Natalie is officially a month old. We can’t believe it. I think we can both agree it’s been both the fastest and yet the slowest month of our lives. We are still so humbled by all the support we have been given. Thank you all so much.

Natalie is doing well. She has officially crossed over into 3lbs territory. It’s crazy to feel like 3lbs is so big but it does feel like a lot considering where she started. She is doing well. Her feisty attitude has shown through quite a bit the last couple of days. On Tuesday, her 1 month birthday, she decided she was too big for the ventilator and ripped out her tube. Poor daddy walked in as they were bagging her because, despite what she thinks, she still needs oxygen. Since the plan was to move her to CPAP in a few days, the doctors just decided to move to CPAP then and there instead of reintubating her. So far she has done well on the CPAP machine. She has had a few episodes of forgetting to breathe, mainly while pooping, but aside from those moments, she is doing well. Yesterday, she was snuggling with daddy and decided to rip out her feeding tube and gave daddy a milk bath. She is still a few weeks away from trying bottles and nursing so that tube had to be put back in. Those are the big Natalie updates we have! We just love watching her grow and getting in our snuggles is one of our favorite parts of the day!

I had my thoracic echo today. If you ever have to have one, be prepared to swallow lots of yucky tasting items that numb your throat. The whole procedure went well. I only remember the prep and about the last 10mins of the procedure thanks to the sedative. The good news is that the doctor said he found no signs of infection on my heart. That brings me one step closer to being over this infection and being able to take out this PICC line. Tomorrow afternoon I meet with infectious disease for what I anticipate will be more blood tests but I honestly don’t know. As always, we will keep you posted!

Rachel: I feel pretty much fully recovered from my csection. I have no real pain from it and any discomfort I do have I can simply take an ibuprofen (though I haven’t needed even that in days). I was super excited to get my IV out today, Saturday, but yesterday there was a change of plans. Apparently, according to infectious disease, the infection I got was pretty serious. Infectious disease, as I think I mentioned, was worried an oral antibiotic wouldn’t be strong enough to get rid of the infection, which is why I they have had me hooked up to an IV since I went into labor. Well, apparently, this type of infection is ‘stinky’ and loves to stick to things, especially heart valves. Before they take me off the antibiotic and pull my PICC line, they want to do a thoracic echo. On Monday, they will sedate me, shove a tube down my throat, and take a look at the back of my heart to make sure the infection didn’t make its way to my heart. They also want to do more extensive blood work. Infectious disease is booked up so on Monday they will figure out a time to ‘squeeze me in’. If the echo and blood work come back ok, they will then take me off antibiotics and pull the PICC line. I will have to do some continuous follow up with infectious disease to make sure the infection stays away. I am hoping I can maybe get the PICC line taken out at the end of the week if I’m lucky.

Natalie: Natalie had a rough day yesterday as well. We were doing kangaroo time (skin to skin) when, after an hour, she dstated. She struggled to recover from the dstat. They had to call Respiratory and ended up bagging her while she was still in my chest. I ended up having to move her back into her isolate but even after we moved her back, it took her a bit to recover. She apparently had another episode similar to that at 7pm last night where they had to bag her because she wasn’t recovering from her dstat. They have no idea why she dstated since there was no warning and they can’t figure out why it took so long to recover. They did a chest and stomach X-ray and everything looked fine. She has been stable since 7pm last night so fingers crossed she will have a better day today. The have discovered that her TSH levels are high. TSH helps regulate the thyroid. Having high levels could be the result of being a premie and it could go down or it could be that Natalie has hypothyroidism. They will continue to do tests and monitor her and see what the levels will do. This is not a reason why she would dstat. It’s just another piece to the Natalie health puzzle. We are just hoping and praying we can get Natalie’s breathing under control and that the dstats stop.

We will continue to keep you all posted but that’s where things stand as of now.

Everyone told us the journey in the NICU will have ups and downs. Yesterday was an exciting day where we got to see our little miracle open her eyes and check out the world. Today, we hit a bump in the road. When I walked into the NICU today around noon, there were 6 people huddled around Natalie. My heart sank. This clearly meant something was wrong. Natalie apparently has a few dstats last night and with each dstat, it was harder for her to come back up. Apparently this morning she was seemingly fine but went downhill quickly and so they decided to reintubate her and put her back on a ventilator. When they moved her onto the CPAP machine, they told us there is a possibility of her needing to go back on the ventilator. Talking to the nurse today, the hope is that she was just tired and that the sucking out of mucus that they do irritated her nasal passage and made it harder to breathe. There is a chance that it’s a structural issue and that her nasal passage may be too small but the doctor said she doubts that is the issue since she did well on the CPAP for so long. Neither of us were able to hold her today as she needs to rest and recoup. We are hoping her blood gases go up and the ventilator helps. We hope we can hold her tomorrow and that she will be able to come off of the ventilator in a few days. For now, we are just giving her hand hugs and praying Natalie gets the rest she needs so she can be strong and continue to grow.

Our little Natalie Jane opened her eyes for the first time today. There are no words to describe how exciting this was. I may have shed a happy tear or two.

Today was a big day for Miss Natalie! They took her off the ventilator and moved her onto a CPAP machine. That is one step closer to getting her off all breathing machines. So far, she is doing well on the CPAP machine.

They also moved Natalie from the ‘Tiny Baby Nursery’ into one of the other nurseries for the bigger babies.

We can’t believe it but Miss Natalie is a week old. Her first week had a bunch of ups and downs but overall, she is rocking in.

On Friday, we had a sit down with one of the doctors on the neonatal team as well as our social worker (every premie is given a social worker). The NICU does a sit down with every micro premie family 7-10days after birth. They choose to do these sit downs after 7-10days because they have a better idea of where the babies stand after 7 days. At the sit down, the doctor goes through how the baby is doing breaking it down by each function. It’s a lot of info, but here is Natalie’s summary…

Natalie is doing great! Her lungs are developing nicely and the small holes that were there in the beginning look to have closed. The hope is to have her off the ventilator in the next few days and move her to a cpap machine. Natalie does have a couple of small holes in her heart but they aren’t unusual for her gestational age. The hope and expectation is that they will close on their own much like the holes in her lungs. Her brain scan showed no signs of bleeding which is common for a premie of her age but it did show a light spot. A light spot could either mean damage or could be nothing and just a result of how they took the picture. The doctor seems confident that even if it is damage, that it’s small enough and that Natalie is young enough that it shouldn’t be a huge deal and that her brain may be able to compensate for the damage. They will do another scan in 2 weeks. Natalie is rocking her OT for her possible club foot and dislocated hip. She is now up to a full feeding of my milk and gaining weight. On Wednesday Natalie did have a scare in that her blood gases were wonky and she was lethargic so they did a full septic workup to check for infection. We found out at this appointment that there was a tiny bacterial infection on her breathing tube. The doctors put her on an antibiotic on Wednesday to be preemptive but this is another reason to get her off the breathing tube sooner rather than later. She responded well to antibiotics and was her normal, feisty self on Thursday. Overall, she is doing really well and the few things they are seeing are very typical for a premie of her age.

We visit Natalie everyday. When I went to visit today, I was told that Natalie should be off the ventilator tomorrow which is so exciting. I was also given ‘graduation’ paperwork for her stating that she is big enough to move out of the ‘tiny baby nursery’. They don’t have a specific time to move her since they don’t need her bed at this moment but it sounds like she will be moving to an ‘older baby’ nursery at some point this week. I also also informed that she is pooping machine and loves to squirt poop while they change her diaper! 💩🤣

We are so proud of our little warrior! She has made huge strides in just her first week of life. The nurses constantly tell us how strong she is and how feisty she is. We can’t wait to bring our spunky girl home in a few months. We thank you all for tour continued love and support!

Presidents Day was a big deal for us. We were able to hold our little warrior for the first time! She has a long way to go but she is doing so so well. We couldn’t be more proud of the progress she has made in the last week!

We are overwhelmed by the love and support you have all shown our family. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!

So many people have asked how our little warrior is doing so here we go!

Overall, Natalie is incredible. She was born 2lbs 4oz and 13 inches of spunk. Tuesday night, her first night in this world, was rough. With her being so premature and having lived in my womb with no fluid took its toll on her lungs. She was put on an oscillator which is a heavy duty machine to help her breathe. Since Tuesday night, however, she has been stable and rocking the machine. She is actually doing so well that they plan on moving her onto a conventional ventilator today. She does have a tiny hole in her lung which is pretty typical of babies in her situation. It should close on its own as she grows. She may have hip dysplasia and a club foot but nothing is confirmed there. They will do an X-ray closer to her release date but in the meantime, she will work with an occupational therapist each day as she grows and develops. She is rocking her OT and is overall a pretty happy baby. She enjoys ‘sunbathing’ under her bilirubin lights and rocking her fun sunglasses. She loves hand hugs from Mommy and Daddy. We haven’t been able to actually hold her yet but we are hoping to in the next few days if this new ventilator switch goes well. We have been able to give her oral swabs of breastmilk which she likes. She gets the rest of mommy’s milk through her feeding tube. She will be in the NICU until her due date at least which is a few months away. Until then, mommy and daddy will visit everyday. That’s a brief overview of how Natalie is doing. Overall, she is a rockstar. We are so proud of her and couldn’t be more thankful to be her parents! ❤️

This isn’t for the faint of heart and some details are fuzzy but here is what happened on Tuesday as best I can remember.

So Tuesday morning I woke up feeling fine. I was still bleeding a good amount so the nurses were stuck weighing my pads but initially there was no concern, just monitoring. Natalie looked great at her 6am monitoring. I had breakfast around 8ish. Still, nothing odd. Somewhere around 8:30ish my bleeding picked up and my doctor decided my risk for delivery had gone up a bit due to the increased bleeding so they gave me round 1 of the Beta shot (the steroid shot that helps with lung development). The hope was that I would stay pregnant and it would be precautionary. It’s a 2 round shot so I was able to get the first round.

Even with the bleeding and shot, I was still cleared to have breakfast. At around 9:30ish I started having mild contractions. By 10am the contractions were starting to get more painful and I realized they were actual contractions and that it wasn’t round ligament pain. I told my wonderful nurse Brittany and she hooked me back on to the monitors. At this point, Natalie still looks great and contractions weren’t showing up on the monitors.

This is when things started to happen quickly and the details get a bit fuzzy. I know at some point I was hooked up to IV fluids. I also know I threw up my whole breakfast and then passed out for a bit. I’m not sure how long I was unconscious for, I get the impression it was short, however I remember vaguely having a dream and being very confused when I came too again that I was in the hospital. The contractions picked up in intensity and by 10:30/10:45am the doctors decided baby was coming out. I texted Ben, and I think I called him. I also texted our amazing friend Bri so that she could take Patrick home from daycare while we were having a baby. While we waited for Ben, anesthesia came down as did a nurse from NICU to go over the plan and answer any questions. I think Ben made it to the hospital by 11ish. Once he made it to the hospital they quickly moved me from a bed onto a gurney and wheeled me to the OR.

The ER was full of people. I was so nervous because it took a bit to get the spinal in and with my back surgery, I know our last anesthesiologist for Patrick said they would give it two gos and if it didn’t work, they would have to put me under. This time, getting the spinal took longer than before and that fear that I would be unconscious was there. Luckily, it all worked out.

While they were cutting me open the lab as well as anesthesia were there drawing blood and putting in an extra IV. I literally got poked 6-8 times while delivering Natalie. Luckily, Natalie was stable enough that they held her up for us to see as she came out and Ben was able to walk over and see her as they stitched me up. Once she was all squared away, they also rolled her by me as they took her down to the NICU. Ben went with Natalie as they stitched me up and then came back.

I spent two hours in recovery. This is where we found out that my white blood cell count was low which is a sign of infection and this infection kick started my labor. Later that day once I was in my post partum suite, I was told that I did have an infection and that I had almost turned septic and that it was good we delivered Natalie when I did.

It really sucks that we couldn’t make it even one day longer to 28weeks, but it is what it is. She is our little warrior, our miracle babe. We will make another post giving you more info on how Natalie is doing but there is our blurry birth story! ❤️