Category: Preemies/NICU

Well, according to Micah’s nurse Pat, his feeding tube is staying out! At his 9 a.m. feeding, he took 60 CCs (2 ozs.) by mouth. Yesterday’s feedings were 50 CCs, 30 CCs + a little breastfeeding, 45 CCs, 40 CCs, 50 CCs, and 50 CCs.

At his weight check around 1 a.m. he was 4 lbs. 15.6 ozs. (a gain of 0.8 ozs from yesterday).

He had one episode of shallow breathing last night at 11:45 p.m. where his heart rate dropped down to 76.

The nurse thinks he will be going home w/n about a week, so she is asking us to have the car seat prepared for his car seat test.

Micah has moved from the “acute care” side to the “continuing care” side of the NICU. 🙂 They had a bunch of babies come in last night–and he’s one of the “better” babies, so they moved him. . .

Dr. Schrager says he is “very close to ready” to go home. Since Micah pulled his feeding tube out of his nose yesterday, they decided to see how it goes without it. He is bottle-feeding on demand usually every 3 – 4 hours (no more tube feedings or fortifying the breastmilk, as of yesterday afternoon). He weighed 4 lbs. 14.8 ozs last night, so he gained about 1/2 oz. The nurse was feeding him this morning at 10 a.m., so I will try to go in between 1 and 2 p.m. today. Dr. Schrager encouraged me, if I want to breastfeed him, start offering that as early and as often as possible, once my milk supply is in. He recommends trying to nurse him every time I get a chance.

A couple of things they are watching:
1) He needs to keep gaining weight & holding his temperature while taking the bottle. If he can’t, he will have to go back to tube feedings.
2) The “periods of alarm”–he’s still having apnea/brady episodes.
These can be related to feeding: reflux/spitting-up/gagging sometimes causes them: this is less of a concern, and different than a premature infant “forgetting” to breathe while sleeping. However, if he is “forgetting” to breathe while sleeping, this is more of a concern.
The goal is for him to go three days without an episode requiring intervention. If he comes out of it by himself, they are not too concerned–he could still go home. Yesterday he had 2 episodes requiring invention before midnight, so Dr. Schrager would not see him going home w/n the next few days. Micah has had no episodes so far today. If these continue, he may need to come home on a monitor–they will discuss all that with us as he progresses.

Dr. Schrager doesn’t “like to bet on babies”, but if he did, he would say “Micah would come home w/n a week–maybe 2.” So, that’s today’s update from the neonatologist. . .

Jefta from our home group offered to watch Mara on Sunday, so we both could go see Micah in the NICU together on Fathers Day! (It was really kind of him, especially since he and Tate had made us dinner, watched Mara all day yesterday, and helped me move back to our house from Daniel’s parent’s house.)

Daniel and I had a really special time! He got to hold Micah for his tube feeding for the first time on Father’s Day.

The nurse asked if we wanted a picture of our “family” on Father’s Day. Of course, I said “yes!” 🙂 . . . Too bad Mara couldn’t be there too . . .

Daniel liked how Micah would grasp his finger . . . Micah only recently started doing that!

Father’s Day was a milestone day in Micah’s life!
1) He weighed 4 lbs, 13 ozs., passing his initial birthweight (of 4 lbs., 12 ozs.) by day 11!
2) He has been able to hold his temperature, so when we left that afternoon, he had moved into an open crib out of the isolette!!
3) He finally began to get the idea of feeding by mouth today!! He has not mastered it–he can’t yet stay awake long enough for an entire feeding–but he’s actually starting to get it!!
It was a very encouraging day for all of us!

Each day we are seeing small “improvements” with Micah! I can’t believe he will be one week old tomorrow! His weight is back up to 4 lbs. 10 ozs, which is REALLY good! He is now off the IVs, and his diet is exclusively breastmilk at this point. Needless to say, the pumping has been going great (with the hospital’s Medela Symphony pump), and I am now producing enough that they don’t have to supplement with formula any more.

Another bit of progress is in the area of his ability to suck. Yesterday they gave him a bottle, and he took 30 cc’s (by mouth)—47 cc’s would have been an entire feeding, so they only had to give him 17 cc’s in the feeding tube! That is a huge step forward. Because feeding is progressing so well, the drs want me to try to nurse him once/day. It is going okay. . . he tries to suck, but it’s very inconsistent and sporadic. You can tell he wants to, but he is just so immature still. It is slow progress, but they keep saying to remember that he is still not “old enough” to “suck” yet–that skill is not usually developed until week 35. So he has over a week before we really want him to start sucking–so he is doing great!!

As far as his body temperature goes, tomorrow they will start to bring the temperature in the isolette down, one degree (or was it 1/2 degree?) each shift. They monitor his body temp, and as long as it stays up, they continue bringing the temp down, until it’s room temperature. At that point, if he holds his temp for 2 days, he could go to an open crib, instead of the isolette.

His bilirubin levels are down a bit due to his phototherapy. They don’t think he will need the phototherapy tomorrow, but they will check his levels again in the morning. . .

My recovery is going okay. I think I have tried to “sit up” too much, instead of laying down. I have had a lot of abdominal pains today. But honestly, I don’t know what I should expect, since Mara was born vaginally–it was a totally different experience in every way! (I certainly see pros and cons with each.) Today, Mara crawled across the bed and “pounced” on me–RIGHT THERE!!—and it KILLED!!! She totally didn’t mean to. She was just crawling up to sit on my lap like she always used to–but unfortunately, I didn’t see it coming quickly enough to stop her. . . I know the recovery takes time . . . it hasn’t even been a week yet!

Today was the 1st day that I really had a hard time leaving Micah. Until today, I kept reminding myself that there wasn’t anything that I could do for him, that the nurses couldn’t do better. . . well, today, for the first time, the nurse was saying, ideally i could be there round-the-clock for his feeding, and try nursing him, every time he was awake and alert. . . . Of course, that’s not feasible, so the nurses are giving him the bottle when he wakes up. But for the 1st time, I’m struggling a bit w leaving him there and not being able to care for him like I wish I could. . . This too is part of God’s perfect plan, so I’m trying to be surrendered in my heart and know that God’s way is best for me and best for Micah! 🙂

Every time we go to the NICU, we are thanking God for our blessings. A couple was in there today, who just had a baby boy, born with Downs syndrome and intestinal problems–so he was in the NICU too. They actually watched Mara for Daniel, so he could come in the NICU with me to see Micah for a few minutes. (Kids under 2 aren’t allowed in the NICU, so Daniel has to sit in the lobby w her while I’m in there w Micah.) But ANYWAY, we were thinking how much more complicated their situation is, since those are long-term challenges they will probably be dealing with for life. We are blessed that Micah’s prognosis is so good right now!

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.
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 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!