These two are late :)
day of life 12
day of life 13
8/17
Today I weighed: 486 grams or 1 pound 1.1 oz
Visitors today:
Grandma Hulsebus
Aunt Tara
I had a pretty good day today. I had a platelet transfusion, and my feeding went up again, but other than that, it was a pretty quiet day with my Grandma Hulsebus! The doctors identified the infection that I have and we are treating it so we should see some response to the antibiotics in 24-48 hours. I will be on two types of antibiotics for 7-14 days. I also got my UAC line out (the line in my umbilical cord where I was having my blood drawn for all of my labs... this means now for labs I will have to have heel sticks :( They poke my tiny foot with a super tiny lance and squeeze until they get enough blood to test for what they need to. I also had to have blood drawn from one of my tiny veins tonight for a blood culture. They will take my blood and test for any lingering bacteria or infections that we haven't identified yet. That was no fun... I had to be poked 5 times before we found a vein large enough to thread, that would produce enough blood (1cc) for the culture. I tolerated it better than Mommy (she cried because I made my little sad face and was trying to cry) but she held my hand and waited for them to finish up... I think I still got over it faster than she did :)
8/18
Today I weighed: 494 grams or 1 pound 1.4 oz
Visitors today:
Grandma & Grandpa Benjamin
Mark, Leslie, Lauren, & Grace Hulsebus
Bill & Joyce Meirotto
Ryan Nunez
Overall, I was very stable today. My oxygen needs were a little higher than we would like to see (70's most of the day) but with a few vent changes, and some TLC from Daddy, Mommy, and Myrna I had a pretty quiet day. The antibiotics seem to be doing a nice job of attacking the infections in my blood and so far my last blood culture has not grown anything. Meaning, the antibiotics are starting to take effect :)
day of life 17... Momma I'll hold your ring for you :)
My tiny hand in Mommy's
Grandpa Benjamin helping Myrna change my plastic wrap :)
Grandma & Grandpa Benjamin showed up with this! What the picture doesn't show is how HUGE this gift basket from everyone at Lee County Bank and Trust is!! Cannot thank you all enough, my Grandma Benjamin has been with the bank over 15 years so most of you have watched my Mom grow up, listened to tons of "Emily stories" (only good ones I'm sure :) and now will be able to watch me get big and strong. Mom, Dad, and I are extremely honored by your generosity! Thank you all so much, for the gift basket, gift cards, and all of your thoughts and prayers.
EVERYONE in the community has been so supportive, and so generous with cards, flowers, gift baskets, gift cards, etc. We simply cannot thank you all enough and if its not too greedy to ask; keep praying for me!
Xoxo,
Reagan
Grandma and Grandpa Benjamin telling me that I can keep my pony at their house :)
Grandma making faces at me
My nurse Myrna put some medicine (smells like bananas... tastes not so good) in my mouth... I promptly spit it out and blew bubbles with it :)
8/19
Today I weighed: 484 grams or 1 pound 1 oz
I had a crappy morning! I had been getting progressively worse with my oxygen saturation and at 3AM I had to have my oxygen turned up to 100%. Maria called Mommy and she came upstairs right away. She called Daddy on the way and he was ready to hop in the car and get here too but Mom said to wait until she got to me to see what was going on. I was not a happy camper... My left lung was somewhat collapsed so Maria, my nurse turned me on my right side to try and encourage the left lung to re-inflate. I was not happy about laying on my side so even though it was the best thing for me, I began to fight back. I tried to breathe over my ventilator and my saturation levels were still very low. I started to turn red... then a little blueish. Once they turned me back on my back I started to do a little better, likely my lung had re-inflated somewhat, but I was still irritated and still fighting with my vent. So at 4:30AM the nurse practitioner ordered a mild sedative to help me relax and let the vent do its job. I relaxed immediately and my oxygen was down to about 78% by 7AM.
...but I wasn't done making everyone nervous yet! Around 8:30 AM I decided to throw another fit. I had the doctor, my nurse, and the respiratory therapist in the room, I had to be bagged for a few minutes to get my O2 Saturation back up. Then Dr. Colayzi made some vent changes, Dawn from respiratory re-taped my breathing tube, then Kim from Resp. re-taped me again after x-ray showed the tube was still high. FINALLY I decided it was time to relax a little. Throughout the afternoon I got progressively better! I got my oxygen level down as low as 46% and finally settled on it being about 55%. I decided I owed poor Maria (and Mom & Dad) a good night and I behaved like a champ for her shift from 7PM to 7AM 8/20, keeping my oxygen at about 55% all night.
Dr. Colayzi says we were far from out of options. Lung collapse is very common in babies my size and it is not an irreversible
condition. She said we may consider steroid shots within the next 7-10 days to help my lungs out a bit more but we would like to hold out for as long as possible. Steroids can cause developmental challenges and most importantly they would like to do as few doses and as small of a dosage as possible for me as they can cause some dependency. As long as I can keep my oxygen requirements in the 40-60s range, we can hold off on the steroids so I have a goal to work on now :)
It was a rocky night, hectic morning, and a long day for little me, for Mommy and for Daddy but I have finally settled down... and really, what kind of baby would I be if I didn't keep my mom and dad up all night at least a time or two?
Visitors
Grandma & Grandpa Hulsebus
Great Grandma Jean
Uncle Jason & Aunt Jaime
Aunt Mari, Uncle Jurgen & my cousins Blake & Zane
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