Wow, what a difference a week makes!

We have had some nice updates to share regarding Morgan’s progress this week.

First off, she moved to a new bed – she graduated from the isolette to the bassinette. This biggest challenge for her in this bed was to prove she could keep her body temperate regulated, if it dips below 97.7 she would have to move back to an isolette. She moved to the bassinette on Christmas eve, and here we are 3, almost 4 days later and she has successful maintained her body temp!

She also was doing so well on the oxygen that they took out the nasal cannula, so she now breathes on her own. For the most part she maintains her level at 90-100% Saturation. She usually dips during feedings when her belly is full. She still has the occasional A&B’s but overall they happen much less often than before.

She has been able to wear shirts, and they have now encouraged us to bring up clothes for her to wear. I put her first outfit on her tonight! She is now off the caffeine, and the only thing extra they are giving her are vitamins!

On Christmas day she finally surpassed her birth weight, and as of today she sits at 4 lbs and 1 ounce! We also learned how to give her a bath!

They removed the feeding tube from her mouth and put it in her nose, because as of yesterday she started bottle feeding. That did not go all that well. She needs to learn to suck, swallow and breathe all at the same time. This morning we attempted breastfeeding for the first time. I feel like that went better than bottle feeding, but again it is still a challenge.

They have now qualified her as a feeder grower, which means she is not being watched for more serious issues. We are told she could move from the NICU to the Special Care nursery where she will get her own room! We took a tour the other day and the facility is brand new and looks very nice. The room even has a small bed if we wanted to stay overnight!

As for me, I am now off all pain meds and have one day left on antibiotics (for the swelling, I felt like I might have an infection where the incision is). I also drove tonight for the first time, it was weird, and raining, but I am back in the saddle!

With every week there always seems to be something crazy going on. This week we learned my dad had a detached retina, and he had to go in for surgery. This is pretty serious and there is no guarantee that the sight will return in that eye. He had the surgery today and he seems to be recovering well, but it will be weeks before we know how successful it was. We just pray all went well so he can have two eyes to gave at his granddaughter.

We are hopeful that she could potentially come home in the next 3 weeks, it all depends on how her feeding improves.

The nursery is getting better each day. David is cleaning out the closet so we can get the container store closet put together and Morgan’s things put away. We will also be picking up the crib and changing table in the next day or so. It feels so great how everything is coming together!

We had a really nice Christmas and enjoyed seeing our family. I hope you all have had a nice Christmas and are gearing up for a great New Years!

I have loaded more pictures check them out if you likeJ

Hi all, I wanted to send you an update on how everything is going.

Morgan continues to amaze us with her development. Last week she was taking 2 cc’s of milk every 4 hours. She is now up to 24 cc’s every 3 hours. She officially had her first bowel movement on Tuesday 12/17 – this is very important because it will help to get her Billy Rueben numbers lower, which allows them to stop the phototherapy for her jaundice. This morning it dropped to 5, so they took the light off and we are hoping it stays off this time (she was off it late last week as well).

The most exciting development was on Sunday (12/16) b/c she wasn’t under the lamp, we were able to hold her for the first time! I can’t tell you how gratifying that was to have her little body wrapped in our arms. We are filled with peaks and valleys, Sunday morning was so amazing and then we came home and my dad called me to let me know my grandfather(Morgan’s great grandfather) had passed away. He lives in Northern Indiana, and it is frustrating how we could not get up there for the funeral services. Now Morgan has 2 incredible angels in heaven, my mom and my grandfather, so I have no doubt they are smiling down on her.

Wednesday brought us even more excitement – I was able to provide kangaroo care for Morgan – this is skin to skin contact and is said to be extremely therapeutic for little babies.  David was able to kangaroo her today. She loves to be on her belly and to feel Mom and Dad's skin next to hers.

Her originally weight was 3lbs 13 ounces, and she  dropped to 3lbs 5 ounces. She now sits at 3lbs 12 ounces, so we are very excited to see that mom's nutrition is working. I have had no trouble pumping (sorry if tmi), and produce over 90 cc ever 3-4 hours, so we have plenty stocked up for when our sweet bunny is ready to chow.

She is still on the nasal cannula providing some pressure to keep her lungs slightly inflated.  But on a positive note, she is at 21% oxygen (room air), like the rest of us. She still has A's and B's (Apnea, where she forgets to breathe which leads to Bradycardia, where her heart dips below 100 bpm) and those are always scary, but expected at this point.

She opens her eyes to great us during some of the feedings, but right now is the sleepy quiet period, in the next few weeks she may be more vocal. I have heard that they may try and bottle feed her next week, so we are hoping to see some development there.

It is really hard to see her going through all this, but we keep telling ourselves we are the lucky ones, first off, She could easily not be with us right now, had it not been for my dr appointment and the fast and awesome performance of my dr and the staff. We are surrounded by other preemies who have been in the nicu for over 2 months, there is one that was actually term and has had a surgery and is on a ventilator. Within the nicu we are surrounded by stories, some happy and some sad. They are hard to digest, but also help remind us that our little one is strong and a good fighter. This experience has really changed my perspective, not only now that we are parents, but just reflecting on the gift of life.

Christmas time seems like a hard time to go through this, not that any time isn’t bad, but I have to again thank my incredible family and friends. You all have done so much for us and the only way I know to pay it forward is to make sure when I see others in need to lend the helping hand that you all have for us.

As for me, I am good. The pain lessens each day. Yesterday morning I took a vicodin, but have decided to try not to take any more, Aleve seems to be good for the swelling and the pain is hopefully on the downward slope. I think I can start driving again next week and will have a dr appointment after the new year to make sure the healing is going well.

David has been an incredible support, he really has been doing everything, and I know he is running on empty. He lost over 5 lbs, prob between the stress and the constant on the go. He was able to get our contractor in and the nursery is finished!!! Now we just need to pick up the furniture and put it together.

We are staying in Dallas for the holidays, so it will be a nice time for him to relax and try and recoup from the last week and a half!  Hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Monday morning at 10:45am, we went in for a routine checkup at Mere’s OB.  We were supposed to have a 30 week checkup last week, but our OB was on vacation, so we had to make it our 31 week checkup.  We discussed the 12 hours of infant care / Lamaze classes we took over the weekend.  Of course we had plenty of questions about our birth plan, when to contact her when we start feeling contractions, etc.  After 20-25 minutes of Q&A, we started the exam portion of the checkup.  She measured Mere’s belly, then got the Doppler to check the heartbeat.  That’s when everything changed.  She had a tough time finding the heartbeat at first, then found something that sounded much too slow to be our baby’s heartbeat.  She estimated it to be around 70 beats per minute, half of what it was supposed to be.  Our OB said slowly but firmly, we are going downstairs to L & D.  We didn’t really grasp the seriousness of the situation until we reached the elevator and our OB ordered the other woman who was in the elevator not to push any buttons because we were going straight to L & D.  Also, her nurse was running towards us with Mere’s chart and our OB told her to take the stairs or another elevator.  We couldn’t wait for anything. 

When we got down to L & D, they immediately hooked Mere up to a heart monitor, and attached a heart monitor for the baby.  I went to the front desk to admit her, but it still didn’t occur to us that we were down there for anything more than monitoring the baby.  The baby’s heartbeat was fluctuating between 70 and 140.  Not good.  Eventually, one of the nurses said that there was a good chance the baby was going to be delivered if the heartbeat continued dropping like that.  That is when it hit us.  We might deliver at 31 weeks; not something we had considered even an hour ago.  There were no warning signs, no sharp pains, back aches, indicators, nothing.  Mere’s OB was actually in another operating room, delivering a previously scheduled Cesarean.  Her OB partner came down to check on us and basically decided the baby had to come out now.  Our OB came out from her other delivery, concurred and Mere was off to the operating room to get an epidural.  Luckily, I was in another room when they prepped her and put the needle in.  We found out later that the baby’s heart monitor showed her heartbeat dropping into the 50’s (at a heartbeat in the 60’s, they would start chest compressions.)  No time to wait, she had to come out immediately.  Dad almost wasn’t allowed into the operating room, because I was extremely upset and the operating staff was concerned I might get in the way of the professionals.  Finally, I was allowed in right before they started pulling baby H out.  At 12:44pm, Morgan Charlotte Howarth was born.  We heard a little cry and then they took her over to a waiting tray to get bundled up.  They brought her over to us for a quick view and then whisked her away to the NICU.  I followed them up to the NICU and found out she weighed 3 pounds and 13 ounces.  She was 41 cm long, which is slightly over 16 inches.  She had a little bit of dark hair on her head. 

When they bring her into the NICU and hook her up to the monitors, the three vitals that are constantly monitored are the heartbeat, the respiratory rate (breaths per minute) and SpO₂ level (oxygen saturation).  They have alarms if any of these exceed specified levels, either too high or too low.  For example, if the heartbeat drops below 100, an alarm goes off and it is called a “Brady”.  All of her stats have been trending fine.

Because she was born at 31 weeks, Morgan’s lungs weren’t fully developed.  She was missing something called surfactant, which helps coat her lungs to ensure they don’t deflate.  The reason we don’t want her lungs to deflate is that it takes significantly more pressure to reinflate a lung than to keep it inflated, similar to how the first breath is the hardest part of blowing up a balloon.  To make sure her lungs stay expanded, she initially was put on a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, also used on adults with sleep apnea), which is a machine that connects to Morgan via a nasal tube.  The CPAP was used for the first day and a half.  Wednesday, we moved to a nasal cannula, which is a similar lung expansion assistance machine, but is less dramatic than a CPAP.  Morgan is still getting lung pressure assistance (2 liters per minute, down to 1.5 liters per minute Thursday), but the step down to a cannula is a big positive.  If she was struggling to breathe and the CPAP wasn’t working, she could have been intubated and been given surfactant directly into her lungs.  This never happened and we are happy about the progression down to the nasal cannula.  We have been giving her air with various level of oxygen, ranging from 45% oxygen down to the high 20s%.  Room oxygen levels are typically around 21%. 

Another thing we were monitoring was her PH level and PCO₂ level.  Her PH was too acidic (low) and PCO₂ level was too high.  These levels are checked via a blood gas procedure.  The blood gas can either be taken via needle pricks on the heel (a capillary blood gas, or “CBG”) or through a line in the umbilical artery (an arterial blood gas, or “ABG”).  The ABG is more accurate than the CBG.  Morgan’s PH levels have been mostly stable or improving since she got into the NICU.  The ideal level is 7.35 and she has been rising from 7.2 to 7.3.  Her PCO₂ level has also been trending well, coming down from the mid 60’s to 51.  The target level is 45. 

Wednesday, they finally fed her some of mom’s colostrum through a syringe that connects to a tube that goes directly into her stomach.  Initially only 2 cc’s every 6 hours, but some is better than none.  She had a tough time digesting her first feeding but was able to digest her second feeding.  Thursday, they moved her up to 3 cc’s every 4 hours. 

We just checked on her and she is doing well.  They have photo therapy set up for her to fight jaundice.  We go home tomorrow, but will obviously be spending as much time as we can in the NICU.