Well we waited all day to see the neonatologist and finally at 6pm today we caught her as she was walking out the door. The news is a mixed bag of sorts. Evangeline had gone up today on her Oxygen concentration so much that they have increased the flow of her high-flow cannula. This allowed them to back down again on the concentration so that she is now on about 35% Oxygen at a rate of 4 Liters. Her respiratory rate is still too high to try feeding her so her fluids have been changed over to ones that have sugar, protein and fat. This will help her maintain her weight while she isn't eating but working hard to breathe.
When asked about the fact that she hasn't improved today she said Evangelynn may get worse before she gets better. It may take up to 72 hours before she starts making her own surfactant. Having a surfactant deficiency has to do with her lungs being too immature when she was born. This makes it hard for her little lungs to stay open which is what causes her respiratory rate to be so high. If she gets worse tomorrow the doctors will consider putting prongs in her nose, putting her on a ventilator or treating her with synthetic surfactant. The doctor felt like at this point she is on the bubble for needing further intervention. As long as she keeps her saturations within normal levels (no matter how fast she is breathing) they will let her continue on her own.
I am recovering well from the C-section. Today was the first day I have really experienced pain, but now my nurses are on top of that! I could be discharged tomorrow, but I have no interest in going home since little Evangelynn is here and my boys are being well taken care of by my in-laws. This means I'll probably be discharged sometime on Sunday. My prayer is that by Sunday Evangelynn will be strong enough and her lungs will be mature enough to try to nurse. My goal is to be with her as much as possible so that we can get off to a good start. The NICU staff here seems so much more pro-breastfeeding than our experience five years ago at Children's.
Thank you all for your prayers! We praise God that he protected Evangelynn from my anti-bodies while she was in utero. Without this protection she would have to have IVIg infusions which would have probably made her too tired to breath at such a high rate. Her stay in the NICU would have no doubt been so much longer! We also praise him for his sovereignty in all things. We know his timing is perfect and I take peace in knowing that he is in control!
Friday, March 23, 2012
Baby Girl
This morning at 2am I called the NICU to see how Evangelynn was doing. Her nurse said she was doing fine and she had even further decreased her O2 needs during the night.
Then she told me that earlier in the evening she heard Evangelynn sucking on something from out in the hall (she is in a private room of her own). When she went in to check on her she found her sucking her thumb!! The nurse even called another nurse in just to see how cute she was with her thumb in her mouth. I guess she looks like Asher, and she'll be taking after him in this arena as well!
-BB
"We're not doubting that God will do the best for us, we're wondering how painful the best will turn out to be."-C.S. Lewis
Then she told me that earlier in the evening she heard Evangelynn sucking on something from out in the hall (she is in a private room of her own). When she went in to check on her she found her sucking her thumb!! The nurse even called another nurse in just to see how cute she was with her thumb in her mouth. I guess she looks like Asher, and she'll be taking after him in this arena as well!
-BB
"We're not doubting that God will do the best for us, we're wondering how painful the best will turn out to be."-C.S. Lewis
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Baby Evangelynn is here!!
This morning at 11am Evangelynn was born!! She weighed 6 pounds 5 ounces and she was 18" long. Her Apgar's were good (8 and 9) but then she required some oxygen to help her "pink up". After I got out of the OR I met her in the recovery room. After trying unsuccessfully to get her to root (or even open her mouth) the nurse put a blood oxygen sensor on her. Her blood oxygen was only measuring in the mid 50s. At first she just stayed with us in the recovery room and we were told that she was just having a hard time transitioning. They wanted to take her to the NICU, but they suspected that after 4-6 hours she would adjust and be released.
I continued to recover after the C-section and was eventually moved to the "Mother and Baby" hallway. After Philip got some lunch he went to the NICU to check on Evangelynn. It turns out that she is having more trouble than we originally thought. Her lungs are showing signs of some fluid and they suspect she has respiratory distress syndrome. This is caused by her lungs not being mature and by a lack of surfactant. On Friday I had an amnio and her lungs were not mature, but on Monday and Tuesday of this week I received steroids to hopefully mature her lungs in time for her delivery today. Apparently that was not enough.
Tonight Philip and I got to both visit Evangelynn in the NICU. Currently she is breathing 36% oxygen on a high-flow canula. This is down from 100% oxygen earlier today which is good, but her respiratory rates are still too high to try to nurse. She is on IV fluids to keep her blood sugar up while she is not eating. The new estimate for her being release is no earlier than 48 hours but maybe as long as a week or two. Her progress so far has been encouraging.
The best part of my day was getting to hold her for the last 30 minutes of our visit. The nurses bathed her first and then we just sat in the rocking chair together:
I'll try to upload more pictures to our smugmug site tonight.
We still covet your prayers for her continued recovery. One of the praises that we have from today is that her platelets were in the normal range!! We are so grateful to not have to think about this other medical complication at this time.
I continued to recover after the C-section and was eventually moved to the "Mother and Baby" hallway. After Philip got some lunch he went to the NICU to check on Evangelynn. It turns out that she is having more trouble than we originally thought. Her lungs are showing signs of some fluid and they suspect she has respiratory distress syndrome. This is caused by her lungs not being mature and by a lack of surfactant. On Friday I had an amnio and her lungs were not mature, but on Monday and Tuesday of this week I received steroids to hopefully mature her lungs in time for her delivery today. Apparently that was not enough.
Tonight Philip and I got to both visit Evangelynn in the NICU. Currently she is breathing 36% oxygen on a high-flow canula. This is down from 100% oxygen earlier today which is good, but her respiratory rates are still too high to try to nurse. She is on IV fluids to keep her blood sugar up while she is not eating. The new estimate for her being release is no earlier than 48 hours but maybe as long as a week or two. Her progress so far has been encouraging.
The best part of my day was getting to hold her for the last 30 minutes of our visit. The nurses bathed her first and then we just sat in the rocking chair together:
I'll try to upload more pictures to our smugmug site tonight.
We still covet your prayers for her continued recovery. One of the praises that we have from today is that her platelets were in the normal range!! We are so grateful to not have to think about this other medical complication at this time.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Money
Ethan: "I wish I had an iPad."
Philip: "You'll have to save up your money to buy and iPad."
Ethan: "I only have 11 monies."
Mawmaw: "For your birthday would it be better to give you money instead of a toy so you can save up for something?"
Ethan: "Well, how about a toy and an iPad?"
Philip: "You'll have to save up your money to buy and iPad."
Ethan: "I only have 11 monies."
Mawmaw: "For your birthday would it be better to give you money instead of a toy so you can save up for something?"
Ethan: "Well, how about a toy and an iPad?"
Monday, February 27, 2012
Daytona 500
Ethan: Mommy, did you watch the race last night?
Me: No buddy, it got rained out and they are going to try again tonight.
E: But what did all the racecars do last night while it rained?
Me: The cars probably stayed in the garages and the race cars drivers went home and went to sleep.
E: In their race car pajamas?
Me: *hysterical laughter*
Me: No buddy, it got rained out and they are going to try again tonight.
E: But what did all the racecars do last night while it rained?
Me: The cars probably stayed in the garages and the race cars drivers went home and went to sleep.
E: In their race car pajamas?
Me: *hysterical laughter*
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Baby Evangelynn
Monday morning we had our cordocentesis for baby Evangelynn. She did great!! Her platelets were 150,000 and we were so excited to come home still pregnant. I going back to HIROC tomorrow and hopefully after this appointment we will have a better idea of when we will get to meet our baby girl.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Here we go again!
With several new friends in our lives I wanted to give a quick glance into the past of where we have been and give everyone an update on where we are about to go.
A little over four years ago God decided to reveal to us just a glimpse of his sovereignty by saving Ethan's brain from bleeding (and probably his life) through what was the scariest moment in our lives and one of the worst case scenarios during labor; the prolapsed cord. You can read all about our experience here and here.
During Ethan's six day stay in the NICU we discovered that Philip and I have a blood platelet mismatch. This is very similar to an Rh factor mismatch in that I make antibodies against our babies' platelets while I am pregnant. It is dissimilar to Rh factor mismatches in that there is no magic shot to stop the immune response against the baby. Instead of a shot, I must undergo weekly infusions beginning at 19 -20 weeks of IVIg and continuing for the duration of the pregnancy. I wrote a long post about the treatments and the biology behind them when I was pregnant with Asher.
Because nurses typically have a hard time drawing blood from me or starting IVs, after the first couple of treatments of IVIg we chose another, slightly more permanent, option: a PICC line. This catheter stays in my body and gives my home health nurse great access to infuse the IVIg into me every week. No needles!!
I can't believe we are already here, but on Monday we will be 19 weeks pregnant! This go round the insurance has been incredibly swift and easy to deal with (not that there haven't been a few snags) and on Monday my nurse called to say that the IVIg treatments are approved! Tomorrow afternoon I will get my PICC line installed and we begin treatments on Monday. We are so excited to have the same nurse that we had when I was pregnant with Asher, Angie!!
My prayer requests at this point are for treatments to go well (people can have wicked side effects from IVIg) and for my general peace during this time of transition. Ultimately I know that no matter what happens God knows what is best for me and will grow me during this time! My hope and prayer is that I glorify Him in all situations and that I share our testimony with people I meet during this time. We have been so blessed I also pray that I can rest in these blessings instead of fretting about what tomorrow will bring.
Thank you all for all of your support!
A little over four years ago God decided to reveal to us just a glimpse of his sovereignty by saving Ethan's brain from bleeding (and probably his life) through what was the scariest moment in our lives and one of the worst case scenarios during labor; the prolapsed cord. You can read all about our experience here and here.
During Ethan's six day stay in the NICU we discovered that Philip and I have a blood platelet mismatch. This is very similar to an Rh factor mismatch in that I make antibodies against our babies' platelets while I am pregnant. It is dissimilar to Rh factor mismatches in that there is no magic shot to stop the immune response against the baby. Instead of a shot, I must undergo weekly infusions beginning at 19 -20 weeks of IVIg and continuing for the duration of the pregnancy. I wrote a long post about the treatments and the biology behind them when I was pregnant with Asher.
Because nurses typically have a hard time drawing blood from me or starting IVs, after the first couple of treatments of IVIg we chose another, slightly more permanent, option: a PICC line. This catheter stays in my body and gives my home health nurse great access to infuse the IVIg into me every week. No needles!!
I can't believe we are already here, but on Monday we will be 19 weeks pregnant! This go round the insurance has been incredibly swift and easy to deal with (not that there haven't been a few snags) and on Monday my nurse called to say that the IVIg treatments are approved! Tomorrow afternoon I will get my PICC line installed and we begin treatments on Monday. We are so excited to have the same nurse that we had when I was pregnant with Asher, Angie!!
My prayer requests at this point are for treatments to go well (people can have wicked side effects from IVIg) and for my general peace during this time of transition. Ultimately I know that no matter what happens God knows what is best for me and will grow me during this time! My hope and prayer is that I glorify Him in all situations and that I share our testimony with people I meet during this time. We have been so blessed I also pray that I can rest in these blessings instead of fretting about what tomorrow will bring.
Thank you all for all of your support!
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