Brianna's first Christmas

It has been awhile since I added a post. Things have been crazy Brianna has approx 3 dr's visits a week and I went back to work on November 30th. Brianna is getting bigger and doing well. She is still on oxygen and probably will be until Spring. Today she was 9 lbs 8 oz!! She has been showing symptoms of asthma and is now on a nebulizer a few times a day to help with her breathing.

We had an amazing first Christmas with Brianna and she tolerated the craziness quite well. Here are some recent pictures. She is getting so big!

Brianna's Baptism

My first Halloween

Brianna and her puppy

Brianna is home!

Brianna came home on October 23rd. She is doing great and we are starting to adjust now and get into a routine. She has some reflux issues so she has a thickener in her formula and also is on pepcid twice a day which seems to be helping some. When she spits up its a bit scary because she gets the formula stuck in nose and mouth because her formula is thicker than normal. When it happens we have to suction out her nose and mouth. She is on a home monitor and is still on a little bit of oxygen which makes it a bit difficult to go out to dr's appts but we are learning to plan ahead. Yesterday she was weighed and she is 5 lbs 15 oz!

Brianna is almost Home!

Brianna is doing great and as of today is up to 4 lbs 10 oz! She is taking all of her bottles by mouth and no longer has a feeding tube in. One little setbeck they have discovered that she has two small hernias in her groin one on each side they will need to be repaired before she comes home. We will find out more tomorrow but it sounds like surgery will be on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. They are saying they plan on discharging Brianna to go home by the end of the week. This week we also have a CPR class to complete and will be spending a night at the hospital with Brianna in our room before we bring her home. She is most likely coming home on oxygen. She needs a tiny bit of oxygen support when she is having a bottle. Her eyes are looking good the surgeon has been doing an eye exam every week and has been happy with what he sees. She will have eye exams for quite awhile to make sure the ROP doesn't get any worse. We are getting excited and can't wait to bring our little miracle home!

slideshow that was created for brianna's baby shower

laughing at daddy

Today Brianna is 3 lbs 12 oz and is almost 15 inches long. They have added a thickener to her formula which seems to help her in swallowing from the bottle. Last night she took 27 ml out of 33 ml and then the feeding after that she took the whole feeding by bottle. Today Brianna was wide awake and Brian was acting goofy and Brianna was laughing and smiling at him. She had a great day today.

9/27/09

Being held by Auntie Jen

Surgery Went Well

Brianna had her surgery and all went well. It took much longer than the dr had said and Brian and I were a nervous wreck waiting to hear from the Dr but all went well. Brianna had a hard time coming off of the ventilator and had to go on c-pap for 1 day but is now back on her nasal cannula. She has had 2 eye exams since the surgery and the Dr said the ROP is regressing and things are looking good. Her next eye exam is in a few days. Brianna is now taking a few feedings by bottle she is just starting out but does well sometimes she takes the whole feeding and sometimes only a part of it and the rest is put through the feeding tube. Today we watched a couple of the required videos we need to watch before she can come home and we signed up for the infant/child CPR class we need to complete. Today Brianna is 3 lbs 9 oz! Only approx 3 more weeks until she can come home!

Surgery Tomorrow

Tomorrow morning Brianna is having laser eye surgery to correct the ROP in both eyes. We are staying at a local hotel for a couple of days so that we can be close to her. We spoke with the eye surgeon tonight and he is the chief of eye surgery and has been doing this for 18 years. He has done this procedure thousands of times in a year so we know she is in great hands.
We need to be at the hospital at 6:45 am so we are going to go get something to eat and go to sleep early tonight as its going to be a long day tomorrow...the eye surgeon said to plan on the surgery taking 1-2 hrs. If we don't do this procedure he said that in his opinion she would be completely blind in about 14 days so we don't have much choice other than to do the laser surgery. She is in the best care here but still very scary.

Prayers Needed

Today we were told that Brianna might need to have laser eye surgery. She has ROP which means the blood vessels growing to attach to her retina are not growing straight but instead growing curvy. Right now she is at what they call Stage 2 Zone 2 of ROP. The eye doctor will do another eye exam on Monday and if its not any better than they recommend laser surgery to the vessels that are curvy so that they can re-grow straight. If things look better on Monday she might not need surgery. If she needs surgery she would need to go back to Hanover for a week to have the surgery done. She would need to go under anesthesia and go on a ventilator for the surgery which they would try and get her off of the ventilator within a day so that she doesn't become dependant on it. Otherwise she is doing great and hit 3 lbs today! She is handling her feedings well and has been offerred a bottle once she did ok and took 2 ml by mouth but than got tired and slept for 4 hours. They will continue to work on it little by little.

Baby Shower

Brianna's baby shower was on Sunday. Thanks to all my family and friends for such a great day. Brianna is very loved and won't need an outfit for her first year. Brian and I had a wonderful day with all of our family and friends. We showed a slideshow that we created and I will try and post it here.

New Pictures

Brianna has been transferred

On tuesday 9/8/09 Brianna was transferred to a hospital closer to us. She handled the transfer great and was fiesty the whole way...She pushed out her feeding tube 2 times during the ride in the ambulance. This is her new trick she uses her tongue and gag reflux to push out her feeding tube at almost every feeding. The nurses now stand and watch her feeding go in as they don't trust her as she likes to do things when their heads are turned! Yesterday I held her for over an hour and she managed to pull out her oxygen, push out her feeding tube, and take off her heart monitor! LOL She has such a fiesty personality. She has started to work on breastfeeding but in the next couple weeks they will introduce the bottle and see how that goes as its obvious she is not happy with a feeding tube. The ride to the new hospital is so easy now its only 20 mins or so away from home so its easier to visit her and we can visit longer and time our visits around the times she gets care so we get to change her, take her temp, and feed her. She is now 2 lbs 11.4 ounces and is looking more and more like her daddy everyday!

9/7/09

Transfer scheduled for tomorrow morning

Just got home from visiting Brianna and she is doing great...she is up to 2 lbs 9 oz and her feedings have increased to 16 cc's every 2 hrs and she is doing good with them and her belly looks good...she has graduated to the back room and out of the critical side of the NICU and was moved yesterday. We spoke with her NP today and as long as Elliot isn't too full she will be transferred tomorrow morning...fingers and toes and everything is crossed! Her NP was so nice and said she is going to miss her little spitfire but is so happy to know we will have more time to visit with her and bond with her being closer to us. She also wanted to tell us that she is truly a miracle baby and she has done much better than any of them expected and sooner than they expected too....we already knew she is a special little girl and is a miracle baby.

transfer didn't happen

Well we are totally bummed out Brianna wasn't transferred today. The team from Elliot went to Hanover and were ready to transport her when she decided to start swinging really low on her oxygen stats. Then her belly started to get swollen again and they decided to stop her feedings for today and resume again tonight. She might be transferred tomorrow or Tuesday the latest due to the holiday. Her nurse and main nurse practioner are not too concerned as they think this is all related to her being stressed out this morning. This morning they did an eye exam on her and dialated her eyes 1 hr before she was to be transferred and I heard she didn't like it at all. They had to hold her down and she got extremely upset and was crying pretty hard which in turn filled her belly full of lots of air which then made it hard for her to breathe so it was a total chain reaction. We just got home and she was doing much better than this morning every time her nurse practioner walked by she would smile and all the nurses were cracking up they were all joking she just wanted the attention today as usually she is real quick at rounds as they have no issues as she has done so well that its a quick little conversation. Her doctor agreed that no more eye exams until she gets to her new home away from home.....the good news is her eyes look good.

9/1/09 2 lbs 6 oz

Tomorrow is transfer day!

Brianna is doing great and is up to 2 lbs 6 oz now! The best news is tomorrow morning Brianna is being transferred to Elliot Hospital and will only be about 20 mins away now! We are very excited to have her closer to us it will make visiting her a lot easier. We thought it would be happening next week but all the doctors, nurse practioners, and nurses agree that she is doing so well that she is going to do great at Elliot and they have a great NICU. They did a followup head ultrasound and all looks perfect she has no sign of any kind of brain bleed it looks exactly the same as it did at birth. Tomorrow Hanover will do bloodwork in the morning to doublecheck all her blood levels and will do an eye exam to check her eyes. Tonight one of the nurses was so sad that tonight was her last night to care for Brianna all the nurses think she is so cute and such a stong little girl. Her nurse today said nobody ever expected her to do so well so quickly after having such a rough start and that she has amazed them all. It is a little sad as we have grown very close to a lot of the nurses and they have given her such amazing care and have worked wonders. They said they like to get cards and pictures so I will be sure to send them lots of updates.

8/29/09 over 2 lbs!

Brianna is now 2 lbs 3 oz!! Today she came off her cpap machine and is just on nasal oxygen. Her oxygen setting is low at 24 % and is doing great! She looks so big now and has quite the personality. Yesterday she was throwing her first fit because her feeding wasn't going in fast enough her face was beat red and you can really hear her cry now. The nurses said its great she is beginning to fuss when its time for her feedings and they give her pacifier to soothe her until her feeding time. She is going to be transferred in the next couple weeks to a hospital closer to us she will only be 20 mins away instead of an hour.

8/20/09 first time wearing clothes

8/20/09 my first bath

Thank you everyone!

Thanks everyone for all your love, support and prayers! They are doing wonders. Sorry I haven't updated this for awhile. We have been going to see Brianna almost everyday and the ride is so tiring I get home and pass out. I still don't have all my energy back and my incision still is a bit sore but as the nurses said its only been 4 1/2 weeks so its normal to still be so exhausted. I'm so used to bouncing right back after surgery but this one has been a bit tough. I'm still trying to figure out why they needed to make an 8 inch incision down my belly if she was so little! I am healing well though and beginning to feel a more like me more and more everyday. Brian has been very busy in the nursery he already painted the whole room and will add the border on the walls this weekend. Her crib should arrive by next week so its coming together little by little. Brian loves to have his little projects and doesn't like to sit still so its perfect for him. Thank you again to everyone!

8/19/09 I'm getting bigger!

kangarooing with daddy and sucking on my binky

8/12 and 8/13 on c-pap and off the vent

8/19/09

Brianna has been off the ventilator and on a c-pap for 7 days now! She is doing great and her cpap setting has already come down 2 settings. Her weight today is 1 lb 12 oz and is only a few grams away from being 1 lb 13 oz! She is on max feedings for her size of 10 ml every 2 hrs and is also on an additive in the breastmilk of extra calories and nutrients to help her gain weight. The doctors all say she is doing great and they are very proud of her and they are happy with her progress. She is starting to fill in now and has chubby cheeks already. She is very alert and smiles a lot. She loves to suck on her fingers and her binky. I'm so happy she is doing so well and making great progress. Yesterday she turned 30 weeks gestation.

8/11/09

Today we didn't get to see Brianna I had 2 Dr's appts today that totally wiped me out and I was too exhausted to make the drive. My brother Shawn (aka Milk Man) just left the house to bring up the breastmilk I have pumped so she doesn't need to have formula tonight. On days I'm too tired he makes the trip just to bring up the goods and have a quick visit with Brianna. I'm so thankful he does that for me. Brian and I go up and see Brianna almost every day but some days I'm just too wiped out to make the trip. I did find out today one reason why I'm still so tired and lacking energy my sugar levels are still not down to where they should be not high enough to need insulin but enough to go on a pill to keep my sugar level down. Normally Gestational Diabetes goes away after birth but they are thinking due to massive trauma my body went through its going to take a little bit longer. Hopefully I'll feel better soon.

Brianna is doing great today. Her chest x-ray was completely clear and her lungs sound great. The team of doctors have no concerns for her other than getting her off the vent. She is on no IV's and no meds. She just has her feeding tube and right now her breathing tube. The doctor is thinking that her lungs might be swollen from when she had the fluid trapped and needed the chest tube after birth so what they are going to do is treat her for 3 days with steriods before trying to remove the ventilator again. I can't wait to go up and see her tomorrow!

8/9/09 & 8/10/09

Brianna came off of her ventilator on saturday 8/9/09 and was put on the c-pap machine she did great for 12 hrs but then got tired and had to go back on her ventilator. The nurses warned me ahead of time that 95% of the time this happens at least once if not a couple times because babies this small just get tired. Part of the problem was also that Brianna is so active she kept pulling the oxygen out of her nose and refused to leave it alone. Her settings on her vent are very low she is at 19 breaths a minute and on less than 20% oxygen so she is doing most of her breathing on her own. She lost a little bit of weight on Saturday but Sunday her weight remained the same she is at 1 lb 9 oz. She is on max feeds for her size so she is taking 9 ml every 2 hrs and handling it very well.

8/8/09

Today I got to "Kangaroo" Brianna. We have lots of pictures and will add them soon. Tonight they are going to try and remove her breathing tube and put her on the c-pap machine. There is a chance that she might not be ready and might need to have the ventilator put back on but they won't know until they try so they want to give it a shot tonight...Our fingers are crossed that she will do great!

kangaroo care 8/8/09

August 5, 2009

Just got off the phone with Brianna's nurse and she is doing great. Her blood gas this morning was good so they have weaned her ventilator setting down again. Now she is down to 26 breaths per minute from the ventilator from yesterday's 30. They will do another blood gas tonight and if its good again they will wean her down a little more tomorrow. Her nurse said she is tolerating the wean quite well and doing a fantastic job! I can't wait for Brian to get home so we can go up and see her tonight.

snug as a bug

August 4, 2009

Brianna is doing great today she has been weaned down on her ventilator again and is down to 30 breaths per minute and using 20% or less oxygen. The doctors are thinking she might come off of her ventilator in the next few days and move down to using just a c-pap machine. She is such a strong little girl.

Holding Brianna for the first time

Daddy and his little girl

Melanie and Brianna

Mommy and Brianna

August 3rd We got a nice surprise today!

Today we went to visit Brianna and got a nice surprise...her nurse said she was stable enough and asked us if we wanted to hold her. It was such a nice feeling to hold her for the first time and Brian couldn't stop starring into her eyes and rocked her for almost an hour. It was a great visit.

August 2, 2009

Brianna is still doing great on her new ventilator the nurse today took a very cute picture of her all snuggled up in her blanket and took footprints of her tiny little feet for us. She is up to 1 lb 9 ounces and has increased to eating 5 cc's of breastmilk every 2 hrs. The only thing that is bumming me out is I'm not getting enough breastmilk to keep up with that so they just put me on a medicine that should help...apparently its common for someone who has had a very traumatic stressful birth and ER c-section. Tonight they will have to supplement a bit with formula which bums me out a little bit but whats really important is she continues to grow at the rate that she has been. Hopefully this medicine will kick in soon.

August 1, 2009

Today was a great day for Brianna. She came off of her Jet ventilator and went onto a conventional ventilator. This is a step down and a good thing. This ventilator allows her to take some breaths on her own which she is doing approx 10-13 times per minute. It also makes her lungs expand and retract instead of the Jet ventilator that kept her lungs inflated the whole time. So this is more like our normal breathing. It also allows her to move more and when they say its ok I can hold her on this ventilator...I can't wait for that! I have lots of new pictures of her and you can see how much she has grown in them from when she was born....although I need to get a new usb cord so that I can hook my camera up to the computer...hopefully I can do that tomorrow.

July 29, 2009

Brianna had another great night and is having a good day. I just got off the phone with her nurse and they just finished rounds in the NICU. Brianna is still maintaining a great sugar level with no insulin. Her chest x-ray again this morning was great there is no air and no fluid noted on the chest x-ray. Today they are going to turn off the suction on her chest tube and see if things remain stable without the suction being on. If it goes well they are planning on removing her chest tube possibly tomorrow. Once the tube is removed they said I would be able to hold her! She is down a tiny bit of weight since yesterday by 1 and 1/2 ounces but they are actually happy about it she never did loose any weight after birth so this is exactly what they wanted to see happen...it scares me because she is so little but they said its a good thing so I'm going with the flow. She is also doing great with her urine output and pooping on a regular basis so they have decided to increase her feedings to 1 cc of breastmilk every 2 hrs instead of every 4 hrs. The nurse said she is very fiesty today and keeps trying to pull out her tube and they have to keep re-positioning her but it only lasts a few minutes before she is trying to remove something else....her nurse said she is a very stubborn determined little thing.......hmmm I guess some of my genes mixed in there somewhere! They are very happy that she is so active and said its a great sign of her strength. I can't wait for Brian to get home from work so we can go up and see her later.

July 28, 2009

July 28, 2009 5:00pm

I just got a call from Brianna's nurse and they got the central line in!!!! I'm so happy they finally got it in...they also just took a picture for me little Brianna has opened her eyes!

July 28, 2009

Brianna is doing good she is a tiny little fighter! I just called the hospital and the nurse said she is a fiesty little girl and very strong. All the nurses love her because she is so spunky she takes after her mommy. It took them a long time to do her chest x-ray this morning because she didnt feel like sitting still. Today her weight is up to 1 lb 8 ounces!! Her chest x-ray was great and there were no signs of fluid or air on the left side so the new ventilator is working wonders. Her vent setting is down to 9 and she is using about 22 percent oxygen the nurses said this is amazing for a baby her size. She is no longer on insulin and is maintaining her own sugar levels. She is taking feedings like a champ. Today she was taken off the billy light as her jaundice is much better and she has her little glasses off. She still hasn't opened her eyes yet but they said she should very soon. Today they will try again to insert a central and arterial line she is bigger so they are hoping they can get it in now. They did some cultures on the puss that was coming out of the chest tube and all of those came back negative for infection. Thanks for all the prayers for our little Brianna they are being heard and answered! Brian and I will go back up to see her tonight when he gets out of work I can't wait to see her. I can't wait for the first time I get to hold her.

Getting a bit bigger

July 21, 2009

Getting a diaper change

July 20, 2009

Brian & Melanie and Brian's sisters Lisa and Jen

July 20, 2009

July 18, 2009

The day Brianna was born

I began to feel better and was holding down fluid and food so I went to work on July 15th and July 16th. I still had some swelling but elevated my legs as much as possible and went for a 1/2 hr walk each day while on my break at work. I thought all would be fine now and didn't think twice about anything and was just looking forward to my next OB appt the following week with my doctor. I went to bed as normal on July 16th and woke up around midnight in extreme pain in my chest. I thought I might be having a heartattack the pain was so intense. I tried pepto and it did nothing. I then began to feel like I was going to get sick to my stomach again and I did. I noticed in the mirror in the bathroom that my eyes looked like they were closing and like I had been punched in the face it was so puffy. My ankles were huge that night which I thought was odd as I had been sleeping and my swelling was usually during the day only. I then began to get an extreme pounding headache worse than any headache I had ever had before. I woke Brian up and told him something was seriously wrong and I was calling 911. I called for an ambulance and they took me to the ER (not without convincing them to take me they asked several times if I wanted Brian to take me but I said no I knew something was majorly wrong.) I arrived at the ER and sat there for almost 3 hrs before finally I was able to get them to give me some pain meds for the headache. They were giving me IV fluids and watching my blood pressure and the monitor kept going off as my blood pressure kept rising. The ER doctor asked me to go and give a urine sample and I immediately knew something was wrong my urine was the color of coffee it was the weirdest thing I had ever seen. I went back and layed down and the doctor ran in and said I was being admitted and I had preclampsia. The next thing I knew my feet were shaking and I wasn't moving them. The only thing I remember after that was my arms flarring in the air and calling for Brian who was standing on the other side of the room. When I woke up there were doctors standing over me putting oxygen on me and they were telling me I had just had a seizure. They explained that I had eclampsia and they needed to send me to a bigger hospital and deliver the baby to save me. I was transferred by ambulance to the hospital and they prepared me for an emergency c-section. They were able to give me 1 shot of steriods to try and mature Brianna's lungs but the protocol is 2 shots but there wasn't enough time. They had to do the surgery under general anesthesia due to my high blood pressure. During the surgery I developed HELLP syndrome which is elevated liver enzymes, high protein, and low blood platelets which clot the blood. I'm not exactly sure all the details of the syndrome but I know its serious and not a good thing. Brianna was born at 3:30pm on July 17, 2009 at 1 lb 2 ounces. It was explained to me that she should have been bigger but the preclampsia had gone undiagnosed so the blood pressure had affected the function of the placenta and thus created interuterine growth retardation making her smaller than she should have been. She had to be given CPR after birth and was placed on a ventilator. When I sort of woke up from surgery it was explained to me that I had the worse case of eclampsia and HELLP syndrome they have ever seen where the mother had lived. My blood pressure had gone up to 210 over 180 or something close to that and I was close to having a stroke during the surgery. The next few days I pretty much lived in a magnesium fog and don't really remember too much. I do remember that my legs and body was full of fluid that I couldn't physically walk for a day until the catheter began to drain some of the fluid....I have no idea how much fluid I got rid of I lost track around 16 liters. I was in the hospital for 5 days until my blood pressure stabilized on medicine and the fluid was on its way out. Right now I'm still waiting to feel normal again it takes 6 weeks for all the effects of preclampsia to go away. Each day is a little better.

July 14, 2009

On July 13, 2009 my husband Brian and I went out to eat after going to the store and registering for items on Brianna's baby shower registry. That evening around 10pm I began to have severe heartburn and figured it was from what I ate so I took some tums and tried to go back to sleep. At 2am I woke up and was extremely sick to my stomach and began to violently get sick to my stomach. I had never been so sick to my stomach in my life. It was constant with no relief and I couldn't hold down water or gatorade. I called my OB's office and they gave me an appt to go into the office that afternoon. Brian stayed home from work and took care of me and tried to keep pushing the fluids even though they were not staying down. My ankles were also swollen and the bags under my eyes were monster looking. I went to the OB's office and saw the Doctor covering for my OB as he was not in the office that day. As soon as I got into the waiting room I needed to use the restroom and got sick again. They called me in and weighed me and I told the nurse thats odd I was up 3 lbs from 2 days before she didn't seem to think it was an issue. She was about to take my blood pressure when I had to excuse myself and go get sick again in the restroom. I also had to take off my bra as I had so much pressure in my chest but thought it was because I had been getting sick so much. I went back into the exam room and she took my blood pressure and she commented that it was high compared to my previous checks. I told her my blood pressure has always been good actually the only comment I have ever gotten in the past re: my blood pressure was that it was perfect. She left the room and the OB came in and checked on the baby's heartbeat with the doppler and said she sounded great and her heartbeat was 155. She noted that I looked very sick and I told her I had never been so sick before. She re-took my blood pressure and said that it was a bit high. She asked me if my eyes always looked like that and I told her no. She asked what I had eaten and I told her we went out to eat. She thought i might have food poisioning.  I asked her if she thought something was seriously wrong and she said no and the baby sounded great and not affected at all. She told me to go home and rest and drink as much water and gatorade as I could even if I was throwing it up and eventually I would begin to hold fluids down again and to call the next day if I was still sick.

When things began to change with my pregnancy

Although it took many years and several years of infertility treatment to conceive my daughter my pregnancy had been very easy. My biggest complaint over 25 weeks was that I felt normal and didn't feel pregnant. I didn't get morning sickness and it was hard to believe that I was finally pregnant I didn't really believe it until I could begin to feel Brianna move and kick. My doctors said to consider myself lucky but after all I had been through in 7 years I wanted a big belly and wanted to feel sick to my stomach. I could have done without the drama that was to come.

Around July 1, 2009 I began to have frequent heartburn and swelling in my ankles. I called my OB and spoke to my nurse who advised it was normal and told me to take tums or Pepcid for the heartburn and to elevate my legs as much as possible at night and to walk around frequently at work and not to sit at my desk too long. I did both of these things. About a week later a co-worker had noticed that I had puffy bags of fluid under my eyes and suggested I should call again to the OB and let them know I was still having swelling issues. I called my OB and spoke with my nurse and she said this was normal and keep doing what I'm doing and that this is the beginning part of the uncomfortable phase of the pregnancy. This was my first pregnancy so I thought she must be right and this is what I wished for to be uncomfortable and I was about to begin all the joys of the third trimester of pregnancy.