Friday, November 30, 2012

Blood transfusion and Bath

We have had three great days here with Ann Martin!  I love it when we both get to be here together.  We are able to be here and just focus on her and not be distracted by things at home.

We were warned early on that she would most likely require a blood transfusion or a few transfusions.  We got the call this morning from the nurse practitioner that it was time.  They keep a check on her hematocrit and this morning it was 30.  Normal is 38.  Basically, they take blood from her frequently and she is not able to replenish it near as fast.  This is why she must have them and will likely have another.  We arrived to find her IV in a horrible place, her forhead!  Can you imagine having an IV in your forehead??  Bless her heart.  They tried in her arm and foot but both veins blew..sorry baby, you got your mommy's veins.  They told me that she was the least fussy with the one in her head, go figure.  Also, its pretty common for them to have IVs in their forehead.  She did fine getting the blood.  They had to stop her feedings 4 hours before, 4 hours during and 4 hours after transfusion.  They started fluids back while she isn't being fed.  When they start them back, she will get 4 ML/3 hours and work her way back up to 13 ML/3 hours.  Nurse today said she should be back up by tomorrow afternoon or night.  We can also expect her weight to fluctuate with the fluids and blood.

She was back to 1 lb 8 oz. this morning.  We are still on a roller coaster on the oxygen.  She stays between 21%-30%.  They help her out with more oxygen when she desats and turn it down when she sats to high.  They don't want her going above 95% when she is on oxygen because it can cause her retinas to detach.  Therefore, she fluctuates.

We got to give her a bath tonight.  Love bath nights now!  We went up to bathe her at 8:30 and were turned away because they were getting an admit.  We were half way home and her nurse called and said admit wasn't coming so of course we turned around!  So glad she called!  I asked Rob if he wanted to turn around and he said you don't even have to ask me :)

We thank you for your continued prayers for her.  We are really doing great but understand that we still have a long road to go.  I was in Michaels today getting some stuff to work on her scrapbook (thanks Rachel, Kim, and Courtney!) and a lady was helping me look for something.  She asked had I been scraping long and I told her no and why I was doing it now.  She asked for AM's name and said she would be praying for her.  Then she said, "well why don't we just pray for her now".  So right in the middle of the scrapbooking section she prayed for AM.  What a kind thing to do for a perfect stranger.  She got emotional and said that she had a family member to just lose a baby.  It broke my heart.  I told her I would in turn be praying for her family.  It's funny sometimes how God connects perfect strangers who are going through similar storms.

I am so thankful for this little peanut and we love her to the moon and back!


Daddy trying to calm her down

Our favorite part of bath time
Holding her while her bed gets changed

Bless her heart!
She loves to be held like this
It is one of the few times she will open both eyes and look at us.
Of course I never catch it on camera!

Thursday, November 29, 2012

AM visit and nursery peak

We came back to Jackson this afternoon.  We stopped in the hospital on our way into town for her 5:30 care time.  We each had to change a diaper--go Ann Martin-- take her temperature and ooo ahh over her a little bit.  She had dry legs so her momma gave her a little massage with lotion too.  Rob is getting more comfortable holding her.  He held her in the oscillate tonight for a second.  Her nurse is going to help him get more comfortable holding her tomorrow.  We love our nurses!  Her nurses love her too!  There are a couple of them who claim stake to her and say "you make sure I get her back after you get her"...This makes us feel so good.  She is loved up there and it makes not being with her every day a little easier.

She gained 10 grams this morning making her 1lb 7oz.  They did increase the fortifier today too so hopefully she will start to gain and not lose so much.  It's normal to go up and down like this but we like gains :).  She has grown and inch and is now 12.6 inches!  She continues to tolerate her feedings well and is on 25% oxygen and 1 L pressure.

I am starting to get in the mood to work on the nursery.  It has taken me a couple weeks to play catch up.  We obviously were not in any way nursery ready when she was born.  Don't get me wrong, we have the necessities and could bring her home tomorrow to it but we will try and make it pretty for her now.  We have a bed, light fixture, changing table (antique store find--has to be painted), chest of drawers (same store, has to be painted), rug, and paint.  Maybe we will get it rolling in the next few weeks.  I have a few pictures for a sneek peak if anyone's interested as well as some pictures from today at the hospital.

I also finally cut my hair today.  I have been growing it out, taking advantage of the prenatal vitamins, with plans to donate to pantene beautiful lengths.  They make wigs for cancer patients.  I have a picture of me with my ponytail.  Don't judge no make-up.  Haven't really been wearing it and don't wear it around AM.

Rob holding AM
The white thing hanging out of his shirt is her Snoodle with our scent on it.
We have to re-scent it every so often.

Loves to be held, sometimes :)

Rug

Bed

I'm going to paint these and frame them maybe

Light fixture

All 8 inches of my ponytail

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Happy 28 weeks Ann Martin!

I first must apologize for the absence in my blogging!  So sorry!  I have been in Meridian for a couple days and have not had any new pictures.  I should have updated on her progress though...been a crazy few days.  I am still trying to master the pumping every two hours and sleep thing.  So I sleep at crazy hours.

Today is 28 weeks for Ann Martin!  Happy birthday sweet lady!  I got to spend a sweet day with her today.  So thankful for each day I have with her over there.  I'll update on her first.  Yesterday she was up to 1 lb 8 oz.  This morning she had lost 20 oz.  We are now at 650 grams, not sure how much she weighs now 7 or 8 oz.  30 grams=1 oz.  and I lose track of when we go into another oz.  Follow me?  Anyway, doctor said this morning that we would increase the fortifier tomorrow if she loses weight again.

She is still on the 1 L pressure to help her lungs and she is also requiring 25-28% of oxygen. I will explain this best I can.  In big people we usually measure oxygen in L.  So that was throwing me off.  In her case, the liters is just the pressure to help her.  You and I breathe 21% room air.  She is on 25-28% room air/oxygen.  So they are giving her a little oxygen but not much.  They have tried to wean her off each day but she is not tolerating right now.  She also continues to breathe better on her belly.  Doctor says that's her age.

Doctor told me this morning the next few weeks we would be concerned about the following: NEC- some gastrointestinal infection and another head ultrasound on day 30.  He told me symptoms of both of them and she is not showing these symptoms.  We hope that is a really good sign that we will be in the clear.  Prayers!!

I got to hold her again today.  It had been a few days.  It was WONDERFUL!  She was really fussy at first and had been fussy last time I held her.  I was kinda starting to feel like a really bad momma to tell you the truth.  Her nurse came in and gave her the paci and it was snooze time for the next hour!  It is the sweetest feeling to feel her sucking the paci against my chest--something I don't think I would have thought twice about had she been a normal full term baby.  The sound of her sucking the paci was even music to my ears.  She did drop her oxygen, desat, one time while holding her.  She does that sometimes when she is sucking on the paci.  I took it away from her and she slowly came back up.  Then I gave it back :).

It's time to pump so I will leave with pictures!  Thanks for checking in on us!  We still feel your prayers everyday!

Fussy, fussy! This girl can pitch a fit!

Check out that paci! It's almost bigger than her face.


The inside is small, the smallest they come.  Don't know why the outside is so big...

Friday, November 23, 2012

Ann Martin gets a bath Monday, Wednesday, Friday.  We have gotten better about being there when she gets one.  She fusses quite a bit.  Her nurse said tonight, "She's a little thing but she sure is heard around here!"

Her daddy bathed her tonight!  He did so good and she wasn't nearly as fussy.  He says it was his daddy touch, but his nurse said he wasn't scrubbing hard enough.  ;) It is hard to push on her because you feel like you will hurt her.

Soaping her up


Doing her back...I love any excuse to hold her

This is one of the sweetest times to hold her...she is done with bath, warm
and has us talking and kissing her

If you look at her top hand, she was beginning to suck her thumb!


We bought her the good smelling bath time soap with lavender.  I hope it helps her sleep soundly.  After her bath and bed change, it's time for her massage...



Yesterday morning she had lost 10 grams bringing her back down to 1 lb 4 oz.  They say that she will fluctuate her weight during her stay.  However, the day before yesterday was when they stopped her fluids so doc told us that could have some to do with it.  This morning she had gained those 10 grams back so she is 1 lb 5 oz.  They started the fortifier yesterday and increased the dose today.  This is her protein and calories.  They also increased her feedings bringing her to 12 ML/3 hours.  God is GOOD! 

All tucked in

Can't get enough of that sweet face

Courtney, Rachel and Kim were so sweet to give me scrapbook stuff (yellow)
Can you believe we put her through the footprints again.

That's all I have tonight.  Going to bed.  Please keep the Rollison family from Butler in your prayers.  They lost their son today after an ATV accident.  He was 9 years old.  I can't imagine what the family must be going through.  I pray for understanding and peace for the family.  

  



Thursday, November 22, 2012

Daddy time!

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I know we sure had a lot to be grateful for and we have counted our blessings all day!  My heart hurts for those around us who are going through rough times. 

Today was a great day for Rob and Ann Martin, and mommy too!  Rob got to do Kangaroo care with her for the first time.  He was like I was the first time I held her, overwhelmed!  It is a lot to handle.  Her size for one and all the alarms going off constantly for heartbeats, oxygen, etc.  Aside from all of that, it is just surreal to hold her all together.  Once they adjusted, I think they got a little nap in.  She was so comfortable and was a rockstar.  She never dropped her sats! 

They did increase her feedings to 11 ML/3 hour and were able to pull her picc line this morning.  They were going to wait to pull it but it was making a sore close to the crease of her elbow and decided to pull it early.  I'm glad they saw the sore because it really needed to be taken out as to not get worse. 

We are at the hospital so this is going to be a short post...I'll get to the pictures

Sweet girl

Getting settled

Daddy time

Happy as a lark!!

They warmed my heart!

First daddy diaper change

Just wanted to show her size here

Our first family picture

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

I just had to post!

Rob called me last night after I posted and reminded me that I didn't tell of her weight gain!  She had gained 10 grams yesterday morning and this morning she had gained 20 grams.  This equals a whole oz. putting her at 1 lb 5 oz.!  So glad she is finally gaining weight!

I talked to her doctor this morning.  (I am in Meridian so I have just had to depend on many phone calls to stay informed)  He said they increased her feedings to 11 ML/3 hours.  This is the optimum feeding for her weight and age, so....as long as she tolerates her feedings they will pull her picc line tomorrow or the next day.  She will no longer need her fluids as long as she tolerates her feedings.  They started adding fortifier to her breast milk too.  This is standard and I'm told it will help her gain weight a little faster.  Her doc told me that as healthy as breast milk is, it still lacks some nutrients and that is what the fortifier does.

She remains off of the bili light.
Continues to have the apnea/brady spells, needing to be patted some to recover and recovering some on her own.  Her nurse this morning said she gave her the paci and sat down.  She started to have a spell and went over to check on her and she was going to town on the paci and forgetting to breath :)  She took the paci from her and she was fine.  Glad she likes that paci!  She won't get the coordination of suck, swallow, and breath all at the same time till maybe ~35 weeks, don't quote me on that.

God is working miracles in this baby's life and I have been praying, along with the entire town of Butler, AL (Rob's hometown), for a little boy named Landon.  He had an ATV accident this past weekend and is at UAB.  The last update I got was he had no brain activity and had a shunt placed.  They are running more test on him tonight at 6.  He is in the third grade.  Please join in and pray for this sweet little boy and his family.  I know the news the parents are getting is hard but if there is one thing I know is that doctors are not always right.  I pray they are wrong this time and another miracle happens!

Sorry I don't have any pictures because I was in Meridian last night.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Answered prayer

I have to start with the BIG NEWS of the day...Her head ultrasound came back normal!!!!!!!!  We are so blessed!  I know how fortunate we are that she is doing so well at such a young age...they all say "26 weekers are not supposed to be doing this well".  All I can say is, it's a God thing.  There is power in prayer and I think this is a direct result of it.  P.S. they were looking for a brain bleed on the ultrasound...all the blogs that I read in the hospital on premmie birth stories, the babies had brain bleeds.  They most always resolved themselves but they were there.  That makes me feel so fortunate that she doesn't have one. I am one happy momma!

Over the last couple days, she has been having those episodes of apnea/bradycardia.  I talked about that in last post so I won't go into details.  She is having them more frequently though.  This morning they decided to put her back on low flow.  She is still breathing on room air just like me and you but she has a little pressure to help her.  I am surprisingly not  freaking out because they have been telling us that it is likely to happen and lets be honest--she is entitled to a little help with how hard she has been working.  Poor baby is tired.  Now I will be happy when she is able to come off of it, but we are counting our blessings right now.

She had another bath last night.  I did this bath and we both handled it a little better.  She has a great night nurse that is good about helping me to be more hands on.  She still piped up but she was more consolable this time.  Also, since she is off of the bili light now she got a rub down with lotion.  She liked this.  

I got to hold her again today.  I kissed and kissed on her little head too.  She was having to many desats while I had her so I put her back early.  (this means her oxygen was going too low).  I wanted them to stop so she went back to bed where she might have been more comfortable.

Each and every one of you will never know how thankful we are for every prayer you have all prayed!  I will keep saying this over and over!  She is a true testament to the power of God.  My cousin June said, "I dare someone to say there is not a God".  I love this and it is so true.  I know God has put this in mine and Rob's life for a reason.  If there is ever a person to walk into our lives, to doubt there is a God, I think we have some evidence to prove there is.  We have talked about this a lot (God's purpose for all of this) and we are ready for what he has in store!

During her bath-- can you see her pitching a fit?

I love getting to hold her while her nurse changes her bedding!!

Just before tucking her in for the night

Bless her sweet little heart! 

Her daddy gets to do this Thursday and I CAN'T WAIT!
 I think I might be more excited than him ;)

Possibly my favorite picture yet.  This is how I left her this afternoon.
She has discovered her fingers and she likes them in her mouth.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Sweet Ann Martin

This baby has my whole heart.  She is all I think about.  Today was the first day that I didn't boo hoo when Rob left and I think it was because I have her to occupy my time.  No offense honey, I still love you and miss you terribly :).

She is still doing amazingly well.  Keep the prayers coming!  She is continuing to tolerate breathing room air.  This is really a miracle, yall!  It goes to show who the ultimate physician is...God.  She is having some episodes of bradycardia- where her heartbeat drops and she stops breathing for a second.  The nurses tell me she is just forgetting to breath.  She recovers on her own and her doctor assures me that this is totally normal for her age.  It could result in putting her back on a little oxygen if she needs stimulation to recover.  I pray that she continues to recover on her own.

She is tolerating her feedings great too!  They have been able to up her feedings everyday.  She is up to 6.5ML/3 hours.  I am so proud of our little girl!  She was on donor milk until mine came in (hope that's not too much info) but now we are using mine!  We are still having to use some donor milk because I am not able to keep up with her yet.  This is a good thing in my book because she is tolerating her feedings!  Hopefully in a few days/week I will be able to keep up!

Big news--I have gotten to start kangaroo care!!!!!!  Yesterday, since her umbilical catheter came out, I got to hold her for the first time!  It was simply...amazing.  Words can't describe how it felt to hold her.  It obviously is not what I expected during this pregnancy when thinking of holding my baby for the first time.  *God laughs at our plans*  Ahh, picture below.  I got to hold her again today.  She sneezed on me a few times.  The little sound she made would melt your heart.  She sneezes like her Aunt Angie- like 3 in row, real quick. :)  She is yawning...and tonight she cried and it sounded like more of a cry than a puppy whimpering.  She had one episode of brady while I was holding her.  I patted her bottom and she recovered.

*I am not being a hog here.  Rob still has a runny nose and doesn't feel it would be best to hold her.  We are hoping he will be better later this week when he comes back.  I am dying for him to hold her.  If you think about it, say a little prayer he gets better so he can hold her.  I am so ready for him to experience it.  It really, really does make the connection so much stronger!

I'll stop here and show yall sweet Ann Martin...

She kept burying her little nose in my neck

Ahh, so sweet

Good day!

Look at her little hand under her face.  She was so snuggled! 

We were trying to show her size here

Her eye under her hand is kinda open.  She was so comfy!

Friday, November 16, 2012

God is so good!

This little girl continues to amaze us all.  I just pray that she continues to have the strength to keep up with her progress.  Her feedings have been up'ed to 3.25 ML/3 hours and she is tolerating this well.  We were there tonight during her bath (I'll get to this) and when the nurse pulled back on her tube with the syringe she really got nothing back except what was in the tube itself.  This is great because it means she is digesting the breast milk!  Rob says she has his appetite too!  This was funny because she really does have his fingers, toes and nose.

She was on high flow air I think the last time I updated this.  She went down to 2L yesterday and then 1L at some point and now today since around lunch she is on NOTHING!!!!  She is breathing on her own now--PRAISE THE LORD!  I watch her breath and it looks like it would wear her out.  The nurses and our doctor promise us that they are more resilient than we could ever imagine.  With that said, she can always get tired and they will help her out with a little air if needed.

Her umbilical catheter started to clot off today while we were in there.  She was having some vascular spasms in her foot which is very common and it tells them its run its course. They had to put a picc line in which was inevitable eventually.  The nurse tonight said since catheter is gone they have to stick her foot to draw blood :(

Last night her nurse let me help change her diaper and check her temp.  After we were done, Rob and I were walking back to the room and I had a second wind.  I said I knew it was adrenaline from what I had just experienced.  It wasn't quite as scary as I thought it would be.  She told us to come back tonight around 8:30 and we could help with her bath.  We went and I wasn't prepared.  She has a bunch of sticker-like wires on her to monitor her breathing, heart beat, etc and she had to take them ALL off, including her feeding tube from her mouth.  Let me just say those little things are sticky and Ann Martin enjoyed no part of those things being pulled off of her.  The nurse had to use alcohol and force to pull them off and baby girl was screaming (whimpering like a puppy) her fool head off.  This mama did not handle it like a champ.  I lost it and I think I made the nurse feel really bad.  I just feel really helpless when she get so upset.  I pulled it together and returned for the bath.  She soaped her up good and got her clean.  We had to change her bedding and I got to hold her for the first time- in the isolate.  First time was in the blanket, second was my hands directly on her skin.  So surreal...have I mentioned how much we love this baby girl!  P.S. Rob has a little sinus infection and refuses to touch her which is best, so he is our photographer.

She is really doing great.  Her doctor came by to see us before we left the hospital today and would hardly talk about her progress.  Not sure if he was getting emotional or didn't want to jinx her.  He is truly an amazing person.

I don't like having my picture taken or being on video/TV.  However, I would be on a billboard, commercial, internet, whatever Baptist Hospital asked me to do to let everyone know how wonderful, compassionate, and accommodating they are.  I have never experienced anything like that place.  The people are some of the best!  And, just when we thought they could not get better...the head nurse came in last night and said, oh, by the way, Baptist has a program for cancer patients and maternal transport patients where they put you up in the Cabot Lodge for 4 nights on the hospital so you can stay closer to us.  Really... Needless to say, we are at the Cabot Lodge for the next 4 nights and then we will see what happens.

I will stop now, I got long winded.  Pictures!!

This was while she still had O2 on...so peaceful

She was sprawled out

That pacifier is TINY.  She takes it like a pro

She had to put her footprint on 5-6 pieces of paper and hated every second of it

Can you see the look of frustration on her face..."just leave me alone, please!"

First bath...hated it

my first time to hold her

such a sweet angel

It was one thing to hold her in the blanket, this was amazing

This is how we left her.  She did have her blanket over her eyes and her light on when we left.  Snoozing good.

Thank you Lord for this baby and the miracle that she is.