Heidi-Rae: NICU Day 7 & HOME!

I got to the hospital at 9am today. I wanted to spend as much time with my girl as I could. She nursed so well for her 9am feeding! I found out that her last antibiotic was at 1pm! I thought it was 11pm and the earliest we would be able to go home was thursday morning! However, upon talking to the Nurse Practitioner, she told me after Heidi's 1pm antibiotic, she could go HOME!

Oh my goodness, I was so relieved!! I stayed for her 12pm feeding and headed home to clean and pick Bobby and the 4Runner up! We couldn't drive the baby home in the TRUCK!

It was such a great day! The kids were elated to meet "Their baby."Thank you Ruwe's and small group for taking care of the kids while we picked up our baby girl!

April 2014 Update

Jeremy is so sweet to his sisters! He like to turn all the lights off, only using the battery powered candles, and go on her hunts. He takes his dart gun and finds the teddy bears we hide. He likes to be buried in pillow forts while he sleeps. He loves to sing along, loud, to courageous. He has made the word "spiny", pronounced sip-pin-ee, up. We can

T figure out what it means but he has attached it to a pole on the trampoline and a bridge. .. . More info on that when we figure it out!

Most often you will find Capri outside in her boots, tutu, and a necklace, digging in the mud or playground in the chicken food with Jeremy! She is the perfect combination of girly and get dirty! She has a Mama sense with babies, especially her sister. She loves to give Eskimo kisses which she calls, "noses." She has learned her colors, favorite being blue. We have moved her to a toddler bed and chair at the table! 

Introducing the newest addition! After 10 weeks of bed rest, labor stopping 5 times, 6 hours of active labor, 20 minutes of pushing,  and 7 days in the NICU. . . our precious Heidi-Rae has joined our family!

Heidi-Rae: NICU Day 5 & 6

Day 5

I have excellent news today! Heidi is breathing all on her own! Not even being assisted with oxygen! She is also eating on her own! She is not receiving IV fluids, she is only drinking Mama's milk! We nursed a few times today! Not ALL of her feeding but a good amount. She is required to eat 51cc (About 1.5oz) of milk, she is nursing about 30cc. Thank you God for hearing our prayers! She only has one IV for her antibiotics! If she keeps her feedings up and continues gaining weight we just may be able to bring her home Thursday! Yea!

She has stolen my heart!

I got to give her a bath tonight! 

Precious girl!

Haha! I love to watch all her faces! 

Family Update:
The kids are having a hard time! I usually go to the hospital around 9am, stay all day and come home after dinner. I spend the evening with the kids and put them to bed. Today, I stayed home through lunch, put them down for nap and came home late. Capri want me to hold her all morning, cried when I put her down. Jeremy and I took a trip to Target. It was so nice to have time with just him. We talked the whole way there. When it was nap time, Jeremy had a really hard time. he cried and cried. He said he didn't want me to leave and he doesn't want to share me with the baby. It breaks my heart. I know the best place for me right now is with Heidi-Rae but it's so hard to leave them crying.

Day 6

Daddy came to visit today!! Thank you Moerer family for watching Jerermy and Capri so he could come have some bonding time with Heidi. We went out to dinner during shift change. It was much needed time together! 

We picked them up kinda late!
Look how cute they are!! 

Nothing but good reports for this little girl! She continues to eat well and gain weight! She finished her antibiotics Wednesday around 11pm. They are talking about sending her home late Wednesday night or Thursday morning!! YEA!! The light is SO bright at the end of the tunnel! We are struggling nursing a little. She is a lazy eater! Even with the bottle. She would rather sleep, which is an issue with premies. Although she is borderline premie, she bass that characteristic. At this point, I'm letting her be lazy and not want to latch. I'm letting her take the easy way out and giving her the bottle, so we can go home. When we get there, I will work with her on latching. The good news it, I am pumping enough to sustain her feedings. In fact, they said I can start freezing what I pump at home because they have so much in their fridge!

 I just fall more in love with her every day! 

He is falling in love with her too! 

I can't thank everyone enough for all the support, love, prayers, meals, help with the kids, sweet texts and phone calls. It's amazing to have such a great support system! Thank you!! 

XOXO

Heidi-Rae NICU: Day 4

Well, hello pretty girl!
Mommy loves to see your eyes open!
I feel like I actually get to see what she looks like.
She has some swelling from the CPAP mask.
I'm excited to see what she looks like tomorrow! 

We have made HUGE steps today! I got to the hospital at 12pm, Heidi was still on the CPAP. She had drank ALL the milk I left. They are slowly weening her off the IV fluid that was keeping her belly full the past few days. While I was there today, she continued to take the bottle of pumped milk and breathe! They took the CPAP off around 2pm and replaced it with a nasal cannula.
The difference: The CPAP forces positive pressure humidified air into her lungs, the nasal cannula is a cons tad flow of supplemental oxygen, so that when she breathes in she gets clean air. The CPAP was forcing her to breathe, the NC just increases the amour of oxygen she is breathing!

The Nurse Practitioner was excited to see her improvement today. She said she thinks she will be off the NC by tomorrow and breathing room air. Also, if she continues to improve as well as she is and continues to eat well, "There is no reason she can't go home after her antibiotics are finished." That means WEDNESDAY! That is only 3 days away! Now, I'm not getting my hopes too high. I want to be open to the possibility that she may need a few more days. But it's nice to hear the NP so hopeful!

Snug as a bug in a rug!

Thank you for continuing to pray for our sweet girl!! 

Bobby sent me this picture while I was at the hospital:
#SAHD

A dear friend set up a meal plan for us! Here is the link:
http://www.takethemameal.com/meals.php?t=MMWZ6089&welcome=1

Mommy's off bedrest. . . Let's play!

Bobby's grandparents came over to take us to dinner! How sweet of them!
We went to CPK and Coldstone!
The kids loved being out of the house.

We went on a walk! Jeremy loved riding his John Deere bike.
Capri sang and talked to us in the stroller! 

Heidi-Rae: NICU Day 3

Beautiful eyes!

Our day went from ok, sorta showing improvement to HUGE improvements!
Beginning of the day: She's still on cpap at 28%. Her white blood count is a little lower. She's looking jaundice, they are watching, it's not billi light worthy at this point. Since, they haven't been able to wean her off the CPAP they still don't want her to nurse because they are worried about taking milk in her lungs. So, I'll keep pumping and storing. We give her milk on a cotton swab to moisten her lips and let her taste it in her mouth. She was also moved to a "big girl" bed because she doesn't need her temperature regulated.

Then by her 3pm feeding. . . They said, "Ok, go ahead and try to nurse as long as her breathing stays below 80." SHE LATCHED!!!! Only a few times and she probably only got a few drops. But, that's HUGE progress! She also drank about 3cc from a bottle. After her feeding and skin to skin we were able to turn her CPAP off to manual, meaning she can pull from it when she wants. She did very well! 
At her 6pm feeding, she wasn't interested in latching. BUT she drank 10cc from a bottle! What a great day! Gigi Came to visit today! I love the picture below where she got her little fingers inner mouth!

Whoever said, "Don't cry over spilled milk." was obviously NOT a breastfeeding mom with a baby in the NICU!
EVERY drop counts! Yes, I did cry! yes it was 3am! yes I am exhausted. No, I don't feel bad! 

I took a video of Heidi's breathing. Her chest is sinking in too much.

Thank you so much for your prayers! A dear friend set up a meal plan for us! 

Heidi Rae: NICU Day 2

Daddy talking to his girl! He did snuggle with her today but I didn't get a picture! Darn!

We got confirmation that Heidi-Rae has pneumonia based on her blood tests and chest X-ray. That means, at least, 7 days in the hospital. They will re-evualuate each day.

We still have not been able to try to nurse. With the CPAP machine they are worried she will aspirate milk. They moved her to a level 4, which is not much higher then a nasal canulla. If she tolerates it well, tomorrow they will take the machine off and switch to a nasal canulla, a clear tube in her nose that only gives her oxygen. And she will be able to nurse. In the meantime, pumping has picked up a scooch. Iam  filling the very bottom of the bottle, in my 20 minute, every 3 hour pump sessions. Every drop counts. Did you know my milk is making specific antibodies HER body needs to fight whatever she has going on?? God truely is amazing! I started taking fenugreek and blessed thistle to help increase my supply. I want to be ahead of the game. I asked the nurse to put in her chart that I don't want her to recieve ANY formula. So, When the time comes to start feeding her, if there isn't enough of my pumped milk, they will supplement with IV fluids. She is getting fluids through her IV right now, they are called TPN and. . . Oh no I forgot the other one. . . It's to help her keep weight on. This evening at 9pm she weighted 6lb, 6oz. It's normal for newborns to lose 10% of her body weight! We'll keep an eye to make sure she doesn't loose more then 10%.

Look at that tiny foot!

I was discharged today. There is something about leaving your baby at the hospital that isn't right. Babies and mommies belong together. The feeling is all too real, remembering Jeremy's 15 day hospital stay. But, I have to find rest and peace in that Heidi-Rae is in the BEST neonatal hospital we could ask for. That's why we choose to deliver at Loma Linda, in case something goes wrong. God is watching her and there are SO many people praying for her!

That being said, I came home to two bouncy, loving enterjetic children! They were so happy to see us! Thanks mom for taking such good care of them the past few days. They needed some time with us. I decided to stay home for the evening, have dinner and put them to bed. I'll go to see Heidi in the morning. A good night's rest, in my bed should do me good!

I'll be up early to go see my little girl and get in some good skin to skin time! 

It took us so long to figure out a name! And . . . we crossed it out a few times! But, we are so happy with our final decision! 

Heidi Rae: NICU Day 1

After spending 24 hours with our tiny angel, We have finally chosen a name:

Heidi-Rae Lauren Martens

As of today, her struggles are:

1. Transient Tachypnia of New Born TTNB: transient means that it comes and goes. Tachypnia means rapid breathing. A new norm respiratory rate should be 40-60 per minute, Heidi Rae is breathing 80+, and sometimes over 100 per minute.

2. Pulse rate is normal, but her oxygen saturation dips when her respiratory rate slows below 60.  Normal oxygen saturation is 99-100%, low saturation starts at 95% and goes down to 90%; any thing below that is cause for alarm and intervention (which usually consists of repositioning or increase the oxygen concentration for her. She is on a CPAP ( continuous positive air pressure) device that assists her in taking full breaths by blowing humidified, oxygenated, and lightly pressured air directly into her airway through her nose. She has an OG tube (oral gastric) that is taped to her chin. It runs down her Esophagus to the stomach to relive any bubble that might form in her stomach from the CPAP. 

3. Her white blood cell count is slightly elevated which gives rise to the suspicion of an infection. She has been on antibiotics since hour 2 and they will continue until hour 48. 

4. She has had chest X-rays every 12 hours to monitor the progress of the "foggy lungs", which they are concerned is pneumonia. 

Oddly, she is 24 hours old and hasn't eaten yet, the Staff thinks she cannot breath adequately to nurse without choking or de-satting (Oxygen saturation drop). We will find out if we will feed her by OG Tube soon. Kikis milk is coming in slowly as expected. Mommy and Heidi got to sit skin-to-skin today for 3 hours. Kiki couldn't have been happier. 

Jeremy and Capri came for a visit. They had a blast! Pushed around in a wheelchair, ate lunch with us, we bought them fun books as "big siblings" gifts, ate ice chips AND they got to video chat with the baby. 

Video chat and eating ice balls!

Going for a walk. . .Well, KiKi kinda waddled! 

Thank you Zia for the CUTE shirts!

 I'm sorry we can't respond to each text and phone call right now. We will keep you posted as we can on Facebook and here. Thank you everybody for your prayers!