Tiny Baby! (pic only)

Here's a pic of Katie wearing Ron's wedding band. We're hoping to make a series of similar pictures, so one day we can look back and remember just how tiny she was :).

(Almost) Two Weeks Old!

About five more hours, and Katie will be two weeks old! I have mixed feelings on how quickly time seems to have already gone by.

10.12.12

Katie is up to 720 grams (about 1 pound, 9 ounces). I'm not sure how much of that is fluid weight, and how much is her actually growing.. but either way, it sounds great! This evening the ventilator was set around 45, but she was letting it do all the work! She had a interesting morning, with an x-ray and some blood work being done. The doctors say that, based on the x-rays, it looks like the poof of air in her stomach is moving down, and she's having more soiled diapers (which is great!).

More news: the doctors think she has a tear in her larynx (which could be the "airway anomaly" the doctors at Baptist found). They say that they are giving it some time to heal, and then they will feel better about feeding her. Hopefully she'll be a little pig and will start to grow :).

10.12.12

We knew Katie had been opening her eyes just a sliver, even at Baptist, but we hadn't ever gotten a picture of it.. until today! She struggles so hard to get the right muscles working to get her eyes open, it's adorable. She always scrunches up her eyebrows and wrinkles her forehead before she manages to open her eyes.

Taking a peek!
10.12.12

Welcome to LeBonheur!

Katie is all moved in at LeBonheur! I was a bit nervous about the actual moving process, but the Pedi-Flite team (After hearing the name of the transport team, I had to ask whether she was being flown.. but that's just the name. She was moved via ambulance.) made everything seamless. The carrier she was on looks a bit scary, but it had all the machines on it that she was hooked up to, so she never had to be without any of it.

10.08.12

If you've never been to LeBonheur before, it's a maze! From parking to walking onto her floor, I take 3 elevators and go through 4 buildings. They have helpful stickers on the floor to tell you how to get to the children's hospital, which I was thankful for.

Once they got her moved, and while she was getting used to her new room/hooked up to her machines, I was shown around the floor (where the restrooms, showers, lactation rooms, etc were located) and introduced to her doctors and nurses. They let me know that as long as I'm making Katie food, I get meal cards. Her room has two convertible chairs so we can sleep in the room. We can have drinks in the room, but no food. There's a family room where we can eat our meals if we choose to stay at the hospital for any time.

Katie's room at LeBonheur
10.09.12

Now, for some news! They moved her back to the ventilator. When I called this morning, they had her on 25% oxygen, and 30 breaths per minute. She was breathing over the machine at around 60 breaths. Also, on Monday, they were able to get a smaller tube down into her stomach! They put a couple puffs of air into her stomach, and are X-raying periodically to see if it passes. The first puff disappeared overnight, and they're currently tracking the second puff.

Once they make sure that the puffs of air are making their way through her system, they can start to feed her. Which will be great news, not only for her growing body, but also for our quickly diminishing freezer space!

10.08.12

Mom has been asking for pictures of Katie's feet, so Mom, these pics are for you:

10.09.12

10.09.12

Katherine Louise Stowe: A Birth Story

Katie's First Picture - 09.29.12

Not quite the way I expected, but miss Katherine Louise "Katie" Stowe has arrived. September 29, 3:28am, 1 pound, 3 ounces, 12 inches. We've got quite the road ahead.

09.29.12

I woke up Tuesday, September 25th, with some cramps and bleeding that I later found out were contractions (found out I may have an incompetent cervix.. I'll let you google that). Went immediately to labor & delivery, where a cervical check showed I was dilating and had a bulging sac (they couldn't tell how dilated I was, but the best estimate was 9cm.. which we later found out was more like 3cm). I was admitted and started on a medicine (magnesium sulfate.. made ALL my muscles work at around 20% efficiency, which was great for my uterus, but not so great for breathing or focusing my eyes) to stop labor. I stayed on the medicine for two days while they also gave me a steroid to help Katie's lungs develop once she got here. I was taken off the magnesium sulfate on Thursday morning and put on another (procardia) to keep any contractions at bay. After a day of no contractions, I was moved to a different room. Early Saturday morning I started having some powerful contractions, despite the procardia. A cervical check showed that I was completely effaced and ready to push. Minutes later I was in a room delivering Katie. I didn't plan on having an unmedicated delivery.. but Katie had her own ideas.

10.01.12

She's currently in the NICU at Baptist Memorial Women's East. Her heartrate and blood pressure are great. She started off on a ventilator (but had trouble because of an anomaly in her trachea), and was moved to an oscillator early October 3rd because her PH levels weren't where the doctors liked. She has been doing well on it so far. As of her weigh-in yesterday, she is up to 1 pound, 8 ounces.. but as the doctors put it, her weight will fluctuate a lot during the beginning (but it is still comforting to hear!).

10.05.12

They tried putting a line down her yesterday for feeding, and they discovered what the doctors think is TEF/EA (Tracheal Esophageal Fistula and Esophageal Atresia. It's kinda complicated.. but fixable via surgery). She is still too tiny to go through the surgery, so they're most likely going to put a feeding tube into her stomach soon, to help her gain weight quickly. They're moving her to LeBonheur's Children's Hospital on Monday, where she'll have the specialized care she needs.

10.05.12

Update - 14 weeks!

Well, I hit the second trimester yesterday! I honestly don't think any of it has sunk in. I don't really *feel* pregnant at all! Yes, I'm tired constantly. Yes, my hips hurt when I sleep (even with a pillow between my knees). Yes, I run out of breath when I talk and walk at the same time. Yes, I've been hormonal and snappy. I think my lack of morning sickness may be to blame. I'm really hoping that once I can see/feel the baby move (on the ultrasound or feeling on my belly), it'll feel REAL.

The nursery is mostly set up! We still need a bookshelf, mattress, changing pad, and to find out the gender so we can finish the last touches. I know it's early.. but I like to be prepared! Here's the crib & changing table that Ron's mom bought us. Each only took Ron 30 minutes to put together :).

Tonight we are going to KidsTown, it's a consignment sale that is going on this week only. We signed up for the "first time parents presale" that starts at 6:30p tonight. We still need some bigger items like a pack-n-play and swing. I'm sure I'll discover a thousand other things that I MUST have. I've never been before, so I'm hoping that since it's a consignment sale, everything will be inexpensive.

So far, everything has been very overwhelming. There is just SO MUCH to consider. So much that I don't even know that I need to be considering! The first trimester absolutely flew by. I do wish that I could feel the baby already, but I am not wanting to wish any of this time away. There will be PLENTY of time later to wish I was still pregnant and not waking up at 1-3-5am for feedings and complaining because the baby just won't go back to sleep, and all I want to do is just.. close my eyes.. Yep, I'm ready :D.

Ultrasound - 12 weeks!

There's legs and a tiny little nose!

"Threatened Miscarriage"

I went in for an ultrasound and appointment around 1:30pm yesterday, Thursday, May 24. Unfortunately Ron wasn't able to go with me, since the appointment slot opened up so quickly and he couldn't get off work. Everything went great, and I heard the heartbeat! 123 bpm :).

About 4 hours after my ultrasound, I started bleeding. Google said that unless I was bleeding through a pad an hour, I was okay.  I got in the shower around 8. When I was cleaning myself out, I found two blobs of dark tissue. That's when I told Ron that I wanted to go to the ER.

We finally get home around 3am after getting 7 vials of blood taken and a very uncomfortable u/s showing a hb at 124bpm (so reassuring!). Of course, I hadn't taken my daily meds yet because I usually take them immediately before I lay down. So I took them when I got home.. big mistake! Empty stomach + multivitamin = very sick pregnant Angel. First puking of the pregnancy!

Made a follow up appointment at my ob's office this morning, did another u/s (Ron got to hear the hb this time! 128 bpm). The doctor (not MY doctor, because he's not at my office on Fridays..) let us know that the placenta had detached a bit (5mm) from my uterus. It wasn't caused by anything, it just happens. He said I still have some blood in my cervix that will come out and probably another clot, but everything inside seems fine. Unless I have a LOT of blood and a LOT of pain, I'm not having a miscarriage.

He wrote it up as a "threatened miscarriage" and told me to just be normal.