3 out of 5!

So there are 5 main areas that Jaycie needs to overcome in order to come home.

-Breath on own... Check

-Steady Weight Gain... Check

-Regulate Temp... Check

-No Heart Issues

-Learn to take all feeds orally

As you can see, she has 3 out of 5 done. She went into a "BIG GIRL" bed today. Its a 3 foot open crib. She look so tiny in it.

She is still having her little heart issues, and they are considering an echo again.

She is much to sleepy really to even attempt her feeds orally. She sleeps most the day. We will continue to give her, her food through her NG and let her get her sleep and GROW! Growth is Brain Growth too!

Here she is in her BIG GIRL BED

4lbs Butterball

OH kay so she isnt a butterball JUST yet. But we are on our way! Shes doing well. I asked the NNP about the caffiene and why we are always having to up it and when will she be weaned off of it. She said the more she weighs the more caffiene we have to give her. At about 34-36 weeks gestation they will just stop caffiene and she will either sink or float sorta speak.

She is starting to get a stronger suck on her binki so they mentioned starting her on oral feeds as soon as next week.

We are very Thankful for her...

Jaycie is doing well. She is 3lbs and 15oz. ALMOST 4lbs! YAY!

Yesterday she had 7 heart episodes, one of which was pretty long and the nurses needed to get in there and help her "get it going" again. Today she had 2 episodes, one which she got out of herself and the other the nurses needed to help again. Im hoping these heart issues go away soon.

Her feeding is going well. When its time to eat she is very alert and acting hungry and wanting to suck. These are good signs that she will be ready to take some of her feedings by mouth soon!

She has a diaper rash approching (I can do diaper rash... thats easy compared to heart issues) Hopefully the nurses lather her up very well when Im not there!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!
Kristina

BeBe Girl

Jaycie is doing well. She is still having a few heart issues with it dropping. She is able to pick it back up. They are going to up her caffeine. She is currently at 34cc's a feed but they want to up it to 38cc's (30cc's is an ounce).

Alexis was able to come up with me yesterday and HOLD Jaycie. You can imagine her excitement. Alexis got a little teary eyed when it was time to leave and didnt want to leave Jaycie there by herself. I told her the nurses were taking good care of her and they wanted Jaycie to get stronger before she came home. I dont think Alexis liked that answer.

Daddy was able to come up with me today and HOG HOLD Jaycie. He fell in love. He also wanted to sneak her out, but agreed that it would be best to keep her there until she is eating and stops having heart issues.

Its really hard leaving this everyday. Walking out of that hospital empty handed everyday is something that wont ever come easy Im sure. I cant wait until I can bring her home and I wont need permission to touch/hold/change/snuggle/nurse/kiss her.

Cant you just fall in love?

Leaps and Bounds!

Jaycie gained another 40grams and is now at her birth weight again. 3lbs 13oz. She is doing great. The doctors decided there was no reason to do an echo right now since her past 4 rounds there was no murmur heard. They arent going to worry about an ultrasound of the head because she is showing NO signs of a brain bleed.

She got her first bath last night. I wasnt there, BUT NICU got pictures for me. We are able to leave a disposable camera with her name on it, in her isolette so they can capture special moments when mommy cant be there. She is no longer on a temp monitor and maintains her own heat. She has done this all night EVEN after a bath. They are talking about moving her into an open bed! YAY!!

She is still tolerating her feeds well and she got to "nurse" a bit last night. She was nice and alert and after 3min of REAL nursing she was getting tired, and after an additional 4 min of kinda playing she was sound asleep. So... she does have some work to do on feeds, but thats all to come.

Daddy is going in today and he is going to hold her for the first time. Ill be sure to post pictures of that this evening!

Thank you for all your prayers and support. You guys are all so special to us to be praying for our little girl. Thank you!

Shes come a long way in a week...

This as when she was on C-Pap

Less lines...

My excitement for the day? JAYCIE GOT HER IV OUT! She is no longer getting TPN (nutrition) threw IV. She takes all her feedings (breastmilk) threw her NG (tube threw her nose)! YAY! So as long as she doesnt get an infection or other set backs that would require an IV, shes done for good on that!

She gained some weight 70g, so she is about 3lbs 11oz again. GO BABY GIRL!

Yesterday she only had two heart drops and they only went to the 80's, rather than the 40's she was doing before. Today her "TEAM" is going to decide if they are going to do an ultrasound of the head to check for bleeds and her heart for her murmur.

Otherwise she is just doing great. She is sucking her binki better now. Once she can suck it and keep it in her mouth, and NOT drop any heart rates or sats. They will let her try to go to the breast for non-nutritive sucking. Which will be sucking and getting no milk (we have to coordinate a suck before we throw in her learning to swallow (we all take it for granted, sucking, breathing, swallowing, all at once)

Happy 1 week old Jaycie

Late night visit.

Jaycie is just doing so good. I went to see her last night (hence the late update about her) and she was wearing a little outfit. The nurse said she put clothes on her because she didnt want me to get upset about the new IV placement ( in her head). The one in her wrist started getting puffy earlier that day and she had it in her ankle all day until right before change of shift they switched it to her head. She loves having her hands free and all over her face!

She continues to do well on room air and her biliblanket is OFF! She still has bradycardia but comes out of it herself and never de-sats.



She is 3lbs 9oz. Her poor ribs you can see them. They are up-ing her feedings and lowering her IV intake. She didnt have a bowel movement for over 24hrs, so she needed to get a suppository. Yeah, she didnt like that much.



A video of her when I was holding her

All Aboard...

The roller coaster. So I called this morning and was on hold for over 15 min. The lady comes to the phone and says Jaycie's nurse is with a baby and if I could call back in 15 min. I call back. A Dr. gets on the phone (Now you can imagine how I felt when a DR gets on the phone rather than my babies nurse). She informed me that Jaycie is having some troubles at the moment and they are doing a chest x-ray. Jaycie kept having apnea episodes. They were going to draw more blood to see how her WBC count was and if an infection was brewing. They were going to up her SiPAP to more breaths a min. Up her Caffiene. I was so worried. The Dr said I could call back and get her x-ray results in about an hour and I could learn the game plan.

Well by the time I called back around 10am I was on my way to go see her. Between that time Jaycies x-ray looks GREAT! They took her off SiPAP because they think it was hitting a vega nerve and causing more apnea issues. The moved her feeding tube from her mouth back to her nose and a smaller tube in hopes that wouldnt be hitting the nerve either. They did up her caffiene and she was doing great. They upped her feedings to 6cc's ever 3 hours. YAY GO JAYCIE!

When I got there today I got to hold her. I love holding her! She is such a tiny little baby!
She is tolerating her feeds great! Her output is good!

***************
While I was there my Dr. called the NICU to inform them that my placenta indeed had an infection. The markers of where the infection was, were so high it could have been fatal to Jaycie. The infection causes are unknown. It could have been GBS, It could have been my bag of water had a tear and I didnt notice.
Good thing the MAG didnt stop the contractions. (Another blessing in discuise)

Thank you so much for following and praying for our baby! We appreciate it so much!
Kristy

2 steps forward, One step back.

Her team says to expect this type of trend. So when I got a call this morning letting me know that Jaycie had to be put on the SiPAP (which is constant air like the Cpap but then they added 10 breaths per min) because of her Apnea, I tried not to be discouraged.

She got a dose of caffiene to help with the apnea. She is also on a bili-blanket (my little glow worm) for jaundice. All in all she still looks good.

When I went to visit her today I didnt get to hold her. They said she wasnt stable enough just because of the apnea. Her goals are to loose the SiPAP by tomorrow morning and be just on CPAP.

Second Day

Today was another good day. Jaycie got her MBR (to check for jaundice) checked and it was 6.9. She is in the clear for now. Her Calcium was a little low and that could be causing the "BRADY EPISODES with her heart" So, she recieved some calcium and is recovering from her episodes herself rather than using nurses for intervention.


I got to hold my baby girl today for the first time. I held her for about 1 1/2 hours and it was PURE LOVE. Holding her, Feeling her, Kissing her. She was all snuggled up doing kangarooing (which is skin to skin contact). Oh my heart melted, I loved it.



Jaycie had a visitor today. Alexis. Alexis came to see her and we prepared her for what she would see. Alexis did AWESOME. She asked questions like...

Q: Whats on her face?
A: oh that helps her breathe, you know how you do breathing treatments and that helps you breathe.

Q: whats the sticker on her heart?
A: Its like a thermometer... this wire is attached here and her temp shows here.

She got to touch her head, She was facinated with her pacifier. When Jaycie started crying for a second Alexis asked if she was alright and I said yeah grab her hand and she grabbed her hand and Jaycie stopped crying. Alexis was proud of herself because she "FIXED" her.

I was discharged from the hospital tonight at about 0630pm. By 9pm I called up the NICU to check up on her and they told me she was doing fine and I started to tear up. I stopped myself because I know she is in good hands and I know its the post partum hormones. Its hard being 55 miles away tho. But Ill be their to visit tomorrow.

2nd night in NICU

Well Jaycie had to get a nasal cannula for now. She keeps having episodes of Brady Cardia (where her heart rate goes down) and then she de-stats (where her Oxygen goes down). This happens when she crys. So they put 2l of O2 on her to see if that helps with the "episodes". Im getting discharged from the hospital today. So the fun begins of driving back and forth (55 miles one way). Im nervous to see how this is going to work out.

Look Mom

I can breath on my own 16 hours after being born!

Jaycie was weaned off ALL Oxygen today. NO Ventalator, NO C-pap, NO nasal cannula.

Her NICU team couldnt be MORE proud of her they said! She is doing awesome.

The tube coming out of her mouth allowed the air to come out of her belly from the c-pap that was pushing air in her nose/lungs. She got fed for the first time 2cc's threw that tube.

As long as she tolerates no O2 for awhile... the will eventually move a tube threw her nose (NG).

She is doing awesome and I beleive its all the prayer she has behind her!

Vent OFF!

Jaycie was weaned off her ventilator this morning at about 830. She is doing great! She is on C-pap at room air currently.

They are going to put her NG tube in and give her 2cc's of milk (hopefully my milk, if not we will use donor milk) at about 3 this afternoon.

They said as long as she stays off the vent, I can try to hold her for a little bit and see if she tolerates it!

Jaycie with her new gear

Jaycies' First Night in NICU

As of 5am she is now on 26% on the vent. 20% is room air, so she will be weaned off once she can get down that low.

She had a little problem with blood sugars but are now stable and in the 80's

She remains laying on her right side with her hand all on her face.

I got to see and touch her at about 1:45am. She is a cutie!

She is getting antibiotics in her right arm.

No Poop or Pee yet. SOON HOPEFULLY!

ETA: She has had 3 wet diapers now! Kidneys are good! Waiting on a BM!

Jaycies Birth Story

On Monday Nov 17th, I was trying to take a nap with the kids. I was getting in frequent contractions and I remember saying "Jaycie Im laying on my left side come on". By 1:30pm I decided to make a call into the Nurses line. Contractions were 8-10 min apart. After waiting for a little bit to call I decided I just didnt feel right. I took my kids to Aunt Dawns and started driving (it is now 2pm). While in the car the nurse called my cell phone and told me to go to triage (I was already on my way). I couldnt get ahold of Matt as he was away from his store in a meeting. I drove and drove, threw the painful contractions. I got to the hospital at 315pm. I waitied in the waiting room while my contractions grew stronger and were not even 2 min apart. Finally at about 0430 they called me back. Before getting Dr. Orders they checked my cervix 4cm, tried to start an IV (3 times then on the 4th time an anesthesiologist got it). Started Fluids. They couldnt get ahold of a Dr in my practice... then finally, got ahold of A DR. I got a shot of terbutaline, and got my vitals checked. My Heart rate was 140-150 BEFORE the terb hit me... SO they worried. I was put on o2 to see if that would lower it. I was placed on Mag to stop contractions, I was placed on the highest dose possible. I was in PAIN! Contractions would not stop.... They checked my cervix at about 5pm and I was a 5 and 90% effaced. They got my blood test results back and my white count was 26 (VERY HIGH). I was placed on antibiotics because I didnt test for GBS yet. They were HOPING for the best, but expecting the worse. I got a U/S and saw she was head down. I had a NICU consult and was told what to expect from my baby. I recieved my first steriod shot in my hip... HOPING Id be able to get a second at 5pm on Tuesday and lasting until at least wed 5pm. I was placed in a Laboring Room/Ante Room. at 8pm I was 6cm and 100% and they knew there was no stopping these contractions. I got an epidural and it was LOVE. I was still on meds to slow stuff down. By 11:15 my water broke, I was 9cm. By 11:20 I felt an urge to push. They called my Dr. They called the NICU. My Dr was too late. Another Dr in the hall came and looked at me and said it was time. She gowned up and said DONT PUSH. I wasnt... Jaycie was coming out with the contractions. She held her head to come slow and I sat up and got to watch her be born. No Pushing involved.
Jaycie was Born at 11:31pm 11-17-08 3lbs 13oz. 17.2 inches long. Her apgars were 3 the first min and 7 the 5th min. I never heard her cry. They bagged her and were breathing for her. I know shes going to be a fighter. She has to be!!
- Matt showed up at about 5:30pm
- My Mother showed up at about 8:30pm
- Dawn showed up at about 9:30pm
-My placenta had clots in it where it looked like it was tearing away and that COULD have been the possible infection.
Ill post more as I get it.