Day 8, 10.28.08

HAPPY 1 WEEK BIRTHDAY!

Little Evelyn keeps gaining weight, and some very encouraging news today was that they did an ultrasound of her head this morning to check for any bleeding and everything came back clear. So that is great news!!! Bleeding on the brain and infection are two of the biggest obstacles for her right now and so far, so good. The only set back, and it's not much of a set back, is that Evelyn is back on the CPAP machine to help her breathe. She is still on just 21% oxygen, but just needed more of a reminder to keep breathing and keep her heartrate up. The nurses and doctors are not surprised or worried that she's back on the CPAP, but of course it makes mom and dad a little sad.

Roger helped give Evelyn her first bath today. She did not enjoy it, but it was kind of fun to hear her little cry.

The best part of today (for Colette, anyway) was that Colette got to hold her for the first time today. They call it kangaroo care because they put the baby skin-to-skin with whoever is holding her. She is so tiny! Her head is about the size of an orange.

Day 7, 10.27.08

Today was another great day for Evelyn, although she did lose some weight today. They say this is still okay and normal and are not concerned. They will be increasing her feedings again tonight to 13 cc's/3 hrs. Roger got to feed Evelyn today! You can see from the picture below that what this involves is basically holding the milk filled syringe so it can flow into her tummy.

She is getting her first bath tomorrow, so as long as that doesn't tire her out too much, we should be able to hold her for the first time. Can't wait! Also, some people have been asking if Rebecca and Chloe have seen Evelyn yet. Yes, they have. Rebecca can come in and visit with us whenever she/we want. We just have to certify that she doesn't have the sniffles or a cough, then a nurse has to take her temperature each time. Chloe also has to do the same thing, but she can only visit once a month. The only other restriction is when it is RSV season and then the hospital is closed to all kids. Of course, Roger and I prefer to go without the kids because they don't really want to hang out and be quiet and not touch anything for longer than say, 2 seconds. So those of you in town, we'll probably be asking for a lot of babysitting over the next few weeks/months! ;-)

Day 6, Oct. 26

Evelyn is no longer under light therapy because her bilirubin levels are in the normal range. They will retest in a couple days to make sure that level isn't going back up. She is also eating a lot more than we had originally thought. Today, she is receiving 7 cc's every 3 hours and that will go up tonight to 10 cc's every 3 hours (10 cc = 1/3 ounce). Of course, this still is not a lot of food, but much more than the 1 cc she was getting a couple days ago. The schedule is to continue increasing her feeds by 3 cc's every day and see how she tolerates it. She also gained weight since yesterday, up another 10 grams. She now weighs 970 grams. This is still less than her birth weight of 1020 grams, but she's gaining as expected.

Here's Colette holding her hand.

We got to see another diaper change and feeding today. Right now, they are only changing her diaper every 6 hours so as not to stimulate her too much. By next week, they'll likely start changing her diaper every 3 hours. Next Tuesday is also a big day because she will be 1 week old and will get her first bath!

The first few days (Oct 21 - 25)

Evelyn's birth day was all about survival. She came out crying and never had to be resuscitated or put on a ventilator. All good things! She was immediately taken down the hall to Phoenix Children's Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and hooked up to a bunch of different tubes, machines, etc. She had surfactant put in her lungs to help keep her lungs open and start to function. She was put on a CPAP machine which keeps positive pressure in her lungs so the tiny air sacs do not collapse. Amazingly, they were able to give her just 21% oxygen (the same oxygen level we breathe) nearly from the beginning. She was also on an IV to give her the other calories, minerals, fats, etc that she needs to survive. Her left eye is still fused shut, but the nurses say that is perfectly normal and will likely open in the next couple days.


By Day 2, Evelyn was taken off the CPAP machine and only needed the nasal cannula (those little tubes that go in her nose). Pretty amazing for such a little girl. They also started Evelyn on regular feedings. Now for her, that means just 1 cc every 3 hours. That's basically a thimble full of milk, but for her, that's a big deal. She did drop down to 2 lbs 1 oz today, but that is to be expected and actually helps her body adjust to the outside world. Roger was also able to see her diaper changed today.

Day 3. So far there are no signs of infection, which is a major concern for her at this point, and they've only had to occasionally remind her to breathe. I know that sounds strange, but we're pretty excited about that! The new thing for today is that they started her on light therapy for her jaundice. This is very typical for preemies and she seems to be responding well. Evelyn is showing her strength already. When she is on her stomach, she will often stretch her legs so that her whole body comes off the bed.

Day 4. She gained some weight today, which is great news. She also opened her left eye today, just as the nurses predicted. And today, Colette got to see a diaper change. What's so funny is that instead of a typical wipe, they use a damp cotton ball and a saline wipe. Everything is so small!








Day 5 showed more improvement. They lowered the humidity level in her incubator and are going to increase her feedings tonight. They would like to see Evelyn gain 0.5 oz/day, on average, which equals 15 grams/day. They also increased her oxygen flow from 1.5 liters to 2 liters. This is still amazing for such a little baby. When they first took her off the CPAP, she was getting 4 liters of oxygen, but because she's been doing so well, they decrease it down to just what she needs. Since being on 2 liters, Evelyn hasn't had to be reminded to breathe. She's maintaining it all on her own. She also gained 5 grams today. It's amazing to be thinking of her weight in grams instead of pounds.

Birth Story

On Tuesday, October 21st, at exactly 27 weeks, the doctors decided it was time to deliver for the health of mom and baby (we never found out if we were having a boy or girl - we wanted it to be a surprise!). After a frantic rush to the hospital, Roger made it to Colette's side just in time.

Everything started happening really fast. The nurses started preparing Colette for a "normal" c-section and kept checking the baby's heart rate. The NICU doctors also came in to discuss all the different possibilities that might happen because our baby was being born so early. As they continued preparing Colette for the c-section, the baby started to show signs of distress, so it went from a fairly rushed c-section to a true emergency c-section. They started rolling Colette down the hallway and were still considering giving Colette a spinal so she could be awake during the procedure, but the last thing Colette remembers hearing is the doctors yelling "She's crashing" and then being put right to sleep.

Roger was waiting in the hallway to be let into the operating room, but also remembers them yelling "She's crashing and she's 26 weeks!" and seeing about a dozen more people rush into the operating room while he was left in the hallway.

Less than 10 minutes later a doctor finally came out and spoke with Roger. She started by saying "She cried when she came out, which is a really good sign." Roger's first reaction was "It's a girl?" Roger then went with our precious new baby girl to the NICU as they continued their evaluation.

Evelyn was born at just 2 lbs 4 oz. They don't measure the baby's length this early because it's too much for them to try and stretch them out just to get a measurement, but we later got one of Evelyn's nurses to guess she was about 14 inches. Besides crying right away at her birth, another amazing thing we were impressed by were Evelyn's Apgar scores of 8 and 9. She is truly a gift from God.

How we got here...

This is our first attempt at a blog, so here goes nothing! We decided to create this blog to help keep our family and friends up-to-date with all that's happening with our precious little Evelyn Marie. It's hard to remember what we've told people, so I guess I'll just start at the beginning...

Evelyn's had a rough start right from the beginning, but she's also shown us that she's a fighter. Even before she was born. It all started when Colette was just 14 weeks pregnant and started spotting. Colette went to her doctor several times to see what was going on, and each time, the doctors would look and listen to the baby and say that everything looks fine. This continued until around 18 weeks when the spotting Colette had been experiencing got worse and turned into bleeding. After two trips to the ER fearing the worse, Colette was finally diagnosed with a placental abruption.

Colette was then transferred to a high-risk OB/GYN practice called Phoenix Perinatal Associates (PPA). I only mention them because everyone that works there has been nothing but fantastic! We couldn't have asked for better care. Our first visit with PPA, Colette was put on bedrest at home and had weekly doctor visits with ultrasounds at nearly every visit to check on the baby and see how the abruption was healing or if it was growing. Each visit was encouraging. The baby continued to grow and the abruption was showing signs of improvement. We were getting hopeful that this might resolve itself and life would go on as normal.

After nearly 9 weeks of bedrest at home, Colette's symptoms suddenly got worse, so we were told to go to Banner Good Samaritan Hospital to be evaluated. Colette was just 26 1/2 weeks and was told that she would have to go on bedrest at the hospital until the abruption resolved itself, or the baby was born, whichever came first. So we packed up and settled into the hospital expecting a long stay. Colette was setup with lots of books, magazines, movies, etc. In the early morning hours of Tuesday, October 21st, after just 5 days in the hospital, Colette started having contractions that couldn't be stopped.