Getting so big!

Rylee has kept me quite busy between her colic and reflux. We have had doctor's appointments seemingly at least twice a week AND work has already convinced me to start working at least 2 hours a day to get things organized there because they miss me so much. I'm a little sad about this because I want to spend as much time with Rylee as I can before going back to work full time! I know it's only two hours, and it IS better than getting NO money at all...but still.

At our doctor's visit last week, Rylee weighed in at 5lbs 8oz (down 4oz since the previous appointment). She lost a little weight which was a bit concerning to me, so hopefully she pics it back up by the time we go to the doctor next week!

I took her to the Pulmonologist to get her monitor checked a couple of weeks ago, and he confirmed that any apnea alarms she had were false! We did have a few low heart rate alarms in the beginning, mostly during feedings, but she is completely past all of that now! She eats like a champ and is much more alert. She still can't hold her head up or do much of anything else besides destroy EVERY.SINGLE.DIAPER and keep me awake at the most inconvenient times, but she is amazing. I love just staring at her and watching her facial expressions. She unknowingly smiles A LOT now (especially in her sleep). It's so cute! :D

Did I mention before that we decided to cloth diaper Rylee? Poo on disposables and all the money they cost! We have been using mostly prefolds and covers with a few extra small FuzziBunz pocket diapers in the mix. I have an entire stash for when she gets bigger, but she probably wont be in any of the other diapers for a couple more weeks. It has been super easy so far! I do a load of laundry every day just because I didn't buy a TON of prefolds, and I don't mind at all. I have to do laundry anyway, so what's one more load!?

(excuse all of the cell phone pics!)

Rylee wearing her Rumparooz newborn cover with a prefold

Taken yesterday morning before her diaper change. She was giving me stink eyes for taking too long!

Showing off one of her new cloth diapers Grandma bought. Dad approves.

Chillin on the couch with mom and a jealous Loki

Much needed update!

Age: 71 days, 10 weeks
Gestational Age: 38 weeks

It's been awhile since I've updated!

We got to bring our precious baby home on Tuesday November 22nd. We didn't expect her to come home until at least December, so it was quite a shock to me when I walked into the NICU on the 21st for my normal 11am visit, when the doctor asked if I was ready to take her home. Since she was still having a few apnea and low heart rate issues, they wanted us to room-in with her that night just to see how she would do without a bunch of nurses stepping in all night long.

That afternoon, we met with a man from a company who provides apnea monitors to give us a run-down of what we would have to bring home with us. Rylee needed to be on a monitor because she was still having a few episodes here and there. We got our lesson and went home to take care of the dogs. 

Monday night, we grabbed a few things, and went back to the hospital and were escorted to a hospital room with a bed and a couch. Rylee's nurse brought her into the room in her crib, hooked her up to the hospital monitors and the monitor we were given to take home, and left us to our own devices. We were to feed her on our own, change her and basically pretend like we were home.

The hospital monitor was being a piece of junk, and the nurse was having a hard time getting it to pick up her O2 stats, so she was coming in and out of the room rather frequently to make sure everything was ok. Around 10pm, she came in to do a check, and took Rylee's temperature. It was very low. She said if her temp didn't go back up after wrapping her in a couple more blankets, that she would have to go back to the NICU and wouldn't be going home.

Around 1am, she came back in to take Rylee's temperature again and it still wasn't up to snuff. She apologized and wheeled Rylee back into the NICU to get her warmed up. We packed up our stuff and went home.

I went back to the hospital on Tuesday at 11am thinking she wouldn't be coming home for awhile.... The doctor came in to do her normal update, and told me she thought Rylee would be fine to come home! We would just need to keep her extra warm and monitor her temperature for a couple of days. I excitedly called Zac and told him to come home early. Our baby was coming home!!!! I visited with her for awhile, then went home to prepare.

We went back to the hospital again in the early afternoon to do the car seat test and talk to the nurses about her discharge instructions. The test went great! She looked SOOOO tiny in the huge carseat.It swallowed her up!





After the car seat test, we got her discharge summary, and were able to go! It was amazing to be taking her home so soon!!! I was so worried! She was so tiny and fragile. 

Bringing her home was great. She was super quiet, slept a lot and just wanted to cuddle. Oh how I want that night back! I need more cuddles.

And sleep. ;)

Little piggy

Age: 23 days
Gestational Age: 31 weeks 2 days

Rylee has been doing SOOO well! She is up to 3 pounds and an ounce or two now!!!

Today they started testing her without the nasal cannula to see how she does without it. She still needs it during holding time, but for long spurts during the day today she didn't have one at all!

I love seeing her little face without tubes all over it!

Shortly after this picture, she had to have the cannula put back in. She also graduated from the larger cannula to a smaller one hooked up to less equipment! In the beginning, she was getting about 3 liters of oxygen a minute and was breathing upwards of 40% oxygen. It slowly went down... and now she is at 21% oxygen (which is basically room air, and what we breathe) and at 1/2 a liter a minute! She is no longer getting air that is being warmed. It pumped into her nose from a little machine that warmed it and basically acted like a humidifier, but it sometimes pushed little water bubbles into her nose and she hated it! Now it's just room temp water being used to filter the air so no more bubbles!

Original oxygen machine. The humidifier is the little grey and blue thing
at the bottom with the bubble on top.

And here's the machine she's on now! WAY less clutter and less wires
and tubes going every where!

She also took her first bottle today, and yesterday I was able to start trying to breastfeed!! For now, they are going to try one bottle and one breast feeding attempt per day. The boob time yesterday wasn't with much success, but she did swallow little drops of milk. She was just too tired and kept falling asleep. Today she did much better on the boob, trying to suck a little more but never latched on. Still progress!

The bottle feeding however, was a completely different story! She did amazingly! She explored the bottle at first, tasting the milk and licking it, then dove right in and sucked it all down like a little pig! I'm so happy she is progressing in some areas so quickly! Hopefully tomorrow will be better with boobie time and she will continue to do well on the bottle so we can get the stupid feeding tube out!!! Breast feeding with the feeding tube in is hard because it gets in the way of her tongue and prevents her from sucking properly.

Here's a quick little video of her taking the bottle like a little champ! :D

No more IV!

Age: 18 days
Gestational Age: 30 weeks 4 days

Rylee's IV was taken out on Tuesday the 25th. Her little arm looks so much better without all that tape and tubes coming out of it! It's so much easier for me to hold her to because I don't have to worry about hurting her little arm.

She is up to 22cc's of breast milk today, and tonight will be getting 22 calories added into her milk so she can fatten up!! Since she is no longer receiving fluids and nutrients through the IV, they have to add protein supplements to the milk so she gets enough calories.

I got to give her a bath for the first time (my first time, not her first bath) on Tuesday as well. She HATED it. But it was so cute! She squirmed her little body ALL over the place and cried almost the entire time. I felt bad for making her mad, but it was so cute!

In the next week or two, we should be able to start dressing Rylee in tiny little baby clothes and her nasal cannula might come out! The clothes have to be one piece button front with holes for the feet, or those layette dress things so there is room for the leads to come out. I'm not sure how everything is going to fit her, but I'm bringing some clean ones tonight to compare. :) I'm also bringing some of her small blankets so she has some cute stuff in her Isolette!

Fattening up!

Age: 15 days
Gestational Age: 30 weeks 1 day

Rylee continues to do amazingly! She is up to 16cc's of breast milk already! The doctor said she should (hopefully) be off of the IV fluids completely by tomorrow. YAAAAAAAY! Once she is off of the IV, she will be solely on breast milk. They will be fortifying the breast milk with extra protein and nutrients which will help her gain weight even faster. Hopefully she will start drinking tons of milk when she gets home because we're running low on freezer space.

As of a day ago, she was just shy of 2lbs 10oz. Almost to her birth weight!!!!

Over a week ago, they did a sonogram on her head to see if there was any bleeding or issues with development. Some bleeding is apparently very common in preemies because their brains and blood vessels aren't developed enough. The bleeds, or hemorrhages, are graded from 1 to 4 according to the severity of the bleeding. Small amounts of bleeding (grades 1 to 2) don't typically cause any long-term damage but larger amounts of bleeding (grades 3 to 4) DO cause long-term problems. Grades 3 and 4 cause blood clots that can block the circulation system for the cerebrospinal fluid. These blockages are called hydrocephalus. Fortunately for Rylee, she was only a grade 2 over a week ago. As of this past Friday, her bleed was already resolving itself and getting smaller! They are going to repeat the sonogram in 2 weeks to check it again. Let's hope it's completely gone by then!!

She seems to be filling out a bit, and looks less alien-like and more like a mini baby. :) Her blonde hair is also getting lighter. I really hope it doesn't fall out. It's so pretty!

Doing the Kangaroo Care has been going well. She is still having apnea issues, (she stops breathing and often times her heart rate drops drastically too) so we have to quickly stimulate her and get her heart rate and breathing back up. Usually all it takes is a couple firm taps on the back, or a pinch or two to the feet (which I HATE doing), and she wakes up and remembers to breathe. She has had a few episodes while in the Isolette too. As her muscles grow, and it gets easier for her to take deep breaths, the apnea should go away.

During our morning visit today, I was able to Kangaroo with her for over an hour and a half! And she had no real apnea issues, although her oxygen did drop a little low a few times...a couple rubs on the back and she was back up and running!

Hopefully our visit tonight goes well!


Here is a picture from this morning! Sleeping like her mama. :D

OK Day

Age: 10 days
Gestational Age: 29 weeks 4 days

Zac and I went to the hospital this morning to see Rylee. When we got there, her nurse never came up to us like they normally do which was a little annoying. She wasn't very attentive (and so far, my least favorite nurse she has had). We changed her little diaper and took her temperature, then waited while the nurse fed her through her feeding tube. She was up to 7cc's of breast milk this morning!

After almost an hour of waiting around, we finally were able to get her out of the Isolette. I did Kangaroo Care with her for about 20 minutes before having to put her back. She kept alarming on her oxygen levels, and was falling short of what she should be between (85-99). She kept falling into the low 70's and even with additional oxygen being pumped into her nasal cannula, she was taking too long to recover so we put her back into the Isolette and said our good-byes. :(

The wound care specialist also came by today to check my incision. She said it is healing nicely so far. I have about an inch on the left side that is already closed and scabbing over, but there is a tiny bit of fluid behind it, so hopefully that pushes its way out and nothing bad happens. The rest of the incision is still open quite a bit and it's disgusting. I'd post a pic, but I don't think anyone wants to see.. If you do, let me know and I'll send it!

We decided to skip the night visit tonight because I am extremely exhausted. I feel so bad and guilty for not visiting her at least twice a day... I know she doesn't know what's going on yet, but my conscience still weighs heavy on me. I know I need to rest though! Mom is useless to baby if she doesn't heal!! And it's good for Rylee to rest too. Especially after her little episodes with the morning visit.

She should be getting 2 more cc's of food between 11pm tonight and our morning visit tomorrow so she will be up to 9cc's! Halfway there to the 18-22 cc's they want her to be at before removing her central line IV and take her off of the fluid and supplements they are giving her right now.

Rylee Quinn- October 9th, 2011- 2lbs 11oz, 15.2 inches long

In lieu of wedding stuff, I wanted to share a different story so family and friends could better understand what happened.(This is very long, just to warn you!!)

Zac and I found out we were expecting  right after we returned from our honeymoon. Oops! :) Our first little baby, Rylee Quinn was due January 1st, 2012.

We knew from the beginning that this pregnancy could and probably would have complications, but hoped we would be lucky and not experience any of them. Unfortunately, I have a Bicornuate Uterus so it complicates things. This means that instead of having a whole uterus with 2 fallopian tubes going to it, I have a wall in the middle that separates the uterus into two parts, each part having it's own fallopian tube and ovary. There are different degrees of a BU, and mine isn't as severely separated as some, but it's still not ideal. With a BU, there is an extremely high risk for pre-term labor and babies being born with low birth weight.In addition to the funky uterus, I ALSO have a cervical membrane (so basically two cervices) AND a vaginal septum. Which means, no matter what, I would never be able to deliver a baby naturally.

Everything was going fabulous throughout the beginning of the pregnancy. No complications, no morning sickness (just didn't want to eat!) and  Rylee was growing properly, stomping on my bladder and being happy. I made it to 26 weeks before I started having problems.

On September 29th at 26 weeks and a couple of days, I had a sonogram scheduled to  measure my cervical length because I was having some pains in my legs and vaginal area. The doctor suspected it could just be round ligament pain, but wanted me to get the cervical length measurement just in case. I went in, laid down on the table and they began the sonogram. As soon as the Tech inserted the probe, she jumped back and said "WHOA!" Baby's foot was IN my cervix. A couple of seconds later, I felt a huge kick in my lower pelvic area, and the technician screamed "She just kicked me!!!" Rylee showed the Tech who was boss.

Unfortunately as cute and funny as this was, it was also very bad. My cervix had begun to funnel and thin out. A normal cervix is 3-5cm thick, and mine was 4mm thick. Not much left at all. At any time, Rylee could kick again and cause my cervix to rupture and open, and I would be in full on labor. The tech called in my doctor, who called in another doctor and a nurse, and they all decided it would be best to admit me to the hospital so they could monitor myself and Rylee and make sure I didn't go into labor.

Being in the hospital was pretty miserable. No sleep, people in the room constantly, shots, IVs more shots... They gave me two steroid shots to make Rylee's lungs mature faster in case she decided to just come out already, and started giving me Magnesium to slow down/stop contractions. The weird thing was, I NEVER felt any contractions UNTIL they gave me the Magnesium! They weren't bad, but I could definitely feel them, and it felt very weird. They started from my belly button, and radiated out across my stomach. It felt like my stomach kept falling asleep and tightening then it would loosen and go away.

I stayed in the hospital until Saturday, October 1st. The doctor's let me leave, with STRICT orders to be on bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy. No work, no cleaning (ack), no cooking (oh no!), NOTHING! I could get up to go to the bathroom, shower every 2 days, and go to the doctor. I was ready to poke my eyeballs out before even going home, but it was the right thing to do! I was prescribed Procardia to keep any contractions at bay, and sent on my merry way!


From October 1st to October 7th, I sat in my bed like a good pregnant woman and worked from home, watched tv and relaxed. Saturday October 8th, we had some friends bring us lunch, so I went downstairs and parked my butt on the porch to relax and hang out a bit. I had been feeling some little cramps since Friday night, but I thought it was the round ligament pain again being a pain. By Saturday, they started to get worse, and I had a horrible mucous discharge... and when I say HORRIBLE, I mean realllllly horrible. I called Zac's brother's wife who has a sister who is a NICU nurse to ask if she had any suggestions... the consensus was to call the doctor, so I did.

When I finally got to talk to my doctor, she mentioned that I had a bacterial infection that they found in my last visit, and told me someone should have called in a prescription for me that past Friday... No one ever did, and booooy was she pissed! She told me to go ahead and come in so we packed up a bag quickly and ran out the door. The cramps were slowly getting more and more painful, but they never felt like the contractions I had the first time I was hospitalized.

We were at the hospital for about 45 minutes before my doctor finally came in. The cramps were still pretty painful, and when she checked my cervix she said I was 1cm dilated and they would have to admit me again. About an hour later, I was put into a room where I'd be staying for an undetermined amount of time. The whiny part of me was so mad that I had to share a room with someone this time around. How was I going to have visitors and people to keep me sane without disrupting my roommate?!


Luckily I have an amazing husband, and he sat with me in the hospital until midnight on Saturday, then went home to sleep and was back in the A.M to keep me company. Unfortunately, throughout the night, my cramps got more and more painful... and to top it off, I was starting to get feverish. By Sunday, October 9th around 10am, I was having uncontrollable shakes, chills and profusely sweating all at the same time. IT.WAS.AWFUL! I had a pretty crappy nurse through the night, and kept telling her I didn't feel well, and she just brushed it off. After the shift change, I had a much better nurse who was very sympathetic about m y pain and checked my temperature often. after a couple of hours, my fevers started getting worse, and by around 430pm, I had a fever of 102.4. The nurse called the doctor, and by 5pm she was in the room checking my cervix.

I was 8cm dilated, and very sick at this point. They had been pumping me full of antibiotics, but they didn't seem to be helping. The doctor told me that it was time to have our baby for fear of further infection, and also let me know that I had a very severe infection in my uterus. The next 44 minutes went by VERY quickly. I was prepped for surgery, Zac was dressed in those throwaway scrubs and we were escorted to the operating room.

Because of my back issues (bulging disc and pinched nerves), they did a spinal instead of an epidural. This was by far the worst part so far. The Anesthesiologist who was on call was late, so they had to have a 4th year resident do it. She must not have done it a lot, or my back was being a pain because I swear she stuck me a bagillion times! By the time she was done, they laid me down on the table and the doctor stated that my water had broken. They needed to get the baby out ASAP!

At 5:44pm on October 9th, 2011, Rylee was plucked from my womb and handed off to the NICU doctor. She had the cord wrapped around her neck two and a half times, but the doctor's and nurses didn't seem alarmed, and had it off of her in seconds. She was perfectly pink, so I don't think it was tight. I remember hearing the NICU doctor yell with excitement "She's breathing on her own!!" which made me sooo happy! Zac got to go over and see her as she was being cleaned off and weighed. She was SO TINY!!! She weighed in at 2lbs 11oz and was 15.2 inches long. Apparently on the larger side for a 28 week old baby!

Even though Rylee could breathe on her own, they put in a nasal cannula to help has get a little extra oxygen in. I was so relieved she didn't have to be intubated. I think that would have made it so much harder to have her taken out of the room. Zac got to go with the doctor and nurses to the NICU while my doctor began sewing me up.

They hooked Rylee up to a CPAP machine to give her a little extra oxygen boost, and inserted an IV and arterial line into her umbilical cord. She was put in her new Isolette home for safe keeping.

After being sewed up, I spent about 2 hours in recovery until I could feel my legs again. Once I was able to move my legs a little more and a room opened up, I was wheeled into the NICU on my hospital bed to see Rylee for a brief second. I could only see her feet though, and was able to touch them for a minute. They then wheeled me into my room where I spent the next week having fluids and drugs pumped into my system.

I found out Monday that I had had something called Chorioamnionitis. The only treatment is to deliver the baby and administer antibiotics. As a result of me being infected, baby Rylee unfortunately contracted an infection too. I'm guessing the infection stemmed from the bacterial infection I had, and it just got progressively worse over the week I was on bed rest, until I was admitted the second time.

I didn't get to really see Rylee until the 11th because of my fevers. But when I was finally able to see her, it was amazing. She was so tiny and fragile and there were wires coming off of her everywhere. It was a little overwhelming at first, but I was so excited to finally see my baby.  Up until this point, I had only seen the pictures my sister and Zac had taken of her.

Tiny little baby hand!

Wearing Zac's ring on her arm

Finally getting to really see her for the first time!! (below)

Before being able to touch her, a grumpy nurse lectured me...

One of my favorite pictures!

Blowin bubbles!!

I was so happy to finally see her. I was told we could hold her the next day, which really got my spirits up!I was supposed to be able to hold her on the 11th, but because of my fevers, I had to wait a bit. At 2am on Wednesday, I got to go hold my baby. It was even more amazing than seeing her! We did Kangaroo Care, where you hold the baby skin-to-skin. You can keep them outside of the Isolette much longer this way because your body temperature is helping to keep theirs up. She was so soft!

Over the first week, both of us received a slew of antibiotics. I fought off fever after fever, and my discharge date was pushed back from Wednesday to Thursday, then to Friday. I slept in a hospital bed for 6 days waking up drenched in sweat from sweating out fevers, only to have my temperature spike again a couple of hours later.

Thursday morning, the doctor who performed my c-section came to remove my staples. When she got there, she said there was a lot of fluid built up behind my incision, and she would need to open it up. YUCK. This was around 8am, and Zac was still asleep on the couch next to my hospital bed... he slept through her removing 9 of the 10 staples with ease, and fighting with the 10th one to come out. I screamed and cried out in pain, and he slept. She got a long q-tip out to open up my incision, and opened it like it was an ffing letter and she was using a letter opener. It.hurt.so.bad!!! And still Zac slept. When the last 1/2 an inch was left, he finally woke up from hearing my cries. I still can't believe he was able to sleep through all of it. She opened the rest of the incision, and I could feel fluid spilling out. It was disgusting. She then packed it with gauze, taped it up and went on her merry way. About an hour later, my normal OB came in for rounds, and was appalled that the staples had been removed so early... (sigh) Later on that day, a wound care specialist came in to assess my incision and give us instructions on how to take care of it. They removed the gauze and tape used to cover it up, then got down to the gauze that was stuffed inside my incision. It was VERY dry, yet saturated with fluid and blood...and it was stuck inside my incision. This next part was probably the most painful part of being in the hospital so far...they pulled out the gauze slowly. It felt like ripping off a band aid while your skin is on fire. The nurse and wound care lady couldn't believe it was done that way, and frankly, neither could I. It hurt so much! They showed us how to pack the wound properly. Zac was excited to learn how to do it as well. I'm so glad he isn't squeamish!

FINALLY by Thursday evening after all the torture, I hadn't had a fever in 24 hours, so it was looking like I would be able to go home on Friday, October 14th.

The on-call doctor came in Friday morning and told me I could go home if I felt up to it. I wanted to go home SO badly, but didn't want to be far away from my baby. We went down to the NICU and visited her for a few minutes, then Zac packed all of our stuff, and we were ready to go home! We decided we would spend an hour or so in the NICU first though before leaving. It was bittersweet! I held her before going home and cuddled her soft, tiny little body.

As of today, October 18th, Rylee is doing amazing! She is now taking 5cc's of breast milk through her feeding tube, and she is still breathing on her own with a little extra air being pumped in through the nasal cannula. Mommy and daddy take turns doing Kangaroo Care, and we try to make it to the NICU at least twice a day! I love my teeny little baby and I can't wait until she comes home!