and then Brian's dad came to spend time with Austin. We really didn't know what was going on. A lot of tests were run, a lot of people in and out taking care of our sweet baby. After everyone left I went to the computer lab at CHOA and looked up malroation.
We spent Thursday night in the hospital again.
Friday morning began with an x-ray at 6:30,another one at 9 (this time looking at his heart - again heart sinking), Meg had to attend a CPR class in order for Austin to be released. When I came back from CPR, the doctor had been in to talk to Brian. Turns out Austin has really bad reflux causing him to be in pain and the acid to close his airway. She put him on a liquid form of prevacid for the reflux. He does not have malrotation (thank god). We then met with a company called Life Touch who gave us an apnea machine to keep Austin hooked up to. It will alert us if he were to stop breathing or if his heart rate was dropping.
We were discharged Friday afternoon at 1:00pm. It is good to be home. Lots of laundry to do!
We are very blessed that Austin is for the most part ok. It was hard to see him get an IV, ride in an ambulance, have an EEG on his head, all the x-rays of holding him down, and not knowing what was going on or what was going to happen. However, Brian and I both said we were lucky, we were able to walk out of the hospital with our baby. We saw a lot of families and children that have been at CHOA for a long time and some that may never leave. It is heart wrenching to see the children in the hospital beds or being wheeled around in their wagons with shaved heads, bandages, by worried, sleep-deprived parents. We hope we never have to go back there and will pray a little longer tonight, thanking God for taking care of Austin and praying he looks after of all the children and parents at CHOA.
We had some wonderful nurses. Thank you to Kimi, Michelle, Mindy, and Hwoit who made sure we had everything we needed to be comfortable and that Austin was thriving under their care. Thank you to Dr. Taylor, the ped doctor at CHOA who took such good care of Austin. She took her time doing a range of tests on Austin to rule things out. Thank you to our own ped, Dr. Peralstein. She is the best; from her Johns Creek office, she took all of my phone calls and updates from the CHOA doctors. We will see her Monday to talk about seeing a GI specialist for Austin. Thank you to my mom and dad for taking such great care of our first baby, Logan. He had sooo much fun with Mimi and Papa. Thank you to all four parents for staying with us, asking questions we didn't think of, and being a great support system. Lastly, thank you God for watching over our family and taking care of our babies.