1 week, 2 days old

Maya has passed the week mark with only a slight medical stumble. On Friday, during the blizzard, we took her to the pediactric doctor and were told she had lost an ounce in the past 3 days, and looked fairly jaundiced. This, combined with the information that Maya was sleeping almost all of the time, caused some alarm for the Dr. She suggested we supplement each feeding with some formula, and also go to CCMC (Connecticut Children's Medical Center) in Hartford to get her checked out.

Off we went in the blizzard - and boy was it slick! We do not have snow tires on our AWD mini-van, and the ABS brakes were kicking in like crazy at every stop. We had some close calls stopping. We drove up and over Avon Mt. with no issues ourselves, but cars were stuck all over. I hope everyone who thinks "all-season" tires mean "work well in winter"
learned a lesson. They suck in snow. Next year I will even buy snow tires for the AWD van for sure.

So we arrived at the hospital and were put into a "pod" to await blood tests. The afternoon was wearing on and I needed to pick up Brianna, so I headed out while Victoria waited with Maya. It took me over 2 hours to get from Hartford back home, and the snow was over 6 inches by then. I picked up Brianna and we went back to CCMC where Maya and Victoria were still in the pod. Her blood tests came back showing a jaundice level of 15, well under the level of 20 that concerns doctors. However her red-blood cell count was high, indication some dehydration, so they gave her 70cc of IV fluid. Victoria said it was heart-wrenching to watch them insert the catheter while Maya screamed. I am glad to have missed that part.

Brianna was all kisses for Maya and has been so far. She can hold her with supervision and loves to help with diaper changes. She is getting so mature! She gives her hugs and kisses at night and announces loudly for all of us to come look when she opens her eyes. Since the hospital Friday she still mostly sleeps. People tell us this is a blessing but the doctors say the opposite. She seems healthy otherwise - we will have to keep monitoring her and are scheduled for a doctor visit on Monday to check her weight again.

Also - for more pictures you can go to http://flickr.com/photos/gorskipics and click on any of the sets.

Oh yes - the operation for the CCAM. We are scheduled to have it performed on the 4th of May down at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. So far no interference from the CCAM, but removing it will allow full normal lung capacity to develop and will remove the risk of malignant cancer development in the future from the tumor.

Four Days Old and Doing Well at Home

First of all, sorry for the lack of updates in the past few days. Lack of sleep can really distort your sense of time.

Maya only spent 1 1/2 days in the NICU, with only 12 hours or so on the supplemental air "CPAP" machine. Although her APGAR score was 5 at birth and 8 at one minute, and she appeared to have more of a struggle breathing at birth, she actually recovered much more quickly than Brianna did and had no problems eating right from the start. Her initial trouble breathing was due to fluid in the lungs which quickly cleared itself up. The CCAM is causing no trouble, and will be removed May 4 (tentatively) in Philadelphia.

So here are the stats, Maya vs. Brianna:

Gestational age of birth: Brianna 37 weeks, Maya 35 weeks.
Weight at birth: Brianna 7 lbs 4 oz, Maya 8 lbs. 8 oz
Time of Labor since induction: Brianna 22 hours, Maya 14 hours (Victoria had pre-eclampsia both times)
Time spent on supplemental oxygen: Brianna 2.5 days, Maya .5 days
Time to normal eating habits: Brianna - over a week, Maya - instantly.

So basically, go figure. All statistics are out the window, including the stat that says it is very unlikely to get pre-eclampsia twice. BS. This is the last baby for us as another would have a good chance of killing mother and child. Victoria had a very high creatinine level in her kidneys this time, which they are continuing to monitor.

Mother and child got to spend a normal time together in the maternity ward for a day. Unlike Brianna, this time we were able to get the "Special Delivery" cake and have a baby photograph taken in the maternity room. We were visited by Auntie Megan, Grandpa Davis, Auntie Nicole, Cousin Savannah, Grandma Dayle, Nana Whittier, Allison Anderson, Bonnie and Shannon Brownell, and Pam Pellitier. Many pictures were taken and can be viewed at www.flickr.com/photos/gorskipics - go through the most recent sets.

Since arriving home, Maya has been perfect. She sleeps a lot, grunts and makes puppy sounds, and feeds very well. Victoria is very happy, as is Brianna. Brianna has been a very helpful big sister, and appears to be adjusting well.

Maya is here!

Maya was born at 3:09 AM. She is 8 lbs, 8 oz. and 21" long. She had some lung fluid at birth and is in the NICU just as Brianna was. As they were hooking up the monitors and the CPAP air machine, Maya was trying to rip the things off - I had to restrain her arms. Strong little girl! Victoria did an outstanding job delivering her and she is resting for 24 hrs. before they will take her off of the magnesium sulfate and allow her out of bed. Following are some pics, then I need to be off - people and things to get!!!

Here we go!

Yesterday (Wednesday, March 7) Victoria went for a check-up at the OB/GYN office. Dr. Saidel took her blood pressure and weight and there was a blood pressure reading of 147/91 and a weight gain of 5 lbs over 1 week, after only gaining 14 lbs. the rest of the pregnancy to that point. These symptoms pointed to pre-eclampsia, which is supposedly very rare to repeat itself, but is exactly what happened with Brianna our firstborn, even at the same relative time in her pregnancy.

So the Dr. had her go home with instructions to keep of her feet as much as possible, monitor her weight closely and return on Monday, March 12 for a re-evaluation. What happened then was that Victoria visited a blood-pressure kiosk in a grocery store that afternoon and noticed and even higher reading of 147/98. She called the Dr. who then told her to visit on Friday, and call if things started to get worse. That evening (last evening, actually) our friend and Brianna’s Goddess Mother, Bonnie, came over to check on Victoria and take her blood pressure professionally at home. She brought an electronic blood pressure cuff which refused to read Victoria. Bonnie tested it on herself to be sure it was working properly, and it read just fine. She also tested it on me, and it also read fine (135/75 – a big improvement for me!), then tried it several more times on Victoria and it refused to read her. At that point Bonnie (who is studying to become a nurse) brought out the manual cuff and stethoscope and got a manual reading of 147/98. Just so those of you who didn’t go through med school know, the first number should be less than 130 and the second number less than 80. Bonnie also noted that Victoria did not look good and Victoria had a bad headache. So she called the Dr. at 9 pm or so and was told to come in to Hartford Hospital for evaluation.

Bonnie graciously offered to spend the night at our house with Brianna. Brianna was very upset that Mommy and Daddy were leaving her, and I think she was scared about the whole hospital thing, associating it with old people dying. We did our best to explain that it might be time for Maya to be born and had to let Bonnie pry her away from us so we could go. We later heard that she was OK very soon after we left and behaved very well for Bonnie.

We arrived at the hospital and were checked in sometime between 10 and 11 pm. A very knowledgeable resident doctor had some blood tests run that showed Victoria’s creatinine level to be 1.2 and her uric acid to be at 8, more than double what they should be. Also she was/is “hyper reflexive,” meaning that her knee-jerk reflex is very strong. These signs all point to pre-eclampsia, which needs to be treated by magnesium sulfate along with induced labor – or the mother can progress to “eclampsia,” which means seizures and possibly death for both mother and child.

So today Dr. Watson ran some more tests and the creatinine was up to 1.4 – indicating worsening pre-eclampsia. She took less than 2 minutes of reading the charts to decide that Victoria needed to be induced, despite Maya being only 35 weeks old. The NICU is prepared to evaluate Maya at birth and will likely be where Maya will be staying for a few days.

Victoria at this point (noon today, March 8, 2007) was starving so Dr. Watson gave her permission to eat so light food. I went to Friendly’s and bought her a bowl of chicken noodle soup and a large orange soda. She craved root beer with Brianna and now craves orange soda with Maya. This was the last food she could have before being moved into labor and delivery and being put on magnesium sulfate, pictocin and vancomysin drips.

So we were moved from a night time stay in the “triage” room of the maternity ward to the labor and delivery ward, where Victoria is now hooked up to an IV in each arm and is feeling yuckier due to the meds. Brianna is with Auntie Nicole, Savannah and Uncle Eiko tonight, and Victoria’s sister Megan has been over our house cleaning and preparing baby items which we were not prepared for this early! We also just remembered that we came without an infant seat, so I will need to get one at Wal-Mart before we leave. We have been very lucky with family helping with this pregnancy, and our gratitude goes out to everyone. Victoria’s father Jim will also be coming up tomorrow (Friday) at noon from Florida to be present with his new granddaughter at an early age.

So now we wait…Victoria is in room 616 in Hartford Hospital’s Labor and Delivery ward, (860-545-0616 if you want to call before labor gets too intense, probably before 6 or 7 pm tonight, or after we get the word out that the baby has been born, either in this blog or via the phone tree) and is waiting for nature and medication to take its course.

It is a bummer that our wonderful experience with HypnoBirthing classes will not get put to full use, as it looks like they will need to whisk Maya away very soon after birth without much bonding time, more due to prematurity and the effects of magnesium sulfate than any effects due to CCAM.

My apologies if any of this is rambling or doesn’t make sense, but I had very little sleep last night with very vivid dreams of teams of nurses coming into a room I was in trying to sell such things as coffee from a large, wheelable machine, cat food at ½ price, and bolts for a BMW motorcycle.

More to come when I can update...