So, where to start!!....Well she is now 4 lbs 2 oz as of tonight! With her being 33 weeks old on wednesday and over 4 pounds they are going to see if she can regulate her temp. So there is a good chance when Tannon and I see her next she will be in her first little outfit! We are hoping that she will be in a crib and regulating her temp by the end of the week. She is still the same on her oxygen with her at around 21% to 23%(room air is 21%) and 2 liters of flow. Her nurses are not in a hurry at all to lower her levels because that is not a lot of oxygen support and they want her to worry about growing at the moment. As you all can see she is having no problem with that!! She had her third attempt at dry nursing tonight. She is doing very well with that also. The nurses warned me that it can take a week or 2 for her to really figure it out, but we are all happy with how she is handling it.
We are very excited to see what the next couple days brings because the last little while Lucie hasn't changed a whole lot, so we are crossing our fingers that Lucie can jump these newest hurdles!
Until next time!...
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Growing Like A Weed!!
Wow it is crazy to see how fast Lucie grows! Two nights ago she was at 3lbs and 6oz and now tonight she is at 3lbs and 12oz! That even suprised her nurse!! She is doing so good. She is still on the high-flow nasal cannula like I said last time but they are now going to start lowering the amount of oxygen support to see if she can handle it. She is also old enough to start learning how to breast feed, so tonight they had me pump and then try to nurse so she could practice. Of course she did fabulous and did exactly what they wanted her to.
This week has a chance to be a big week for her. She is now at the age where she should start to began regulate her body temp on her own. Which means that she can start to wear clothes and be moved to a crib!! Then there is also the learning how to nurse. Both of those steps are huge because they are two of the goals she has to meet to be able to come home. When exactly that will be we still don't know, but if she can get over these two hurdles we will be just that much closer!!
Until next time!...
This week has a chance to be a big week for her. She is now at the age where she should start to began regulate her body temp on her own. Which means that she can start to wear clothes and be moved to a crib!! Then there is also the learning how to nurse. Both of those steps are huge because they are two of the goals she has to meet to be able to come home. When exactly that will be we still don't know, but if she can get over these two hurdles we will be just that much closer!!
Until next time!...
Friday, March 11, 2011
1 Month Down...
So I am not doing a very good job at blogging. Life just has a way of getting away from you so what can I say!!
It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Tj has had RSV for the last week and has now passed it onto me, so now I have a cold and can't go into the NICU to see Lucie until I'm completely over my cold. :( But all in all things are going ok and Tj and I are both slowly starting to feel better. I have also gone back to work this week and that is going well. But you all read the blog to hear about Lucie so here it is!...
She has had a little bit of a hiccup this last week. She was having issues with her oxygen. Her body wasn't getting enough oxygen and her red blood cells were low (which are the body's buses to get the oxygen around) So they gave her another blood transfusion to help get her levels higher. That makes her third transfusion. She was still having issues so they moved her back to the High-Flow nasal cannula to see if that would help and that seemed to be the key. As soon as they gave her a little more oxygen support she has done a 180 and now we are just waiting for her to have a couple more days where she doesn't have any more oxygen issues so they can move her back to a normal nasal cannula. Once we can get her to the normal cannula she will stay on that until she is no longer in need of oxygen support.
Even though she had some set backs she has still gained just under a pound this week and half. She is now up to 3 lbs and 3 oz.!!! YEAH!!! Just yesterday alone she gained 3 1/2 oz. We can't believe she has gained so fast. She is starting to get chipmunk cheeks and is looking more like a full term baby and less like a preemie! She is also getting 25 mls breast milk every 3 hours. They say that is consider a "Full Feeding" so she is where she needs to be on that part of things. She is also a month old today!!! I can't believe that it has been a month since that CRAZY day.
So even though it has been a rough week there has also been a lot of improvements. We still can't believe how blessed we have been. Lucie is doing great and healthy (all things considering). We have so many family and friends willing and waiting to help it is almost overwhelming, but we couldn't do it without you.
Until next time...
It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Tj has had RSV for the last week and has now passed it onto me, so now I have a cold and can't go into the NICU to see Lucie until I'm completely over my cold. :( But all in all things are going ok and Tj and I are both slowly starting to feel better. I have also gone back to work this week and that is going well. But you all read the blog to hear about Lucie so here it is!...
She has had a little bit of a hiccup this last week. She was having issues with her oxygen. Her body wasn't getting enough oxygen and her red blood cells were low (which are the body's buses to get the oxygen around) So they gave her another blood transfusion to help get her levels higher. That makes her third transfusion. She was still having issues so they moved her back to the High-Flow nasal cannula to see if that would help and that seemed to be the key. As soon as they gave her a little more oxygen support she has done a 180 and now we are just waiting for her to have a couple more days where she doesn't have any more oxygen issues so they can move her back to a normal nasal cannula. Once we can get her to the normal cannula she will stay on that until she is no longer in need of oxygen support.
Even though she had some set backs she has still gained just under a pound this week and half. She is now up to 3 lbs and 3 oz.!!! YEAH!!! Just yesterday alone she gained 3 1/2 oz. We can't believe she has gained so fast. She is starting to get chipmunk cheeks and is looking more like a full term baby and less like a preemie! She is also getting 25 mls breast milk every 3 hours. They say that is consider a "Full Feeding" so she is where she needs to be on that part of things. She is also a month old today!!! I can't believe that it has been a month since that CRAZY day.
So even though it has been a rough week there has also been a lot of improvements. We still can't believe how blessed we have been. Lucie is doing great and healthy (all things considering). We have so many family and friends willing and waiting to help it is almost overwhelming, but we couldn't do it without you.
Until next time...
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Trying to keep up!!
So keeping updated on the blog is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be with us getting back to real life and getting pulled in million different directions. But with life as crazy as it is things are still as good as we can ask for.
Lucie is doing GREAT! We have been able to hold her, which was just amazing. She looks so small laying in her bed, but when she is in your arms she gets even smaller! (I know that seems impossible!) She is also off the ventilators but is still in need oxygen support so she is on high-pressure nasal cannula (which is like normal oxygen support but at a faster flow). Her picc line has been removed because she has been able to handle just over half an ounce of breast milk every three hours.
We just can't believe how fast she is improving but we couldn't be any happier. It has been very clear to us that Lucie has felt all of the thoughts and prayers everyone has said in her behalf and we can't express enough how grateful for all the love and support that has been given to us.
I will try to not to go so long without updating everyone!!
Lucie is doing GREAT! We have been able to hold her, which was just amazing. She looks so small laying in her bed, but when she is in your arms she gets even smaller! (I know that seems impossible!) She is also off the ventilators but is still in need oxygen support so she is on high-pressure nasal cannula (which is like normal oxygen support but at a faster flow). Her picc line has been removed because she has been able to handle just over half an ounce of breast milk every three hours.
We just can't believe how fast she is improving but we couldn't be any happier. It has been very clear to us that Lucie has felt all of the thoughts and prayers everyone has said in her behalf and we can't express enough how grateful for all the love and support that has been given to us.
I will try to not to go so long without updating everyone!!
Friday, February 18, 2011
One step at a time...
I can't believe that exactly a week ago our lives were turned upside down. You know the saying "Time flies when your having fun"? well guess what?!... It flies even faster when your not having fun. I have never had a week pass so quickly in my life as this last week has. It is just crazy.
All things considered it has been a pretty positive end to this week. Lucie has made it through the week! She has stayed stable! She is still on a ventilator but is on the lowest setting she can be on, which they say, if everything continues like it is, there is chance that they will pull her off the ventilator in 2-3 days. I have been told that it is a pretty young age to be off the ventilator. So, yea!
Yesterday she was able to have her umbilical lines replaced by a picc line. They wanted to wake up her G.I. track so they started giving her 2.5 ml of breast milk every six hours to see if she could handle it. Like the trooper she is she handled it just fine and they were able to increase how often they feed her so she is now getting fed every 3 hours.
We have not been up to see her yet today but we plan on going up later. They have told me to plan being able to hold her today!! I can't wait! They do this treatment called Kangaroo treatment and that is where I hold her on chest, skin to skin, for an hour. So I couldn't be more anxious to see her!
No matter how anxious I am to see Lucie it is still hard to get up to see her. Tannon (T.J) has been feeling the effects of the week and is starting to have a hard time. He is having a hard time with being away from us. Plus, to top it off he is getting his third tooth in. So it is hard to spilt our time between the two kids and to be there for the both of them. We'll be able to work things out and come up with a schedule that works for us all as things move on.
But, all in all, things are still going as well as we can ask for!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
How it all started!
On Friday, February 11th. I went in for a normal doctors appt. I expressed some concerns that I was having with my doctor. He decided to check me to get a better idea of what was going on. As he was checking me I heard, "oh that's not good!" my heart just stopped. My doctor then looked at me and told me that my water was broke and we can't tell how long it has been broken, but I wasn't dialated. My doctor continued to tell me that he was going to send me to IMC hospital for hospitalized bed rest to try get me to hold on for at least two more weeks. So with my mom's help I got myself up to IMC around 1:30 that afternoon. My contractions started on my way to IMC and continued to get stronger as I was getting checked in. By the time they were done checking me in my contractions were bad enough that I was crying for pain meds. The resident doctor barely had time to do her exam. When she checked me I was dilated to a 4 and the baby was breached so we would have to do an emergency c-section. Lucie Jewell came at 4:02 weighing 2 lbs 4oz. and 13 3/4 inches in length making her 3 months early!
They rushed her to the NICU. She was breathing on her own but it was very shallow and hard breaths. Her red blood cell count was low, which means her oxygen levels were low also. They put her on a ventilator and gave her a blood transfusion but they said she was stable for the moment. She stayed stable through Friday night and Saturday morning they became concerned and wanted to do an ultrasound on her brain to check for some hemorrhaging and to see if there was any "white matter" developing, which could lead to cysts. The ultrasound came back clean but they want to recheck it when she is a week old.
Lucie has continued to stay stable and is moving very slowly in the right direction. They have been able to slowly decrease the ventilator and she had a second blood transfusion which we knew it was coming and there will be more to come. But, all in all, things are going the way we need them to. We have been told not to plan on bringing her home till her original due date which is May 11th. So we have a long road ahead of us but with the outpouring of love and support we have been given we will be able to make it through this hard time in our lives.
Words can not express how grateful Tannon and I are for the thoughts and prayers that have been sent our way. We could not get through this without of all the family and friends that support us. I will try to give regular updates.
They rushed her to the NICU. She was breathing on her own but it was very shallow and hard breaths. Her red blood cell count was low, which means her oxygen levels were low also. They put her on a ventilator and gave her a blood transfusion but they said she was stable for the moment. She stayed stable through Friday night and Saturday morning they became concerned and wanted to do an ultrasound on her brain to check for some hemorrhaging and to see if there was any "white matter" developing, which could lead to cysts. The ultrasound came back clean but they want to recheck it when she is a week old.
Lucie has continued to stay stable and is moving very slowly in the right direction. They have been able to slowly decrease the ventilator and she had a second blood transfusion which we knew it was coming and there will be more to come. But, all in all, things are going the way we need them to. We have been told not to plan on bringing her home till her original due date which is May 11th. So we have a long road ahead of us but with the outpouring of love and support we have been given we will be able to make it through this hard time in our lives.
Words can not express how grateful Tannon and I are for the thoughts and prayers that have been sent our way. We could not get through this without of all the family and friends that support us. I will try to give regular updates.
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