NICU Day 106 ~ (March 22nd)

We are praising God that our precious little girl weighed in at 3 lbs. tonight!!  Not only that, but they also dropped two of her four medications today as she has now recovered from rickets and her labwork showed improvement in other areas as well.  The only medications she now receives are synthroid (for her hypothyroidism) and iron.  It appears that we are coming down to our final days in the NICU.  Everything hinges on the results of her intestine x-ray next week, but she is doing so well on all other accounts that they really feel that our home going is not so very far away.  The one main thing she must still overcome is the bradycardias (episodes of dropping her heart rate).  This is very common with preemies, and she seems to have outgrown the random bradycardias that she previously had; but she is such an aggressive eater that she sometimes causes herself to choke and drop her heart rate while she is eating.  She acts as if she has never been fed in her life and will never be fed again (although, who can blame her after she has been taken off her feeds so many times!!).  Thankfully, she had no episodes today, and she will have to complete 7 consecutive days of no episodes before she is allowed to leave the NICU.  She may still come home on oxygen; and to be honest, I actually would not mind that.  It would mean some inconvenience in that she would be attached to her cannula and a monitor, but that actually is a comforting thought for making the transition home.  I cannot imagine sleeping the first several nights without her hooked up to anything!!  If she weans off her oxygen before coming home, it will be great; but if she comes home with it, then that will be fine too.  So if all goes well next week, then we may be home by the middle of April!!  Mentally, we are preparing for setbacks (though none are anticipated at this point); but physically, we are in a whirlwind to get things ready for her to be at home with us 24/7.   We know this journey will simply take another turn when we reach that day, but we are excited for this "bend in the trail" and are looking forward to what God has in store for our family as we turn the corner.  Thank you so much for your continued prayers, love, and support!!

NICU Day 69 ~ (February 14th)

Well, our Valentine's Day ended up being pretty rough, to say the least.  It started out well with no changes being made to Noelle's care, and she had a good morning although her acid reflux was still bothering her quite a bit.  Still, I was able to hold her for a short while and spend some sweet time with her.  However, everything changed this afternoon after her eye exam.  I had left the hospital for a few hours to get some things done and received a phone call from the NICU.  My heart always skips a beat when I see that number, but they informed me that she was okay but that they wanted my consent to transfer her to Baptist for laser eye surgery.  The vessels in her eyes are growing too quickly and need to be dealt with as soon as possible.  Tom and I gave our consent and rushed to the hospital in time to meet the transport team and say goodbye to our Forsyth NICU family.  They have assured us that we will be allowed to return once she has been cleared after the surgery, but we're still looking at a week or two being away from our "home."  I knew I would have mixed emotions the day that Noelle moved to NIC 2, so being transferred completely out of the hospital in which we have lived the past 9+ weeks was/is extremely disconcerting.  We had lots of hugs "goodbye" with promises that we would see everyone again soon, and we're praying that that will indeed be the case.

 ~Exhausted Sweet Baby Girl~

Noelle seemed to handle the transport fairly well, but by the time she was starting to get settled into her new place, I could tell she was getting very tired.  She had been awake for quite some time, and since she was being admitted into another hospital, she was constantly being touched, poked, and prodded.  She had to have yet another eye exam, and shortly after that is when she decided she had had enough.  She clamped down, quit breathing, and as Tom half jokingly put it tonight, "she proceeded to take another 10 years off our lives!!"  She has done this once before, but today the episode lasted longer, and they had to do some chest compressions and bag her for about 30-45 seconds.  They almost intubated her again, but thankfully she recovered and started breathing on her own.  The evening still has been up and down as she has had one "brady" (dropping of her rate) after another.  She is absolutely exhausted, and it is obvious that she knows she is not in familiar surroundings.  I never thought I would be wanting to hear the alarm sounds from our old NICU, but after the new monitor sounds all evening, I found myself just wanting to hear the normal alarms to which I am accustomed.  I know what every one of those sounds mean, but here, everything is different.

 

 ~Holding Mommy's Hand & Trying to Get Comfortable~

She finally seemed to settle down late tonight, and we are praying she gets some good rest and can adjust well to her new environment.  She will have to have another eye exam tomorrow, and from there surgery will be determined.  I know it is probably harder on us than it is her, but she is definitely aware on some level that these are not her regular nurses, and this is not her normal space.  It was incredibly hard to leave her tonight.  At "home," all of her nurses know her, her likes and dislikes, her history, her tendencies, and they really do love her and care for her incredibly well.  The nurses here are good as well, but the atmosphere here is completely different than what we had before.  Honestly, I dislike it all very very much, and God is teaching me patience and a new level of contentment like never before.

 ~Noelle's New Corner~

There are still blessings through this.  Her doctors are exactly the same, since all of her neonatologists at Forsyth are actually from Baptist.  It is also a huge blessing that she is here for something more "minor."  Twice, they have had her papers ready to transfer her when they thought she was developing NEC and another time during all the issues with her heart.  Thankfully, this issue is not as serious in many respects.  Still, it's scary and disconcerting, and we're praying that she can do well through this and be back "home" at Forsyth very soon.  We are now readjusting our schedules and plans again so that we can be available to her as much as possible through all of the transitions and procedures. We should learn more tomorrow about what is exactly happening with her eyes and what the ramifications are for her, and we will definitely continue to keep everyone posted.  Thank you so very much for praying for us.  I know that you have not stopped even through the good days, and that is an incredible encouragement to us as we hit the "rougher" days.  God continues to make Himself real to us and show us that He is in control, not us, and we know He will continue to see us through.

NICU Day 66 ~ (February 11th)

Noelle had a fantastic, "boring" day today!!  She had a few minor episodes in which she dropped her heart rate, but she was usually able to recover on her own, so they did not even record them.  She really is beginning to act like her gestational age with more waking periods all the time, and we're thoroughly enjoying each passing day with her as we get to interact with her more and more.  The exciting milestone to report today is....(drumroll please!!)....she reached the 2 lb. weight mark!!!  We are thrilled that she is consistently growing and putting on weight...she is finally taking off, and it is a joy to watch her grow like this.  The next goal is to reach 1,000 grams, and she is only 90 grams away from doing that, so we may reach that even this week.  God continues to demonstrate His gracious goodness in our lives.  Thank you for praying!!

NICU Day 63 ~ (February 8th)

Noelle turned 2 months old today, and I can hardly believe it!!  Overall, she is still doing really well with the main issue right now still being her acid reflux, and it seems that is just going to take some time.  Hopefully she can outgrow it before they have to resort to medications or (worse case scenario) surgery.  She had several episodes today where she dropped her heart rate due to the reflux; but for the most part, she just rested today, and we each got to spend some time holding her.  I think one of my favorite sights is watching her and Tom doing Kanga Care (skin to skin contact) together.  She just snuggles right up with him, and it's a sweet image to see her tiny little body nestled into his.  So, while the dropping of her heart rate made my heart rate increase a few times today, overall it was a pretty "boring" day, and we are thankful for that.  We still appreciate your continued prayers and hope to report another good day tomorrow!!

NICU Day 56 ~ (February 1st)

Overall, Noelle had a really good day.  The main prayer request is for her acid reflux.  She is experiencing it quite a bit, and it often causes her to hold her breath and drop her heart rate creating "episodes."  It is very common with preemies, and the main thing that helps it is growth.  So, we are praying for both the acid reflux to subside and her growth to continue upward.  She is doing very well otherwise, for which we are very thankful.  I hope we can report improvement tomorrow!!  Thank you for praying!!

NICU Day 47 (January 23rd)

Today was pretty uneventful overall, and the main focus was just to help Noelle grow as much as possible.  She had one scary episode today where she dropped her heart rate, and they had to assist her breathing for a minute (she did NOT like the feeding tube being put down her nose...so they switched it back to her mouth instead).   We tried her bottle again tonight but she mainly just blew bubbles with it and wanted to sleep.  The nurse said it is normal for them to do well and then not do so well--it will just take some time to get used to the different "normal" baby things.  So we will try again tomorrow and keep going one day at a time.  Other than that, there is not much else to report today!!  Thanks again for praying!!