Baby Had A Great Week

When we arrived to the hospital on Monday, we found Lynette with some new fancy head gear!  She came off of the ventilator and went on her bubble cpap, YAY!  This means that she is breathing on her own.  The cpap is only pushing air into her lungs so that they won't collapse.  This is a huge accomplishment for her.  I've never seen a cpap like this one before and the nurses said that this is because it is new and Lynette is the first baby to try it out.  I like it better than the other one because this one looks much more comfortable.

  

 On Thursday, we found her like this...DRESSED!  That's right.  My baby girl is officially wearing clothes.  The reason why it is a big deal is because she is able to regulate her body temperature by herself.  Wait for it...wait for it...

Today, we saw that Lynette had been promoted to a crib!  Because she is able to regulate her own body temp, she can come out of her incubator!  I called around midnight to see how she was doing and the nurse told me that she had been moved into a crib.  I was so excited and so tempted to see her.  Seriously, I was ready to drive to the hospital with my bed head to see this for myself!  Wait for it...wait for it...

Tonight, the plan is to stop her tpn (her nutrients through an IV) and put her on formula.  Unfortunately, her poop is watery and she is outputting quite a bit.  So, they are giving her a sensitive formula that will be more sensitive on her system.  The doctor seems to think that the fortification added to the breast milk may be causing her poop issues.  

In summary, she is breathing on her own, wearing clothes, in a crib, and off of tpn.  This was a great week!  Great job baby girl!!!  

Happy Birthday Jeremiah!

After our hospital visit, we celebrated Jeremiah's birthday officially...even if it was the day after his actual birthday.  Liz went out of town for spring break and Jeremiah wanted to wait until she got back to break into his cake.  BTW, here's a HUGE shout out to Regina for the birthday cake!  It was a very nice surprise and caught Jeremiah completely off guard and he loved it!  Good lookin' out!!!

Don't ask. 

Enjoying his birthday song.

I wish Sophia Lynette was here :o(

Proud of her blue teeth...or maybe she's happy to FINALLY be eating cake.

Savannah gets MAD when she runs out of food. 

She saw the fork coming and she opened up WIDE! 

Too embarased to show her blue teeth. 

 Happy birthday J!

Open Eyes

Jeremiah's birthday was on March 17th.  Happy birthday Mr. Man!  He told me that he didn't want to do anything so we didn't.  However, he did want to hold the baby for his birthday.  Unfortunately, the nurse on duty couldn't stabilize Lynette after she was in Jeremiah's arms.  To make a very long story short, he never held her like he wanted to.  She ended up back in the incubator to be stabilized.  BUT, we got a bigger and better surprise the next day.  Our little diva decided to open her eyes for about ten minutes!  It was great and we were so excited.  I didn't think it would last long but she gave us a good ten minutes.  

Her eyes are yellow from the jaundice. 

I guess our little one was done with the paparazzi.  Look at her trying to cover the camera lens!

After I realized that she was awake and not just having a moment, I combed her hair so that I could have a pretty picture with her eyes open.  See how the right side of her stomach looks swollen?  That's actually her liver that is swollen.  She has a blood clot in her liver and is currently on heparin.  I guess heparin is a blood thinner and the doctors hope that it will help her get rid of her blood clot.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Jeremiah asked me a few days ago what I wanted for my birthday.  I honestly had no idea that my birthday was coming up.  Can you believe that?!  I have NO concept of time since I've been dealing with a sick baby.  Anyway, I responded that it would be nice if I could hold my baby.  Guess what?  I got to hold my sweet baby girl for one full hour ON my birthday!  It was the best birthday gift EVER!  That was my fourth time in the 33 days since Lynette arrived.  She did really well, too!  It took about 20 minutes to take her out of her incubator because of her lines but it was totally worth the wait.  

It's quite the ordeal to hold Lynette.  Her tubes had to be taped to me and then I had to be taped to the chair.  Literally.  All of this was to ensure that her ventilator tubes were stable enough to continue to provide her oxygen while I held her.

Still smiling!  Man, I was so excited.   

The nurses were so patient while I combed her hair.  They even helped me clean her up a little.  Lynette was so cozy and slept the entire time. 

This picture made it to the blog because Lynette's face is sooooo cute!

I love how she has blond hair!  The other side is the same way.  That spot on her face is tape residue from her old tube.  It should wash off.

My last moments before I passed her to Jeremiah. 

I stopped smiling for five seconds to yawn.  Unfortunately, exhaustion is a huge part of our lives right now.

I will cherish this day for a long time :o)

Here we go.  I said "smile" and I get this.  In case you're wondering, Lynette really is that yellow.  She started turning yellow last Thursday because of her direct bilirubin.  The culprit?  Her liver.  That was today's issue when we visited her.  I guess it's back to reality :o(

Anyway, I told Jeremiah to stop playing around and give me a real smile and this is what I got instead.  Truth be told, he was making me laugh a little.  You gotta love him :o)

Much better.  After I threatened his life, I FINALLY got a real smile.  

Eventually, it was time to put her back.  By the way, this is her "poop bag".  See that black spot almost to the far right of the bag?  That is her stoma.  That is her intestine sticking out of her abdomen.  When she poops, poop comes out of her intestine and into the bag.  I've seen it and I tell you no lie!  We are quite thrilled that she is pooping.  This is a good sign that her intestines are functioning as they should.  

Goodnight baby girl and thank you for a great birthday gift.  Mommy is still beaming :o) 

Back at home, my birthday turned out pretty good.  Thank you for all of the well wishes and for thinking about me!  I received candy, cupcakes, flowers, a song, text messages, and phone calls.  I can't believe that I won't be celebrating the entire month of March.  I just don't have the time or energy to invest in my birthday month this year.  Come to think of it, I don't remember a time when I celebrated my birthday only on the 11th.  My priority is obviously my family right now.   

Anyway, Lynette is still making some progress.  Her ventilator settings are almost as low as they can go.  That's good because she's not requiring a lot of oxygen.  She's taking my breast milk and digesting it well.  We can tell because she's pooping.  And, it's the right color poop!  She's urinating a ton which is also good because she's still getting rid of excess fluid.  Tomorrow, I hope her liver test results come back okay.  If the results are not good, the next step is to have a liver biopsy to determine what is going on with her liver.  That would mean another surgery.  Oh well, I'll just celebrate her successes and worry about tomorrow...tomorrow.  Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Hodge Podge Diva Update

Since my last post, Diva has suffered a blood infection, perforated intestines...that resulted in two surgeries, a brain bleed, respiratory failure, collapsed lungs, and had her appendix removed.  And that is just what I remember.  After all of that she is still here!  The Lord has been extremely merciful and I am so grateful for that.  My baby girl is definitely a fighter!!!  She gets it legally :o)

The good ole days when Lynette was breathing on her own.

12 days old and 5 days before she was transported to the children's hospital.

Within the next day or two, Lynette made another turn for the worse.  Look how puffy and swollen she got.  I think this is when her blood infection started.  On 2/24, she was finally transported to the children's hospital.  She was filled with so much fluid and was so swollen that I thought she was going to burst.  The nurses  kept telling me that it was okay to touch her but I just knew that she would split wide open if I did.  I finally caved and touched her and nothing happened.  I was SO relieved.   

The day that she arrived at the children's hospital, Jeremiah and I spent the night.  This is the morning of 2/25.  After Diva was settled and comfortable, we headed home.  The plan was to eat breakfast, take a shower, and head back to the hospital.  Half way through our Jack in the Box breakfast, the hospital called and said that we needed to come back to the hospital.  Long story short, it turns out that Lynette didn't have an abscess on her liver.  Part of her intestines died and the dead part needed to come out.  As a result, the surgeon decided to perform a surgery to remove the dead intestines.  He was confident that this was the source of her infection and he was right.  Over the weekend, one of the doctors confirmed that Lynette's blood test came back negative.  Hopefully, the blood infection is out of our lives for good.  

  

So here's the thing.  Lynette is so fragile and so critical that she has to be transported to the operating room.  First, she was disconnected from the equipment in her room.  Then, she had to be connected to the transport equipment.  Next, she had to travel to the operating room where she was disconnected from the transport equipment.  Then she had to be connected to the operating room equipment.  After surgery, the process started alllll over again in reverse to bring her back and reconnect her to the equipment in her room.

I don't remember Jeremiah taking this one.  I'm certain that I was making sure that they were being EXTREMELY careful with my precious baby.  Not only that, it was a little scary seeing all of these people there for one little baby.

Finally, she was disconnected and in the incubator to be transported to surgery.  The transport team was awesome.  They handled Lynette so carefully and was so loving and comforting toward Jeremiah and I.

Diva and her entourage off to surgery!  My heart was so heavy that day.  They allowed us to follow them as far as we could go. 

I chose to wait in Lynette's room because I wanted to be there when she came out of surgery.  It was hard to believe that her room was so quiet when moments ago it was complete chaos.

The surgery was a success!  The doctor removed 3 inches or so of dead intestines.  One of the nurses said it was black and shriveled up and did not need to be in anyone's body.  Apparently, it looked pretty bad.  This is when Lynette was being reconnected to the equipment in her room after her surgery.

Two days after her surgery, she developed some type of skin infection.  As a result, anyone who enters the room has to put on gloves and an apron.  Depending on the day, sometimes we don't.  Sometimes the nurses say that parents aren't required to suit up.  Sometimes everyone is required to suit up.  

On March 1st, she opened her eyes!  She blinked because of the flash.  This is the day after her second surgery.  The second surgery was to create her stomas.  Basically, her intestines were brought through her abdomen wall.  Eventually, she'll have to wear a bag over these intestines coming out of her to catch her poop.  I'll try to get a picture.  It sounds worse than it looks.

Last night my baby girl FINALLY had a bath!!!  She was covered in flaky skin, covered in dried blood from her iv's, and had matted hair to top it all off.  It drove me NUTS to see her so dirty.  The nurses couldn't wipe her off because she was so critical.  When I made my nightly call to see how she was doing, the nurse told me that she gave Diva a bath.  Before we hung up, I already had a collection of bows packed for my visit today.  I was able to brush her hair and I took several photos of her with different bows.  It was wonderful and did my heart good!  When Lynette has a good day, I have a good day.  BTW, she's beginning to lose quite a bit of fluid thanks to a drug named lasix.  She is looking more beautiful everyday!  Thanks for the bow, Romy :o)

Saturday I had a heart to heart with missy here.  I told her that we are officially on a weight loss program.  Her job is to lose all of that excess fluid and my job is to lose my pregnancy weight.  First one to be the skinniest wins!