NICU Week 3

Not a heck of a lot went on this week.
Kayla may have brown eyes, although they are blue, as all newborns eyes are, she seems to have a brown or light brown hazel behind her blue hue. She has been awake a lot more and more active. She has been weaned from her TPN, which is basically food they give you through IV because she has been taking bottles really well. She does have problems with pacing her feeds and gulps them down like crazy and ends up having bradicardia, so you have to continue to take the bottle out of her mouth. She does seem eager to eat, but keeps falling asleep half-way through. She is doing well though. She currently weighs 2177grams, which is nearly 5lbs, but she has lost a little weight because she is tireing herself out so much while eating. She had an ultrasound on Tuesday for her liver, and her masses seem to have shrunk a little, and her blood work came back with lower liver enzyme levels, which is great, it means the antibiotics are working. They moved her from a "k-bed, or joey bed" which is made to hold a warming pad, and is now in a newborn cot, which is what they put them in when they are term babies, she also had her NG tube taken out of her nose, due to bottle feeding. She had a central line in her arm called a PIC line but it became inflammed and formed a fluid bubble, and also moved 2cms, so they had to take it out, and each attempt to put a new line in, but her veins keep collapsing. We were hoping to get her transfered to our local hospital (PLC) but they can't move her until she gets her new PIC line put in. Hopefully we will have her moved tomorrow, Friday at the latest.
She is doing really well. We have about 4 weeks left of hospital antibiotics, so still a bit of time.

NICU week 2.

My newborn is well traveled, for her first week of life. She got to ride in a helicopter to the Children's hospital, which is within the city, but because she was considered critical they decided to take her that way.

May 4th, Friday
Children's Hosp.
Kayla came to the Children's very ill, very lethargic. Her stomach was very distended, her jaundice kind of ran amuck and needed to be under phototherapy. Her liver mass was discovered to be multicystic instead of one large mass, and they couldn't do a biopsy until they were sure she didn't have an infection. They held off doing it until they knew more. By 24 hours, she was doing 90% better, her eyes were wide open, she was active and feisty. They nicknamed her Ginger because she has strawberry blonde hair with red highlights. The plan is to keep her on antibiotics for 2 weeks at this time. We were told that once the results come back she will likely be sent back to the original hospital. They did a lumbar puncture on her today.

May 5th, Saturday
Children's Hosp.
Kayla looks like a whole different baby today, so spry and happy. Something they are doing is working. Her tummy, though the same size, has shrunk a lot, it just looks better and less large. Restarted her feeds after 3 days NPO.

May 6th, Sunday
Foothills Hosp.
Kayla got transferred to the level 3 NICU at the Foot, which is where I did NOT want her to be, I have heard a lot of bad things about them, how they ignore the babies and how they never listen to the parents. So here is went in with a bad attitude, and they really didn't listen to me at first. I ended up having to call Patient relations and speaking to someone who could relay our "wishes" to the nurses. My parents came to visit her today, my dad, who is a 6 foot 5, 220lb man, held her, he looks like a giant next to her. His pointer finger is the same size as her entire arm, it was very surreal. Kayla is doing well today. We got no news or anything from her. Ran out of breastmilk, my body is no longer producing it.

May 7th, Monday
Kayla had a heart echo done today instead of her liver ultrasound, and I went apeshit crazy. No one would tell me why she had it done, or why they didn't do the liver u/s. I was spending the day with a girlfriend, trying to distract myself after such a stressful weekend while Chris went up and spent the day with her. No one would give him answers. So we ended up going later at night to discuss what the crap was going on. Turns out that the Echo was necessary, and they new it from the time she had her first assessment at intake, but no one would tell me why. She has a triscuspid valve defect, which is a birth defect, meaning sometimes she has a heart murmur, and some times she doesn't. The valve, that would normally open in three places, only opens in two because one of the flaps never separated. Apparently 15% of the population has it and normally live their entire lives without even knowing about it until they are in their 90's. She will need to follow up with a cardiologist throughout her life, but it doesn't affect her while in her current state.
Liver ultrasound booked for tomorrow. Her blood cultures came back normal, but her spinal tap came back with heightened white cells, the Neonatologist said it was normal for her since she is a preemie, but the infectious disease team thinks she needs to be treated for meningitis. But the neo said she will be on the same course of antibiotics for a longer duration anyway, so it will be dealt with as it is. They have decided to do a 6 week course of in hospital antibiotics, so we are in it for the long haul. When she started her antibiotics is where they count it from, so she has just over 6 weeks.

May 8th, Tuesday
Had a very long chat with the Neonatologist today. No news is good new. Getting her ultrasound results back tomorrow. She is over her birth weight today. She was originally 4lbs 5oz (they said 4lbs 7oz but weighed her with all her equipment on). And she is now back to 4lbs 5oz.

May 9th, Wednesday.
Liver ultrasound showed no real change, but she is getting better. They decided against doing a biopsy at this time and to just wait and see what the cysts are going to do. I think he said they will just keep monitoring it. I feel great about this at this time, good thing, she doesn't have to be put under or anything. Bad thing, its still multicystic and could harbour infection.

May 10th, Thursday
Baby girl is 2 weeks old today!
I was luckily enough to be there for rounds today, where all of the doctors meet and discuss your baby. There is no change, but she has been knocked down to only 2 antibiotics instead of 3 since her blood cultures were clean. She has a PIC line, which is a central line placed through her arm because her IVs keep blowing. They are going to do intermittent ultrasounds to keep an eye on her liver and see what happens. Waiting on whether they are going transfer her or not, but we aren't holding our breath.

Holy Crap?! What?!!

So, we hit a setback. Yesterday was much better then today, but holy goodness, it has been kinda scary and such. Kayla has a mass of cysts on her liver, caused from her "uvc" which is an umbilical vein catheter, like a central line IV where it goes directly into her. Anyhow, the catheter was in the wrong spot, it wasn't placed in the wrong spot, but had moved over many times over the week, and caused fluid to build up on and within the liver. Yesterday she was lethargic, has a massively distended stomach, threw up everything she ate, slept, turned yellow like jaundice. She was put on 3 different antibiotics, put on fluid only diet (tpn) and put under the photo therapy light for 24 hours and she was shipped off to the Children's Hospital. It was very scary, I cried and cried and cried for hours.
Today she is much better, she is pink again, she is alert and opens her eyes. She is crying again, acting hungry and just looks so much healthier. Her tummy is still quite descended, and the poor girl had a spinal tap today, but tolerated it very well. The plan is to keep her on the IV antibiotics for two weeks, check out the masses this Monday to see if it shrinks, and if it does she will be sent back to our hospital to continue her antibiotics. It doesn't seem so bad now, as i write it, but as I went through it yesterday, I just fell right apart. For now she is fine though

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N.I.C.U Week 1

Day 1
April 26th Thursday
Kayla is born. When Kayla was first born she was breathing, she came out kicking and screaming, it was a glorious noise to hear, since Isaac didn't cry when he was born. There was such a mad panic that Chris didn't get to cut the cord, but he did get to be right there while they whisked her away to the nicu. He was more worried about me at this point though, as we were both anticipating me to hemorrage after birth, however, we were lucky and my placenta came out intact and there was very minimal bleeding (Thank the Lord).
I got to see Kayla at around 5:30pm, 3 hours after she was born. They had a lot of stabalizing to do that can be very overwhelming to the parents, so they asked us to stay away, plus I had to wait for the epidural to wear off so I could feel my butt and legs again.
I learned all kinds of things, what a c-pap was (sipap) its a gentle support for assisted breathing. She had a tiny little triangle on her nose, and this hat that had this big tube on it. She was on 4ltrs of 21% oxygen, which is essentially room air. She had an IV in her hand and wires coming from every which way. Her blood gasses are no good.
Isaac got to meet her today, he is very upset that she has to stay, but so does mommy, and hes quite upset about that too.

Day 2
April 27th Friday
Kayla was having a really difficult time breathing, so her doctor decided to add sufactant to her lungs to help her produce her own. Within a few hours she was doing 90% better. Throughout the night though she kept having apnea spells and was bradycardic. They were very worried about her at first until they spoke with the doctor who made the connection that since they gave her morphine she was having a hard time coming out of it. So they gave her a dose of caffine and Narcan to reverse the effects, she had one more episode of apnea, then she was fine in that department. She is taking milk through a guavage tube (g-tube) which is better then just fluids. While she was getting her treatment for the sufactant they placed an umbilical arterial catheter, which is a central line, but instead of being placed in the neck is placed through the umbilical artery. Its kind of neat, where they place it about 8 cm within the body and close to the heart, they also placed an IV catheter in the vein of her belly button. They have to stitch it up, and I just found it to be very neat. Anyhow, they told us they were removing it tomorrow so we could hold her hopefully. Chris got to hold her during his visit that night, just on his lap with the uva and the cpap on still and she opened her eyes for the first time. I started pumping for breast milk. I had originally intended on formula only feeding, but after chatting with the doctor and the LLC I felt that I could try my best to do what I could to get her milk. So far, its been very painful and very hard to get anything as my milk has not come in yet. Isaac touched Kayla's hand today. My parents went to see her today.
Le

Day 3
April 28th Saturday
They transitioned Kayla onto oxygen 1 ltr today from the 4ltr, and she is still on room air. They moved her from her emergency critical care room and bed to a joey bed with a warming pad in it, but she is maintaining her own temprature. I got to hold her today, and in that my milk came in, hahaha. I got to hold her to my chest and cuddle for about 45 mins. It was an amazing feeling, having the ability to hold her, to cuddle her, smell her for the first time, feel her, listen to her breathe. I felt to relieved and eased to be able to feel her. I am not sleeping well yet, still only getting 4 hours of sleep. I am doing well though. Chris got to cuddle with her today too.

Day 4.
April 29th. Sunday
Kayla is on the bottle, as well as the g-tube, trying to get used to eating. She also took her soother for the first time today. Still on room air push oxygen. She was put under a phototherapy ight tonight because of her billiruben levels. Just a little jaundice.

Day 5
April 30th Monday
They took her off oxygen today, so she is breathing room air alone now, she is doing really well. Mom and dad got lots of cuddles today. Isaac even got a closer look at her today and touched her head. We got to feed her for the first time today from a bottle. She seems to be a daddy's girl as every time he speaks she opens her eyes. Also got to see her face and head for the first time without all the focus on her prongs. She has light blonde kinky hair, so it looks like it is going to be curly just like mine.

Day 6
May 1st Tuesday
Nothing really to report today, she is doing the same today. She is having some slight issues with tolerating her feeds. Plus, I am only producing 50 mls a feed. Feeling might discouraged about it. Spend a lot of the night cleaning up her room and seperating all of her baby clothes, thinking she could get away with newborn/0-3 and 3 months, had to redo all the processing I had already done and just pulled out all the newborn 5-7lb clothes. She wears preemie clothes in the nicu and they swim on her, haha. Chris's mom went to see her today and held her today. While here also, friends of ours went into labor with twin boys, and Kayla welcomed her first friends ever, haha. We share the unit.

Day 7
May 2nd Tuesday
Had a busy busy day today. I went in early today to be there for her morning feed and Chris had an appointment in the afternoon, so I wanted to get my time with her. Isaac is feeling the stress and lack of attention. He had a night terror the night before and woke up this morning at 6am. His eyes were very purple. He was also very arguable all day today, poor guy. Kayla got her g-tube taken out, but this think they may have to put it back in as she is being upped feeds as she tolerates them, and as she is gaininng weight, so they want her at..I think its 120 mils a day, it was at 96 and she was having a hard time with that. Slow and steady. I fed her a bottle this morning, and the nurse needed to help me because she was just not interested, it turned out she tired herself out because the nipple was not working properly. We ended up chaning the nipple 3 times before she took it, she finally ate all of it. When we left she ended up having her 2:00 feed with a tube because they wanted her to be awake for when I got there at 5. She had been progressivly turning neon yellow through-out the day so as her billiruben went up the more tired she got. The feeding at 5 she was gung ho to eat 5 mls, but then she ate nothing else, so after some frustration and her intense crying fit (which is far better and tolerable then a 3 year olds meltdown, haha) The nurse retubed her just for the feed. I am assuming she will be put back on the g-tube and back into the jaundice bed tonight. The doctor seems to think she is doing well though. Her eldest brother, my first born, came to see her today with his parents. It was very nice to see him and to share his sister with him, and Isaac was really excited to see him. Isaac melted down because he was sooo sad when Nicholas had to leave. It took me holding his hand the entire was home to calm him down, where he fell asleep. Hopefully tomorrow will be less eventful. I need to do something with Isaac tomorrow. Can't believe a week went by, wow. Let the volunteer hold her today.

Welcome to the World!

Please welcome Kayla Marie
April 26th, 2012 at 32 weeks 6days gestation
4lbs 7oz 18 inches long.

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April 25th, my nesting instinct kicked in like crazy. I made the husband move my 6 drawer dresser so I could set up the babies bassinet into our bedroom. I helped move the drawers, and I moved some of them with clothes in them. All day I had this pressure low, like a stabbing kind of feeling, but basically ignored it since I have been going through some changes lately. By 6pm I told hubs I wanted to go to the L&D just to check and make sure I wasn't ripping my stitch or leaking waters, so off we went. We were fine, the baby was head down and my cervix was almost gone, but my stitch was closed, and the on-call OB sent me home.
We got home at 10:30pm and I still wanted to do stuff. But i sat and watched Tv and went to bed midnight.

April 26th. I was dreaming about standing in water, about my water breaking, about peeing the bed....wait....am I peeing the bed? Why would I be peeing the bed? Maybe I am just dreaming about my water brea....um.....CHRISSSS! (hubby). I woke up at 3:50am to my water breaking. Called grandma back over to watch Isaac, and rushed to the hospital again. It was funny, all the nurses were like "oh, you're back! thought you said you weren't coming back for another 4 weeks" hahaha. I got sent to my own room pretty quickly, within the hour I'd say. They were quite worried about my stitch.

Stitch removal- Honestly, wasn't that bad. I felt pinching and was very paranoid that he would cut my cervix, but he didn't and there was a little pressure and a tug. The thing was huge, I don't remember that much thread going in, but no wonder it held so well, it was about 4mm thick.

After the stitch was removed, I bounced right to 3cm dilated, which is quite normal, you can walk around like that for a while. But, since my water broke, and I had the cerclage, they were worried I would get an infection. So, I was going to get induced.
They started the pitocin at 7:20am and I opted to get the epidural (OMG, why haven't i ever done that before?!). And every 2 hours they checked me, and I would still be at 3. The contractions I was having were no more then braxton hicks, but I had pressure, always pressure. About 1pm I was getting very uncomfortable. They upped the pitocin by this time to 19, 20 is the highest. I was getting this strange uncomfortable pressure but I wasn't feeling any contractions, nor was I registering them at all. Doctor came in to check me at 2pm, and holy crap! 10cm! Then the doctor walked out of the room. everyone did, thinking that I had a while of pushing before she came. At least 4 pushes, like I did with Isaac. So no one came. I had the nurse and the senior resident with me and the nurse told me to do a practice push. I got a "contraction" and I only had 7 seconds of push in me instead of 10 seconds....well...I stopped and took a break in ward to get read again and the baby popped out of me!!!! I didn't even push her out (insert baby walking out of me joke here). everyone panicked, the nurse pushed the call button 3 times before anyone showed up, but it happened quickly. So quickly that Chris never got to cut her cord, and she was prepped and whisked away. I got to see her from afar, but never got to touch or look... I see don't really know what she looks like thanks to her mask... Anyway.
She was breathing room air, but within seconds started to gasp. She was put on a machine called the siPap (cpap) machine which either gives oxygen, or pushes room air in the lungs to help dry up fluid or help the baby learn to breath. She is currently on room air with the cpap. She is having breastmilk via a tube, and she is tolerating it well. She has an central line in her umbilical artery and she seems to be maintaining her temperature on her own. They are very impressed with her. She did need to get some sufactant to help mature her lungs, but she only needed one dose.

I finally got to see her for the first time at 5pm, after my step-mom pushed the nurse in the postpartum unit to let me go. I was such a wreck, but wow, was she every beautiful. She was very red and very puffy and was drawing in her breaths. It all scared me at first, but they said I could touch her and hold her hand and talk to her. It was and is still very surreal. I miss her in my tummy.

So, we have at least a 3 week stay in the nicu, if not 4 weeks, and hats only if she is stable the rest of the time. But shes here. And shes healthy, and has a great doctor and nursing staff taking care of her.

So...the epidural. While pregnant, I tried to research this, step by step, and could not find it anywhere. So, my point of view.
I sat at the edge of the bed, the back of my knees right against the bed. I was told to curl up, ease my shoulders, but stick my back out as far as I could. The anesthesiology then but a solution on my bad all the way around in a huge circle, it was really cold. Then he told me he was going to do the freezing, which was just a local anesthetic, which he warned would burn, and it did, but it wasn't too bad, just like a pinch. Then he touched my spine a lot trying to find the right space. Then he told me he was going to slap my back a few times, then I would feel some pressure. Then he placed the needle and I felt a tugging sensation. He then said I was going to feel a popping sensation and a TON of pressure. Which I did, and it was very painful, but not really, just like a few seconds of baaad back pain. Like your sciatic nerve going off for a few seconds.
Then I got really nauseous, and dizzy. My blood pressure dropped and I nearly passed out. They laid me down and it went away. My toes started to tingle, and that was that. I was mostly numb in my butt and lower back. From belly button to knees. I could drag my feet back and forth, but couldn't lift them. I had to be moved side to side frequently because one side would lose the numbness, but it would come back when I moved. It worked very well as I didn't feel anything but pressure with the contractions, and I didn't feel the ring of fire burn when her head came out. Then, after they turned it off, I had feeling back within 2 hours. But don't be super woman and think you can stand on your own, or you will be eating dust bunnies. get help to stand the first few times. But I would recommend it. I have a high pain tolerance, and still felt pain, so I do recommend it.

All is well

32 and a half weeks now. It feel pretty awesome to be this far along. Still getting daily contractions, new pains and symptoms coming every day. I have been getting bed spins lately, which I think might be an inner ear thing, but I got all kinds of blood work done just in case. My tummy is stretching and hurting a lot, baby is growing and hurting my ligaments. I have sciatica pain, upper back pain, menstrual like cramps, new discharge, pubic pain...you name it, I'm feeling it. Luckily, no more then a spot here or there of blood. The baby is fine, and I haven't gained any weight, and neither has she really, but shes doing well, scoring 10 out of 10 on her biophysical profile. My OB and I discussed that I will be getting the stitch removed in the OR under some kind of sedation, depending on what we want to do, so if we induce, it will be removed with epidural, or if we want to wait and see, she will just use a local, but she wants to do it in the OR because she thinks my water is going to break right away, with how low and ready everything has already been. 4 and a half weeks about, left.

Growth Issue (maybe) and contractions. 31 weeks 1 day.

I went for my ultrasound at 29 weeks 5 days and they discovered that the baby had kinda fallen on her growth pattern, normally being within the 40th percentile, she dropped down to the 30th, so I have to repeat the ultrasound on April 17th to see if it is truly what is happening, or if it was the technicians error. I am getting bigger, just differently now. She still moves and kicks around, shes been flip flopping breech to posterior nearly twice a day, I like to watch her move, its really neat.
So, I have been having contractions non-stop for about two weeks now, they have no rhyme or reason to them, so obviously braxton hicks, but they have been coming up to 6 an hour. I discussed this with the OB and he said he doesn't really see us making it very far from now, that 32 weeks is our goal, 37 weeks is the ultimate goal, but he doesn't see us making it past 34 weeks. I have already shortened and funneled, and with the contractions, they baby is getting ready to come soon. The bonus is that one more week and we get to deliver at my OBs hospital instead of the level 3 hospital. Basically, if I start bleeding at any time, its time to go in, it means that I am dilating against the cervical stitch and have to get it removed asap. I am really scared and excited that it is getting to that time! less then 6 weeks left ultimately.

Have my babyshower tomorrow, very excited about that, hubby and I have been prepping all day. Its been fun.
Ill update after my next ultrasound, unless I have something more interesting before then.