Ella was born Sunday, Feb 21 at 7:31 am.
She weighed 610 grams at birth, and is 11.5 inches long.

She has lost a little weight, and as of this morning she weighed 583 grams.

She's been on dopamine for her bp, fentanyl as a mild sedative bc she's been so feisty and fidgety and indocin prophylaxisly. And she is on an oscillating ventilator. It sounds scary, but it's far more gentle on her lungs than a conventional vent.

Her H&H dropped some over the course of 36 hours so they did an ultrasound of her brain this morning to rule out a bleed. Results aren't back yet - most likely tonight or tomorrow morning.

I did pick up a journal for Ryan and I to write down all the little details, like she looks like she is enjoying the beaches of Hawaii today while she is under the bili lights. She's all covered in aquaphor, with a mask on to protect her eyes, and she's under the spotlight. I also left a journal for the nurses to write down changes in stats, meds or whatever for the days and shifts we aren't here.
The first entry was from 3am when they put her on her belly and she calmed down immediately and her O2 level came back to where they wanted it. She also likes keeping one arm free from the swaddle blanket. I watched the nurse tuck it in 4 or 5 times in 20 minutes, and every time Ella had pulled it free in a matter of seconds, and was just waving it around, taunting the nurses.

We all decided it was time to deliver her when I had another painful episode, my BP hit 160/110, my labs came back sky high, and the most recent u/s had shown that there was a period where there was no forward flow thru the cord, during the diastolic. It was agreed at about 5am Sunday morning, and Ryan called all the members of the family to let them know Ella was on her way.


I have been pumping, or trying to pump, every 2-3 hours since Sunday morning, and today was the first day I got some results. I never knew how excited I would be to get a measly 2.7 mls of breast milk. I cried with joy when I saw it. I will be pumping until she comes home, or until I can't handle being without my meds anymore. I will be going home with a Medela Symphony, compliments of my insurance company.

I have 21 staples for my incision, and my external incision is hip to hip while my internal goes the other way. I didn't know they would do that. I had so much scar tissue it took them over an hour to stitch me up.

My platelets bottomed out last night to 64, but all of my other numbers look great. Still waiting on this mornings labs to be sure I'm being released tomorrow. We are going to be hit with a mother of a storm tonight into tomorrow, so we will stay up here tomorrow night too. I miss M an awful lot, but he has been well cared for, so I can rest easy knowing that.

My prayers are with you for baby Ella!

Hang in there JennyJen. I can't even imagine and I'm sorry I don't have any words for you. Just lots of good thoughts and prayers....

Congrats and good thoughts for you and Ella!

thinking of you and Ella. Be sure to take care of yourself while she's in the nicu, its easy to overlook that.

My prayers are with you and your family.

Thank you for updating.

Dh is very insistent on taking care of me. I have been very well cared for this week. He has done everything I have needed him to do, and then some. He's wonderful. He's in the ICN right now, while I am here. They are repositioning her lines right now, and I can't watch that. He will come get me when they are done and she is comfy again.

Neither of us is sleeping very well, but we're trying.

Glad to hear things are going as well as can be expected, Jenny. You and Ella are in my prayers.

Good thoughts for you guys

You all will be in my thoughts.

Instead of making the 3 hour round trip home and back why don't you guys look in to David's House? http://www.davids-house.org/Page.aspx?pid=291
It's crazy to make that trip while trying to recover.

Hang in there and call if you need anything.

Congratulations! I cant imagine how tiny she must be. I hope both of you continue to do well.

I need to get home at least one day this week. I haven't seen M for 8+ days. I haven't seen the entire forecast for the week yet, and we need to coordinate with my mil too.
I will be staying at David's house Friday night, for a few nights, I believe. They have a waiting list for tomorrow night and Thurs too, due to the storm.
Luckily, I won't need a car up here. There is a shuttle between many of the hotels and the DHMC. I'm not able to drive for at least 2 weeks, either.

We are very lucky to have family able to take care of M for such an extended period of time, but I need to get home, if only for a few hours.

I plan to go home for one night, then return for 4 or 5. M isn't going to recognize me.

He will recognize you

I believe they will let him stay there for a few days as well. Something to look into...maybe have him and your mom (or whoever) go up for a few days and share the room with you.

Thinking of you & baby Ella, Jennyjen.

JJ, he will recognize you. I promise. And he'll have no lasting scars over it either. I was in the hospital for 2 weeks with the twins (10 days as a patient myself due to complications and 2 nights of required "rooming in" before discharge from the NICU). Our oldest was 22 months at the time.

Take care of yourself and that baby. You have a loving family to take care of your oldest.

I totally know the guilt of being in the hospital, and feeling like you are not only failing, but destroying the child at home. Like the others said, he will truly be no worse for the wear. Of course he misses you a lot right now, but this isn't a permanent situation, and once you are back home for a few weeks, he won't even be thinking about having missed you.

Good job with the pumping. Remember, she can only take very small amounts right now, so don't worry about your output. I know my DD had milk cut with human milk fortifier, too, to get the calories up, so that cuts the need for volume even more. I used to go every 2 hours during the day, which would give me the ability to take a solid 4 hour stretch of sleep at night.

My DD hated having her arms swaddled, too. We used to always have to swaddle her with her arms free.