Day 2, January 24

Karen has a fever so they won't let her see the baby until the fever is broke for 24 hrs.  The NICU sent to her room a computer so she could watch our baby on a webcam they set up.  Karen is having a hard time not being next to her, but knows if anything happens she will be notified.  Mom needs to get better and take it easy so she can be strong.

Baby is doing about the same today.  She is still on the meds and we just wait.  Clint sits by her side every hr, except during the times the NICU is closed.  He hates to leave her.  The Bishop came today and helped Clint give her another blessing.  Clint was given the consent to bless and name the babe should the need arise.  The prognosis is still dire and we feel like they keep waiting, waiting for her to get better is not something they seem to feel hopeful about, so they seem to be waiting for her to die.  We saw her eyes for a few seconds tonight.  By 11 pm Karen was able to go back to the NICU to be with our baby.  She knows her parents.

The NICU called Karen and explained things to her.  She hadn't really understood how sick our baby is because she chooses to see things optimistically.  Clint is being prepped for the worst outcome and it feels like all any one can talk about is death.  After talking together we choose to not talk about death unless it comes.  We choose to see life and focus on life rather than on anything else.  She chose to live and we honor that choice by not preparing her to die.

Grandma and Grandpa come to visit and they are good company for us.  Karen's older brothers are flying in, they can't stay away and we are grateful for family that can come and those that wish they could.

I need to clarify something, the nurses were great, the respiratory therapists were great.  They did try to keep things optimistic and hopeful for us.  they wanted us to be prepared, as her parents, for whatever outcome was there.  It felt at times like we were battling a uphill climb, but the support we received was amazing.

A continuation of the first day

When a baby is born you expect certain things and you take other things for granted, like a normal blood sugar level or normal blood acidity level, which is 7.5.  You assume everything will function like it's supposed to, the lungs, the heart, the kidneys, the brain, all of these things you expect to be ok unless you are otherwise told prior to your child being born.  None of these things were ok for her.  Because she went without oxygen for so long she was diagnosed with fetal respiratory acidemia.  The article I put up is extensive and full of really big words, but basically it means that because she went without oxygen her blood was acidic.  Babies don't breathe like you and I, they get oxygen through their umbilical cord.  Hers was prolapsed, therefore making her oxygen deprived.  She had to have a plasma transfusion right after she was born and everyday they would test her blood gas by taking blood from the artery in her umbilical cord.  How they do that is they put in a line to the artery through the cord.  Her hand held an IV line for fluids. Because she was on cold cap they couldn't feed her right away so they put an IV into her umbilical cord too for meds.  Also, because of the acidemia, her kidneys and liver were damaged.  Her lack of oxygen also did a number on her heart and she was on heart medicine for the first couple of days to help it pump enough blood to heal her body.

As a recap here is what she was on, medicine for her heart to beat strong enough, medicine for her kidneys to function, medicine for her liver to function, cold cap to slow down any possible side effect of HIE, medicine to keep her sedated because cold cap hurts, an IV to keep her hydrated, a ventilator to keep her breathing and trial drug for brain swelling.  She had tests run everyday while she was there and in the first 72 hrs was so sick that one nurse had just her when they can have up to 3-4 at once.

The Dr. and nurses truly thought she might die or have seizures at any moment.

Clint and others gave her a Priesthood blessing, and he stayed by her side, not moving, until they kicked him out to rest.  Karen saw her finally at 11pm, a full 12 hrs after she was born.  We got to hold her hand and that was all.  Karen stayed until she couldn't stay awake and asked to go back to her room.  She never thought it would be the last time she saw her.  She always had faith that if life was what our daughter had chose than she would continue to live.  Karen believed that if our daughter was going to die she never would have come back.  

She NEVER seized, she didn't die.

Baby born at 11:11 am, weighing 5.9 lbs and 19 inches long. 

  

In the Beginning, Jan 23

Karen had a very normal pregnancy.  She went to all of her Dr. visits and each time everything looked great and our miracle baby looked like a healthy little girl.  Her due date was Feb 5.  Karen usually goes right to her due date so she had filled the last weeks with things to keep her mind off of how uncomfortable things were getting.  Taking the kids sledding on Jan 19th, business mtg on Jan 21, helping in brother's preschool class on the 22, helping sister sell GS cookies and all the other activities a mother does.  The morning came early, 5:00.  Karen began experiencing some contractions.  She got up, ate a small breakfast, showered and wrote in her journal.  All these things were to see if the contractions were going to slow down or go away.  She got sister up and ready for school and the boys breakfast.  All while the contractions kept coming and then she woke-up Clint.  "I don't think these are going to go away, they are getting stronger and harder."  He got up, took sister to school and by the time he got back it was time to go to the hospital.  Karen wasn't anxious to go for fear she would be sent home.  Little did we know what was waiting for us when we got there.

About 10:15am -- Got checked into the hospital and taken to a room to deliver
About 10:50 am --Karen got rushed into the OR because of a prolapsed umbilical cord and baby heart decellerations
11:11 am --Baby born via c-section

Originally it was thought that our MB was without oxygen for 7 min.  Since hearing that initial report we have found out it was probably closer to 12-15 min.  there is really no way to tell exactly because she was still inside and they don't know when it was she stopped breathing.  Here's what we know, when they took her out of Karen she was limp and not breathing, covered in meconium.  The neonatal team had been called in advance to help the baby.  They worked for a solid 5 min before seeing a sinus rhythm.  It as a faint blip on the screen and one of the NP's said they should keep going.  (They are within rights to stop CPR at 5 min)  At 7 min they saw the blip again and at that time the head Neonatologist said at 10 min they have to stop.  at 9.5 min MB's heart started beating.  We don't know if that's when she took her first breath or not.  Until we get all the reports back we won't know a lot of time stuff.  It was determined that she was born with severe Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)  She was also born having aspirated the meconium deep into her lungs.

By 12:30 pm they had placed a cold cap on her.  there are a few places you can go to learn more about it.  Here is one place that we liked and here is a video done in Pheonix that will explain it much better than we can.