Thursday, May 27, 2010

Brooke Noel Day 2

As many of you already know, we welcomed Miss Brooke Noel Holcombe into the world yesterday May 25, 2010 at 3:00 pm. She was 36 weeks gestation and weighed 7 lbs. 2 oz. and was 20" long. (if you didn't know, I make em BIG) I was induced due to several complications and the labor and delivery was super quick and smooth. The morning of the induction, they gave me a cervix softening agent around 9:15, gave me my epidural at 12:00 (was 2 cm dilated) and was 8 cm by 2:45. The doctor said the baby would be there within the hour, but 5 minutes after he left, I told the nurses to call him back because she was about to come out. Sure enough, I was right and had to wait on him to come back, after 1 push to get her head out and 1 push to get the rest of her body out, there she was! So blessed...

She was immediately taken to the NICU and has been there since. She is breathing on her own, but has needed a little assistance due to her prematurity. She is currently on CPAP which is a little oxygen mask that covers her nose and gives her a little extra oxygen. CPAP also has more pressure to help her lungs open up to their fullest capacity when she takes each breath.

When she arrived in NICU, her pulse ox was in the mid 80s and she was having trouble breathing. She also exhibited grunting which meant she was struggling a little to breathe. They have had her on 21-30% oxygen since she got there. She has since began periods of rapid breathing. They would like to see her BPM stay under 60 consistently and hers has ranged anywhere from 20s to 80s.

We had a conference with the neonatologist this afternoon and he said that her breathing issues are a result of her prematurity and she would need to stay in the NICU until she is able to breathe without assistance and keep her pulse ox in the 90s. This could take days or weeks, every baby is different.

They inserted a feeding tube today as she is not ready to feed by mouth yet due to her rapid breathing and fear of aspiration. She did very well with the tube and I am able to pump my milk and feed it to her through the feeding tube.

This has been a very difficult time for us as we have not been able to hold her and do all the things we were able to do with our other two. I was able to hold her tonight for the first time for over an hour! (boy, what we take for granted...) That was such a special moment for me and hopefully, we'll be doing a lot more of that over the next several days. We are all praying for strength and healing for baby Brooke and that she gets to come home sooner than later.

I am doing great. My sciatica and hernia pain is minimal since I delivered and I should be discharged in the next couple of days.

Savannah and Lucas are doing as well as can be expected. They have a full time nanny who takes care of them during the day and Brian has taken some time off work and tries to balance his time between all of us. Savannah especially doesn't understand why she can't see her or hold her. She is very anxious. Lucas is just having a hard time with all of the changes going on and not understanding why mommy isn't there. They both need your prayers... They've been crying a lot and missing us terribly. I know they'll be ok, but I feel like they need me and I can't be there right now. It's a hard situation for all of us.

We will be sure to keep everyone updated and would appreciate many thoughts and prayers sent her way. She is a miracle and she is fighting. We are so grateful as this could have been a lot worse. Welcome to the world sweet girl.


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