Baby Eagan - NICU Day 6

Eagan did not have his little mask on his eyes today. It was so nice to be able to see his sweet face. The pictures say it all.

Instead of using the mask today, his nurses put the little quilted heart over his eyes that smells like me. His eyes need to remain covered for the majority of day. Babies eyelids remain fused until some time after 26 weeks. His room is kept mostly dark, with his isolette covered because even though his eyes are shut, he can still see light.

When I got home from the NICU, I was a little bummed about the number of bradycardias Eagan had while I was visiting him and very nervous about his head ultrasound to check for brain bleeds. Eli gets very excited when packages come in the mail. He very quickly informed me "mommy, package, mommy, package." I was not expecting a package and did not recognize anything on the label. I opened the box and this is what I found.

All the names of my children, all in one place, that I can wear right next to my heart. This necklace was sent by my AMAZING July 2012 moms from our facebook groups. We are all due in July 2012 and Eagan is the very first July baby born from our group. I cannot believe that these women came together like this for me and my little Eags. This necklace has not left my neck since it arrived. I love it so much! Eagan's very special "aunt" Crystal helped make all of this happen for me and was an awesome support for me (even from far away) right up until I was taken into surgery. She also kept all the mommies updated. These mommies mean so much to me!

Here is a run-down of his current status:

Weight
1 lb 12 oz - Eagan is down 3 ounces from birth but this is very normal.

Length
12.5" - We aren't measuring his length yet, so this is birth length.


Breathing
Eagan is on an oscillator and doing well. He is still breathing room air (21% oxygen).

His blood gases were checked today. This checks for oxygen levels, carbon dioxide levels, and blood acidity. All of his levels came back stable and no changes were made. These will be checked again at 12:00 am and 8:00 am.

Vitals
Eagan had some bradycardias today. This is a drop in his heart rate. He is able to bring his heart rate back up on his own without assistance. His doctor thinks these may be caused by reflux or his breathing tube irritating the muscles in the back of his throat, causing him to gag. They are going to look into this tomorrow.

Vein Access
An umbilical arterial line was placed just like it was an umbilical cord. This gives doctors easy access to check blood pressures, take blood, and administer medications without sticking Eagan with needles.

Eagan also has a PICC line in his right arm.

Today, an IV was placed in Eagan's left foot for a transfusion.

Medications
Eagan is only getting morphine boluses when he becomes agitated. He was given morphine this morning because he was very upset causing an elevated heart rate.

Pentobarbital has been added on an as needed basis. This is a mild sedative. Medications like this are needed so that Eagan cannot pull out his tubes, or move around too much. He is still able to move and hold our fingers, but we are trying to keep him as still and stabilized as possible. Eagan was given this at 7:00 pm today to help calm him down. He is now resting comfortably.

Caffeine has been added to his medications. Caffeine has multiple benefits for Eagan such as reducing his risk for cerebral palsy. The main purpose of the caffeine is to help Eagan to remember to breathe, preventing spells of apnea. He gets caffeine once a day.

He will be getting a glycerin suppository every 12 hours depending on how often he is having bowel movements. He had another bowel movement this morning. It seems odd to be so excited about dirty diapers, but he is peeing and pooping great which means his body is functioning well!

Eags is getting Nystatin swabbed around the inside of his mouth because some of the irritation from the breathing tubes are showing some signs of a yeast infection.

Nutrition
I am pumping breastmilk for Eagan. His feedings are still at 1cc of breastmilk every 6 hours.

Eagan is still getting vitamins through his umbilical catheter and now lipids (a healthy fat) have been added.

Transfusions
Eagan's transfusion on the 15th went very well. That brought his levels up to 36%. If he drops to 30% they will do another transfusion.

April 15 - Eagan got his first blood transfusion tonight. This will be the first of many transfusions Eagan will need. His hematocrit (the amount of red blood cells in the blood) has been low, which is just one of the many reasons he needs a transfusion. His blood is also drawn for tests quite often. Even a tiny amount of blood is a lot of blood coming from such a tiny baby. The transfusion will also help Eagan maintain proper oxygenation.

Jaundice
Eagan was not under the bili lights today. His jaundice level is 7 and his doctor is waiting on another test to determine if the bili lights will be needed again.

Upcoming Tests
A head ultrasound is scheduled for tomorrow to check for brain bleeds. We are praying for no brain bleeding, but it is a very frequent issue with micro-preemies, so we are prepared if one does appear.

Thank you for all your love, support and prayers.

Baby Eagan - NICU Day 5 - Transfusion #1

Today has been a nice, slow, uneventful day. I really like days like today. I went to visit Eagan this evening. I sat with him for about an hour and a half.

Here is a run-down of his current status:

Weight
1 lb 12 oz - Eagan is down 3 ounces from birth but this is very normal.

Length
12.5" - We aren't measuring his length yet, so this is birth length.


Breathing
Eagan is on an oscillator and doing much better. His oxygenation has been 98% to 100% all day. He is still breathing room air (21% oxygen).

Vitals
Eagan's vitals have remained steady and stable all day from hour to hour!

Vein Access
An umbilical arterial line was placed just like it was an umbilical cord. This gives doctors easy access to check blood pressures, take blood, and administer medications without sticking Eagan with needles.

Eagan also has a PICC line in his right arm.



Today, an IV was placed in Eagan's left foot for a transfusion.

Medications
Eagan is off the morphine drip and only getting morphine boluses when he becomes agitated.

Pentobarbital has been added on an as needed basis. This is a mild sedative. Medications like this are needed so that Eagan cannot pull out his tubes, or move around too much. He is still able to move and hold our fingers, but we are trying to keep him as still and stabilized as possible.

Caffeine has been added to his medications. Caffeine has multiple benefits for Eagan such as reducing his risk for cerebral palsy. The main purpose of the caffeine is to help Eagan to remember to breathe, preventing spells of apnea.

He will be getting a glycerin suppository every 12 hours depending on how often he is having bowel movements. He had his very first BM this morning!

Eags is getting Nystatin swabbed around the inside of his mouth because some of the irritation from the breathing tubes are showing some signs of a yeast infection.

Nutrition
I am pumping breastmilk for Eagan. His feedings are still at 1cc of breastmilk every 6 hours.

Eagan is still getting vitamins through his umbilical catheter and now lipids (a healthy fat) have been added.

Transfusions
April 15 - Eagan got his first blood transfusion tonight. This will be the first of many transfusions Eagan will need. His hematocrit (the amount of red blood cells in the blood) has been low, which is just one of the many reasons he needs a transfusion. His blood is also drawn for tests quite often. Even a tiny amount of blood is a lot of blood coming from such a tiny baby. The transfusion will also help Eagan maintain proper oxygenation.

Jaundice
Eagan was not under the bili lights today. I am not sure what his jaundice levels are, but I have it on my list of questions for his nurse.

Upcoming Tests
A head ultrasound is tentatively scheduled for April 17 to check for brain bleeds. We are praying for no brain bleeding, but it is a very frequent issue with micro-preemies, so we are prepared if one does appear.

Thank you for all your love, support and prayers.

Baby Eagan - NICU Day 4 - First Setback

Eagan had his first setback today. This came after a day of progress so really, it is two steps forward and one step back. When I went to visit Eagan this morning, he was still on the ventilator. The doctor talked to me about putting Eagan on CPAP. This would be one step toward being without breathing assistance. Eagan was put on CPAP around 10:00 and did great on it until about 9:30 tonight. By 9:30 he was having increased episodes of apnea and bradycardia. Eventually, he had to be bagged several times, re-intubated and put on an oscillator. The oscillator is safer for his lungs over the long term than the ventilator. The oscillator looks very scary since it will make Eagan's chest vibrate very fast, but this does not seem to bother babies. Overall, we made progress today and are going to concentrate on letting him gain a bit of weight before the breathing machines are changed again.

Eagan on CPAP

I changed Eagan's diaper for the first time today. He has to wear a diaper that is actually too big for him because he wets too much for the diaper that fits him. The baby wipe was bigger than he is!

Here is a run-down of his current status:

Weight
1 lb 12 oz - Eagan is down 3 ounces from birth but this is very normal.

Length
12.5" - We aren't measuring his length yet, so this is birth length.


Breathing
Eagan was on CPAP for the majority of the day. Around 9:30 pm, he had to be bagged, re-intubated and put on an oscillator. He is still breathing room air (21% oxygen).

Vitals
Eagan's vitals have remained steady and stable all day from hour to hour!

Vein Access
An umbilical arterial line was placed just like it was an umbilical cord. This gives doctors easy access to check blood pressures, take blood, and administer medications without sticking Eagan with needles.

Eagan also has a PICC line in his right arm.

Medications
Eagan is not on Dopamine or Ampicillin, as of today.

Eagan is off the morphine drip and only getting morphine boluses when he becomes agitated.

Caffeine has been added to his medications. Caffeine has multiple benefits for Eagan such as reducing his risk for cerebral palsy. The main purpose of the caffeine is to help Eagan to remember to breathe, preventing spells of apnea.



He will be getting a glycerin suppository every 12 hours until he has a bowel movement. He has not had his first BM yet.

Nutrition
I am pumping breastmilk for Eagan. His feedings are still at 1cc of breastmilk every 6 hours.

Eagan is still getting vitamins through his umbilical catheter and now lipids (a healthy fat) have been added.

Jaundice
Eagan has been under the bilirubin lights all day. The bili lights should also help reduce some of the bruising that was caused during delivery.

Upcoming Tests
A head ultrasound is tentatively scheduled for April 17 to check for brain bleeds. We are praying for no brain bleeding, but it is a very frequent issue with micro-preemies, so we are prepared if one does appear.

Thank you for all your love, support and prayers.



In the mail today, Eagan got a teeny, tiny hat. This hat was handmade for him by Denise Skelton, a preemie mom. She also has a preemie blog. Arrows in Our Hand

I was in the hospital, trying to keep Eagan cooking, on Easter Sunday. This afternoon I let the kids open their Easter baskets. They were both thrilled and didn't seem to mind it was a little late.

Eli and Evelyn's Easter Baskets

Baby Eagan - NICU Day 3

I was discharged from the hospital today. My hemoglobin level is 7 and really needs to be closer to 18. I will need to keep my PICC line in to run IV iron directly into my system to hopefully elevate my hemoglobin back to a normal level. My staples in my incision will be removed on Wednesday, so I am really learning how to function and take care of Eli and Evelyn without putting myself in more pain. I am pumping breastmilk for Eagan every 2 to 3 hours also. When Evelyn was born, people would say, "Aren't you lucky? You get to have someone else take care of your baby and you get to sleep." Well, since Eagan was born, I have not slept more than an hour at one time. Even before Eagan arrived, I was in the hospital and getting checked on by nurses every 1-2 hours. No. Moms of preemies get even less sleep than most moms of full-term babies. But to answer the question, YES, I am so very lucky. My little boy is in great hands, surrounded by top technology and has more prayers than you can imagine.

Here is a run-down of his current status:

Weight
1 lb 13 oz - Eagan is down 2 ounces but this is very normal.

Length
12.5"


Breathing
A ventilator is still helping Eagan breath so he is not using his energy and burning excess calories. His ventilator has been breathing 50 breaths per minute for Eagan and he breathes 5-8 breaths on his own. This morning, his doctor moved the ventilator to 40 breaths per minute. The goal by the end of the day is to reduce the ventilator to 30 breaths per minute and Eagan will breathe the rest of the breaths on his own.

His doctor also wants to try to take Eagan off the ventilator and put him on CPAP! The CPAP machine goes through Eagan's nose and delivers constant air pressure to help his lungs stay open and reminds him to breathe. This would mean Eagan will no longer be intubated. Most likely, he will be on the ventilator the majority of the time and CPAP for just a few hours of the day. This could all happen as soon as tomorrrow!

Vitals
Eagan's vitals have remained steady and stable all day from hour to hour!

Vein Access
An umbilical arterial line was placed just like it was an umbilical cord. This gives doctors easy access to check blood pressures, take blood, and administer medications without sticking Eagan with needles.

An umbilical vein line was removed today and a PICC line was placed in Eagan's right arm. This is a much safer option.

Medications
The only antibiotic Eagan is getting is Ampicillin but showing no signs of infection.

His blood pressure is running low currently so he is getting a medication called Dopamine to help raise his pressure. This medicine is at 11 micrograms and Eagan is having no issues!

Eagan is on a very low dose of morphine, just to keep him still and comfortable.

Caffeine has been added to his medications. Caffeine has multiple benefits for Eagan such as reducing his risk for cerebral palsy. The main purpose of the caffeine is to help Eagan to remember to breathe, preventing spells of apnea.

Nutrition
I am pumping breastmilk for Eagan. This morning his feeds were suspended due to residual in his stomach. The presence of residual means that all of the milk was not properly digested. By this evening, his feedings were resumed to 1 cc of breastmilk every 6 hours.

Eagan is still getting vitamins through his umbilical catheter and now lipids (a healthy fat) have been added.

Jaundice
Eagan has been under the bilirubin lights all day. The bili lights should also help reduce some of the bruising that was caused during delivery.

Upcoming Tests
A head ultrasound is tentatively scheduled for April 17 to check for brain bleeds. We are praying for no brain bleeding, but it is a very frequent issue with micro-preemies, so we are prepared if one does appear.

Thank you for all your love, support and prayers.

I am a member of a mommy message board for July 2012 moms, since that is when Eagan was supposed to arrive. On this mommy board, I have made some great friends. Crystal R. is a veteran mom who has lots of c-section experience. She kept all the moms updated on what was going on with Eagan and me and also gave me so much support and advice to help me recover as comfortably as possible. These amazing moms got together and surprised me with an absolutely gorgeous flower arrangement and balloons. I couldn't believe that these women who have only known me for a few months could care this much about little Eagan! Thank you so much ladies!

Baby Eagan - NICU Day 2 - First Touch!

Today is a great day! Eagan is 36 hours old and doing fantastic. Typically, 24 hours with micro-preemies is called the "honeymoon period" and we are officially past that point.

To make today even better, I was so blessed to be able to touch my baby for the very first time! I had no idea that was even an option right now! The bilirubin lights make the picture look like a disco floor but I cannot describe the feeling of having my little boy wrap his fingers around mine for the very first time! Such a little miracle!

In the scrub room of the NICU, where I wash up to the elbows so I do not pass any germs to Eagan, there is a small bin with little quilted hearts.  After I wore the heart for a while, Eagan's nurse placed the hearts in his isolette so that he can always have the comfort of Mom even though I cannot always be right with him.

Here is a run-down of his current status:

Weight
1 lb 15 oz - Eagan is UP an ounce!!

Length
12.5"


Breathing
A ventilator is still helping Eagan breath so he is not using his energy and burning excess calories. His ventilator had to be increased to 60% oxygen overnight last night. This morning it was down to 22% and now we are back down to 21% which is just great!


Vitals
Eagan's vitals have remained steady and stable all day from hour to hour!

Vein Access
An umbilical arterial line was placed just like it was an umbilical cord. This gives doctors easy access to check blood pressures, take blood, and administer medications without sticking Eagan with needles.

An umbilical vein line that was not in the proper position yesterday was adjusted today and is now in the perfect position.

Medications
Eagan is now only getting Ampicillin but showing no signs of infection.

His blood pressure is running low currently so he is getting a medication called Dopamine to help raise his pressure. Last night, the Dopamine was at 20 micrograms. This morning he was weaned down to 12 micrograms and is now at 11 micrograms and having no issues!



Eagan is on a very low dose of morphine, just to keep him still and comfortable.

Nutrition
I am pumping breastmilk for Eagan. He was given 1 cc of breastmilk today and had absolutely no issues with the feeding! He had no residual in his stomach which means all the milk was digested. Eagan is still getting vitamins through his umbilical catheter and now lipids (a healthy fat) have been added.

Jaundice
Eagan's jaundice levels are 5.8 and he has been under the bilirubin lights all day. The bili lights should also help reduce some of the bruising that was caused during delivery.


Upcoming Tests
A head ultrasound is tentatively scheduled for April 17 to check for brain bleeds. We are praying for no brain bleeding, but it is a very frequent issue with micro-preemies, so we are prepared if one does appear.

Thank you for all your love, support and prayers.

Baby Eagan - NICU Day 1

Eagan was born at 25 weeks gestation on April 11. He is doing absolutely amazing and such a little fighter! During my c-section, I was able to see Eagan for a brief moment before he was whisked away to the NICU. He is now in his own room until he is a little more stable.

Here is a run-down of his current status:

Weight
1 lb 14 oz

Length
12.5"


Breathing
A ventilator is helping Eagan breath so he is not using his energy and burning excess calories. The ventilator is currently on a low setting with "room air"  going through it. This means the air has the same oxygen level that we breathe in.

Eagan was given a protein called surfactant to help prevent his lungs from collapsing and making it easier for them to expand.

His lungs were not well expanded on his first chest x-ray, but given how well he is breathing,  the doctor expects a large improvement by Eagan's next x-ray.

Vein Access
An umbilical arterial line was placed just like it was an umbilical cord. This gives doctors easy access to check blood pressures, take blood, and administer medications without sticking Eagan with needles.

An umbilical vein line was also placed, but is not precisely where it needs to be. Tomorrow, a PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter) will be placed as another method to give Eagan IV fluids and medications.

Medications
Eagan is getting two antibiotics for the next 48 hours, Ampicillin and Gentamicin. These are needed because the amniotic sac was ruptured for so long, which could cause an infection.

His blood pressure is running low currently so he is getting a medication called Dopamine to help raise his pressure.

Nutrition
I am pumping breastmilk for Eagan. He will be getting tiny amounts on a swab in his mouth. Currently, he is getting vitamins through his umbilical catheter. In a few days, he will start lipids and eventually breastmilk. 

Jaundice
Eagan is jaundiced, as almost all premature babies are. Starting tomorrow morning, he will sleep under bilirubin lights to help reduce his levels.


Thank you for all your love, support and prayers. Eagan's birth story is coming soon!

Please excuse the mess, the children are making memories.

We have been BUSY! I have a doctor appointment almost every week. We have found a new obstetrician and I really like him. He is very pro-life and his priority is doing everything we can to keep Eagan in as long as possible. I have had so many ultrasounds that the front of our refrigerator is full and I now have to hang the pictures on the side. Although I still cannot eat very much, Eagan is measuring over a week ahead! I have another appointment tomorrow with my OB and had a home visit from my nurse for my progesterone shot and PICC line dressing change.
The kids are doing great. We are trying to get the hang of the potty training concepts but Eli is very against it. Evelyn, on the other hand, is actually going on the potty some now! They are enjoying getting to spend most of the week at home, watching way too many cartoons since I can't really lift them or do many of the activities we normally do. There has been a lot of coloring with crayons, flash cards, and cartoons, but they love it.
Just a couple pictures of our crazy lives these days :)