Welcome Home!

40 weeks + 5 days + 12 more days + 18 long hours = the moment we have been waiting for!

 

leaving the hospital

waiting...

getting ready

pulling in

here she is!

welcoming committee

together at last

All About Claire- Day 13

Just to keep things interesting, with just two doses left to give, Claire's iv started leaking. So from 2:30-4 am three different nurses went through three different veins trying to get another one started. They were unsuccessful (baby veins are tiny) and ended up having to give the last two doses by injection. This was especially hard because they have to use two syringes per dose and she was still un happy from the iv debacle.... She did it thought and passed her hearing and cardiac assessments. Hopefully the next post will be about her homecoming!

All about Claire- Day 12

Tuesday was another good day for Claire. She is becoming a pretty solid nurser and has started gaining back some of her birthweight. We were hoping she would finish her meds today but because her weight increased she had to go up in her dosing to three times per day and it messed up the schedule so she won't finish until tomorrow. 

Grandma came back this morning to help get the house ready for Claire and since we weren't coming home today, she brought Maggie down to meet her sister for the first time. It was love at first sight on both their parts and so sweet to watch. Pictures could never do the moment justice but here are some anyway. 

All About Claire- Day 11

Another big day for Claire yesterday!  She got her iv line out of her stomach and they put one in her hand that can be capped to use to finish administering her antibiotics. She also graduated to a regular newborn bed instead of the isolet. This makes her much more portable and I can take her out of the bed without assistance. This means she truly can nurse whenever she wants and that i can take on much more of her care independently.

All about Claire- Day 10

Big day for Claire! Yesterday she graduated to "on demand" feedings and off of her iv nutrition. This means she can get her tube out, as all her feedings are oral and try breastfeeding whenever she wants. The only trick to this is that she is  still tethered with lots of probes and an iv umbilical line, so I have to get the nurse to hand her to me every time she shows signs of hunger. She may be ready for on demand feedings, but her nurses are not!

All About Claire- Day 9

So Claire had another good day yesterday and she even got to try breastfeeding. She did fairly well, although it is a little tricky to try to gauge how much she is eating and how to adjust her iv nutrition accordingly. Either way she is much happier and should soon be getting her tube removed. One step closer to going home!

FAQ's

We have received many questions from people. I thought I would take a moment to try to answer the most common ones here.

How are the other kids doing? 

They are good. Obviously this has been pretty disruptive, but they have been in good hands. My Mom was with them originally and when things got bad Peter came to help. We sent them home for a little reprieve and Casey's sister Sarah and her son Kevin came to help. The kids were so excited to have their cousin there that it helped mitigate any distress they might have felt about me being away. Casey has been running the show himself since the weekend and I have been coming home for a few hours each day to visit, bring food, and try to keep them caught up on laundry and housework. Thankfully, Casey's work has very generous leave policies and they have been very understanding.

How are how are you and Casey holding up?

We are okay too. Being busy helps keep us from going too crazy and the prayers and support we have received from friends and family all over the counrty have been a constant source of encouragement. 

I knew from the moment I saw those two pink lines on the pregnancy test last November that this baby was going to have a story and there was no doubt that God was its Author. We knew it was going to be an exciting ride and all we could do was be grateful to be a part of it. The bible tells us that before He formed her tiny little body He knew her, He has numbered every hair on her head, He knows when she sleeps and when she rises and we are confident that He is holding her close right now. 

What happened to make Claire so sick?

The doctor's best guess is that Claire contracted Group B Strep in utero, which caused her to be born with pneumonia. Group b strep is a bacteria commonly found in  people's urinary or digestive tracts . It is pretty harmless in healthy adults but it if it gets into the lungs, blood or spinal fluid of a baby, it can be deadly. That is why they test all women for it late in their pregnancies and if you are found to have it they will treat you with antibiotics during delivery, as the vast majority of transmissions take place after the water breaks. Because my water did not break until 7 minutes before her birth and she became sick so quickly, they are confident she was exposed to the bacteria in the days leading up to her birth. This is extremely rare. Of the 1 in 400 babies who get group b strep only 1 in 3000 get it in utero. (Yes, we will be buying her a lottery ticket...)  The fact that she was 5 days late and that I was dilated to 7cms before going into active laborand that I had two internal exams in the five days leading up to her birth were likely contributing factors. All I can say is that if I had gone into labor even 12 hours later, I have little doubt the situation would have been much much worse.