Posts from — July 2008

Maggie is being transferred out of the PICU today!!!!!!!!!!!  I am so happy she no longer needs the care a PICU provides, but I am a little nervous to go to the floor.  It is nice to know there is someone so close here in the PICU, but I am certain the nurses on the floor will be great.  Now, Maggie needs to start eating better.  She seems to have no desire to eat.  She is only taking 1-2 ounces every 4 hours.  She normally takes 4 ounces every four hours.  I hope she perks up today.  If she does well, we may be home by Tuesday!!!!!  Thanks for all of the prayers.

I love you all.

Ginny

Hey everyone.  I am here at Scottish Rite with Maggie.  She is still in the PICU.  She is doing better.  However, she is still having some blood pressure issues.  She is on Norvasc to help lower it.  I have a feeling she will be on this medicine for a little while.  Our nurse said when Maggie is transferred to the regular floor, she will still be taking it.  She may even have to go home with it.  We will just wait and see.

This morning Maggie had her upper GI study.  It came back normal.  That is what we had expected.  They allowed me and Raj to be in the room during the procedure, and it was actually pretty neat watching the barium go down her esophagus and into her stomach.  She has been pretty fussy since the study because of the barium.  I am just happy the results were normal.  Maggie is also taking Reglan now to help her tummy empty faster, thus decreasing the amount of formula she can reflux.  I do trust the GI doctor to do the right thing for her, so I am pleased with the choice of medications.

Maggie is getting lots of love here, and her brother and sister are getting lots of love at home.  I want to thank everyone who has called, come over, brought Raj food, and loved on my babies.  It is very hard to be here away from my other two precious babies.  I miss them so much.  Raj and I know we are doing what is best for us, but it is still really tough.  I hope Maggie and I will be home soon.  However, I want to know she is going to be okay when she comes home.

Well, it has taken me all day to write this post, so I am going to go for now.

I love you all.

Ginny

Yesterday the worst thing that could have ever happened, happened.  Maggie began to reflux some of her formula, and she quit breathing.  She turned gray and went completely limp.  It was the absolute most terrifying moment of my life.  My baby was going to die in front of me if I didn’t do something to save her.  I started CPR.  I gave her the two rescue breaths the way they taught me.  This did NOTHING. In fact, she was grayer after the two breaths than before them.  I immediately started chest compressions.  Chest compressions on MY baby.  I couldn’t figure out how this could be happening.  I was so scared.  I was so terrified.  All I could think was that I was going to be planning her funeral that night.  That was NOT okay with me.  I was NOT going to lose my baby if I could help it.  I kept doing CPR.  Susan called 911 for me. Emily called Raj and then mt mom to tell them what was happening.   I thank God Susan and Emily were at the house with me.  What if I had been alone?  How would I have done it?  What if I had not been there?  All of this was racing through my mind as I was begging Maggie with my heart and soul to breathe.  I was begging God to save my baby.  As I was doing CPR, Maggie vomited blood.  Oh, I was so scared.  Where was the bleeding coming from?  Was she going to bleed to death?  I was terrified.  Finally after what felt like forever, but was probably only 4 minutes, Maggie took a small gasp of air.  I was moving her arms and legs trying to stimulate her.  She had a little tone.  I gave her two more breaths and she started crying .  It was a very weak cry, but it was a cry.  My baby was alive.  My baby was breathing.  My baby was crying,  She was not so gray.  When are the paramedics going to be here?  They came.  They came as fast as they could.  They immediately started giving Maggie oxygen to help improve her color and perfusion.  After Maggie was stabilized, they took her with lights and sirens to Scottish Rite.  I rode with Maggie to the hospital.  Susan and Emily along with Mrs. Louise, Ann, Aajjee, and others stayed with the babies.  I am so glad they were there.  Raj met me at the hospital to be with Maggie.  I needed him so badly.  I was so glad to have my personal “rock” with me at the hospital. 

Through the night, Maggie had ups and downs.  That was rough.  Raj had gone home to be with Evie and Josh, but I had him come back when Maggie’s blood pressure reached 200/100.  He came and stayed the night with us.  Mimi and Aunt Ashley stayed with the other babies.   Aunt Joy and Uncle Casey kept in very close contact which also meant a ton to me.  Maggie’s blood pressure stabilized as the night progressed.  She is doing much better now, but still in PICU.  She has had tons of tests run.  So far, everything is normal.  Tomorrow she will have an upper GI study done.  The GI doctor, who is FANTASTIC, is following her very closely.  She is in wonderful hands here.  I appreciate everything Scottish Rite has done for our family.

Three last things.  Please continue to pray for Maggie’s healing.  Also, I want to thank Susan and Emily.  Had it not been for them, I don’t know what I would have done.  I also want to thank my God for saving my baby’s life.

I love you all.
Ginny

Evie, Maggie, and Josh, I want to tell y’all the story about the day you were born.

I had been on medicine called Magnesium Sulfate for two and half days when the doctor decided to stop the medicine.  I had been having tons of regular contractions when they started the medicine.  My contractions got a lot farther apart with the medication, but they never went totally away.  On Tuesday, you were born Wednesday, I had my regular ultrasound that also checked the length of my cervix.  My cervix measured 16mm.  Everyone was pleased with the length, including me.  Dr. Parker decided it was time to stop the Magnesium Sulfate.  It is not a drug they wanted to keep my on for a long period of time, because there are a lot of risks to my helath with the medicine.  I already had so much of it in my system, it was hard to walk or lift my legs to get back in bed.  Plus, my contractions were better. 

The doctors all felt like I was going to contract, but they were not concerned about it.  They decided to give me a contraction threshold of 12 in one hour.  That means contracting every five minutes was okay.  As soon as the medicine was stopped, I began contracting.  This was not until early evening.  I did not want to deliver on night shift because there would be too much drama.  I wanted my doctor and everyone else helping to be fully awake and ready when I delivered.  Night shift Labor and Delivery rocks, so that was not a concern to me.  I also knew that the doctors were not worried about the contractions unless they were not painful or worse than normal.  So, all night long I contracted.  It was very hard to sleep with the contractions.  They did not hurt, I was just very aware that they were there.  I did not call Daddy.  I wanted him to sleep.  I didn’t call Mimi either.  I just wanted to ignore the contractions as much as possible. 

By the next morning I was ready for the contractions to stop.  Once my day shift nurse, Marla, came on, I was ready to do something aout the contractions.  In fact, I told her that she had to either stop my contractions or deliver me.  She knew I was serious.  We used to work together, so she knew.  I wanted the contractions to stop.  I did not want y’all to be born yet.  It was not my birthday.  Y’all were not supposed to come until after that time.  In my mind, if I ignored the contractions, they would go away and you guys would stay safe inside me. 

Marla put me on the monitor, and I was contracting every 3-6 minutes.  I was not at all suprised.  I had been watching the clock for hours.  Mimi called, and I told here what was going on.  I knew my friend Sam was coming to see me, but I told Mimi she could still come.  My doctor (OB/GYN not MFM) came by before I was put on the monitor and she gave an order for one dose of sub-cutaneous Brethine.  It worked great.  My contractions went from three to six minutes to every 15 minutes.  Marla then called the MFM to see if I could restart my t-pump.  The MFM said no, but to start me on Brethine by mouth.   She said if this did not help, we would restart the t-pump.  I was okay with this plan even though I knew the Brethine by mouth was not going to work.  I knew we would change to the pump by the end of the day. 

My friend Sam came up and saw me.  The entire time she was there, I was contracting regularly again…even though I had taken my pill.  I would tell her when I was having a contraction, but since I was not hurting, we had a great visit!  Right after Sam left, Marla came in to monitor you guys.  We got all of you on the monitor pretty easily.  When I saw the monitor tracing, I knew things were not going the way I wanted.  All of your heartbeats looked okay on the monitor, but all three of you were having little variables.  Variables are dips in the heartrate.  The type you were having were fine.  They were not harmful to you at all.  They just said something was going on.  We had two different ideas of what the issue could be.  Neither one of the ideas were ones I liked.  In fact, Marla told me not to eat or drink anything else at this point.  That did not suprise me because I was already thinking the same thing.  We both knew that I was either in labor or the fluid levels in each of your sacs were low because of the Indocin, another medicine I had been taking to stop the contractions.  Both of those reasons would cause y’all to be born. 

Marla called my OB and told her I needed an ultrasound and someone needed to check my cervix.  She said she would come and check my cervix after the ultrasound.  I called your Daddy while Marla was calling the OB.  I told him what was going on, but he did not need to worry.  I asked him if he wanted to come on to the hospital or if he wanted to wait until we knew more.  I encouraged him to wait hoping he was not going to need to come.  He agreed with me.  Very shortly after that, the ultrasonographer came to the room to scan me.  She was the only one in the whole group I did not care for.  She always kept the ultrasound machine turned away from me to where I could not see what was going on.  I did not like that.  She asked me several times after she had done the doppler studies on Maggie where her heartbeat was.  It made me NUTS.  I knew Maggie had a heartbeat because I heard the doppler flow.  You can’t have one without the other.  Then, I asked her how the fluid in each of your sacs was.  She said she had not done it yet.  In fact, she was not going to do it until after she did everything else.  Oh, that really irritated me.  Finally, she did finish the ultrasound, and all of the babies looked great.  There was no problem with the fluid.  That only left one option…I was in labor.  Please NO, was allI could think and pray. 

Right after the ultrasound was finished Dr. Henke came in to check my cervix.  She asked me if I wanted Magnesium Sulfate again if I needed it.  I told her she needed to decide.  I was trying very hard to be the patient.  As she checked my cervix, I was thinking it was still closed.  However, she looked up and said I was 4-5/70/-2.  I was stunned.  I was blown out of the water.  There was no way that was possible.  However, it was.  I was so sad and disappointed.  I know that sounds odd, but I was.  I felt like I had failed myself and my babies (even though I knew I had not).  I did not want y’all to be born.  I felt like my pregnancy was being stolen from me.  I cried.  I tried to be calm.  I didn’t do the best job of that.  I called Dad.  He didn’t answer.  I called again, and he FINALLY answered.  I should not have been calling on his cell phone when he was sitting at his work desk.  I wasn’t thinking straight.  Dad left immediately and came to the hospital.  Mimi called Dr. Bilek for me.  I wanted him to assist on my c-section.  I trusted him.  I knew I would be okay if he was there.  He left his patients in the office and came.  Mimi called family, and famiy called family.  Daddy called his parents.  It was a crazy phone tree. Sam called and was going to bring her mom up to meet me.  Needless, to say I have not gotten to meet her yet!  It was crazy, I talked on the phone as my IV was started.  I even made a quick post on the blog.  It was a wild time.  After all of this happened, I was transported to Labor and Delivery..in a wheelchair, per my insistance!! Y’all were scheduled to be born at three o’clock.  They had to hurry.  There were lots of things to do before y’all were born.

So this is the first half of the story.  I will post about the actual birth tomorrow.

Before going to Labor and Delivery

Getting ready for the c-section in Labor and Delivery

We are off and in to the OR…we are ready to have babies!!!

I love you all.

Ginny

Raj and I found the most wonderful church after moving to Suwanee.  We both knew it was going to be our church home immediately.  Our church family has ministered to us through my pregnancy and now, with the babies at home, in ways we never could have imagined.  This is even more amazing since we had just found the church before I was placed on bedrest.  Our pastor came weekly to see me in the hospital.  They prayed for us in church each Sunday.  Many different families have come to me and said they prayed for us daily while me and the babies were in the hospital.  I truly believe their prayers were heard and answered.  I am healthy, the babies are healthy, and Raj is doing great with all the added responsibility.  They have also brought us numerous meals, and people have regularly come and helped us with the babies.  It is so amazing how God has used them in our lives.  We were so excited to finally be able to take the babies to church and introduce them to our church family. 

Going to church went off without a hitch!!  The babies slept through the entire service.  Evie was a little fussy, so I held her.  Maggie decided to wake up two minutes before church was over.  Josh, well Josh, he slept through the entire thing!!  Mimi came with us.  It ws nice to have that third set of hands.  We got to introduce them to so many people.  It was fantastic.  We hope we can go to church often.  It will be interesting to see how they do over the next few months. 

Here are some more pictures from church!

I love you all.

Ginny

That is how I would describe my pediatrician appointment.  It has taken me this long to get over it and write about it.  It was awful.  I went by myself with the babies.  I have gone numerous times alone, so this was nothing new.  However, this trip did not go as well as the others.  We waited for nearly an hour before being seen.  I didn’t bring enough formula because we were supposed to be home by the next feeding time.  Of course we did not get home in time.  The babies cried through the entire appointment for no good reason.  The nurses even helped me feed them the formula I had with me.  I have learned my lesson.  When it is a major appointment, I will NEVER go alone again or without adequate amounts of formula!!

Vaccines…dum dum dum dum duuuuum…..that was the other traumatic part of the appointment…for me, not the babies.  I was not in the room when the girls got their vaccines, so that may have been traumatic for them.  It was VERY traumatic to me.  I was with Josh getting his shots when they gave the girls their shots without me realizing that was going to happen.  I felt so like I had abandoned them.  I will NEVER allow that to happen again.

Raj and I had also decided we wanted to split up the babies’ vaccines.  I know they are two months old, but they are the size of term babies.  We did not think they should get so many at one time.  Our pediatrician disagreed.  In a very nice way he talked me into giving them all of the vaccines.  However, when it came time for me to sign for their vaccines, I could not do it.  I just stood there and cried.  Needless to say, the babies only got half of their vaccines.  They get the rest of them the next month.  I am so glad with the way everything turned out, even though it was traumatic.

Overall, the babies are doing well!!  We have had a few hiccups that I will explain in later posts, but all in all things are great.

Baby Stats 

Evie

8#11oz

20 7/8 inches 

Maggie

8# 1oz

20 3/8 inches

Josh

9# 7oz ( He’s my little tub right now!)

20 3/8 inches

Here are some fun pictures to leave you all with!  These are just a day in our life.

Daddy and Evie are “resting.”

Josh is out cold!

He had a little indention where his head had rested!!

Maggie and Evie are worn out after playing under the play gym!

Moe is supervising Mimi and Maggie!

Look at how sweet Maggie and Josh are!  Their legs are crossed!

I love you all.

Ginny