Sunday, March 29, 2015

12 days into our NICU stay, Jane is 36 weeks gestation.

From week 1

Upgrade to a big girl crib



Daily check up


Milestone

Big brother holding down the fort

Special outing, hiking then coffee shop with this cool toy

All tuckered out!

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Our first week in the NICU

Big brother is taking it in....

Cool room!


So little, bottomed out at 4 lbs 5 oz. Now we're gaining back.

Moved up into big girl clothes, no more warmer since she can maintain her temp.

2nd bath on day 6. She really liked it!

Getting dinner, 9pm feeding. Did a little bit of nursing today on day 6!


Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Welcome Baby Jane Caroline!

The day before Jane's birthday, Rowan's in his favorite napping position.

Skin on skin time with mom. 
In the NICU right after surgery.

Skin on skin time with Dad, 1 day old. 
Daily report.

4 lbs. 12 oz., 17 1/2 inches!

Grabbing daddy's thumb in the NICU.

Happy mom getting to see baby Jane in the OR.

Our room in the NICU.

Footprints.

First sponge bath.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Week 33 of 40, Detricks' VIP hosptial admission

Well, here we are. We may be in the hospital until the end at this point. My 2nd overnight admission was looking like a discharge Tuesday at 6:00am. The nurses thought that if I didn't have "an episode" I'd be free to do bed rest at home. That was until the high risk team thoroughly pow-wowed over the case. A very energetic and nice doctor sat and explained the decision and the situation while my nurse hung out to help cushion the blow. Some people with this previa condition don't ever bleed, and clearly I'm a bleeder, So they are very nervous to have had 3 in a week. They have an IV port "installed" so if it turned into an emergency they have a leg up.

After that I've had a parade of staff checking in with apologetic faces asking what they can get me. Everyone has already memorized that I have a husband, Doug and 22 month old named Rowan. Doug says when he checks in for a visit, it's like we're maternity ward-famous...Awww, that family. Long term residents!

They are monitoring the baby and "nervous uterus" as Doug calls it a few times per day for 30 mins or so. Somehow even this far along she is flipping positions, no one ever knows where they'll find her heart beat! There continues to be minor contractions, about what you'd expect for a 3rd trimester, But it can contribute to upsetting the delicate attachment of the placenta sitting over the cervix, causing bleeding, which in turn causes more contractions. 

I'm meeting all the doctors from my practice as they are on call and stopping in to meet me...any one of them could do the delivery if we don't get the chance to plan it. I'm feeling relieved that I spent so much time picking and researching my doctor and  practice when we moved here. We're set up perfectly for this round of complications. Our hospital is 10 minutes away and it's attached to the medical practices of my OB and the high risk specialists. The nurses also told Doug about this little parking lot he can use to visit that I can see from my window and has an entrance right to the maternity ward, no overflowing ramp to muddle through.

The on-call Dr. that visited last night said she was on hospital bed rest with her twins for 5 weeks, so she was very empathetic. They were born at 31 weeks and are 11 now. She also recommended ordering the vanilla milk shake from food service. She is getting the ball rolling on adding in a tubal ligation whenever the c-section happens. She says it's very common to do that as part of a C-section (which I had read about) and they are pleased as punch to do it. She smiled and said it's in their best interest too, with this track record. It's very easy and they have to fill out "the Pope form" she calls it. It's a Catholic hospital and they have to get permission, which is always granted. She also said I can get up and walk around a bit on the floor, I'll take my first field trip today.

Rowan is getting used to the hospital visits. He was a little wary last week, but he smiled right away yesterday and got down to business with his favorite "toy" the Dr's rolling, spinning stool. Lots of cupboards to open!  He doesn't love my bed, though :(  We have to bribe him with cartoons to sit with me on my bed. We need to go to the library and get a sesame street DVD or something, I don't love the crud on actual TV! Also, a little bulldozer Hotwheel was a novel hit for yesterday.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Rowan's trial run hospital visit

Didn't want to join me on the bed in the first couple of minutes, but we were watching Sesame Street in no time cuddled up...waiting for our discharge. Such interesting gadgets in this room.



yea...first hospital stay...The saga continues. Here is a rundown of the 32nd week :

The saga continues, 32 of 40 weeks:

We did the VBAC  class on Saturday which was great, part 2 is on the 14th. It still seemed worthy to do because I had a record 17 days with no bleeding and the placenta position up for debate..sort of.

We had our first fetal non-stress monitoring on Tues. where Dr. Caldwell indulged all my natural birth questions, bless her heart, she has been willing to believe it could still happen along with me. Also, asking hospital protocal for c-section was more uplifting than my last surgery as well, things like delayed cord clamping etc, pretty standard here.

I started actually putting a bit of thought into a labor plan Tues. night after joking with Doug that after the good stress test and record clean streak that I'd probably have incident momentarily and then Wed. at 7am followed Dr's. orders to the maternity ward because of a blood gush. It was no worse than any previous one and I was tempted to ignore it, but went in. I expected to be in for a few hours and released, but they wanted 24 hours. Baby was fine, bleeding stopped (as they all have almost immediately after the gush) but they detected minor contractions which I couldn't feel. They gave me the 2 shot series of betamethasone 24 hours apart for developing the lungs...just in case.

How It Works

Betamethasone and dexamethasone cause an immature fetus's lungs to produce a compound called surfactant. A full-term baby's lungs naturally produce surfactant, which lubricates the lining of the air sacs within the lungs. This allows the inner surfaces of the air sacs to slide against one another without sticking during breathing. Premature infants whose lungs have begun producing surfactant are more able to breathe on their own, or with less respiratory treatment, after birth.

Why It Is Used

Betamethasone and dexamethasone are corticosteroids, also called glucocorticoids, that are given before birth (antenatally) to speed up a preterm fetus's lung development. Either is used when a mother is in preterm labor and birth may occur within 7 days. This helps prevent respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) and related complications following premature birth.
Many infants born at 33 to 34 weeks' gestation have sufficient lung maturity to breathe on their own. But considering the low-risk, high-benefit nature of this treatment, corticosteroids are typically used up to 34 weeks of pregnancy.

I was hooked to a fetal monitor for about 12 hours, got an ultrasound (where they wheeled me in a gurney all through the hospital, such overkill). Mostly I was bored to tears, not having expected a 24 hour stay. 

The anestesiologist visited  to go ahead and talk through the c-section either planned or emergency and do all the paperwork  so it's ready to go whenever it should happen. We will have blood ready for transfusion and to IV lines ready in case it goes as badly as the last surgery. We do not want to lose 2 liters again!! Nothing like the fond memories of a frantic anestesiologist stabbing you a dozen times trying to find another vein while passing in and out of consciousness, then being filled up with liters of saline instead of blood.

So I'm home now Thurs. morning and though not put on strict bed rest, I'm asked to do even less and stick around home. Dr. Caldwell stopped in this morning and is no hurry to firmly schedule a c-section, wanted to get as much time as possible but is guessing we'd get down to business end of 36 weeks -37 weeks  Ball park 1st 2 weeks of April. Now we wait and see.... The Dr. on call for this says, "This is your last child, Yes?"

My list of problems on my OB chart for every appointment reads:
Placenta Previa
Rh factor, negative (have to get shots for that)
Advanced maternal age
Pregnancy
Uterine fibroids...