Category: General Family News

Yes, He Was Seven Weeks Early!!!!

Posted on by Becky

So many of our friends have been praying for me and for our little baby, and several of you have been asking for details on the past couple of weeks, so I thought I’d write a little update to go along with the pictures I posted on Facebook yesterday. 🙂

God has been so good to us and answered so many prayers! It has been a crazy few weeks. I was put on bedrest almost a month ago when I had contractions 5 min apart for about 12 hours. At that point, I was only dilated 1 cm, so it was hard to tell whether or not the contractions were “labor-producing” contractions or not. . . About 10 days later, I was back in the hospital w contractions 2 minutes apart for several hours (one Sunday night), and they immediately gave me procardia to stop the contractions and gave me steroid shots to help the baby’s lungs develop, in case they couldn’t stop the labor. By that time, I had progressed to 3 cm and 70% effaced. By morning with the medication, the contractions had slowed to 4 minutes apart, and by mid-afternoon on Monday, the contractions were irregular and much weaker, but they kept me in the hospital Sun – Thurs that week. I then came home Thursday – Tuesday on strict bedrest and taking procardia until week 36 (june 26). It was a hard week for our family, because Mara got roseola, and had a fever of 103 – 105 for 3 days. Daniel was doing a great job caring for Mara before & after work, I could do NOTHING but lay there, and we had so many friends from church and family members pitching in to help care for Mara while Daniel was working!! We couldn’t have made it through without them!!! Thank the Lord for the Body of believers He has given us to carry us through the times we can’t survive alone!!!
My friends Donna Grout and Stephanie Kuchle were great testimonies to me through this time, sharing their own preemie/bedrest/c-section experiences, and how God gave them grace through the challenges!! Donna specifically reminded me that I can be thankful to God for this time, because He knows me completely, loves me infinitely and designed this time, specifically to make me more like His Son! Those words really carried me through this time. I am seeing God changing me and trying to submit to His plan each day!
Mara struggled a lot last week with being sick and being w lots of different people (and no mommy). This week, she has done SOOO much better!!!!
On Tuesday June 3, (which was my next drs appt) they discovered I was 4 cm and >70% effaced. I went back in the hospital that day. Wednesday morning I was taking procardia every 3-1/2 hours (originally every 6 hours, then 5 hours, then 4 hours. . . they couldn’t increase the amount because I reacted badly to higher doses, so they were trying to use a smaller dosage, closer together) But the contractions wouldn’t stop.
On Wednesday morning I was feeling really terrible–very nauseous, really crampy, I lost my mucous plug. . . it seemed to me that it was time. But with all the medications, you can’t be sure. Well, the nurse had the doctor check me again and I was > 5 cm at that point. For the past couple of weeks the baby had NOT been head-down–he was “oblique” a form of breeched, with his head on my left hip, his feet down in the birth canal and his rear end on my other hip. The doctors had told me that in that position, they have to do a C-section–it’s too risky for a preemie to be born vaginally from that position.
So, at that point on Wednesday around lunch, they called for an emergency C-section. Thankfully I called Daniel at work, and he was able to make it to the hospital, just minutes before the surgery began.
I had an emergency C-section on Wednesday afternoon and Micah was born at 1:27 p.m. The doctor brought Micah to me for a brief moment, although I was still being operated on, so I couldn't hold him. . . Micah Kenyon was born at 32 weeks, 6 days, but he weighed 4 lbs. 12 ozs!!!! I was still being operated on, when I heard his first cry and heard the doctor call out his weight. . . That was amazing. What is also amazing, is that Micah is breathing on his own–has not had to be on oxygen at all. He has had some apnea/bradycardia episodes, which is to be expected, for his age. Of course, we’re waiting for him to be able to maintain his body temperature in an open crib, and he will need to be able to suck/eat without a feeding tube before he can go home.
So while there are a lot of developmental immaturities, overall, there is nothing serious that they can tell, nothing that won’t just take time to get through.
We are soo thankful to God for His answering soo many prayers.
My brother Jon got married in Greenville on Saturday, and sadly we weren’t able to be there. 🙁 Ever since we found out I was pregnant, we knew it was possible that we might not be able to go–7 weeks before the baby was due–but it never occurred to me that the baby might be born before the wedding! One funny thing was that Daniel kept saying if we went to Jon’s wedding, the baby would be born in the mountains in Virginia. . . well, according to our original travel plans, Daniel was right! After my surgery, he said, “If we had gone to the wedding, guess where Micah would have been born?” I was like ‘i know, i know—in the mountains in Virginia!!!’ . . . oh the drama . . . 🙂
The name Micah means “Who is Like Jehovah” and we want our little guy to grow up always awestruck by God’s greatness and power and glory. Already, God has shown his awesome power in little Micah’s life, and we hope & pray that God’s work in his life will be a testimony to our little guy, drawing Micah to Himself. . . Kenyon is a family name, and Daniel’s middle name.
So, there’s the long version of the story.
I got home Saturday, but I’m still recovering, and we will Daniel holding his new son :-) probably be making daily trips up to Abington Memorial Hospital, as often as we are able to drop off “mother’s milk” and talk w his doctors & nurses, and visit w our little guy.
The doctors say to expect him to be in NICU at least until (what would have been) 35 weeks or up until full-term. . . so that’s really vague . . . 2 – 7 weeks?? Who knows? He is doing really well! but I know there are definitely ways he needs to develop and mature before we can care for him at home. So we appreciate your continued prayers for Micah!!!
Thank you all who have prayed!! It is exciting to see God’s working in our lives!

Neonatologist: “What to Expect” With A Preemie Born at 31- or 32-Weeks

Posted on by Becky

Here on the mom unit, they typically send the neonatologist in to consult with the parents, so in case the baby does come, the parents will be prepared for what they can expect to see with a premature child at his/her gestational age.

Tonight Dr. Schrager came in and laid it all out for me. Which was helpful. Much of this I have hear about or seen with Donna’s little Wesley and Stephanie’s Kate and Tyler, so there weren’t too many surprises. However, I feel like things are much clearer in my mind now, and I feel mentally ready, now that I know the possibilities. Honestly, things look pretty good at this point! and in the back of my mind, I’m still convinced I’ll be laying here on bedrest until June 26, and this whole conversation with the neonatologist will be a distant memory of what could have been, but wasn’t.

I’m still in week 31. First off, he told me that at week 31, babies have a 95% survival rate. That’s super encouraging! However, the baby usually still needs to develop three critical abilities: 1) suck 2) swallow and 3) breathe.

The typical NICU stay lasts between (what would have been) week 35 and full-term.

Before going home, the baby needs to be:
1) Stable
2) Able to bottle/breast feed without supplemental tube feedings
3) Over 4 pounds
4) Able to maintain body temperature in an open crib.

They categorize issues preemies face in two ways: early development and long-term.

At 31 weeks, the largest issue is lung development. I have been given steroid shots to help the little guy’s lungs develop more quickly, so that’s all they can do at this point to prepare him for the possibility of premature birth. Dr. Schrager emphasized that when the mothers have had those shots, the babies often do very well; in some cases, not even requiring oxygen. However, boys typically develop slower than girls (and I’m having a boy). Preterm babies lungs are deficient in surfactin. So there are 3 possible ways of handling this: oxygen supplement, CPAP (tube in the nose), or a tube in the throat to the lungs actually giving the baby surfactin.

He talked about minor issues that are pretty universal with preemies:

  • Apnea: they forget to breathe while sleeping. Usually by week 31, the babies will not go home on a monitor. Occasionally they will.
  • Jaundice: the big concern here is staining of the brain with bilirubin. Phototherapy will start early for a preemie.
  • Head ultrasounds: are routine procedures for preemies. Due to the fragile blood vessels, the purpose is to rule out bleeding blood vessels in the brain. He said some parents freak out when the nurse says ‘your baby had its head ultrasound today.’ But this is very routine, precautionary, and in itself not necessarily an indication of any abnormality or disability.
  • IVs: Initially all the baby’s nutrition will come through IVs. However, they encourage breastfeeding and want the moms to start pumping within the first week of giving birth, starting about 2 mls/day and working up.
  • Weight loss: Expect a large initial weight loss of 10 – 15% of the birth weight. This often surprises parents, since the baby is already so small, a 10-15% loss seems huge.

Occasionally umbilical catheters are used in the vein for nutrition and in the artery to monitor blood work & for meds. The need for blood transfusions is hard to predict. Basically it depends on the health of the child; the more sick they are, the more blood they typically need. They have very little blood, and when they are sick, their blood is being drawn frequently, and they need more.

Long-term, babies born at 31 weeks do not usually have major neural development issues. However, there seems to be some risk of learning issues, such of dyslexia, which usually 15% of preemies face, contrasted with 5% in the general population.

As the baby grows, during the first year, development should be gauged according to the “corrected age”–the baby’s age adjusted to its due date. In the 2nd year, the differences become even less, and after 2 years, there is no need to adjust the age any more.

If the baby should come at week 32, the issues are basically all the same. At week 35, there is a 50/50 chance the baby will need to be in the NICU. Between weeks 34-36, babies are called “late pre-term infants,” and often go home as full-term infants. However, there is a higher risk of re-admission for jaundice or dehydration, in that scenario.

Overall, the prognosis is good for Little Q, even if he came today.

But like I said, there’s all this hype and bedrest, and watch me go full-term!!!

May 28 on the Mom Unit

Posted on by Becky

It is Wednesday. I have been here since Sunday now. I never quite know what’s happening with me from day to day. I talk to one resident and hear one thing, then an hour later the plan is completely changed. I could go crazy if I think about it too much. I think God is trying (again!) to teach me to give him my plans and my control on my life, and just follow His will moment by moment.

This morning, we had another ultrasound of Little Q around 10:15. He looks great! They say he’s measuring around 4 lbs., 6 ozs. (That sounds high!!! I take all those estimates with a grain of salt, knowing that friends have had ultrasounds “measuring” 2-3 lbs off the actual birthweight!!) But I’m encouraged–he will probably not be too terribly tiny! 🙂

She measured and measured as they always do, and said most of his measurements are at the end of week 31, but Little Q’s head is measuring at 33 weeks. I was not surprised. Mara’s head has always been in the 95th percentile.

The ultrasound tech gave me a little false hope at first, saying it looked like he might have turned. I was very disappointed, but the hope lasted only a few seconds, so I recovered quickly from my disappointment. 🙂 Unfortunately, his feet are still down and his head is still on the left hip and his rear end still on the right hip. (This is the “oblique” position, from which it is physically impossible to deliver vaginally.) We are praying he will turn and we can avoid a C-section.

Because of his position, she couldn’t get a good look at the face. But she gave me another picture of our Little Q. . . I keep wondering how soon we will meet him and how the timing of when we meet him will affect his little life. Then I wonder what we will name him! There are SOO many questions!

Mara Takes Her Temperature

Posted on by Becky

I suppose this blog will become progressively more interesting as Mara learns to talk. Right now it’s like a silent film, awaiting the day of the talking picture!

Mara has been sick–she had a fever for almost two weeks, so I took her temperature frequently. We have one of those one-second ear thermometers, which I couldn’t be happier about right now, when I’m using it so often. When I take her temperature, I’ll give her the reading, something like this: “Ooo, 102.5!”

Well, she’s finally healthy again, and back to her exuberant old self! The other day she reached for the thermometer and I handed it to her. She sat there, intensely pulling it out of its case (which is an accomplishment in itself when you’re 14 months old!) Then she calmly turned the power button on, turned the thermometer over and pressed the “Start” button. When she is “taking her temperature,” she holds the thermometer on her forehead for a couple of seconds (rather than in her ear), which she did again this time. Once it beeped, she looked at the reading and her eyes got wide. “Ooooooo!” she exclaimed, looking up at me.

I couldn’t believe she had the whole routine down perfectly! But we haven’t been able to replicate that moment, or there would be a movie clip to go along with this entry. 🙂