Saturday Update

Morning:
We visited Sadie around 8am. She is still doing well and her CPAP is still at 21% oxygen. She was in the isolet so we weren't able to hold her, but Jen was able to change her diaper (view the video). They think the CPAP may come off tomorrow. The next step would probably be a nasal cannula. That's just two small tubes and prongs that go in her nostrils. Even though she'll be at 21% oxygen, she still needs to have the air that she breathes under a bit of pressure.

Afternoon/Evening:
She was still on the CPAP. They did start to feed her 5cc's of milk/formula every three hours and she was tolerating that well. When Liz (our friend who happens to work in the NICU) vistied Sadie in the afternoon, she noticed Sadie was a little jaundice. Aedan had this when he was born and is "yellowing of the skin or eyes because the liver has not developed well enough to remove bilirubin, a substance produced when red blood cells are broken down (excess bilirubin causes the yellow color)" This is also normal for premies. Jen was able to hold her again. This time the CPAP and all the other things stayed attached to her. Because of this, Jen was able to hold her for a half hour, which was very nice. I'm kicking myself for not bringing the camera.

Mom and Dad:
Jen's doing well and is able to walk fine. She still get's tired after a while, but she is recovering very nicely. She's slated to get out of the hospital sometime on Monday after her doctor visits her. I'm doing well. I've been able to sleep in the hospital bed next to Jen so that's been nice. I continue to shuffle people back and forth through the maze of the second floor to see Sadie. Visitors need to be accompanied by a parent to pass the gauntlet and I'm a bit more able to do that than Jen.

Friday Update

Afternoon: Sadie's lungs aren't working as efficiently as they should because she has the following: "Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS): difficulty breathing caused by a lack of surfactant, a substance that normally prevents the lungs from collapsing" The doctor has decided to intubate Sadie's lungs with surfactant. This a process where they put a tube down to Sadie's lungs to deliver the surfactant. When you breathe, your lungs come together. Because she was a preemie and didn't produce enough surfactant, her lungs were sticking together a bit. The additional surfactant helps keep the lungs from doing this. The effects on the efficiency of here lungs was almost immediate. Within 10-30 mintues (I forget exactly how long) she went from needing an air mix with 35% oxygen, down to 21% oxygen (the same as normal room air).

Evening: At 9:30pm Jen and I visited Sadie. They were changing her bedding and had unhooked her from the CPAP (the tube that gives her air) so we were able to hold her. You can see the video on YouTube by clicking here. It was very nice to see her face without the tubes in her mouth and nose.

In the NICU

Sadie's in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and will be there for a while. Aedan was born a bit later but had more issues and he stayed for 20 days. Sadie will be in the NICU for at least that long but we are prepared for a month or a little more. They really don't like to estimate with the NICU babies. She's doing well for a premie. She has some respitory issues and is forgetting to breathe every once in a while. Because of this, she has a CPAP. That's a tube that feeds air and oxygen into her nose with a bit of pressure. She'll have that today and it will be removed when she starts breathing normally.

Birth Day

Sadie Ann Ralin Howell was born Thursday, 1/17/08 at 2:52pm. She was 5 pounds, 5.7 ounces and 18 inches long. She is having normal preemie respritory issues but is doing very well for a baby born at 33 weeks.

C-Section is Scheduled

Jen's c-section is scheduled for 2pm today. Jen's blood pressure was getting high and Sadie's non stress test wasn't as good as the dr would like. Everybody's fine, it's just to the point where Sadie needsto be born for her and Jen's health. I'll keep you updated.