Will a New Year bring New Beginnings.....???

Erica seems to be doing very well. We are having weekly echo's to monitor her PDA and Aorta. The PDA seems to be closing but at a very slow rate. We've slowly been getting her feeds back up (they had to take her off the feedings as they weren't sure if she was going for surgery or if they needed to give a med to close the PDA, which they've decided to do neither.) and she seems to be getting better at the bottle feeds. We are only allowed to give her a bottle now every 2nd feeding. Erica also got moved into a Crib today she's also got herself a little Ocean wonders mobile to keep her a little entertained. Here's hoping that this is the start of a bright new and healthy new year for our little sweet pea.

A Christmas Gift

After all that has happened, we had come to terms with the idea that we wouldn't have christmas all together as a family... Until Santa wrote to Emily and Brayden on Christmas Morning that he talked to the nurses and Dr's at the hospital and they agreed to let them come to the hospital to visit their baby sister, but only for a little while and they had bring her stocking with them.
It was the best Christmas present in the world. The kids were so excited and got to hold and kiss their baby sister for the first time. We later asked Emily what her favorite part of christmas was and she replied with "That we got to spend Christmas as a family with baby Erica"
Erica got many gift's from everyone. She was very spoiled. She even got 2 stuffed animals from previous NICU parents and patients and a knitted hat from a local elementary student named Paige.
Thanks everyone!

Answers

Today we meet with the Cardiologist Dr. K from Saskatoon. He came to see Erica because of her rapid breathing and low oxygen. We weren't really expecting any diagnosis but rather had a bunch of questions as to what they figure could be wrong, where do we go from here, if they think it could be hereditary, etc... We ended up getting a diagnosis of Pulmonary Vein Stenosis.

Pulmonary vein stenosis is a rare and serious condition in which there is an obstruction (blockage) in the blood vessels that bring oxygen-rich blood from the lungs back to the heart. It can be isolated to a single pulmonary vein, but most often occurs in multiple veins simultaneously.

The stenosis occurs due to an abnormal thickening and, thus, narrowing of the walls of the veins. Pulmonary vein stenosis frequently progresses. As a result, partial loss or even total obstruction of flow to a vessel or vessels may occur.

Surgery to widen the narrowed veins and catheterization to stretch the vessel are usually short-term solutions since the obstruction typically recurs within a month to six weeks. **** Taken from the Children's Hospital of Boston Website****

So he decided that they would put her on Oxygen (just a little to help her not work so hard and regain her energy back) and Viagra... Yes you heard me right my baby girl is on Viagra. 

The Unexpected

It's been a few days since Erica was born and things seem to be both good and bad. 
Erica's been feeding nicely and gaining her weight back ( she lost 23 % of her birth weight she was 2 lbs 9 oz) I have been mainly pumping these few day's but my supply is great (according to the nurses) 


It was noted that Erica was not only a IUGR (intrauterine growth restriction) baby because of a poorly placed placenta (attached to a septum and baby B's sac), but her cord was a 2 vessel cord instead of 3, and the placenta was detaching from the wall (hence the reasoning behind my bleeding and clotting), and the placenta didn't look healthy at all, which indicated that there could be a problem with her heart/kidneys/stomach and a bunch of other things in her abdomen.

Erica  had an echo done do to having a "molted" look to her body. They found that she has a heart condition in which she has a "shelf" in her Aorta coming from the heart (Coarctation of Aorta) Aortic coarctation is a narrowing of part of the aorta (the major artery leading out of the heart) The aorta carries blood from the heart to the vessels that supply the body with blood and nutrients. If part of the aorta is narrowed, it is hard for blood to pass through the artery (it's on the other side of the arteries going to her brain, which is good as the blood flow is great to her brain) 


However she also has a large PDA (*Patent Ductus Arteriosus* abnormal blood flow occurs between two of the major arteries connected to the heart. These arteries are the aorta and the pulmonary artery. Before birth, these arteries are connected by a blood vessel called the ductus arteriosus. This blood vessel is a vital part of fetal blood circulation. Within minutes or up to a few days after birth, the ductus arteriosus closes. This change is normal in newborns. In some babies, however, the ductus arteriosus remains open (patent). The opening allows oxygen-rich blood from the aorta to mix with oxygen-poor blood from the pulmonary artery. This can strain the heart and increase blood pressure in the lung arteries )

With the two heart conditions it's been causing low blood pressure to her left side including her kidney's and such. 

Good news is that Dr. Tyrell a pediatric cardiologist doesn't think that we need surgery for it, right now and would like to see first what signs she'll show. So we are to wait and see what the shelf will do when the ductus closes on itself.

They also took blood work and sent it to the Labs in B.C for Chromosome testing, and did ultrasounds on her brain/abdomen and back.

All the ultrasounds came back great! No brain problems and good blood flow. No abdominal issues, and no Spinal issues or openings.

Her chromosomal blood work came back great as well! No downs, spina bifida or any other chromosomal problems.

So all in all she's so far healthy we only have to work on getting her off of the tube feedings, gaining some more weight so she can hold her own body temp, and hopefully figure out her heart thing which it seems that it's not too big of a problem just something to keep an eye on.

We still aren't too sure when we are able to bring her home.  

Happy Birthday!

It's 2:55 am on Oct 25th, 2011.

The OB finally came back in and check and decided to break my water. She broke it and said "ok, I'll be back in a few hours to check on you". I looked at Dave and the nurses and said, "ok, but don't go too far as I am sure this wont take long, once my water breaks it never takes long". She left and not even 2 mins later my contractions started getting pretty intense and not far apart at all. ( I was no longer on the pitocin for a while, totally all my bodies own doing)
I asked the nurse if I could please get the epidural,she offered it to me prior, but with being in labor at 34 weeks, and knowing the size of the baby, I wasn't too comfortable with drugs, although I had done it with and without the epidural before. So she got the anesthesiologist in, to get it started and he was in right away. But now the contractions are on top of each other and I have my head in Dave arm, crying. I couldn't get into my comfy position because we needed to have the monitors on the entire time incase the baby couldn't handle the contractions. The epidural was in and he left at 3:05 and no sooner with him leave I knew it was time. I wasn't going to get the pain free birth I thought I was going to get.

I told the nurse It's time and she said "no hun not yet try to breath through them," I said "no, it's TIME i need the Dr.'s NOW, this can't wait and wont wait the baby's too small and will fly out there's no holden back!" The Dr.'s no later came running in. We had 3 OB's in the room 3 nurses for me including the charge nurse, and a team of 5 NICU staff and Dr.'s in the room, and with one very slight push...

Erica Elizabeth was born at 3:12 am weighting in at 3 lb. 6 oz (4 oz heavier then expected) and was 16 1/2 inches long.

They put her on me right away and Dave got to cut her cord. Her cry was so perfect, her color was great and she looked right at me. Too bad I couldn't see great through all the tears. Then they weighed her and checked her apgar score (which we great by the way) then they wrapped her put and held her in front of us for a while before they took her to the NICU.
I thought for sure they were going to whisk her straight away, but they didn't and it felt so good!

She is beautiful and perfect in every way!

Eviction Day and put on hold

The day has come, and it was a long ride into Regina. The thought that I wouldn't be pregnant with our peanut and no matter what I tried to do to keep this one baking a little longer, it was hard comprehend, because we knew that the safest thing was to deliver.

We got to the hospital and started the contraction stress test at 11:00, with pitocin. I was dilated (nearly 3 cm) & effaced (50%) before hand and at station +2 so I was well on my way to go into labour even on my own. 

Everyone got busy so we waited until 3:00, when the OB on call came in to check me and see if it was time. The OB ended up getting busy again so I was put on hold yet again. She said she'll be back in around 6 to check again and to break my water. 9:30 finally came and the OB finally got into see me, she check and said let break your water. So as she tried to break my water the baby's head disengaged/ slid back up (because of her being so small) So the Ob couldn't break it, because if she did, the chances of the umbilical cord coming first were too great. So they put me back onto the pitocin for a bit more to bring the baby back down.  

Getting ready to start the contraction stress test

At least I was allowed some ice water

chilling out waiting to get things rolling

The Big Appointment

Today we had our routine OB appointment and ultrasound with the High Risk Dr. I had been clotting and contracting and going back and fourth to L&D for a week already. The clotting was determined that it was my musuc plug.

The ultrasound today gave us the news that we wanted to avoid for a while, althought knowing that it was very likely that the chances of us being able to carry our little peanut to term were slim, we still weren't ready. 

In the past ultrasound weight check's, our little peanut wasn't gaining weight. Today she was estimate to be 3lbs 2 oz and 2weeks prior she was estimated 3 lb. It was determined that she is a IUGR baby. The placenta wasn't fully attached to the uterus causing only have half the nutrients required to go to the fetus for growth. The good news is that the baby was putting all the nutrients in the most important spots. (All the organ's). Everything else seemed to be good with her, she was breathing, heart looked good and everything. They couldn't see the placenta that well but her pressures seemed good on the doppler. 

At our OB appointment which was shortly after the ultrasound. It was determined, we had the choice of me being admitted to the hospital for constant monitoriong or we could go home and come back every day over the weekend for NST (Non-stress Test) the on Monday I was to be induced. We decided that we would go home and slightly prepare not only ourselves but Emily and Brayden.