Slow and Steady...

Well, it's day 12 of our NICU stay, and Naomi is making small but definite steps every day.  She would now be about 38 weeks gestation, so it's not unheard of for her to still be learning to eat.  The doctors keep wavering back and forth about doing more tests on her- largely because she has a brother with a chromosome problem, even though it was a spontaneous problem and Rusty and I are not carriers.  I think she'll probably end up with a followup appointment at Children's Mercy sometime after she's discharged.  Just to play things safe.  I don't mind that.

In the meantime, she's doing really well!  She's just not quite able to eat enough food on her own.  I'll feed her about 2/3 of her bottle, and she's tube-fed the rest.  I asked about taking her home with the NG tube in place but this hospital doesn't allow that.  Oh well- Rusty and the kids are doing pretty well, and I'm enjoying a lot of cuddle time and quiet.  I'm even getting in a lot of uninterrupted crocheting!  I am rather jealous of the yummy meals that the branch members are bringing my family...cafeteria food gets kinda old!  ;o)  The nurses keep asking how I can be so patient, but then I tell them that I've had lots of practice sitting around in hospitals with Nate- his record is 5 weeks.  I figure Naomi will do less than half of that.  It's a quiet break for me, and when it's over I really get excited to get back to my family and daily chores- so hopefully they get back a better mommy when I come home!

Thanks again to everyone's kind wishes and prayers and help.  I STILL don't have email access, and Rusty's rather swamped right now, but we do appreciate all of the kind messages!  Take care!

Michelle

p.s. sorry no photos!  They are all on the computer at home.

Naomi Aibrean “Squirrel”

She’s here!  

Naomi came via C-section, four weeks early.  We had a couple days’ notice, which was such a blessing.  Nate had his wonderful nurses all ready to care for him, and Rusty’s parents hopped in their car and drove halfway across the country with time to spare to watch the other kids and help out for the next couple weeks (what a BLESSING!!  We’re soooo grateful they were able to come!).  So when the day came, Rusty and I hopped in the car and drove to Topeka, debating possible names and laughing about how we did almost the exact same thing with Nate’s birth five years ago.  Well, I was laughing.  Rusty was freaking out about the C-section.  Brought back bad memories of my last round of surgery.  I threatened to tell the nurses I was checking HIM into the hospital, he was getting so nervous.  

This was my first C-section, and it was rather trippy.  Of course, anytime you give me a painkiller with narcotics, the world starts spinning and won’t stop for days, so the “trippy” factor is a given.  I found myself strapped to a very narrow table, with my arms on little trays out to the sides like a cross, and the whole contraption tilted head-down because my blood pressure was dropping, and the room spinning from the meds...I thought I was on one of those astronaut-training circle machines that spin the astronaut in every direction, trying to make them puke.  You know what I’m talking about?  No?  That’s okay, it’s just the meds talking.  

Anyway, Naomi was “born” at high noon, after sticking out every body part EXCEPT her head (including her rear end) and making the doctors wonder just what sort of gymnastics she was doing in there.  The placenta (the cause of the early delivery, I had a complete placenta previa) came out fine, so my doctors could relax and put away all the extra blood and hysterectomy tools...they were prepared for all sorts of complications.  We’re glad things went better than expected.  She weighed 5 lbs, 14 oz and was 19 inches long.

Naomi was in the NICU for a few days to watch for signs of brain damage because of a suspected level 3 hemmorrage (bleeding) in her brain.  Prenatally we’d seen signs of hydrocephaly, but an ultrasound after birth showed a lot of blood in there, and it would likely would cause significant damage.  Scary stuff.  However, miracles DO happen.  Her follow-up ultrasound two days later showed not a single trace of water or blood pooled in her brain.  There “should” be no way that it would have all cleared out in those two days, with no signs of damage.  The radiologist tried to explain how the first post-natal ultrasound could have been GROSSLY misread, but he couldn’t explain how the two pre-natal ultrasounds also showed fluid in those same locations... they all apologized over and over for the scare and our stress over this.  I just smiled and told them that we simply are grateful that she is fine now.  For a private, religious hospital, they still can’t call this a miracle.  But I can.  We were willing to take her with brain damage, and the Lord knows that, but we are so grateful He chose to heal her instead.

She is now back in the NICU for the next few days because she hasn’t quite realized the need to eat.  So we give her a bottle, she eats maybe a third of an ounce, and then we give her the rest through a tube.  Technically, with my experience from Nate, I could do that at home, but I’m not going to fight hospital policy just over that.  I feel better with the extra monitoring.  I’m officially discharged, but they are letting me stay in a hospital room with her and she goes to the NICU every couple hours for her feedings and monitoring.  Then I get her back for an hour or so.  Plus, at night, they can watch her and I can SLEEP!  So nice.  Once she “ages” a bit, the eating reflex will kick in and she will be able to maintain her weight and we can go home.

Rusty and his parents are keeping things together at home.  Nate ended up with another UTI this week, so poor Rusty has been juggling doctor visits, possible ER trips for fever, and all of that mess along with keeping day-to-day life running.  I’m really, really impressed with his ability to step in and handle all of that.  He needs an award!  I think he would prefer sleep.  And chocolate.

Hyrum and Hannah are LOVING all the attention from Grandma and Grandpa.  They get to go hiking around in the trees around our house to their heart’s content.  They get a willing audience for all of their random tales.  And they get a taste of what it’s like to have actual order and schedules, rather than the “free-for-all, fend-for-yourself” lifestyle they’ve put up with because I’ve been too sick to do much for the last several months!  It’s wonderful.  Rusty’s folks are also busy fixing all of the minor repairs (and a few more major ones) around the house.  I just hope they pace themselves!  

Okay, I’m done rambling.  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to everyone for their help, kind wishes, and thoughts and prayers.  I haven’t had access to a computer until today, and I still can’t access email (the hospital WIFI isn’t working with my email account yet), so I can’t respond to you all individually yet.  But I hope you all know we love you all and are so grateful for your support.  Take care!