February 21- March 11 (week 9 and week 10)

Well Amelia has been extubated for a two weeks and 4 days. YAY!! She is doing great breathing without the breathing tube. They have Amelia on whats called a CPAP which has a small face mask and small noise prongs that the nurses switch between to give her little noise a break.

Amelia is getting so big she is now 3LBS 10oz !! She is getting chubby cheeks.

The doctors have discontinued Amelia's steroids and we've been able to ween more of her vent settings. Amelia has as moved up to a big girl tube for bath time. The OT has been working with Amelia to get her ready to bottle/ breastfeed.

Last week Grammy got to hold Amelia while she was out visiting. Amelia also got to meet her great aunt Peggy! Amelia loved seeing and spending time with them.

Also this week we got set up with an "Angle Eye" camera that Larry The Cable Guy's "Git-R-Done" foundation donated.In all they are donating 26 cameras for parents to use to check in on their little ones while they are at work or home when the little ones are in the NICU. We were lucky enough to be the first family to get to use the new cameras. They are truly fantastic. Since installing the camera last Tuesday our whole family has been able to check in on miss Amelia any time of the day from all over  the country! From Grammie and Poppop in Delaware, to Great Aunt Sheila and Great Grandma Bernie in New Mexico, and everyone in between. The cameras provide live high def access to our baby girl 24 hours a day from anywhere we need to be. It's great! Also this week, because we were chosen to try out the new cameras first, we had the honor of making a video with Bryan LGH's videographers to show off the new system for the hospital. And The "Git-R-Done" foundation plans on using our video when Larry The Cable Guys goes out on tour later this year!

February 6-12 (week 7), February 13-20 (week 8)

Hey everyone, sorry for the late update on Amelia.  Between working, pumping non stop, caring for Amelia, and keeping up with the rest of life’s hectic demands (my other children aka Opie, Summer, and Jesse), time has really gotten away from me!

For the most part, Amelia has been pretty status qou as of late, which has been a welcome break from the typical roller coaster we’ve been riding. The vent tube has caused an infection in her lungs and presented a rather large hurdle in terms of getting extubated from the vent. Since my last post, she has been running on a cycle of antibiotics to get the infection cleared up and allow her lungs much needed development. While we’ve been waiting for the antibiotics to do their job we’ve just been patiently watching her grow.  In just 10 days, she’s already gained another ½ lb! She up to 2lb 8.2 oz as of today.   She’s actually starting to look bigger than the care bear we’ve been using to gauge her size! 

Today, Amelia received her first round of immunizations.  One in ten babies can have a reaction to these immunizations in the first 24 hours so we’ll just keep a close eye on her to make sure she’s alright. Tomorrow will be her final dose of antibiotics. The last four days or so her x-rays have started looking much better and we’ve been able to steadily ween her vent as the infection has decreased.  We are actually weened down enough that we’re beginning to plan for extubation again. THIS TIME FOR GOOD!!!! If all goes well doctors are planning to pull the tube on Wednesday or Thursday so for goodness sakes, PLEASE, PLEASE, PRAY!!! As the action is starting to pick back up around room 312, we’ll try to update more frequent. Fingers crossed!

 Week One With the Care Bear

 

Week Eight With the Care Bear. 

Right after bath time dad gave her a mohawk.

YAY! We hit 2lbs!

Amelia along with Mom and Dad love snuggle time. 

Amelia loves to invite all the nurses into her room to party. She love to hear the gossip.

Even though Amelia had her breathing tube in she thinks she can move all over the place and try to roll over by herself. 

Update January 22nd-31st 2017 (week 5)

January 22nd

This afternoon the doctors and nurses extubated Amelia. So far so good, she handled her extubation a LOT better then the last time they extubated her. Amelia is still on the steroids and will be getting weaned off of them, that will be the true test is when she is completely off the steroids. So as of right now we are taking it one day at a time, praying that she doesn't get too tired from breathing on her own and that we don't have to intubate her so she can get bigger and stronger.


January 23rd
 It's been almost 24 hours since they extubated Amelia. I spent the night in Amelia's room to be close to her and she did well though the night. She didn't have many alarms until the nurse got in to check on her and change her diaper. Early this morning the nurses took she nasal prongs out and switched it with a face mask for preemies.  She loves being on her tummy and not being touched, which is common in baby's her size right after extubate because she is working so hard to breath on her own with the help from the machine. But we are really proud of her and how far she has come. She as been a little bit more alarmy this late morning early afternoon, could be do to the fact that she's getting tired from breathing more on her own. The nurses have turned the oxygen level on the machine up to give her more help. I know if God can get Amelia this far and get her through the first day she will continue to get strong and be that much closer to breathing on her own.

As of 8 pm tonight the night nurse was checking on Amelia changing her diaper, checking her vitals when Amelia decided she was tired and had enough of the breathing on her own. The great thing is that Amelia lasted 30 hours this time around. After getting intubated Amelia's vitals all looked good.

January 24
After the exciting night before and getting intubated again, this morning Amelia was doing great she wasn't as tired from being extubated like she was two weeks ago when they extubated her. The doctors did stop her feed Monday night after she was intubated, just to be on the safe side to not agitated her stomach with whatever air that might be in her stomach as well. But over all she had a good day, until 8 pm when she had another episode where her body clamps down and she can't open her air ways by herself. The nurses had to help Amelia out a little bit.

January 25
From looking at her x-rays, along with sucking mucus out of her, did her medical team decided to start breathing treatments to help break that mucus up that's in her lungs making it hard to breath. They will be doing those treatments every 8 hours until they feel like they have gotten most all the build up out. The nurses started Ameila's feeds again starting her out on 1.0ml/hour. With that the doctors will increase her feeds depending on how she tolerating it.

January 26
After doing Amelia's breathing treatment for a day now she really enjoys them. The respiratory therapist (RT) has gotten a lot of mucus out of her lungs with the treatments along with moving her every 2 to 4 hours so that the mucus doesn't settle in her lungs. Doing the treatments seems to be helping with her breathing. Yes, she still has some alarms but she has been recovering on her own without the help of the nurse or the machine.

January 27-31

The last hand full of days around here have been fairly uneventful. After the start to the week uneventful is a pleasant change of pace! Amelia has been switched to an auto-ween vent setting that automatically adjusts to her needs and weens her down as she's ready. With this system her alarms have become less frequent and less severe. She doesn't desat as low and she's able to come out of them on her own.  Over the last couple days we got he worked back up to full feeds and we are patiently waiting to see some growth. Her weight gain is back and forth right now, At one point we saw her get all the way up to 1lb 12.6 oz. We'd like to see a little better growth at this point, but we'll take what we can get.

Update: January 21-22 2017 (week 4)

January 21st 2017

Today Amelia is one month old. YAY. At this time she is 1lb and 8.3oz, she has gain (0.4oz) per day over the past 7 days. This week Amelia has been doing good, the doctors have increased her feed by 3.2mL/hr this week and have added more calories to her breast milk to help with the weight gain. Amelia has been up to her same tricks the past couple of weeks, where she likes to desat on her oxygen just to get the nurse's attention because she doesn't like to be by herself.  Most all the time Amelia will recover and bring her oxygen levels back up on her own.
 The doctors have started a second round of steroids to help strengthen her lungs in hopes of extubation.



January 22nd 2017
 After starting the steroids a couple of day ago Amelia's blood gas are looking a lot better and the nurses were able to ween her oxygen settings on the vent machine. With all of this the doctors are hoping to extubate her today or tomorrow (Monday January 23rd). This will be her second time for extubation. The first time she did really great, she lasted 18 hours before they had to reintubate her. So, this time around, the nurses and doctors are hoping that she will stay extubated, just looking at her numbers and how she has been doing over all. Amelia is a lot stronger and bigger from the last time they ectubated her to now.
So if your reading this please keep Amelia and us in your prayers that she will be stronger to stay extubated. We know that God has answer our prays so far and will continue to answer our prayers.


The Pictures blow are from two weeks ago when they extubated her last time. 

From the Beginning

This post is for everyone interested in how Amelia progress is coming. 

As many of you know that Jesse and I had our little girl on Wednesday December 21st. I was only 24 weeks and 6 days gestation, making her 15 weeks early (she decided she wasn't going to miss Christmas this year). On Monday December 19th I was not feeling good when I got checked out by the doctors at the hospital, they diagnosed me with "HELLP Preeclamsia" which can cause high blood pressure, elevated live enzymes, abdominal or chest tenderness and upper right side pain (from liver distention), shoulder pain or pain when breathing deeply, and swelling. The doctors were about to get the first around (out of two) of steroids to help develop Amelia lungs and brain before delivering. By Tuesday my blood pressure along with my liver enzymes were better, and the doctors were about to give me the second round of steroids. The ultrasound showed that Amelia was the size of a 20 week baby (which could have been due to her having a two vessel umbilical cord). By Wednesday morning the pain along with the shortness of breath had return and it was worse then before. The nurses and doctors rushed us into emergency c-section to deliver Amelia. Amelia Kay arrived at 10:06am weighing 1 pound and 1.6 oz and measured 10.5 inches long.

 

We will try to keep to post weekly updates for everyone. 

Please continue to praying for Amelia to grow and getting stronger.  She has a long road ahead of her but she is a strong fighter so far.