How Preemie Moms are Chosen

This is beautiful!
How Preemie Moms Are Chosen (Adapted from Erma Bombeck)
Did you ever wonder how the mothers of premature babies are chosen? Somehow, I visualize God hovering over Earth, selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As he observes, he instructs his angels to take notes in a giant ledger. "Beth Armstrong, son. Patron Saint, Matthew. Marjorie Forrest, daughter. Patron Saint, Celia. Carrie Rutledge, twins. Patron Saint ... give her Gerard. He's used to profanity." Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles. "Give her a preemie." The angel is curious. "Why this one, God? She's so happy." "Exactly," smiles God. "Could I give a premature baby a mother who knows no laughter? That would be cruel." "But does she have the patience?" asks the angel. "I don't want her to have too much patience, or she'll drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wear off, she'll handle it. I watched her today. She has that sense of self and independence so rare and so necessary in a mother. You see, the child I'm going to give her has a world of its own. She has to make it live in her world, and that's not going to be easy." "But Lord, I don't think she even believes in you." God smiles. "No matter, I can fix that. This one is perfect. She has just the right amount of selfishness." The angel gasps, "Selfishness?! Is that a virtue?" God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she will never survive. Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect. She doesn't know it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a spoken word. She will never consider a step ordinary. When her child says 'mama' for the first time, she will be witness to a miracle and know it. I will permit her to see clearly the things I see – ignorance, cruelty, prejudice – and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side." "And what about her Patron Saint?" asks the angel, his pen poised in the air. God smiles. "A mirror will suffice."

Finally Home!

We are finally home and doing great! I don't have much time to post a long blog but will try to very soon! Here are some pics!

Beautiful Girl!

Here is a picture of Bryn without anything on her face!!! Isn't it nice to see what she really looks like? It sounds like we will be going home on Saturday! I will have lots of pictures to post of that!

Today Bryn also got her pick line out. I was changing her diaper and noticed a lump in her leg. After the doctor checked it out he agreed that we should take out the pick line just to make sure the lump didn't worsen. He explained that after being in awhile the vein can start building up around it making it seem like a permanent fixture in the body. He said it can get very rigid. He was glad to take it out. We were too! She will get her last dose of antibiotics tonight from a shot instead of the line.

Grandparents got to hold her today for the first time since she didn't have the pick line to worry about anymore! I am sure they loved their snuggle time!!

No News is Good News

(first bath above!)

Sorry I haven't posted for awhile, Bryn started making leaps and bounds with progress so I have been a little bit busy!

Bryn has been off of the ventilator since Monday and has been doing great. She is breastfeeding like a champ!! Paul and I have been able to hold her but no one else has since she still has the pick line. They are taking her off of her oxygen tonight, she finishes her last dose of antibiotics tonight, she has finished her lipids etc. etc. etc.!!! She may be able to dump the pick line tomorrow which I know will make the grandparents happy as they will then get to give her a snuggle! They are hoping to discharger her THIS WEEKEND!! The only thing she has to prove is that she can gain weight. She weighs in right now at 6 pounds 4oz. I am trying to feed her as often as possible around the clock to put some meat on her!

Halle has been up to see her a few times but is more fascinated by the elevators than she is her sister. She wants to touch her hands and her head but as soon as she hears any monitor beep she gets all excited and screams "ooooh elevator!" We try to just let her see her for short spurts! We asked her last night if she wants to bring Bryn home and she said "Yes Please!" We will she if she changes her mind once we get her home!!

I will post more soon!

The Gifts We Are Given

I realize today more than any other day how much god listens to us! I have realized how many of the little things I take for granted instead of nourishing the blessings he is giving me! So many people have been praying for Bryn over the last week. Well, our prayers are being answered. Yesterday the doctor came in and told us that the cause for infection is Pnemonia and they would keep checking her chest xrays to make sure it was getting better. They decided to take her off of the ventilator today as long as her xrays were showing that the pnemonia was not worsening. Well, this morning Bryn came off of the ventilator, and is doing great!

This afternoon the doctor came into our room for an update and with a very puzzled look on his face and with a very thick accent he said "yesterday she have pnemonia, today infection gone????" It was like he couldn't believe what he was saying. He was just looking for improvement of the xray but what he found was a miracle... or was it... I think that would make anyone a believer in the power of prayer! He said "this morning she was a ventilator baby, this afternoon she is being held and doing great!" She is definately a fighter! We are so blessed to have all of the wonderful family and friends in our lives to help us pray for our little miracle. You all are the best! I will be praying for all of you!

All of her other stats are doing great. Her lungs have completely matured, and her infection is gone. She is still a little bit jaundice, not digesting her food very well and she is a little bit anemic from them taking so many blood samples but these are just small hurdles compared to what she has accomplished over the past 6 days! Tomorrow she will be one week old! I can't believe it! She will get a bath in the morning and be able to go to a crib instead of the warming bed! It will be nice to see her in a real newborn bed and not sprawled out on the warming bed!!

I will post an update tomorrow with some more good news!!

Bye Bye ventilator!

Today at 10:45am Bryn came off of the ventilator! YEAH! She is doing great without it. They did give her a cannula in her nose just to give her a little bit of extra oxygen for the nex day or so, so she doesn't have to work quite so hard! Her chest xray came back much better, not showing the pnemonia... All in all it has been a great day. They will check her blood gases at 12:45 to see how they are doing and then take the line out of her belly button. Hopefully we will get to hold her by the end of the day! The only bad news I have is that she is not digesting the breast milk very well. Yesterday she had two feedings that she digested but this morning was not digesting much at all. They are not going to feed her for 24 hours and see if that will get her digestion moving. She is getting all the nutrients she needs through the pick line but they say she may get a little bit fussy since her tummy is empty. I will post a picture very soon!

On the up and up!

YEAH Bryn!!

Today Bryn's blood oxygen levels have been awesome so the doctors decided to bring her oxygen down to 25 and adjust her ventilator. They are hoping to take the vent off tomorrow or Tuesday! She is getting more feisty everyday and the doctor thinks this is a good sign that she doesn't need the vent anymore!

They did tell us today that the source of the infection is Pnemonia. They think she somehow contracted it in utero and sent me into labor. She definately had immature lungs but the pnemonia is what has made her so sick. Her chest xray today came back as normal for a newborn so the surfactant did its job! Now we just have to let the antibiotics work as well! She is half done with the antibiotics and her infection is coming down tremendously!

We are so proud of her improvements every day! It is amazing what your children can do! Keep praying for us!

Pick Line

This afternoon the nurses had a hard time changing Bryn's IV so they decided to give her a pick line. They will be able do administer more fluids through the line and will not have to change it every other day like they did the iv. Hopefully this will benefit her even more! Other than that, she is looking very good today. She is staying very calm and her stats are staying consistent. She had a chest xray this afternoon and each one has been coming back better so we are hopeful this will do the same.

Progress!

Saturday January 19th 2008

Progress today!! Bryn's xrays are showing improvement with her lung development. Each xray seems to be getting better and better! Her infection levels have come down significantly. The doctor told us this morning that the infection is her major issue. If she were not fighting the infection she would probably be off of the ventilator. Once the infection is at bay, she should start improving tremendously.

She is showing a little bit of Jaundice which is common in babies. She should be peaking in her levels today or tomorrow so hopefully she will not neet phototherapy.

Other than that, she is resting very well, and hasn't needed Morphene since 10am yesterday!

Things are looking up! Thank you for all of the prayers! Keep them coming, they are definately working!

An early welcome to the world

Well... I have decided to start blogging about our newest addition to our family so everyone can be informed!

Bryn Adrianna Stephens made an early arrival into this world on January 15th at 10:09 am. My contractions started at about 1:30am on Monday night. After an hour and a half of counting contractions every 2 to 4 minutes I called the doctor who confirmed I should go to the hospital to be checked out. They monitored me for about 30 minutes and confirmed I was having contractions every 2 minutes. Because I was only 36 weeks and 1 day, they decided to give me an iv bag to see if it would help ease up the contractions. No luck! After this unsuccessful attempt they gave me something (can't remember the name) in my iv to see if it would stop the contractions. This only made them come stronger and closer together. At 9am on Tuesday morning they decided there was no stopping this baby and set me up for a repeat c-section. My original section date was February 6th.

The doctors gave us all of the things that could happen and informed us that we had a 50/50 chance of getting a healthy baby at 36 weeks. All seemed well after she was born. She came out crying which was a good sign but soon wore herself out. She was taken to the NICU for observation only to find out that her lungs were not working as they had expected. After several hours of observation they made the decision to intubate her and let a ventilator do the breathing for her to giver her a break.

It has been a rollercoaster since then. Tuesday she was responding well to the oxygen and ventilator but Wednesday she started to not respond sending her back just a little bit. She was stable Thursday and Friday.

Saturday morning they will give her another chest xray to see if her lungs have matured. Her last xray showed some improvement so we are praying that this next xray shows even more maturity!