I know, we became parents the minute that second pink line showed up... or saw her little jelly-bean body at the first ultrasound... or when we heard her heartbeat for the first time... or the minute we heard her sweet cry...
Take your pick of we-became-parents-when milestones. I felt them all. I prefer to consider the day I went home sick from work and collapsed crying into bed because I realized my "flu" was morning sickness and yelled to a very sleepy and confused John "I'm pregnant!!".
But today, we got it on paper. We now have documented proof that at 6:45am on July 11th, 2013 we became parents.
It's kind of a boring document... Just blue, with a darker blue border and a raised seal. All the font is sans-serif. It has a bar code. It fell really short of my expectations. I wanted something with a little bit more design. Or at least some variation other than bold or italicized.
Birth certificates used to be kind of gorgeous. Like a diploma - with big, fancy, gothic-style lettering, and hand-written information. I want one of those birth certificates for my baby... Something I feel like framing in her bedroom. This one deserves to be filed away and never looked at again.
Oh well.
We got her social security card in the mail, too. Now it's going to be a LOT more difficult for John to try and change her name at her baby blessing. ;)
My computer and my phone are having some communication issues... so this post is going to be pictureless. I'm sorry. If you're seriously jonesin' for a peek at Ruthe, check out my instagram feed... she's taking it by storm!!
August 5, 2013
August 4, 2013
musical babies.
Seeing "Sunrise- NICU" on my missed call list is just about the worst thing ever. I have a mini-panic attack every time they call. And they're really bad at leaving messages. Which I haven't decided if that makes things better or worse. Because they're also a big fan of putting me on hold. :/
It wasn't a big deal. They were just calling to let us know they moved Ruthe. Again. [Still not sure why they couldn't leave that info in a message.]
She is now on her fifth hospital "room". This girl gets around.
When Ruthe was initially admitted to the NICU she was put in bed 2042. We liked that bed. We were there for two weeks.
After her surgery they transferred her up to the PICU, bed 5022. We LOVED the PICU. She had her own room, and I could sleep over with her. It was a great five days.
Since she did so well after surgery, and since she was the only baby left in her hallway, they moved her back downstairs to bed 2040 in the NICU. That was nice. I liked seeing other people and being able to eavesdrop on the nurses' gossip. But I always got a little nervous/embarrassed when the other parents would see me put on all the isolation gear. It made me worry they were thinking my baby's contagious and going to get their precious babies sick. Ridiculous, I know.
So when they moved Ruthe to the back of that pod, bed 2037, I was relieved. It was a bigger space, and not very many other parents would be able to look at us like we're wearing hazmat suits. We also had pretty much total control over the lighting in her little nook.
Now she's in pod 6. We've never been there before. I'm a little nervous that we'll get lost trying to find her. Anyway, here's to hoping bed 2116 is our last stop before home!!
It wasn't a big deal. They were just calling to let us know they moved Ruthe. Again. [Still not sure why they couldn't leave that info in a message.]
She is now on her fifth hospital "room". This girl gets around.
When Ruthe was initially admitted to the NICU she was put in bed 2042. We liked that bed. We were there for two weeks.
After her surgery they transferred her up to the PICU, bed 5022. We LOVED the PICU. She had her own room, and I could sleep over with her. It was a great five days.
Since she did so well after surgery, and since she was the only baby left in her hallway, they moved her back downstairs to bed 2040 in the NICU. That was nice. I liked seeing other people and being able to eavesdrop on the nurses' gossip. But I always got a little nervous/embarrassed when the other parents would see me put on all the isolation gear. It made me worry they were thinking my baby's contagious and going to get their precious babies sick. Ridiculous, I know.
So when they moved Ruthe to the back of that pod, bed 2037, I was relieved. It was a bigger space, and not very many other parents would be able to look at us like we're wearing hazmat suits. We also had pretty much total control over the lighting in her little nook.
Now she's in pod 6. We've never been there before. I'm a little nervous that we'll get lost trying to find her. Anyway, here's to hoping bed 2116 is our last stop before home!!
day 25 and a new trick.
Ruthe is a little bit of a stinker! Last night she let her oxygen-saturation dip a little too low for anyone's comfort and the doctors put her back on the nasal cannula. It's on a really low setting, as of 10pm it's at 21%, which the nurse said is basically room air. As long as she keeps her "sats" up for the rest of tonight they should be able to take her back off the extra support.
When John and I stopped by to visit before church this morning I put on her Sunday socks. :) I love ruffles on babies.
My parents and Yiaya went over to see her this afternoon. She slept the entire time. What a lazy bum!! [OK, I don't have any room to talk, I was taking a nap myself.]
John and I headed back to the hospital around 8:45, and found Ruthe's new room. It's a pretty nice blend of both the NICU and the PICU. Ruthe's in her own little room, so the other babies can't wake her up, or vice versa. But there are more babies in there, so we're not left alone in the hallway and forgotten about. [No one ever really forgot about us in the PICU. I just worried that they might.]
When we got there Ruthe was eating, and I made the mistake of picking her up to snuggle again. It only took about five minutes before she spit up on me. :( I had to promise her I wouldn't disturb her while she's eating anymore... but I'm not sure how that will work once we start trying to nurse.
Anyway, we got her cleaned up and snuggled back down. I pumped for her [I'm secretly blaming the formula she had today on her spitting up - the hospital ran out of breast milk this morning because I was hoarding it at home.] while John taught her all about cooking meth while they watched Breaking Bad. Then when it was just about time to head back home I got this video...
Isn't she just the cutest little thing?!
When John and I stopped by to visit before church this morning I put on her Sunday socks. :) I love ruffles on babies.
My parents and Yiaya went over to see her this afternoon. She slept the entire time. What a lazy bum!! [OK, I don't have any room to talk, I was taking a nap myself.]
John and I headed back to the hospital around 8:45, and found Ruthe's new room. It's a pretty nice blend of both the NICU and the PICU. Ruthe's in her own little room, so the other babies can't wake her up, or vice versa. But there are more babies in there, so we're not left alone in the hallway and forgotten about. [No one ever really forgot about us in the PICU. I just worried that they might.]
When we got there Ruthe was eating, and I made the mistake of picking her up to snuggle again. It only took about five minutes before she spit up on me. :( I had to promise her I wouldn't disturb her while she's eating anymore... but I'm not sure how that will work once we start trying to nurse.
Anyway, we got her cleaned up and snuggled back down. I pumped for her [I'm secretly blaming the formula she had today on her spitting up - the hospital ran out of breast milk this morning because I was hoarding it at home.] while John taught her all about cooking meth while they watched Breaking Bad. Then when it was just about time to head back home I got this video...
Isn't she just the cutest little thing?!
August 3, 2013
day 24.
Today, Ruthe made milk come out of her nose.
And then some more came out of her mouth.
And as soon as I'd wiped that mess up, she did it again, only worse.
The doctors are trying to compress her feedings so she gets used to the sensations of a full and empty belly. Last night she was getting 60cc's over an hour and a half. This afternoon they pushed it to 60cc's in an hour. Well, silly me, thought it would be OK to pick her up and snuggle with her halfway through her first shortened feeding. She really let me know how she felt about that.
One of the nurses got Ruthe's footprints today. She finally doesn't have any IVs or monitors on her feet, so they could get a nice imprint. I felt a little bad about it though. Since the nurses had to take blood from her heel so often while she was on oxygen she REALLY hates it when anybody messes with her feet.
I stayed through her entire next feeding, just to make sure she didn't spit-up again, and she did great!! She slept through most of it, but we did wake her up when the nurse had to change the tubing for her chest IV meds, and she made it through all that fussing without even the tiniest bit of milk coming out of her nose.
Other than that, today was pretty uneventful. Oh! I almost forgot. The best part of the day!! We put her in one of her own onesies! She looks so cute in real clothes. :)
And then some more came out of her mouth.
And as soon as I'd wiped that mess up, she did it again, only worse.
The doctors are trying to compress her feedings so she gets used to the sensations of a full and empty belly. Last night she was getting 60cc's over an hour and a half. This afternoon they pushed it to 60cc's in an hour. Well, silly me, thought it would be OK to pick her up and snuggle with her halfway through her first shortened feeding. She really let me know how she felt about that.
One of the nurses got Ruthe's footprints today. She finally doesn't have any IVs or monitors on her feet, so they could get a nice imprint. I felt a little bad about it though. Since the nurses had to take blood from her heel so often while she was on oxygen she REALLY hates it when anybody messes with her feet.
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| But just look at her cute little tooties! |
I stayed through her entire next feeding, just to make sure she didn't spit-up again, and she did great!! She slept through most of it, but we did wake her up when the nurse had to change the tubing for her chest IV meds, and she made it through all that fussing without even the tiniest bit of milk coming out of her nose.
Other than that, today was pretty uneventful. Oh! I almost forgot. The best part of the day!! We put her in one of her own onesies! She looks so cute in real clothes. :)
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| I know she doesn't look like it, but she totally loves that outfit!! |
August 2, 2013
day 23.
Ruthe has got all sorts of tricks up her sleeve! Or, in this case, up her chromosomes.
Our little nugget was diagnosed with diGeorge Syndrome. It's a disorder caused by a deleted portion of genes from her 22nd chromosome. There's a chance that it came from me or John, or that it occurred all on it's own. There are some other problems that Ruthe might have or develop, related to diGeorge Syndrome, but for now we're just happy to know where her heart defect and cleft palate came from!
And since we're dishing out the results of all Ruthe's recent tests, she's also positive for VRE. That's vancomycin-resistant enterococci. Enterococci is a bacteria most commonly found in the intestines that's become resistant to the antibiotic vancomycin. Ruthe's not sick from it, she just has the bacteria. She most likely got it from the hospital, although it could have been me or John or any of her many visitors. I'm not trying to point a finger, I just want to emphasize the fact that she isn't sick with an infection. someone could have VRE for their entire life and never develop an infection, or experience any symptoms because of it. If she does develop an infection from it though, it can be treated with different antibiotics.
Because she's VRE-positive, Ruthe was moved yet again. This time just to a new spot in the NICU. The NICU at Sunrice is divided into six[ish?] pods, and each of those pods has several wings, each housing three or four little nooks for babies. The wing that Ruthe was in when they got her test result back also housed a baby that could get seriously ill if they were exposed to VRE and developed an infection from it. Since Ruthe's such a trooper [and has way less machines to transfer along with her] we scooted her little bed into another wing at the end of the pod. We still have to wear all the isolation gear whenever we go to see her, and we'll have to until she comes home, but being at the very end of the pod is great! Ruthe's little nook is extra spacious, so we swiped a second rocking chair to keep in there for our night-time visits. :)
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| Ruthe's recovery - 15 minutes, one day, three days, and one week post-op. |
Our little nugget was diagnosed with diGeorge Syndrome. It's a disorder caused by a deleted portion of genes from her 22nd chromosome. There's a chance that it came from me or John, or that it occurred all on it's own. There are some other problems that Ruthe might have or develop, related to diGeorge Syndrome, but for now we're just happy to know where her heart defect and cleft palate came from!
And since we're dishing out the results of all Ruthe's recent tests, she's also positive for VRE. That's vancomycin-resistant enterococci. Enterococci is a bacteria most commonly found in the intestines that's become resistant to the antibiotic vancomycin. Ruthe's not sick from it, she just has the bacteria. She most likely got it from the hospital, although it could have been me or John or any of her many visitors. I'm not trying to point a finger, I just want to emphasize the fact that she isn't sick with an infection. someone could have VRE for their entire life and never develop an infection, or experience any symptoms because of it. If she does develop an infection from it though, it can be treated with different antibiotics.
Because she's VRE-positive, Ruthe was moved yet again. This time just to a new spot in the NICU. The NICU at Sunrice is divided into six[ish?] pods, and each of those pods has several wings, each housing three or four little nooks for babies. The wing that Ruthe was in when they got her test result back also housed a baby that could get seriously ill if they were exposed to VRE and developed an infection from it. Since Ruthe's such a trooper [and has way less machines to transfer along with her] we scooted her little bed into another wing at the end of the pod. We still have to wear all the isolation gear whenever we go to see her, and we'll have to until she comes home, but being at the very end of the pod is great! Ruthe's little nook is extra spacious, so we swiped a second rocking chair to keep in there for our night-time visits. :)
August 1, 2013
days 21 and 22.
There's not a whole lot of news on Ruthe today...
Yesterday afternoon they moved her back down to the NICU. She was the only baby left in her hallway in the PICU, making things a little tricky for the nurses up there, and since she's doing so well the doctors decided to move her.
John and I went on a date with our friends Brian and Alisha last night to Serendipity 3 down on the Strip. They're famous for their frozen hot-chocolate. I'm not a fan. But they have deeeeeelicious sundaes. Yummy ice cream topped with fudge and marshmallow goo and a mountain of whipped cream and a cherry... I could go back every day if it wasn't such a long walk. Or so dang pricey!!
When I got to the hospital this morning I had to put on a gown, face mask, and gloves before I could see Ruthe. The test they run for staph takes about 48-hours to come back, so until then we'll have to suit-up! She was wide awake for a little bit, because the nurse had just changed her diaper and checked her out, but she gets pretty sleepy from all that fussing. I held her for about an hour, and then the cardiologists came around to check her out. Everything's still looking and sounding great! Her incision did open up a little bit, and it's leaking some fluid, but not a lot, and no one's been too concerned about it.
The nurse and I tried to bottle-feed her a little bit more today. She didn't do so well. It's pretty tricky to figure out the whole process... although Ruthe does have the chicken-head motion down! The problems come when the milk's in her mouth and she doesn't know what to do with it. She'll just kind of stare at you, like she's saying, "Um, excuse me, but there seems to be something leaking into my mouth and I'm not sure what's supposed to happen now. You seem to be a little too excited about all of this, so could you please just give back my regular, non-leaky bink?"
When John and I went back tonight she was still doing really well. They took out her PICC line, so she only has two things going into her! Just her feeding tube, and one last IV running into her chest. Their plan is to get that taken out tomorrow, but the surgeon has to give the go-ahead. Hopefully they'll take that out and be done with it, but the nurse said they may have to put in a new peripheral IV [just in her hand/wrist] if she needs any more medications or fluids.
The neonatologist [doctor in the NICU] had the nurses start compressing Ruthe's feeds. Before she was just getting a continuous stream, but now she gets 60cc's over about two hours, and then nothing for an hour, and then 60 more cc's... you get it. They'll keep decreasing the length of her feeds and increasing the time between them, so she gets used to having a full and then empty belly. Then it should be a little easier to convince her to take a bottle or nurse. In the meantime, we'll meet with a speech therapist who can help evaluate Ruthe's needs, and tell us if/how her cleft palate will factor in to her learning to eat.
Hopefully Ruthe will be able to keep her temperature steady for the rest of the night. She was a little cold when we took her temp at 11, but I just called and the nurse said she was coming back up. If she can keep herself warm enough on her own, then as soon as they get that line out of her chest they can move her into a regular crib. That's one step closer to coming home!!
Yesterday afternoon they moved her back down to the NICU. She was the only baby left in her hallway in the PICU, making things a little tricky for the nurses up there, and since she's doing so well the doctors decided to move her.
John and I went on a date with our friends Brian and Alisha last night to Serendipity 3 down on the Strip. They're famous for their frozen hot-chocolate. I'm not a fan. But they have deeeeeelicious sundaes. Yummy ice cream topped with fudge and marshmallow goo and a mountain of whipped cream and a cherry... I could go back every day if it wasn't such a long walk. Or so dang pricey!!
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| Doesn't it just look SO good?!! |
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| Please ignore that we look exhausted... we just had a baby. ;) |
When I got to the hospital this morning I had to put on a gown, face mask, and gloves before I could see Ruthe. The test they run for staph takes about 48-hours to come back, so until then we'll have to suit-up! She was wide awake for a little bit, because the nurse had just changed her diaper and checked her out, but she gets pretty sleepy from all that fussing. I held her for about an hour, and then the cardiologists came around to check her out. Everything's still looking and sounding great! Her incision did open up a little bit, and it's leaking some fluid, but not a lot, and no one's been too concerned about it.
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| Three weeks!! I may need to invent a time-machine. |
The nurse and I tried to bottle-feed her a little bit more today. She didn't do so well. It's pretty tricky to figure out the whole process... although Ruthe does have the chicken-head motion down! The problems come when the milk's in her mouth and she doesn't know what to do with it. She'll just kind of stare at you, like she's saying, "Um, excuse me, but there seems to be something leaking into my mouth and I'm not sure what's supposed to happen now. You seem to be a little too excited about all of this, so could you please just give back my regular, non-leaky bink?"
When John and I went back tonight she was still doing really well. They took out her PICC line, so she only has two things going into her! Just her feeding tube, and one last IV running into her chest. Their plan is to get that taken out tomorrow, but the surgeon has to give the go-ahead. Hopefully they'll take that out and be done with it, but the nurse said they may have to put in a new peripheral IV [just in her hand/wrist] if she needs any more medications or fluids.
The neonatologist [doctor in the NICU] had the nurses start compressing Ruthe's feeds. Before she was just getting a continuous stream, but now she gets 60cc's over about two hours, and then nothing for an hour, and then 60 more cc's... you get it. They'll keep decreasing the length of her feeds and increasing the time between them, so she gets used to having a full and then empty belly. Then it should be a little easier to convince her to take a bottle or nurse. In the meantime, we'll meet with a speech therapist who can help evaluate Ruthe's needs, and tell us if/how her cleft palate will factor in to her learning to eat.
Hopefully Ruthe will be able to keep her temperature steady for the rest of the night. She was a little cold when we took her temp at 11, but I just called and the nurse said she was coming back up. If she can keep herself warm enough on her own, then as soon as they get that line out of her chest they can move her into a regular crib. That's one step closer to coming home!!
isolation.
When babies get transferred into the NICU from another area of the hospital, they're put in "isolation". It's not a bad thing. It's just to help decrease the risk of cross-contaminating any of the other (much more fragile) babies.
It's not even a big deal, Ruthe's in a regular bed and has a regular nurse that monitors her a regular amount, but all of her visitors have to wear a mask, gown, and gloves.
They also run a test for staph-infection. Which I think should be standard for every one all the time - like a flu shot - but what do I know.
Ruthe's still doing great! We'll try feeding her with a bottle again today and see if she does any better. She's pretty sleepy though, all these crying babies here in the NICU are keeping her up all hours of the night. :/
It's not even a big deal, Ruthe's in a regular bed and has a regular nurse that monitors her a regular amount, but all of her visitors have to wear a mask, gown, and gloves.
They also run a test for staph-infection. Which I think should be standard for every one all the time - like a flu shot - but what do I know.
Ruthe's still doing great! We'll try feeding her with a bottle again today and see if she does any better. She's pretty sleepy though, all these crying babies here in the NICU are keeping her up all hours of the night. :/