Teta Time

Teta taking Zoë's temperature

Private rooms and out of town visitors

Zoë got her own room today!  I didn't think it would make that huge of a difference, seeing as how it still needs to house all of her tubes and wires and electrical components attached to her tiny incubator, but it was SO nice today to sit in there in relative privacy, talking with her nurse (today it was Lisa) and holding her for an hour each time.  I went in this morning with my mom and held her for about an hour, and then Chris took a turn this afternoon to hold her as well.  I have to say, I have always known Chris would make a good dad just because of the kind of man he is, but seeing him hold our daughter brought out a whole new appreciation for him.

  I was discharged from the hospital at about 3pm, so we went right to the NICU and planted ourselves there until about 5.  I will say, driving away from the hospital at 5pm was really, really hard.  Really hard.  I know she's going to be taken care of and have the best care from those nurses possible, but we just drove away from her. :(  We'll be going back tomorrow morning!

AND, in other surprises, when we got home tonight, I had enough energy to take a shower, eat a cinnamon roll (they were still good), pump, and then had just started to doze off when Chris came into the bedroom to tell me that my parents were here.  I knew they might be coming by, Mom said she'd be dropping off some food for us.  But, after a few minutes, they came back into our room and following behind them was Angela!  They flew her in for the weekend because they felt we both needed it.  What an AWESOME (and painful; the amount of sobbing I did when my sister walked in the room was not very kind to my incision) surprise.  Teta's here!  :) My mom described a few of the times when our Teta surprised her and how it always seemed like she came right when she was most needed.  I felt the exact same way when Angela walked in today and am SO excited to take her to the NICU tomorrow morning so she can meet her niece and Zoë can meet her Teta!  YIPPEE!  What an amazing blessing family is!

Four days old!

Zoë is four days old today!  It is funny to see her in her incubator, because compared to the baby in the incubator next to hers she is TINY!  But I can't imagine her any bigger, yet...she's just our perfect little preemie.

Dad taking her temperature (she's no longer under the lights...this was yesterday)

Goals for range of motion for Zoë, posted on the wall by her incubator.   I totally appreciate these, as a teacher.  :)

Tonight she was super alert, holding Dad's finger and watching him the whole time she had her care check by nurse Barb.

Sucking on a pacifier is another important goal for Zoë, although she won't learn to suck, swallow, and breathe at the same time until about 34 weeks.

Alert!

She is up to 8ml of food per care time (every three hours).  My brother-in-law, Jed, is appalled at how little food that actually is, but you have to keep in mind that she's only 2 lbs 8 oz (lost a little weight since delivery, totally normal).  She had a bit of a spit-up incident this evening while we were visiting that sent her oxygen levels crashing and her respiratory heartbeat skyrocketing.  It was a good reminder of how fragile she is and that even as something as simple as a spit-up causes her distress because her body can't regulate itself back into "normal" very easily yet.

Chris was going to get a chance to hold her for the first time tonight for some skin-to-skin contact with daddy, but because of the spit-up incident it was probably best to hold off until the morning.  I have had a chance to hold her three times, now, which has been great for bonding time and helping with the pumping (ugh).

Dad and nurse Barb during care time.

Progress...

Zoë is doing well!

     Things she has already accomplished: 

          -coming off the respirator,

          -sucking AND breathing at the same time (she sucks on a pacifier),

          -graduating to an 'electrolyte' package instead of just a saline solution in her IV,

          -having her blood pressure taken by cuff now instead of through her umbilical cord
          -eating colostrum dutifully pumped and delivered by her mother

Today her parents accomplished:
          -Emily had to have surgery to remove a hematoma that developed as a result of the c-section  
            yesterday (she wasn't getting enough attention, so another surgery sounded good).
            Everything is just fine.
          -Both had happy fits of parental rage today...Emily at a nurse who was going to keep her from
            seeing Zoë RIGHT. NOW. directly after the aforementioned surgery: "the reason my blood
            pressure is high because you are KEEPING ME FROM MY SEEING MY DAUGHTER" is
            pretty close to a direct quote.  Chris gave grandparent Gene a glare of "if you keep taking
            flash pictures while my 30 week old preemie daughter is trying to open her eyes I will kill
            you", which, as Gene mentioned later, is a look Chris has never given to his father-in-law in
            the four years they have known each other.  I guess we both earned our badges today.  :)
           -Emily got to hold Zoë!  What an amazing moment for both of them...Chris will get a turn
            tomorrow.

Time for pumping and bedtime!  Hope you're all doing well!

Love,
CE&Z

 

Grandma and Zoë

Meet Zoë Maxine Seaman!

Zoë arrived at VMC this morning at 7:59am by c-section!  She weighed 2 lbs 12 oz.  :)

Zoë needed a little light protection for her eyes.

Dad with Zoë for the first time.

We got the green go-ahead at about two minutes to 7am, so it was a pretty quick turn-around from laying in bed with high platelets and a lower liver functions level to being opened up on an operating table.

Sparing you many of the details of my first major surgery, it went very well.  In fact, it went better than any doctor thought it would.  We didn't need any of the blood standing by in case I lost a whole bunch, didn't have any problems getting her outta there in a good amount of time, etc.  When they got her out, we heard her squeek, the doctor held her up over the blue curtain so I could see her briefly and then she was whisked away to the NICU.  A few moments later, the staff in the operating room told Chris to stand up and go walk over to the window she had been handed through to hear the set of lungs she had on her.  I guess it was pretty impressive!

Mom with Zoë for the first time.

Daddy gets to touch Zoë...so gentle.

We're doing well now!  Chris got to go up about two hours after she was delivered, took some video and pictures, and then came back down to share them with me and the waiting grandparents.  This afternoon, my fabulous nurses wheeled me and my entire bed which comes with my magnesium drip contraption and pump up to the NICU to meet Zoë myself.  She looks like a baby!  I don't know if any of you have experienced having a preemie like this before, but I guess I just didn't know what to expect.  Sure, she is small, but she still LOOKS like a baby and she's really strong!  We just got an update from the NICU doctor who came and visited us in our room to tell us she was already off the ventilator (seriously?!  Can you say "gifted program?") and onto a CPAP machine.  Hopefully, with the results of my most recent labs that were sent off to the lab just moments ago, the night nurse will be able to wheel me up into the NICU again so that I can see her again tonight before I go to bed.  If not, Chris will have to deliver the latest installment of pumped colostrum on his own and report back with pictures!

Over the next few days, I will stay in the hospital and be able to see Zoë whenever I want to!  It's weird to have a routine now that does not involve the watch of the hospital staff like it did the past three and a half days.  It's definitely quieter and more relaxing and Chris and I have a lot of time to ourselves.  So if you'd like to stop by to say hi for a small amount of time, please do so, but know that you just won't get to see Zoë yet.  :(  That's why I'll keep updating this blog so you at least get good pictures.  Let us know if you are coming and we'll make sure it's a good time.

Zoë has lots of work to do to continue to develop properly, but she's on the right pathway to recovery.  We'll keep you in the loop!

Love,
Chris, Emily, and Zoë

HELLP Primer and Sunday Update

Here's your update for the day...I'm getting snapped at to REST and go to bed, so you're going to get the primer version of HELLP Syndrome and how we're all doing in the hospital.

HELLP is a pregnancy complication that is related to preeclampsia, and usually occurs later in pregnancy and is identified by three specific things:  the breaking down of red blood cells (hemolysis- H), elevated liver enzymes (EL) and low platelet counts (LP).  When we arrived at the ER on Thursday night, my liver enzyme levels were extremely high, as was my white blood cell count AND my platelet count was a 68 (that's in thousands...) when it should be much, much higher than that.  The only real treatment for this syndrome is to deliver the baby, but since we're only at 30 weeks tomorrow, that was also going to be a problem to give baby girl the best chance possible outside of my body.

So, what did that mean for admittance to the hospital?  It meant I needed immediate intervention, to focus on my platelet count, lower my blood pressure, and make sure I didn't start seizing.  I have been on a lovely magnesium drip since Thursday night to help with that last issue.  Sadly, it is still hooked up to my IV and makes me feel like crap.  But I guess I'll take that over seizures any day.

It should come as no surprise that I have won (I am using this term loosely) the award for sickest patient in the birth center.  Coming from the competitive stock I do, "winning" this award is not something I will be letting go of easily.  My body has, however, ALSO made amazing strides to make up for my low platelet count (now at 135!!!).  I am also now accustomed to one-on-one nurses (who, geez, are ALL amazing superhero people!) because I'm a "mag" and severe HELLP patient...it's going to come as quite a shock when I come out of that c-section and I'm a "commoner" like the rest of the patients in the birth center and have to share the staff.

Several people have made comments to me or my parents about how it must be hard for one of those Kolczynskis to stay still in bed...uh, you know us so well.  We've had great support from both sets of grandparents who are running around for us picking things up at our houses, mudding the closet in the nursery, and keeping us company.  Chris and I are oh-so-thankful for them and all they do for us.  :)

Right now, we're in a holding pattern.  My levels look ok, baby girl is happy, etc.  I've bought her at least three good days of development and some extra support (had some really cool steroid shots in the cheeks below on Thursday and Friday night to help her develop her lungs as much as possible). But, as soon as those levels start to dip, we're going to be whisked away to surgery and then it's baby girl's fight to begin.  It's a precarious place to be, but we're balancing ok right now.  I guess it's time for sleep?  Who can do that now?!

Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers, we sure appreciate them!
Love,
Emily and Chris and Baby Girl Seaman

Cinnamon Rolls Do Not Fix Everything...

...including preeclampsia.  Or, going even further, what is now a Seaman family term: HELLP syndrome.  Don't google it yet, it'll scare the shite out of you.

If you don't want to read the (lengthy) journal entry to my (sooner-to-be born-than-we-planned) child that will follow this post (probably tomorrow), you don't have to read it.  Here're the gritty details:

-Emily is fine and stable, and will remain that way for just a day or two more, at which point baby girl needs to exit stage left and find a nice warm home in an incubator for 8 weeks.

-Baby girl is more than fine and stable, she is having a great time, has a great strong heartbeat, and not really interested in leaving her mother's womb any time soon.  When she does, though, she'll have an amazing staff at the Valley NICU to take good care of her.

-Chris is thrilled to be sleeping on the couch of the hospital room.  He says he has more room to sleep than he has in five months, and it's not so uncomfortable.  In all serious-ness, though, he is the best caretaker in the entire world and, if it weren't for dealing with all of the, you know, medical stuff, he would make a great nurse.

-We are at the hospital under the care of amazing nurses and doctors and specialists who are so kind, informative, and knowledgeable and making us feel better about this scary situation we are in.

-Baby girl will make her appearance at some point early this week.  :)  Although she'll be whisked away directly to her new home in the NICU for a few months.

We love the texts and messages we're getting!  Be assured that we ARE getting them, even if we don't respond right away (we get a lot of doctor-type visitors who have semi-important information for us ;).  Like I said before, I'll post another, longer entry soon with more details (probably way more than you even want) as more of a journal entry because I don't want to miss any of this story when we tell it to baby girl in the future!  Feel free to pass it along to anyone else.

Love,
Chris and Emily and Baby Girl Seaman