Today we will start off with Miss Emma. She had a really good night Saturday night & a good day Sunday. She was tolerating her feedings well (still at 4 ml every 3 hours) and was having minimal alarms and was not needing much if any stimulation. Her neonatologist was very encouraged and said that if she remained relatively symptom free she would not need surgery for her PDA unless her symptoms came back. Sunday the nurse practitioner also noticed Emma had greenish drainage coming from her eyes, so they started her on antibiotic drops. They are not sure if it is an infection or plugged tear ducts, so they started the drops to be safe. Last night Miss Emma had a bit more of a rough night. She had an increase in her brady alarms, she needed mild stim for a couple, and she had more residuals with her feeds. Emma's murmur is still there and she has a cardiac echo this morning to see if the PDA has changed at all. We have a care conference later this afternoon with her neonatologist so we should find out what the echo showed and what the plan is. It scares me to think of her having surgery for her PDA, but if it means that she will do better with her feeds and have less alarms, I know that God will take care of Emma during and after the surgery. Please pray that the doctors do what is best for Emma. Please pray that God give Dave & I peace about whatever decision they make.
Miss Adalyn is doing well. She has been having a few more alarms now that her feedings are up, but they reassure me that it is nothing abnormal. Adalyn is on 10 ml of breast milk every 3 hours and they are also adding human milk fortifier (HMF) to bring the calorie content of the breast milk up to 22 calories per ounce. This will help Miss Adalyn gain weight. For the most part Adalyn has been tolerating her feedings well, she did spit up a couple of times during the night, but nothing excessive. Both girls are still on a CPAP of 5 on room air. Please pray that Adalyn continues to do well.
Emma's weight Sunday night: 2lbs 2oz (970 grams)
Adalyn's weight Sunday night: 2lbs 3oz (990 grams)
Please continue to pray that God protect both girls from infection. Also continue to pray that God help Adalyn and Emma grow and develop appropriately.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Day 17: A murmur
WARNING!
The photos you are about to see are of two VERY cute babies. The diapers are not trying to eat the babies, they are trying to keep the linens dry as apparently the babies have figured out how to pee out of the micro preemie size diaper.
(Dave went to the hospital yesterday to drop off breast milk and the nurse snapped a few quick pictures of the girls for us. Apparently she felt the micro preemie diapers were too small as the girls were peeing out of the diapers. So she put them in preemie size and mom thinks it looks quite hilarious as the diapers are HUGE on them.)
Emma in her preemie diaper...loving being on her belly!
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Adalyn in her preemie daiper...also loving being on her belly!
First off, a quick update on me. I have been fever free for over 24 hours! I am feeling good too! However, I am back to having to wait 7 days after my symptoms started to see the girls. The CDC recommends waiting this long to be around immune compromissed individuals which both of our girls are. So as much as I miss them (which is a ton) it is not worth exposing them to something. We found out that the nurse told us wrong, Dave has to wait 4 days after my fever is gone. So that means we both can go visit on wednesday. Hard, but so worth it to keep our girls healthy.
We will start off with Miss Adalyn first. She is doing well. They increased her feeds yesterday to 10ml every 3 hours and so far she is tolerating that great. She did not poop last night so hopefully she does that today. She is still having brady alarms, but not too many & she is not needing any stimulation most of them time. She is still on a CPAP of 5 on room air.
Miss Emma had another rough night friday night in terms of number of brady alarms. Saturday morning her nurse came in and heard a murmur on her. So the doctors ordered a heart echo and her PDA is back. It is moderate size which is what is was before she got any medicine. The doctors said that this could explain why Emma has been having periods of more alarms, needs a little more oxygen at times and also why she spits up more at times. The PDA can open and close on its own so that is why the symptoms may not occur all the time. However, the fact remains that the PDA is back. The doctor said that PDAs can reopen for different reasons, but one is an increase in fluid volume in the body. Well, this has been happening in the form of increased feeding volume. So they have decided that at this point Emma's symptoms are not severe enough that she needs surgery, but rather they want to try decreased her feedings to 4ml every 3 hours, leave her TPN & lipid volume as is, and watch her til monday and see if the PDA will shrink or close again on its own. So Emma will have a echo again on monday as long as her symptoms do not get worse. Emma had a good day yesterday and last night in terms of brady alarms. She had minimal alarms and needed minimal stimulation. She also did not need any oxygen and was not spitting up. One other thing her nurse decided to change was to get rid of her and Adalyn's Z-flo beds (these special foam beds that they can mold to any position). The nurse felt that these beds may be contributing to the problem since both girls are very sensitive to position and these beds are not the most supportive. They can still hear Emma's murmur, but we are encouraged that for the past 24 hours it has not been causing her any problems. Please pray that the Ultimate Physician, the God of miracles, our Amazing Heavenly Father, do His work with Emma and close her PDA so that she does not need surgery.
Emma is doing fine with her feedings, but she also needs to poop. Never knew I could be so hung up on poo :) Emma is also on a CPAP of 5 on room air. Please continue to pray that God protect Emma and Adalyn from infection, that they tolerate their feedings, that they continue to grow & develope appropriately. And please join us in praising God for protecting the girls from my illness. It has been 4 days since they were exposed to me and if I had Influenza and either of the girls caught it from me they should have shown symptoms by now. Praise God!
Oh weights. Adalyn & Emma both weighed 2 lbs 3 oz (990 grams) last night...ladies and gentlemen we have a tie :) The nurses tell me that they look bigger...Mom can't wait to witness this on her own!
The photos you are about to see are of two VERY cute babies. The diapers are not trying to eat the babies, they are trying to keep the linens dry as apparently the babies have figured out how to pee out of the micro preemie size diaper.
(Dave went to the hospital yesterday to drop off breast milk and the nurse snapped a few quick pictures of the girls for us. Apparently she felt the micro preemie diapers were too small as the girls were peeing out of the diapers. So she put them in preemie size and mom thinks it looks quite hilarious as the diapers are HUGE on them.)
Emma in her preemie diaper...loving being on her belly!
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Adalyn in her preemie daiper...also loving being on her belly!
First off, a quick update on me. I have been fever free for over 24 hours! I am feeling good too! However, I am back to having to wait 7 days after my symptoms started to see the girls. The CDC recommends waiting this long to be around immune compromissed individuals which both of our girls are. So as much as I miss them (which is a ton) it is not worth exposing them to something. We found out that the nurse told us wrong, Dave has to wait 4 days after my fever is gone. So that means we both can go visit on wednesday. Hard, but so worth it to keep our girls healthy.
We will start off with Miss Adalyn first. She is doing well. They increased her feeds yesterday to 10ml every 3 hours and so far she is tolerating that great. She did not poop last night so hopefully she does that today. She is still having brady alarms, but not too many & she is not needing any stimulation most of them time. She is still on a CPAP of 5 on room air.
Miss Emma had another rough night friday night in terms of number of brady alarms. Saturday morning her nurse came in and heard a murmur on her. So the doctors ordered a heart echo and her PDA is back. It is moderate size which is what is was before she got any medicine. The doctors said that this could explain why Emma has been having periods of more alarms, needs a little more oxygen at times and also why she spits up more at times. The PDA can open and close on its own so that is why the symptoms may not occur all the time. However, the fact remains that the PDA is back. The doctor said that PDAs can reopen for different reasons, but one is an increase in fluid volume in the body. Well, this has been happening in the form of increased feeding volume. So they have decided that at this point Emma's symptoms are not severe enough that she needs surgery, but rather they want to try decreased her feedings to 4ml every 3 hours, leave her TPN & lipid volume as is, and watch her til monday and see if the PDA will shrink or close again on its own. So Emma will have a echo again on monday as long as her symptoms do not get worse. Emma had a good day yesterday and last night in terms of brady alarms. She had minimal alarms and needed minimal stimulation. She also did not need any oxygen and was not spitting up. One other thing her nurse decided to change was to get rid of her and Adalyn's Z-flo beds (these special foam beds that they can mold to any position). The nurse felt that these beds may be contributing to the problem since both girls are very sensitive to position and these beds are not the most supportive. They can still hear Emma's murmur, but we are encouraged that for the past 24 hours it has not been causing her any problems. Please pray that the Ultimate Physician, the God of miracles, our Amazing Heavenly Father, do His work with Emma and close her PDA so that she does not need surgery.
Emma is doing fine with her feedings, but she also needs to poop. Never knew I could be so hung up on poo :) Emma is also on a CPAP of 5 on room air. Please continue to pray that God protect Emma and Adalyn from infection, that they tolerate their feedings, that they continue to grow & develope appropriately. And please join us in praising God for protecting the girls from my illness. It has been 4 days since they were exposed to me and if I had Influenza and either of the girls caught it from me they should have shown symptoms by now. Praise God!
Oh weights. Adalyn & Emma both weighed 2 lbs 3 oz (990 grams) last night...ladies and gentlemen we have a tie :) The nurses tell me that they look bigger...Mom can't wait to witness this on her own!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Day 16: Good night, Good day
Both girls had a good night last night. Emma had 4 alarms all night and Adalyn had 6. Adalyn's hemoglobin was low so she got some blood this morning. Neither of them spit up with any of their feedings. Adalyn had one large residual with one of her feedings during the night, but a much smaller residual at the next & none at the next. Dr. S decided to keep Adalyn at 8 ml every 3 hours (we accidentally reported yesterday that she was at 10ml...oops...she was at 8 ml), she has tolerated that well during the day today. Emma is still at 6ml every 3 hours and tolerated that well through the night and during the day today. Last night Adalyn weighed 2 lbs 1 oz (940 grams) and tonight weighs 2 lbs 3 oz (990 grams). Emma weighed 2 lbs 3 oz (990 grams) last night and 2 lb 3 oz (1kg) tonight. Both girls are still at a CPAP of 5 on room air and doing well with that. Dave and I are thanking God that in our absence the girls are doing well and that they have not shown any signs of illness. Continue to pray that they continue to grow & develop well, that they continue to tolerate their feeds well, that their number of alarms continue to go down, that they do not require any higher CPAP settings, that God continue to protect them from infection, and Praise God for continuing to hold them in His hands!
I thought that I was on the upward swing today. I went 10 hours after my last motrin with no fever. And then...it reared it's ugly head again. At 4pm I had a temperature of 101.5...grrrrrrrrrrrr! So please continue to pray that I get better. Praise God that Dave has not gotten sick! Pray that God continue to protect him from illness. I know at some point this will end & I will be able to go see my girls again, I just miss them. I have definitely learned some serious lessons about patience through out these last couple months. One way I have been coping is by calling to check on Adalyn & Emma every couple hours. I am probably driving the nurses nuts :). The phrase "no change, we are having a good day" was music to my ears all day today.
I thought that I was on the upward swing today. I went 10 hours after my last motrin with no fever. And then...it reared it's ugly head again. At 4pm I had a temperature of 101.5...grrrrrrrrrrrr! So please continue to pray that I get better. Praise God that Dave has not gotten sick! Pray that God continue to protect him from illness. I know at some point this will end & I will be able to go see my girls again, I just miss them. I have definitely learned some serious lessons about patience through out these last couple months. One way I have been coping is by calling to check on Adalyn & Emma every couple hours. I am probably driving the nurses nuts :). The phrase "no change, we are having a good day" was music to my ears all day today.
A big thank you!
I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you that have helped us out. I have wanted to do thank yous, but I have run in to a couple problems with that.
1. I do not have many of your addresses
2. Up until my sick time at home I did not have any spare time
So forgive me, but I am saying a big thank you here on our blog. Thank you so much to everyone who provided meals, gifts for me while I was on bed rest, gifts for the girls, cards, words of encouragement, prayers, hugs, phone calls, emails, gas cards (we have been going through a lot of that lately :) ), flowers, and I am sure I am missing stuff, but thank you!
The generosity of our friends, family and coworkers has really opened our eyes to what it really means to be part of the family of God, taking care of those in need.
You all and God have been so good to us through all of this. I always thought that God was a busy guy, but last night while pumping (I know...kinda strange, but I have to keep myself awake somehow) I was marveling at how truly busy he must be. All the prayers that are going up for the twinners and all the other babies is NICUs all over the world, let alone prayers for everyone else...WOW! Holding all of those babies in his hands and watching over them while still be able to watch over all of us...WOW! And in the midst of all of this He remembers each of our individual needs...WOW! I serve an absolutely amazing God!
I hope that each of you in some way is blessed today and also that you bless someone else. I know that I feel blessed today, I have 2 beautiful 2 week old girls who are doing well, Praise God!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Day 15: Quarantine!
Happy 2 Weeks!
Today was a good day for Adalyn and Emma, not so good for Dave and Abi. Abi has influenza! She talked some more with the doctors at the NICU and they said she doesn't have to wait until next Wednesday to see them, she just needs to be symptom free for 24 hours.(Good news?) Now for me, because Abi has the flu and I don't, I cannot go to see them for 4 days! The reason for this is that they need to be sure I haven't contracted what Abi has. So even if Abi feels better tomorrow she can go on Saturday but I can't. This is hard on both of us, with only a limited time each day with the girls due to work and life in general, we are really going to miss our time with them over the next couple of days. It feels like we're not being good parents because we can't be there for them but in actuality staying home is the way we can help them the most. Tough. Once again I'm thankful that one of our "bad" days has to do with us and not with Adalyn and Emma, they are both still doing so good!
Last night at Emma's 2:00am feeding she started to brady again because she was spitting up her food. She continued to do this through her 5:00am feeding and had 25 brady's and many of them she needed stimulation to get her going again.(Sit her up, rub her belly, basically just move her.) The doctors decided to hold her feedings for a couple of hours to give her a break until they could see her. She did really well the rest of the day with very few bradys and they resumed her feeding tonight, she is at 6ml every 3 hours. They did her blood work and gave her a chest x-ray and everything is looking good, they said it is typical for preemies to need a break every now and again from their feedings. Emma has had no blood in her stomach for almost 48 hours and we are very thankful for that. They also increased her caffeine dosage to help her breath easier. She continues to be a good pooper:) Adalyn has been a trooper with only a few spit ups(again, normal for preemies) and is up to 10ml every 3 hours on her feedings. She is also a good pooper and seems to be tolerating every thing really well.
Please pray for Abi and me as we have to stay away from the girls for a couple of days. Please ask GOD that he keeps them safe and comfortable while we are away. Also thank Him for their continued health, weight gain, and growth as they are now 2 weeks old!
Today was a good day for Adalyn and Emma, not so good for Dave and Abi. Abi has influenza! She talked some more with the doctors at the NICU and they said she doesn't have to wait until next Wednesday to see them, she just needs to be symptom free for 24 hours.(Good news?) Now for me, because Abi has the flu and I don't, I cannot go to see them for 4 days! The reason for this is that they need to be sure I haven't contracted what Abi has. So even if Abi feels better tomorrow she can go on Saturday but I can't. This is hard on both of us, with only a limited time each day with the girls due to work and life in general, we are really going to miss our time with them over the next couple of days. It feels like we're not being good parents because we can't be there for them but in actuality staying home is the way we can help them the most. Tough. Once again I'm thankful that one of our "bad" days has to do with us and not with Adalyn and Emma, they are both still doing so good!
Last night at Emma's 2:00am feeding she started to brady again because she was spitting up her food. She continued to do this through her 5:00am feeding and had 25 brady's and many of them she needed stimulation to get her going again.(Sit her up, rub her belly, basically just move her.) The doctors decided to hold her feedings for a couple of hours to give her a break until they could see her. She did really well the rest of the day with very few bradys and they resumed her feeding tonight, she is at 6ml every 3 hours. They did her blood work and gave her a chest x-ray and everything is looking good, they said it is typical for preemies to need a break every now and again from their feedings. Emma has had no blood in her stomach for almost 48 hours and we are very thankful for that. They also increased her caffeine dosage to help her breath easier. She continues to be a good pooper:) Adalyn has been a trooper with only a few spit ups(again, normal for preemies) and is up to 10ml every 3 hours on her feedings. She is also a good pooper and seems to be tolerating every thing really well.
Please pray for Abi and me as we have to stay away from the girls for a couple of days. Please ask GOD that he keeps them safe and comfortable while we are away. Also thank Him for their continued health, weight gain, and growth as they are now 2 weeks old!
Prayer warriors we need your prayers!
I just wanted to post a quick note to ask again for your prayers. Your have all been such faithful prayer warriors so far. I still have a fever today and my doctor thinks that I may have influenza. Please pray that God protect Adalyn and Emma from infection. As I said in my post from last night please pray that if they have contracted this from me already that God heal them before they ever show symptoms. Please also pray that God bring me comfort as the neonatologists have asked that I wait until 7 days after the onset of my symptoms to come visit. Which means that I cannot see my girls until next wednesday and I am having a really hard time with this. Thank you again for all of your prayers and praise God that so far the girls do not show signs that they are getting sick. Please also pray that Dave does not get sick so that at least he can still be up there with our girls.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Day 14: Mom is missing the twinners
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Adalyn just chillin
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Emma holding daddy's finger
Last night after coming home from visiting Adalyn & Emma, I came down with a fever. I was feeling fine yesterday. This morning I felt a little more punky & tonight even more punky. I had some blood work done & gave a urine sample & they are not sure what is going on. I was started on Augmentin as a precaution. Please pray that I get better so that I can go see the twinners. Today was hard not being able to see them. Please also pray that the twinners do not catch whatever I have if it is contagious. Pray that God continue to protect them from infections of both bacterial and viral nature.
First of all, praise God, the girls had a good day. We will talk about Emma first. Emma had a little bit of a rough night having multiple brady alarms, but the majority were self resolved. After drawing her blood work during the night they found out Emma's hemoglobin was low. They gave her some packed red blood cells to help bring this up. They suspect this is part of why she had so many alarms last night. She had much less alarms during the day today. They said Emma's hemoglobin was most likely low due to the frequent labs she needs and the inability of her body to keep up. They said it is not uncommon for preemies to need to receive blood products. Emma had 1 aspirate from her feeding tube today that was slightly brownish. No fresh blood though. The doctors are not concerned about this. They also do not think that this contributed to her lower hemoglobin. Emma went up to 6 ml every 3 hours on her feedings today and so far has been tolerating them well. She is still on a CPAP of 5 on room air (these are the lowest settings). Emma's weight yesterday was 2 lb 3 oz (990 grams) and tonight was 2 lbs 3 oz (1000 grams or 1 kg). Oh and Emma did have a big poop during the night last night :) Praise God that Emma had a good day!
Adalyn has still been having occasional brady alarms, but again the majority self resolved. Today they increased her feedings to 8 ml every 3 hours and so far she has been tolerating them fine. Adalyn is also on a CPAP of 5 on room air. Adalyn's weight last night was 1 lb 15 oz (880 grams) and tonight was 1 lb 15 oz (890 grams). Praise God that Adalyn had a good day!
Lord Jesus,
I come to you first of all praising you for the good day you gave Adalyn and Emma. Thank you Lord for watching over Adalyn and Emma and for holding them in your hands. Lord I ask that you continue to protect the twinners from infection. I ask that you protect the girls from whatever I have. Lord if either of them have contracted what is making me ill, I boldly ask you to please heal them before they become sick. Father please heal me so that I can go up and see my girls again. Lord thank you for the many blessings you have already given Adalyn and Emma and please continue to bless them each day. Thank you for the blessing that Adalyn and Emma are to Dave and I and for the amazing gift that they are. Lord please continue to help them grow bigger, stronger, and to develop.
In your awesome name I pray,
Amen
The twinners saying hi to mommy
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