Gearing Up for the Game

Saela will by osmosis experience her first Michigan State University football game tomorrow 9/1/07. I'm sure Steve will be giving her all of the updates. He has confirmed that the game against UAB will be on ESPN2 and thus able to be viewed in the waiting area of the RNICU.

We continued to make gains today. Saela had her nasal cannula removed and she is breathing room air on her own. As you can see, we are down to one tube on her pretty little face. She was able to breastfeed one time today and she did pretty well - we can start out with breastfeeding trials once a day until her stamina improves. If she is not breathing too fast she can take the rest of her feedings by bottle. At six tonight, however, she was breathing a little too fast and therefore was fed through her tube. Perhaps we will be able to try again at 9 pm this evening. Saela's bilirubin level also decreased to a point where we could discontinue the bili lights.

GO STATE!

Highlights

We made more small steps today on our way to home. Saela had her CPAP removed and is now just on a nasal cannula. We are hopeful that that too will come off tomorrow. It will depend on how much reserve she has and how much she may or may not fatigue when she is doing all of the work of breathing on her own. She is currently on three antibiotics - two will finish on Saturday and the last one will be complete on Monday. Her spinal tap results looked good - so we are not needing to worry about infection in the cerebrospinal fluid (the fluid that bathes the brain and spinal cord.) Her other culture results are still pending. Depending on her bilirubin level - today may also be the last day under the bili lights.

The highlight of the day though was getting to hold her. Steve was able to hold his daughter for the very first time today - on her eighth day of life. He is a very proud Daddy. I was able to hold her for the first time since birth last evening - and that was amazing - no words to describe it - so I won't even try.

That's about it for today - forward progress - that's all we ask for.

Love,
the Greens

From Saela

Well, mom thought it was time that I introduced myself to the world. My name is Saela and I am one week old today. I had a lot of good things happen today. The biggest one was probably getting the tube out of my throat that was helping me breathe - my nurse and respiratory therapist helped me out with that around 10 am this morning. It sure felt good to get that out. My voice is still pretty hoarse but that should improve over the next few days. Mom thinks I sound like an old 2 pack a day smoker. I'll show her how loud I can be soon - you just wait and see. I am on a little support with my breathing with something called CPAP. (Adults use this when they have sleep apnea.) They have a lot of tape on my nose with two little prongs that are held in there. Unless I'm crying - I am doing really well keeping my oxygen saturations up on room air.

I also had three other tubes removed today. One was in my bladder (now people will have to change my diapers more often), another one was in my left arm, and the last one was in my umbilical cord. The nurse did have to put a regular IV into my right arm so I can still receive my antibiotics. I also have a tube in my mouth that goes into my stomach and I just got my first tube feed with my mom's milk. Hopefully I will tolerate that well and then they can feed me every three hours.

I did have a spinal tap today to look for infection in my spinal fluid. Everyone is hopeful that there is no infection. I will have a head CAT scan tomorrow just to make sure that everything looks okay. There is still some lab work pending that will hopefully help us to decide how long I have to be on antibiotics. I am a little jaundiced - so they have me under this bluish light to help with that. Hopefully since I am a big baby (compared to the other babies here) I won't be under the bili lights too long.

Well, my night nurse is getting ready to change my isolette and it looks like my mom is going to get to hold me while they are making the switch - I'm looking forward to that - I bet she is too.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers - I know they are making me feel better.

Love,
Saela

Peaceful

Saela was switched back to a traditional ventilator today which is progress in the right direction. We will work now on weaning her off of this ventilator. She will hopefully start tube feeding tomorrow (through a small tube that will go from her nose to her stomach) and then when she is off all respiratory support we will start breast/bottle feeding. Her length of stay in the hospital will depend on how well she feeds when she "wakes up" from all of this. She needs to be taking breastmilk from either the breast or the bottle and gaining weight before she can go home. She looks very peaceful today resting on her original ventilator. While they were preparing to change the ventilator, the top to her isolette was also raised so that Steve and I could be closer to her. It was so great to be able to kiss her little cheek. We took some more pictures today - soon we will try to figure out how to post them on this site. We cannot wait to see her without all of her extra technical support! I think we will all breathe a little easier when she is off the ventilator.

Thank you so much for your continued thoughts and prayers.

Slow and Steady

Saela has made slow but steady improvements today. Her oscillator settings have been decreased as has her sedating medication. With the decreased sedation she is moving her limbs much more which is so nice for us to be able to see and watch. She is also tolerating any changes in her treatment much better than she has in the past few days. She did have a blood transfusion today due to low hemoglobin but is otherwise maintaining herself off of the medications that have already been weaned. She still has some testing to go through in the next few days - but for now she is moving in the right direction. We hope that she stays the course.

Steve was able to visit with his parents today while they visited Saela. My mom was also here and has been helping to keep Jax and Jilly entertained in addition to making numerous trips to Target for us. I visited with the lactation consultant and she stated that I was going to be an over producer - this baby won't lose weight due to lack of supply that's for sure.

So far so good - going back in the evening is always a bit nerve racking - but she has had two good nights now and we hope that she continues to trend in that direction. Thanks again for all of the love, prayers, and support.

Random Thoughts

Over the last 24 hours Saela has continued to make slow but steady progress in the right direction. At one point she had her O2 weaned to 48% - but due to sensitivity to other treatment changes had to go to a higher percentage last evening. She is currently back at 50% and doing well at that number - the team will continue to try and wean her O2 percentage today. (Room air O2 is 21% for those that are interested.) She is off BOTH of the medications that were being used to support her blood pressure - so that is a fantastic step in the right direction. We have also started to wean her sedating medication. She is still very sensitive to change - so we are taking things slowly. For those with medical curiosity - her current working diagnoses include: pneumothorax (collapsed lung), pneumonia/pneumonitis, persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN) and hypotension (low blood pressure).

For the most part Steve and I are holding up well. This is not something that anyone ever imagines will happen to them. It's hard to believe that just one week ago everything was proceeding as it normally should and them bam - curve ball. We are very lucky to have such a vast amount of support from our friends and family. I think there are church congregations in greater than five states that are praying for us right now. Routine seems to help me (surprised?) - every couple of hours I need to pump breast milk and then use the restroom (for those that know me well - again not a surprise.) This small but essential task gives me something to do other than sit and watch numbers dance across a screen. It makes me feel somewhat useful - knowing that eventually she will use the milk I am providing.

Everyone always says - enjoy this period because 'they' grow up so fast. Thoughts like that run through my head and I try not to dwell on the fact that "this was not how it was supposed to be" - because God has a plan. He will see us through this in his own way and on his time.

What was envisioned is so drastically different from reality and yet this has now become our life for the time being. We get up and we go to the hospital. We spend the day with our daughter watching her through her little cocoon - longing for the moment that we get to hold her. I only briefly held her after she was born and Steve has yet to have that same opportunity. We see other parents for which this has also become their reality - one I'm sure for them was also unexpected. It's hard to even explain the feelings of loving this little person so much and feeling so helpless in her care.

My mom is here right now (a trip that was planned previous to the events that have occurred - coincidence - I think not) and has been a great help - especially with Jax & Jilly. At least this way they are not alone the entire day and evening. I think it's one thing to expect for them to take a seat on the back burner when a new child comes into the home and entirely another to be totally abandoned for days on end while we suddenly disappear. Jilly was pouting a little bit yesterday - but she seems to have rebounded nicely - nothing sharing a little apple with "mom" can't fix. Steve's parents and our friends have also been a great support over the last few days.

I hope to get this blog website out to all of you soon. The hospital library computers block me from using my e-mail and since the storm on Friday, I have been unable to use the Internet at home - therefore, unable pass along the web address. I have found that writing about this has been very therapeutic for me. It is also less emotionally taxing than trying to speak the same words out loud.

We anticipate the day when we can look at her without all of the extra equipment, hold her, or even just hear her cry - but we did get to hold her hand today and let her tiny fingers wrap around ours and for now that is enough.

With love,
Steve, Brenna, Saela, Jax & Jilly

Rough Night

Although Saela had a good day yesterday - she decided to give mom and dad a few gray hairs last night. (I did NOT have gray hair before this - rest assured - I will now!) When we returned to the hospital after a bout of severe weather that left our house without power, we were met with a child who decided she did not want to work harder than the ventilator to get O2 to her little body. She needed to be "bagged" in order to get her oxygen saturations to rise. She also required a second medication to keep her blood pressure adequate.

After a tense few hours, the decision was made to change to a different kind of ventilator called an oscillator which makes her little chest vibrate. That made an immediate difference in how she was responding to all of her other treatments. Steve and I were then able to at least get a little sleep.

After a quick run home for showers and change of clothes this morning (and some loving for Jax & Jilly) we returned to the hospital to see that Saela continued to do well on the new ventilator. The staff had been able to start weaning down her O2 as well as one of the medicines that was helping to keep her blood pressure adequate.

Saela continues to do well this afternoon. At this point they will start weaning both of the blood pressure medications and they have her oxygen requirement down to 66% from 100% less than 12 hours ago. We are cautiously optimistic that she has finally turned the corner and will continue making forward progress instead of one step forward and two steps back. She will be on IV antibiotics for 10 days - so she will be here until at least next weekend. It's amazing how fast you lose track of time when you are not on a schedule. I had to ask somebody what the day was today. I would have failed a mental status question that I am asking other people all of the time.

The staff here has been fantastic. I cannot say enough good things about them - especially the team that helped us through last night. I think that is about all for now. We hope everyone is having a nice weekend - we will keep you updated!

Thanks again for all of your love and support!

Saela Catherine Green

Let's just say, I'm new to this world of blogging. I am not even sure if I'll send out the web address - but thought I'd try it out and see how it goes.

Saela Catherine Green was born on 8-22-07 at 8:24 pm. She must have wanted to be a Leo like her mom because a few more hours and she would have been a Virgo. She weighed 7 # 1 oz and was 18 1/2 inches long. Saela has had quite an adventure for her first two days of life. After birth she began grunting which turned out to be caused by a partially collapsed right lung. The first attempt at reinflating her lung was unsuccessful. Due to how hard she was working just to breathe she was transferred to the Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (RNICU) at the hospital across town for more intensive monitoring and care.

Early the next morning Saela was intubated (a tube was put down her windpipe) to help ease her work of breathing. Throughout the day on 8/23 Saela's lungs seemed to improve and the staff was able to decrease her O2 concentration. However, at the same time she was becoming agitated by sights, sounds, and touch. Overnight, she had a fever (suspected pneumonia-for which she was receiving antibiotics) and her chest x-ray looked worse. Her O2 concentration was raised back to 100%. Her blood pressure was also dropping so she was given a blood transfusion and a medicine to keep her blood pressure elevated.

Today, 8/24, seems to be a better day for Saela. She had a catheter put into her bladder and it turned out she was making urine - she just wasn't able to get it out - so that eased our minds a bit regarding her kidney function. Her temperature is slowly coming down and she is tolerating external stimuli much better than yesterday. I was able to meet her neonatal intensivist for the first time today and he said she looked much better than he had anticipated after the night's events. He was very optimistic, informative, and reassuring. He has started to wean the medicine that is being used to decrease her oversensitivity to stimuli. If he can successfully put in a special catheter that monitors her blood, he will also try to wean her from the ventilator.

As for Steve and I, we are hanging in there. We have had little sleep since Monday night as my water broke at 11:05 pm on Tuesday, August 21st (I highly recommend a H2O proof mattress as a precautionary measure for anyone having kids). This is not something we nor probably most parents that are in any NICU ever anticipated. We are eternally grateful for all of the love, support, and prayers that have been extended to us by our family and friends.

Being on the other side of the fence so to speak has been an eye-opener for me - but perhaps I'll leave that blog for another day.

Thank you again for all of your love and support.

Love,
Steve, Brenna, Saela, Jax & Jilly