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MY WIFE AND I
Friday, 26 May 2006

Nic had a doctor's appointment in Baltimore at 3 pm yesterday (she's doing fine, by the way!) so we dropped by to visit Noah, of course. We were too late for his 3 o'clock care, and too early for his 6pm care (and they had a surgery scheduled for another baby at 5:30, so we wouldn't have been able to be in there for his care, anyway) so we didn't get to kangaroo or hold him, unfortunately. But it's nice to go in there and just look at him, sometimes! He's still doing well—his apneic spells have dropped some, although he had two while we were there. There was a tiny bit of blood in his stomach, so they did and x-ray to be safe, and he checked out all right. We think it was because of his feeding tube change the other night. He's a little fighter, and he did NOT like that tube going down his throat, and gave the nurse a bit of a hard time. They were going to add 2cc's of caloric content to his feedings to add to his nutrition and weight gain, but they decided to forego that to save his stomach for a day or two. He's still retaining fluid, so they increased his sodium chloride intake. Poor guy, you can tell he's swollen around his eyes (look at the latest pictures) and his legs.

He's gained three centimeters in length since his birth (he was 10 days old yesterday—Happy Birthday!). You can really tell he's growing by looking at the early pictures and the new ones. It's hard to tell when you're visiting every day, but it's apparent in the photos. We'll be visiting him tonight at his 9 pm care, and we should be able to kangaroo and hold him for a while.

Posted by planet/jaredourbabies at 3:39 PM EDT
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Thursday, 25 May 2006
WHAT A NIGHT AND DAY
Hi, everyone! Been a couple of days since the last update—we've just been wiped out after visiting them and driving back and forth to John Hopkins. But they're doing pretty well. They've upped their feedings to 21cc's every three hours, and they're tolerating it well. They had been feeding them by hanging a big syringe full of breastmilk and formula from the top of their isolette and letting gravity just feed it through their feeding tube. A couple of days ago they were spitting up a bit and had a few apneic spells, so they decided to feed them more slowly, using a pump to feed the milk to them. Since then, they've had no problems. They're a little bit edemic—their little legs are swelling up, so the doctors are going to run a test tomorrow to check their sodium levels and try to figure out why he's retaining water. Their temp was kind of low tonight (36.1 C—they like to keep him at 36.5 or even a bit warmer) so we couldn't hold them or kangaroo him tonight :(.
But Dad was able to kangaroo with them last night, which was fun! They're a little trooper. They're moving them to yet another room tomorrow—they'll have been in all of them now! We've got a few good pictures—we'll upload them soon, just too tired right now. Make sure you sign up on the home page and you'll be among the first to know when new pictures are uploaded.


Posted by planet/jaredourbabies at 7:30 PM EDT
Updated: Thursday, 25 May 2006 7:37 PM EDT
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Tuesday, 23 May 2006

Another good visit with little Noah tonight. Mom and Dad were able to hold them for quite a while. They had a couple of apneic spells (where he stops breathing for a bit) but all you have to do is just rub his back or chest to get them going again. They've upped their feedings to 12cc's every three hours (instead of every four hours) and they took them off of one of his antibiotics. Still no sign of infection in their culture—we'll hope it remains that way! They're looking great. We didn't take any pictures—it's getting to the point where we don't see the point of posting another picture of them in their isolette or us holding them. We'll just post special pictures as we take them. Don't forget to sign up for update reminders on the main page and sign the guestbook if you haven't already!


Posted by planet/jaredourbabies at 4:53 PM EDT
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Sunday, 21 May 2006

We had a very nice visit with Noah, and the rest last night during their 9:00 pm care time. Their lungs are doing very well; they are just barely using the CPAP (continuous positive air pressure) apparatus, and we hope can be weaned off it completely soon. their color looks good, and they seems to be much more comfortable lying on soft blankets rather than that hard bilirubin blanket. More good news—they did the head ultrasound to check for bleeding in the brain, and the tests came back normal, so that's another thing they don't have to worry about! They have scheduled them for a kidney/urinary tract ultrasound for Monday, because they had a bit of trouble voiding two days ago. The problem seems to have corrected itself, but they want the urologist to take a look to be certain nothing is amiss in there. Dad got to change his diaper, and both Mom and Dad were able to hold him for a long time last night, which was wonderful. New pictures are up.

Posted by planet/jaredourbabies at 8:12 PM EDT
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Hello! Noah Thomas got a little rambunctious last night and decided to remove his arterial IV, but the nurses were planning to pull it off him anyway, so he saved them the trouble! He's doing well, Mom got to change his diaper today again and we might be able to provide some kangaroo care later today if he's being a good boy. The doctor who delivered him showed up today after checking him out in the NICU and said he looked good. So, we're pretty happy with how he is doing so far, but again, there are challenges ahead.

Posted by planet/jaredourbabies at 8:06 PM EDT
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Sunday, 7 May 2006

Quad's Story

We weren't expecting to have our five babies,on May 17th. After all, they wasn't due until September 9, and from all indications, we were having a normal pregnancy. Nic was feeling pretty good and was working at the Music and Arts Center full time up until that point. In fact, we were surprised that the pregnancy was going so well.

On Sunday, April 7th, Nic mentioned that she hadn't felt our five babies move all day. This was unusual—they was normally very active in her belly, so it was a little worrisome to us. We made a doctors appointment for the next day, and the doctor used his Doppler to listen to the heartbeat. We could hear it, strong, rhythmic, reassuring. Nevertheless, he scheduled our second ultrasound for that Tuesday, just to reassure us and himself that all was well with the baby.

We went back to the hospital the next day for the ultrasound. There they were on the monitor, moving a bit, heart beating, looking good. Or so we thought. The technician said they was measuring a bit small, and she seemed pretty preoccupied while doing her measurements and listening to the blood flow through the umbilical cord. We had the uneasy feeling that she wasn't telling us something, but since they aren't supposed to make diagnoses, she couldn't tell us anything. Our doctor was off that day, but they sent the ultrasound results upstairs so he could review them the next day.

On Wednesday, Nic called first thing in the morning to see if the doctor had reviewed the ultrasound results yet. He called back mid-morning, and was a bit concerned and referred Nic to a perinatologist in Batimore. Nic called the doctor in Baltimore, and although they normally had a 6–10 week wait for appointments, they bumped some things so we could get in there on Friday, April 21st, now 6 days since she felt him move.

We arrived at John Hopkin's Hospital in Maryland at 11:30 am for an ultrasound with the perinatologist. They had a better machine, and they confirmed that there were some growth problems with our five babies. They wasn't getting the nutrients they needed through the umbilical cord. They moved very quickly, and within about five minutes after Nic was on the table for the sonogram, they performed an amniocentesis to screen for genetic problems. Their head was one week behind in development, their limbs were two weeks behind, and their torso was four weeks behind. Needless to say, we were terrified that something was very wrong with our babies. Nic had an ultrasound at 33 weeks and everything was on track at that point, so all of the lag in growth had happened in the last eight weeks since then. Nic had done a little research online prior to the second ultrasound and had read that clotting problems can cause placenta problems, so she mentioned that she had had a pulmonary embolism 5 years before, and immediately their diagnosis changed—where before they had been leaning toward Down's syndrome or some other genetic disorder, now they felt that it was a clotting problem in her placenta. The doctor told us she was going to admit Nic to the hospital, and she shouldn't expect to leave without having had the baby. They were going to try to keep them in her as long as possible, but they needed to monitor the fetus and the mother very closely.
In record time, we were whisked from the ultrasound room to a hospital room on the high-risk wing of the labor and delivery ward, and from there things moved even quicker. Fetal monitors were attached to NIc's stomach. Vials of blood were drawn, and they soon determined that she had HELLP Syndrome, preeclampsia, and that her liver was in bad shape due to the HELLP Syndrome. At the same time, they noticed a couple of dips in our babies' vital signs, and they were very concerned. The decision was made to deliver our babies via C-Section that day, at 33 weeks gestation, for both their and Nic's health. The doctor told us that we were lucky to have come in that day—if we had waited until Monday, she thought that our babies wouldn't have made it and that Nic would have had some serious health problems by that point.

The anesthesiologist came in to let us know what was going to happen. They wheeled Nic into the delivery room and Jared was outfitted in scrubs, hair cover, gloves and shoe covers. It was amazing how fast things were going, how scared we both were, and how many emotions can run through you at a time of stress like that! They kept Jared outside the operating room until Nic had her spinal block, then he was allowed in to sit beside her. They draped Nic's lower half so she couldn't see what was happening, and Jared didn't want to see what was happening, so he concentrated on Nic. At 1:05 a.m., we heard Noah Thomas crying—a more welcome sound cannot be imagined! It meant he was breathing! He had an APGAR score of 7, and five minutes later it was 8—good scores, especially considering his size! Unfortunately, because things happened so quickly and unexpectedly, we didn't have time to notify our family and friends that our babies's birth was imminent. Even more distressing, we hadn't thought to bring a camera with us to record any of our first images of Noah Thomas.!

A nurse took our babies to a warming table, where they decided not to intubate them since they was breathing pretty well on their own. They did some work on them, suctioning thir nose and mouth and tying off their umbilical cords. They invited Jared over to cut it, which he did with some trepidation! Noah was 1lb, 10.5 oz, and 13.8 inches long. He looked so tiny, so fragile, and so beautiful! The nurses talked softly to Jared, letting him know how everything was going and what would happen next. Then they bundled Noah. up warmly, and Nic was left in the delivery room while Jared and the nurses walked slowly to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. There, our babies was put on a warming table, surfactant was poured into their lungs, and any number of things was done. All Jared could do was stare at his children, marveling over him and feeling very fortunate that we were in that hospital at that time and that they weren't in any rush while they were working with him. It meant he was stable. After about three days, the nurse invited Jared to slip his wedding band over Noah's arm—a size 10 1/2 ring hanging like a bangle bracelet! It's one of the more dramatic pictures, and served to show family and friends just how tiny he actually was.

Nic spent 5 days in the hospital recovering from the C-Section and taking lots of medications to get her liver enzymes back to normal and her blood pressure under control. Mom and Dad drove out there nearly every day to spend time with them, hold them, bathe them, feed them, and let them know that their mom and dad were there.

Noah, Tori, Jared, Crystal, and Sean lived in an isolette to help control and maintain their body temperature. They were all on a nasal CPAP (continuous positive air pressure)Each of these steps was cause for celebration. They was fed through both and oral and nasal gavage. All this time, we alternated between feeling great about their progress to becoming despondent that they wasn't doing as well as we had hoped. Hydronephrosis, milk allergies, possible infections, staph aureus infection, worries about his kidney and liver function, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP)—all were hurdles they had to clear before they could even be considered for release from the hospital.


Posted by planet/jaredourbabies at 10:21 AM EDT
Updated: Friday, 26 May 2006 3:34 PM EDT
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