We Have Babies - Dec 19-25th

Well, where to start, it has been a long and at times an unsettling week. I'll start at the beginning.

I'm leaving out some of the more technical issues and trying to keep it simple.

To start, Momma was admitted Monday Dec 19th to have a somewhat emergency c-section due to her ever growing issue with her high blood pressure. So we were sent to the hospital and told we would be having babies real soon. That was the easy part of the day.

During the c-section, baby A (Harlan Jayne) was delivered at 3:28PM and was 5lbs 2oz and 18 1/2 inches. All was good with her, lots of crying just a little light in the weight department. While Harlan was being delivered, baby B (Lanier Jeanne) decided she wanted to stay a while longer, so when her sister came out, she sent and to hide under her placenta, in the process of this also flipped and was breech, So while trying to find her, she ripped her sac and the doctor had to cut through the placenta to remove her. This caused massive volume loss in Lanier, which did not bode well for her. She was delivered at 3:31PM at 5lbs 2oz and 18 1/4 inches. Her weight is an issue because it was reported at 6lbs 7.5 oz. The last thing I cared about was how true her weight was and was glad that they were working on her.

For Lanier, with the massive volume loss (bleeding out through the cord), she was rushed to the Special Care Nursery while her sister went to the newborn nursery. In SCN she had to have 2 blood transfusions as well as antibiotics, several lines for proteins, minerals, etc. Her APGAR scores were 1 at 1 minute, 7 at 5min, 8 at 10 minutes. The SCN staff worked on her for the better part of an hour, just to stabilize her. The worst feeling in the world is to look at your child, knowing you can do nothing and knowing that babies should not be white as a sheet, still and non-vocal. At 3 hours of life, she was looking like a real baby, at 12 HOL, she had recovered to the point that they had started taking the lines out, at 24 HOL, she was down to only nutrients and antibiotics, at around 24-36 HOL she developed a few cases of apnea, which resulted in caffeine being giving to her. Once the caffeine was in her system and after it was removed, she has not had any repeat episodes to date. Well each day for Lanier was a great improvement and the SCN staff were amazed at how she had improved since her birth.

Well on Friday Harlan was allowed to come home, in our case the hospital guest house with me and Momma. We had to stay close to be able to feed Lanier. Each day for Lanier was better than the day before, By Christmas Eve and early Christmas day she was totally off any supplements or other lines that she was on. She was totally on either Momma's milk and formula. She was doing so good that she was discharged from SCN on Christmas day.

So here we are , me a house full of women, they are doing good so far, both a bit under weight, but we have them on a higher calorie formula that the pediatrician suggested. Lanier is on an apnea machine for 4 months, and will be going to therapy at 3,6,9 and 12 months. This therapy session is to check that she is developing normally based on the way she came into this world.

I'll post some pics when we get a moment to upload them