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| Tummy time is hard! |
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
They're here!!! Well two weeks ago.
Sorry for the delay in this post, but we've been a little busy!
The girls decided they had enough of the womb and made up their minds to enter this world a little early.
Megan delivered on 8/9/10 (pretty cool birthday). Lily was born at 2lbs 12oz, Emma was 2lbs 6oz and Abby was 2lbs 7oz. For their gestational age of 28weeks 5 days we are told those weights are great.
Everyone came out screaming with nice healthy lungs that needed no ventilation or additional oxygen. They all had CPAPs for about a day and a half and then moved to nasal cannulas, again without additional oxygen. The fact that they didn't need oxygen or any real help breathing is HUGE for preemies. That's one major test we can mark as passed! A huge sigh of relief for Mom and Dad.
The next test was their digestive systems. The doctors and nurses start them out slow 1cc over an hour every hour, then 2cc over an hour etc... This goes one for a little over a week until the were up to 8ccs. Everyone passed that test with flying colors (of course they can eat...I am their Dad after all). Now everyone is on what they call bolus (sp?) feedings, where they get 25ccs over an hour every 3 hours. Everyone is passing that test too!
One concern for preemies is a condition called PDA...basically it's the special valve in the heart that allows the babies to switch from getting Mom's air/blood to using their own lungs. In preemies this valve sometimes doesn't get a chance to close properly prior to needing use. If it's not closed properly they can have a murmur and all sorts of bad stuff, often treated with medicine or surgery. Our girls have all passed that test too. No surgery or medicines. Yay!
Another preemie issue are brain hemorrhages. The check for this is an ultrasound of the head. A small bleed would not be unheard of and probably not a long term problem, a large bleed would be worrisome. Our girls all passed that test too with no bleeds at all!
Emma and Abby are still experiencing the occasional "Brady" spell. This is where the heart rate drops below 80 normally these are all self resolving lasting only a handfull of seconds. This is not uncommon in babies especially preemies. One thought behind it is that since they are little, they are probably having some reflux which hurts a little...then they bear down to ride out the pain and as a result everything slows down. The doctors and nurses are not concerned with this too much as they are trending to having fewer and fewer.
We're hopefull that the girls will be moved over to the feeders/growers room in the next several days. This will be a really big step for them.
I hope we haven't overloaded you with info. We will be posting some pictures once they move over to the feeders/growers section. We are just wanting to keep some of the early pictures off the interwebs, for the time being.
*UPDATE* : Forgot to mention...PICC lines came and went...The End.
The girls decided they had enough of the womb and made up their minds to enter this world a little early.
Megan delivered on 8/9/10 (pretty cool birthday). Lily was born at 2lbs 12oz, Emma was 2lbs 6oz and Abby was 2lbs 7oz. For their gestational age of 28weeks 5 days we are told those weights are great.
Everyone came out screaming with nice healthy lungs that needed no ventilation or additional oxygen. They all had CPAPs for about a day and a half and then moved to nasal cannulas, again without additional oxygen. The fact that they didn't need oxygen or any real help breathing is HUGE for preemies. That's one major test we can mark as passed! A huge sigh of relief for Mom and Dad.
The next test was their digestive systems. The doctors and nurses start them out slow 1cc over an hour every hour, then 2cc over an hour etc... This goes one for a little over a week until the were up to 8ccs. Everyone passed that test with flying colors (of course they can eat...I am their Dad after all). Now everyone is on what they call bolus (sp?) feedings, where they get 25ccs over an hour every 3 hours. Everyone is passing that test too!
One concern for preemies is a condition called PDA...basically it's the special valve in the heart that allows the babies to switch from getting Mom's air/blood to using their own lungs. In preemies this valve sometimes doesn't get a chance to close properly prior to needing use. If it's not closed properly they can have a murmur and all sorts of bad stuff, often treated with medicine or surgery. Our girls have all passed that test too. No surgery or medicines. Yay!
Another preemie issue are brain hemorrhages. The check for this is an ultrasound of the head. A small bleed would not be unheard of and probably not a long term problem, a large bleed would be worrisome. Our girls all passed that test too with no bleeds at all!
Emma and Abby are still experiencing the occasional "Brady" spell. This is where the heart rate drops below 80 normally these are all self resolving lasting only a handfull of seconds. This is not uncommon in babies especially preemies. One thought behind it is that since they are little, they are probably having some reflux which hurts a little...then they bear down to ride out the pain and as a result everything slows down. The doctors and nurses are not concerned with this too much as they are trending to having fewer and fewer.
We're hopefull that the girls will be moved over to the feeders/growers room in the next several days. This will be a really big step for them.
I hope we haven't overloaded you with info. We will be posting some pictures once they move over to the feeders/growers section. We are just wanting to keep some of the early pictures off the interwebs, for the time being.
*UPDATE* : Forgot to mention...PICC lines came and went...The End.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Closer to home...breathing a little easier.
Megan was moved to the Kaiser closer to home now that she's in their delivery window. While I have no doubts the Hollywood Kaiser would do a wonderful job birthing these babies...it's comforting to know she's only about 20 minutes away from work and 10 minutes away from home.
The awesome plus side, is her friend Norma is a mid-wife for Kaiser and often is working at that hospital. It's also nice that she's close enough now that visitors don't have to fight the crazy traffic.
Not much else is new on that front. I'm still trying to get the house in order for their eventual debut, but I don't think any amount of prep I do will be enough.
The awesome plus side, is her friend Norma is a mid-wife for Kaiser and often is working at that hospital. It's also nice that she's close enough now that visitors don't have to fight the crazy traffic.
Not much else is new on that front. I'm still trying to get the house in order for their eventual debut, but I don't think any amount of prep I do will be enough.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Back in the hosbrutal.
Hollywood, CA - Continuing their whirlwind tour of southland venues such as the Kaiser Permanente in Anaheim and then a follow up show at Kaiser Permanente in Downey, The Smiths are now playing a (hopefull) limited engagement at the Kaiser Permanente in Hollywood right on the Sunset Strip. Seating is limited to dad and two adult guests and there is a no drink maximum...for anybody.
[facepalm]
[facepalm]
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Scary Stuff
I realize it's been awhile since I've posted, please forgive me.
On Wed, June 24th we took our pre-term birth class, where we met Amy one of the OB Nurse people responsible for looking after the patients outside of the hospital. (This becomes important later)
On Sat, June 26th, I took Megan to the hospital because she was having contractions and had an infection. They gave her a shot of Terbutaline (not sure if I spelled that right) which didn't do a lot for the contractions, but they were already pretty irregular. They also started her on Flagyl for the infection. At that point she was pulled from work and sent home, put on modified bedrest, which meant potty breaks and the occaisional trip to the fridge.
On Wed June 30th, Megan gets a welfare check phone call from Amy. After Megan updates Amy on the previous weekends activity, Amy insists on putting Megan on home uterine monitoring.
On Friday July 2nd, the nurse arrives at the house to setup the monitoring system. Megan is to record 2 hour long sessions, one in the morning and one in the evening. After each session she is to upload the data to them for the nurses to analyze. We were told from the beginning that the home uterine monitoring would lead to more trips to L&D (labor and delivery) as they tend to be extra conservative with that stuff.
So on Megan's first monitoring session that evening the desk nurse gives us a call within a minute of uploading the data. Drink a boatload of water, relax and do another hour long monitor starting in about 30 minutes. They called us back again after that hour and uploading the data, and said do it one more time, more water relax and start over. After the third upload the nurses advised us to go to L&D.
At Lakeview, they gave another shot of Terbutaline (here to fore called Terb) and proceeded to check her cervix at which point she measured about 1cm dilated, and had shortened to about 2.5cm (down from 3.2 at our last ultrasound about 2 weeks prior). At that point the Dr. admitted her for observation.
We stayed the night and over the course of the rest of the night she continued to have contractions. They gave her a catheter (spelling?) so she didn't have to keep getting up every 20 minutes (which is not good for a pregnant woman in contractions). They switched her to Magnesium Sulfate (Mag) and rechecked her cervix and now she measured about 2cm. Since she's only 23 wks 3 days at this point (too young for Lakeview) they moved her to Downey who can handle the younger ones (24 wks is considered viable).
The ambulance ride over was kind of bad for the contractions and they seemed to get worse. However they slowly started to subside.
After an uneventful Sunday morning and afternoon, we had a waterbreak scare. After a nerve-wracking hour, and an ultrasound, what we thought was a water-break was residual infection. The ultrasound showed the fluid levels were still great.
Contractions are still under control and now we're in the waiting game, each day is a goal.
Hands down the worst weekend of my life.
On Wed, June 24th we took our pre-term birth class, where we met Amy one of the OB Nurse people responsible for looking after the patients outside of the hospital. (This becomes important later)
On Sat, June 26th, I took Megan to the hospital because she was having contractions and had an infection. They gave her a shot of Terbutaline (not sure if I spelled that right) which didn't do a lot for the contractions, but they were already pretty irregular. They also started her on Flagyl for the infection. At that point she was pulled from work and sent home, put on modified bedrest, which meant potty breaks and the occaisional trip to the fridge.
On Wed June 30th, Megan gets a welfare check phone call from Amy. After Megan updates Amy on the previous weekends activity, Amy insists on putting Megan on home uterine monitoring.
On Friday July 2nd, the nurse arrives at the house to setup the monitoring system. Megan is to record 2 hour long sessions, one in the morning and one in the evening. After each session she is to upload the data to them for the nurses to analyze. We were told from the beginning that the home uterine monitoring would lead to more trips to L&D (labor and delivery) as they tend to be extra conservative with that stuff.
So on Megan's first monitoring session that evening the desk nurse gives us a call within a minute of uploading the data. Drink a boatload of water, relax and do another hour long monitor starting in about 30 minutes. They called us back again after that hour and uploading the data, and said do it one more time, more water relax and start over. After the third upload the nurses advised us to go to L&D.
At Lakeview, they gave another shot of Terbutaline (here to fore called Terb) and proceeded to check her cervix at which point she measured about 1cm dilated, and had shortened to about 2.5cm (down from 3.2 at our last ultrasound about 2 weeks prior). At that point the Dr. admitted her for observation.
We stayed the night and over the course of the rest of the night she continued to have contractions. They gave her a catheter (spelling?) so she didn't have to keep getting up every 20 minutes (which is not good for a pregnant woman in contractions). They switched her to Magnesium Sulfate (Mag) and rechecked her cervix and now she measured about 2cm. Since she's only 23 wks 3 days at this point (too young for Lakeview) they moved her to Downey who can handle the younger ones (24 wks is considered viable).
The ambulance ride over was kind of bad for the contractions and they seemed to get worse. However they slowly started to subside.
After an uneventful Sunday morning and afternoon, we had a waterbreak scare. After a nerve-wracking hour, and an ultrasound, what we thought was a water-break was residual infection. The ultrasound showed the fluid levels were still great.
Contractions are still under control and now we're in the waiting game, each day is a goal.
Hands down the worst weekend of my life.
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