Last pic before baby sister joins us.
Waiting for our labor and delivery room at the hospital.
She’s here!
Before heading to nicu.
Back with Mommy & Daddy!
Sunday, June 21, 2020
Pictures
Saturday, June 20, 2020
Hannah
Well I’ve brought the blog back alive in order to have one place to update everyone when we can. Unfortunately there are updates to be given, and we aren’t all home together just yet.
Here is a summary of what has happened since Monday:
I was induced Monday evening due to chronic hypertension throughout the pregnancy. Everything was going well on the medication but we had to keep increasing the dosage as I got further along. At my 37 week appointment, my doctor and I agreed on the induction.
When we got to a room, my body wasn’t really ready, so we started with cervadil a little before 8pm. Cervadil worked really well this time (it didn’t seem to have much affect when I had it with Elliott). The contractions kept getting stronger, and I had made so much progress that I no longer met the requirements for pitocin because I was further along. My doctor came by and broke my water which intensified things. I started getting the shivers or uncontrollable shaking because things were progressing quickly. Received an epidural and soon was ready to push. It was a different experience this time because of how quickly things progressed but also because there were only my doctor and 2 nurses in the room instead of a whole nicu team and extra people. My doctor said he doesn’t think this will take much, and with the first push, we met Hannah at 6:51am.
Her cord was wrapped around her neck twice and her body once. Thankfully it wasn’t tightly wrapped but just tangled I guess.
We got to do skin to skin, she even made a good latch for a little while, and we felt like we couldn’t believe we got a normal birth experience and how great everything was.
After some time, they took her for her measurements and unfortunately due to her size (exactly 5lbs) it meant that she had to spend some time in the transitional nicu for monitoring.
Ryan and Hannah went off to nicu while I was getting prepped for post partum. Hannah had initial low glucose levels, but began to improve quickly after some formula. However, she was too tired to eat and had to have an ng tube placed. She stayed there for a day before they had OT come in to consult as well about her feeding. Their recommendations were very familiar to us, as they were the same as when Elliott was in NICU. Thankfully, the neonatologist at the time believed that although Hannah was not finishing every mL they were asking on their schedule, that she should be rooming in room with us instead and that he would be willing to give it a try. He warned us that if she did not do well and started to lose weight too fast, she would end up back in NICU. We were so very thankful for the chance and happy that Hannah was now staying in our post partum room with us!!
The next few days all sort of blurred together for me. Hannah was doing well rooming in with us. We were getting into a routine and she was checking off everything. She began to eat well, had jaundice and went through an evening under the lights, improved by morning and kept on eating and growing. My bloodwork indicated that I kept losing blood. I was losing some, but nothing like what my levels were indicating. Everyone kept asking me if I was ok because I did not match my bloodwork. At one point, we thought that Hannah might be discharged before I would be. I ended up needing a blood transfusion and received two bags of red blood cells. Levels have improved (still below normal though), but are not critically dangerous anymore. I will be following up with my doctor at the end of next week.
Now that I was settled and ready to be discharged, Hannah had to pass a car seat test as the last thing on our list before going home. This is a requirement for NICU babies and due to her being so small and her time in NICU she had to take the test.
Thursday was our first chance of going home. I had become more stable, but that late afternoon, she failed her car seat test. They would try again the next day.
Friday morning, we waited and waited for the car seat test. They finally told us that she turned “dusty” during the test before so they wanted an EKG to make sure and to have a specialist come help with positioning her during the test. EKG came back normal. Child life specialist came back soon after they started the test and told us that Hannah is too small for the car seat. The lowest level for the straps and buckle allowed too much room and therefore not safe for her. We needed another car seat. Ryan hurried out to target and got one that had lower level straps from the hospital’s list, and we tried again. We were being very positive, and Hannah was gone for the test for a long time. The nurse came back with a happy hello, but unfortunately said Hannah did not pass the test.
Not only did she not fail and we are unable to bring her home, but because I was being discharged, Hannah had to transfer back to NICU for monitoring due to the oxygen desaturation levels she had during the car seat test.
So off we went. Back to NICU. To see her hooked up with wires and monitors again. We are so heartbroken to have to leave her in the hospital and go home without her. We really did not want to have to experience this again, but trying to remain thankful that she is as healthy as she is and know this is just a small part of her beginning.
We’re trying to wrap our heads around what to do, what is best, and how to handle what is going on. I know we can’t do everything on our own and will be reaching out for help as we figure things out.
For now, if you have the time, we’d appreciate any quick meals to help us since we sometimes forget the time and that we haven’t eaten.
Soon, we will probably need some help with Elliott as we need time to catch up on sleep or to go be with Hannah. If you have been social distancing yourself, please let us know if you’d be available to help spend some time with him. I know everyone has their opinions on what is going on with Covid, but please be honest and take this seriously. Any fever, any symptom can prevent us from seeing her or keep her away from us even longer. We also understand that we pose a risk as well, since we are coming and going from the hospital and would like for you to take that into consideration.
I’m not feeling hopeful that we will have much change or updates this weekend. Will try to update here if there are any changes though.
Thank you everyone for being there for us. We really are looking forward to when we get to show her off to each and everyone of you.
Love,
Ryan, Kimmy, Elliott, and Hannah
Here is a summary of what has happened since Monday:
I was induced Monday evening due to chronic hypertension throughout the pregnancy. Everything was going well on the medication but we had to keep increasing the dosage as I got further along. At my 37 week appointment, my doctor and I agreed on the induction.
When we got to a room, my body wasn’t really ready, so we started with cervadil a little before 8pm. Cervadil worked really well this time (it didn’t seem to have much affect when I had it with Elliott). The contractions kept getting stronger, and I had made so much progress that I no longer met the requirements for pitocin because I was further along. My doctor came by and broke my water which intensified things. I started getting the shivers or uncontrollable shaking because things were progressing quickly. Received an epidural and soon was ready to push. It was a different experience this time because of how quickly things progressed but also because there were only my doctor and 2 nurses in the room instead of a whole nicu team and extra people. My doctor said he doesn’t think this will take much, and with the first push, we met Hannah at 6:51am.
Her cord was wrapped around her neck twice and her body once. Thankfully it wasn’t tightly wrapped but just tangled I guess.
We got to do skin to skin, she even made a good latch for a little while, and we felt like we couldn’t believe we got a normal birth experience and how great everything was.
After some time, they took her for her measurements and unfortunately due to her size (exactly 5lbs) it meant that she had to spend some time in the transitional nicu for monitoring.
Ryan and Hannah went off to nicu while I was getting prepped for post partum. Hannah had initial low glucose levels, but began to improve quickly after some formula. However, she was too tired to eat and had to have an ng tube placed. She stayed there for a day before they had OT come in to consult as well about her feeding. Their recommendations were very familiar to us, as they were the same as when Elliott was in NICU. Thankfully, the neonatologist at the time believed that although Hannah was not finishing every mL they were asking on their schedule, that she should be rooming in room with us instead and that he would be willing to give it a try. He warned us that if she did not do well and started to lose weight too fast, she would end up back in NICU. We were so very thankful for the chance and happy that Hannah was now staying in our post partum room with us!!
The next few days all sort of blurred together for me. Hannah was doing well rooming in with us. We were getting into a routine and she was checking off everything. She began to eat well, had jaundice and went through an evening under the lights, improved by morning and kept on eating and growing. My bloodwork indicated that I kept losing blood. I was losing some, but nothing like what my levels were indicating. Everyone kept asking me if I was ok because I did not match my bloodwork. At one point, we thought that Hannah might be discharged before I would be. I ended up needing a blood transfusion and received two bags of red blood cells. Levels have improved (still below normal though), but are not critically dangerous anymore. I will be following up with my doctor at the end of next week.
Now that I was settled and ready to be discharged, Hannah had to pass a car seat test as the last thing on our list before going home. This is a requirement for NICU babies and due to her being so small and her time in NICU she had to take the test.
Thursday was our first chance of going home. I had become more stable, but that late afternoon, she failed her car seat test. They would try again the next day.
Friday morning, we waited and waited for the car seat test. They finally told us that she turned “dusty” during the test before so they wanted an EKG to make sure and to have a specialist come help with positioning her during the test. EKG came back normal. Child life specialist came back soon after they started the test and told us that Hannah is too small for the car seat. The lowest level for the straps and buckle allowed too much room and therefore not safe for her. We needed another car seat. Ryan hurried out to target and got one that had lower level straps from the hospital’s list, and we tried again. We were being very positive, and Hannah was gone for the test for a long time. The nurse came back with a happy hello, but unfortunately said Hannah did not pass the test.
Not only did she not fail and we are unable to bring her home, but because I was being discharged, Hannah had to transfer back to NICU for monitoring due to the oxygen desaturation levels she had during the car seat test.
So off we went. Back to NICU. To see her hooked up with wires and monitors again. We are so heartbroken to have to leave her in the hospital and go home without her. We really did not want to have to experience this again, but trying to remain thankful that she is as healthy as she is and know this is just a small part of her beginning.
We’re trying to wrap our heads around what to do, what is best, and how to handle what is going on. I know we can’t do everything on our own and will be reaching out for help as we figure things out.
For now, if you have the time, we’d appreciate any quick meals to help us since we sometimes forget the time and that we haven’t eaten.
Soon, we will probably need some help with Elliott as we need time to catch up on sleep or to go be with Hannah. If you have been social distancing yourself, please let us know if you’d be available to help spend some time with him. I know everyone has their opinions on what is going on with Covid, but please be honest and take this seriously. Any fever, any symptom can prevent us from seeing her or keep her away from us even longer. We also understand that we pose a risk as well, since we are coming and going from the hospital and would like for you to take that into consideration.
I’m not feeling hopeful that we will have much change or updates this weekend. Will try to update here if there are any changes though.
Thank you everyone for being there for us. We really are looking forward to when we get to show her off to each and everyone of you.
Love,
Ryan, Kimmy, Elliott, and Hannah
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
