Tis the Season

I have a love-hate relationship with this time of year.  I love the holidays (having 2 birthdays to celebrate - mine and Judith's - helps too... as much of a pain as gift buying can be haha!), but I despise the germs.  It's turning into an interesting time when we're out in public, and it's going to get super interesting at home now that it seems like both John & I are getting colds.  I'm really hoping that Judith will have some protection since she just finished round 2 of antibiotics on Saturday, but we'll have to wait and see.  In the meantime, we're doing extra hand washing/sanitizing, and are trying to keep Judith away from our faces.  Thank God for the Synagis - she'll have some protection with that.  But I can guarantee the first moment I notice any symptoms I'll be on the phone with her pulmonologist to find out what our next step should be.

We finished decorating the house for Christmas on Saturday.  The tree is up and decorated, and looks nice in the corner of the living room!  We haven't had the 6 ft. tree up for a couple years, and it felt good putting it up again.  Judith really hasn't been super interested in touching it, but loves looking at it - so far, the herding away from the tree technique has worked just fine.  We'll see how long that lasts - we intentionally avoided any breakable ornaments this year just in case.

Official 1 Year Stats & A General Update

We just got back from the pediatrician's office.  4 shots (Synagis, Hep A, Varicella, & MMR) and 1 blood test later, I have Judith's official 1 year stats!

Weight: 17 lbs 4 oz (5th percentile)
Length: 26.5" (not on the charts yet)
Head Circumference: 17-something" (10th percentile, and I can't remember what it was exactly - mommy brain lol)

Her pediatrician is pleased with everything, and is pleased with her progress!  While we will continue to adjust her age for another year, Judith is catching up nicely!  She's practically caught up to her actual age, and it will be interesting to see how she tests when we go to our next NICU clinic appointment.  We're continuing with the monthly Synagis injections, but unless she gets sick we won't have to go back until her 15 month well-baby appointment.


In other news, I heard from the medical supply company, and Judith's Pediasure will be shipped any day.  I was rather pleased with how fast they contacted me, and was extra pleased when I found out that they could provide us with a variety of flavors!  Judith's really enjoying the stuff, and I'm enjoying having the peace of mind that she's getting the extra calories she needs.

Now That Judith's 1

There are a lot of new and exciting things happening!

First, though, some pictures from Judith's party on Saturday (these are all smash cupcake pics):

Judith's party was good.  She was cranky (a combination of teething, barely napping, and overstimulation), but she did enjoy herself in that way that a 1 year old can.  She got some cute outfits, lots of toys, her own Nativity set, some books, and an Anywhere Chair from Pottery Barn Kids!  The following day (Sunday), she had worship appointments put in at my parents' church in honor of her birthday, and her grandparents, John, & I sponsored the altar flowers at our church - she had 4 beautiful bouquets sitting on the altars, and we got to bring one from our church home.  :)

We're going through some big changes right now.  One of the biggest is she's graduating from formula to Pediasure.  I have 1 can of Neosure left that I just opened this morning, and once that's gone we're done with it!  She needs to be on the Pediasure to keep her calorie consumption up, and thank God that our insurance and her MA will pick up the tab because that stuff's EXPENSIVE (we're talking close to 10 bucks for a 6 pack), and for her it's considered a medical necessity.  I have bad memories of that stuff from when I used to volunteer at S. June Smith center years ago - one of the kids had to drink it, and it smelled so nasty!  It's definitely improved over the years, and now it kind of smells like a McDonald's milkshake.  Anyway, that's going to be her new primary liquid source, and a medical supply company will be delivering it to our door monthly.

I'm still working with her on the sippy cup.  Saturday she took a whole ounce of Pediasure, and I was so excited!  We're making progress, but it's extremely slow progress.  It reminds me a lot of the struggles we went through in the NICU trying to get her to nipple feed, and just like then we'll have to wait for whatever it is to click in her mind before she really takes off with the sippy.

On top of all of these changes, I need to come up with new, possibly creative ways to get Judith's daily salt amount into her.  One thing I'm grateful for is that we don't have to make this transition during the summer months - since it's cooler, she's not going to lose salt as quickly, but we still need to make sure she gets enough to replace what she is losing.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Little Miracle!

It's your big day, peanut!  You are 1 year old today, and you've come so far in the past year!  We are so proud of you, and of your accomplishments!  You are already growing up so fast!

Judith's 1 year (12 month) Stats:


Adjusted Age: 9 months, 2 weeks, 3 days

Weight:  16 lbs 15 oz (about 8.5 times more than you weighed at birth!)

Length: 27" (you grew 12.75" since you were born!)

Hair & Eye Color: You are starting to grow more hair, and it's still a nice reddish-brown color.  Your eyes are getting more and more brown color in them every day!


Teeth: 3.5 - 1 tooth is almost through the gum, so that's your "half" tooth haha!  You have the 2 bottom teeth that you've had for a while, and just before Thanksgiving you cut the upper front left tooth.  More teeth are queued up under your gums and are ready to make their journey through.


Clothing: You are in a bizarre in-between stage.  You need 6-9m pants and sleepers, but the waist is huge on you.  You can wear 3-6m tops and onesies comfortably.  Your shoe size (when you actually wear and keep shoes on your feet) is a size 2.

Diaper Size: Still in size 3!

Meals: You are on all table foods, and love to feed yourself!  You will allow Mommy to feed you yogurt, but you do like to grab the spoon and try to feed yourself with it.  You take about 20 oz of Neosure every day, but that will change very soon - you will get to try some whole milk, and you will start taking supplements of Pediasure daily.  Most of your liquids are from bottles, but you are learning how to use a straw sippy cup.

Developmental Milestones: You regularly pull yourself up at everything you can.  You can climb the stairs, and you are trying to cruise around rooms.  You learned how to wave, and enjoy waving at the "baby in the mirror."  You can give kisses back when someone kisses your cheek.  You love to babble, and you study everything you can!


Happy birthday, sweet little miracle!

Judith's Birth Story (Part 5)

Friday, December 3, 2010.  A date that will forever have importance in our lives.  Judith was born that morning!

We woke up knowing that Judith was arriving that day.  My c-section was scheduled for around 10:00, and our family, pastor from our church, and the lay parish assistant from my parents' church all arrived at the hospital bright and early to support John and me (my parents' pastor sat with my grandmother since she was unable to make the long trip to Bethlehem).

The mag was shut off in preparation for the surgery, and that was such a relief for me; I didn't feel the effects wear off for a little bit, but it was nice to not have that constant flow anymore.

Naturally, they were running behind in the OR, and I was taken to surgery later than anticipated.  John looked a little silly in the scrubs they gave him, but I was looking forward to seeing his reaction when Judith was born.  I decided that, as much as I would've liked pictures of her birth, it was easier to not have him try to learn to use my camera so he could get shots, and we doubted we'd be able to get any good shots since the NICU team would have to whisk her off to stabilize her.  It's a good thing we didn't plan on it, because it never would've happened anyway.

I was supposed to get a spinal, and once that was placed, John would join me in the OR.  God bless the anesthesiologist: he tried 6 times to place it, but couldn't advance it past my vertebrae for some reason.  So general anesthesia it was, and John was not permitted in the OR.

Judith was born at 11:44 AM, weighing 2 lbs even and measuring 14 1/4" long.  Her Apgar scores were decent for a preemie: 6 and 8, I believe.  More stunning was the news that she was breathing room air, and needed little oxygen intervention.  They did place her on CPAP - the pressure was needed to help keep her tiny lungs open, and she essentially was breathing pressurized room air (or 21% oxygen).

Let me tell you: waking up from general anesthesia after a c-section hurts.  They couldn't start the morphine before that, and I was in the worst pain of my life.  It took a few hours for things to settle down, but once it did I was good to go.  I am sad, though, that because of everything I was unable to see Judith her first day of life, save for a couple minutes when they wheeled me into the NICU before taking me back to my room.

John took pictures (after me giving a very drowsy crash course on using my DSLR), and participated in her first care times.  I'm grateful that he spent so much time with her the first day, so she knew her daddy loves her and would be there for her.  He brought reports back to me, and I was excited to hear that she was doing well.

Judith, only a few hours old

I cannot believe it's been a full year since our lives were changed so drastically.  No one ever anticipates a preemie or a NICU stay, and I truly never believed we would be in that boat.  A lot has happened over the past year, and I am thankful that Judith has done and is doing as well as she is.  She truly is a little miracle!

Judith's Birth Story (Part 4)

Thursday, December 2nd was a bit hazy.  I was on the mag for 24 hours, and feeling rather loopy from it.  My vision was starting to go double, but would resolve itself - a side effect of the mag rather than problems from the pre-e, thank goodness.  I couldn't sit completely upright, because I would get dizzy from the mag, and it was getting harder to watch TV because I couldn't focus on the screen.  John decided to go into work for a few hours that morning (his bosses and co-workers all declared him nuts), which in retrospect was probably good because he would've driven me nuts.  Plus it gave him something to do, and something to help take his mind off of everything.

The important event of the day was getting the 2nd steroid shot.  Honestly, I don't understand why so many women complain about these, or why they declare them so painfully evil.  Yeah, it stung a bit, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I was anticipating.  Maybe it's all the padding I have back there or something, but I'd take the steroid shots over the mag any day!

We had consults with a bunch of doctors, most importantly with the neonatologist.  He was able to give us some general expectations about babies born at 29 weeks: these babies have a very high survival rate (over 90%), and we could expect an average of 8 weeks in the NICU.  Some form of respiratory assistance would be needed, whether it was a ventilator or CPAP.  I was told I would have to pump breastmilk for her, since she would not be able to nurse directly for a while, and would receive her feeds through a feeding tube.  We were told to expect an umbilical line to be placed, hopefully quickly followed by a PICC line.  This consult helped a little bit, because I was able to realize that they would do everything possible to help her fight and thrive.  Not that it took away the fear, worry, and anxiety over her early appearance, but it was almost comforting to know that she would be in the best of hands.

John & I went on a tour of the NICU, and were able to see where Judith would be spending the next weeks of her life.  We saw a quiet room, had the monitors explained to us, and began to prepare mentally for all of the tubes and wires that would be hooked to her tiny body.

Our pastor came to visit that afternoon, and it was a pleasant diversion for me.

I was allowed to take a shower that evening, and it was much needed - I felt so scuzzy by this point, and my hair was a greasy mass.  John laughed at me so much, and if I knew I could get away with it I would've slugged him - because of the mag, I couldn't stand upright, and resembled a drunken sailor trying to walk to the shower.  I moved slower than a snail, trying to keep my balance, and for the first time he had to actually help me bathe.  The shower felt good though, and it was nice to go back to my bed feeling clean and less greasy!

With my c-section looming the following day, my oral intake was stopped.  I was without water, and was getting so thirsty, but I knew it had to be done to help prepare me for the morning.

To be continued...

Judith's Birth Story (Part 3)

Wednesday, December 1st dawned a very warm, rainy, stormy day.  It was unusual weather for that time of year - temperatures were well into the 60s, and it felt more like spring than late fall/early winter.  This was also the day when the shit really hit the fan.

My OB indeed received the results of my urine catch, and it was not good: I had +3 edema, particularly in my legs; my kidneys were spilling 10+ protein, and were on the verge of shutting down.  He broke the news to us that I had  severe preeclampsia, and his goal was to have me make it as long as possible before delivery so they could administer steroid shots to help Judith's lungs develop.  He informed me that I would have to be transferred to a different hospital, one with a Level III NICU that could handle a very premature baby.  He explained that St. Joseph (where I was at) had some sort of relationship with St. Luke's in Bethlehem, and that was where they were going to transfer me.  My perinatologist was from St. Luke's, so I felt comfortable being transferred and placed under his care up there.

I was immediately started on magnesium sulfate, to help prevent any seizures that could be caused by the pre-e.  If you have never been on mag, I hope you never have to be.  That stuff sucks.  They give you a bolus over the course of an hour, and it's wicked - you get major hot flashes, and it can make you nauseated (thank God I avoided that part, but it did make me feel very funky - like an acid trip or something).  They also had to place a catheter, because the mag pretty much robs you of the ability to walk like a normal person; my urine output also had to be monitored, so this was an easy way for them to do so.

A group of student nurses was on the floor that day, and they asked if it would be ok for them to place the catheter.  I'm big on learning opportunities like these, and it didn't bother me.  Just my luck, though, it was storming at the time, and the freakin' power went out right as they were getting ready to place the catheter.  It took a little bit for the generator to kick in, and once it did the ladies got everything placed quickly and accurately.

I spent an hour in a medical van on the way to Bethlehem, and that was one of the most uncomfortable trips of my life.  I had some bad sciatica by then, and every bump hurt my poor bum.  I couldn't move my legs around (strapped down for safety), and I couldn't switch positions.  Combine that with the looming fact that I was only 29 weeks along and was facing the very real possibility of my daughter arriving by the end of the week.

My mom and John drove separately, and met me at the hospital.  I arrived first, because John got directions to the wrong place.  I was settling into my room by the time they figured out they were at the right place, and I had an ultrasound scheduled with my peri.  Mom didn't stay long - it's a good hour and a half drive for her, and she needed to get home; she stayed long enough to make sure I was settled, then made the trek south.

John went with me to the ultrasound, and the peri took a look at everything.  The day before, I had an ultrasound at St. Joe's, and my OB noticed something funky with the placenta.  My peri told us what happened: as a result of the pre-e, my placenta shut down, and Judith stopped growing.  It happened in the span of 2 weeks - I had an appointment with him 2 weeks prior, and everything was fine.  He also told us that because the pre-e was so bad, Judith was Intrauterine Growth Restricted (IUGR), and because my placenta wasn't functioning, they would have to deliver as soon as possible.  The hope was for me to hold out long enough to get the 2nd steroid shot, and they would schedule a c-section for 24 hours after the last shot (Judith was also breech, so an induction wasn't even possible).  They would perform an emergency c-section if things deteriorated further.

To be continued...