Another bath, Another birthmark

To say that I am not the neatest person in the world would be a bit of an understatement. Growing up I used to clean my room only as part of the barter system-usually as a way to not to have to eat my Mom's soup (sorry...I am sure that she has now disowned me ;)...) or as my hubby keeps telling me I seem to be the only person he knows who is able to make a mess while cleaning. Really, I can't help it, maybe it is genetic...? All that being said I must say when it comes to bath time & cleaning Brenna I am hooked & will have one seriously squeaky clean baby! As they say baby changes everything...
Bath time was a lot easier today & Bean seemed to enjoy it a lot more-we did not cry once in fact her vital signs were unchanged the whole time. I think it may have been due to her being a bit bigger & able to stay warmer (she is 2 lbs 15 oz!) as well as maybe a bit better supervision. Crib head (think really bad baby dandruff) is a big issue with preemies, especially with the CPAP, so there is a little soft brush that we use to scrub any dead skin from their heads-& use only on their heads. I was so into bath time last time that all I heard was later, brush, rinse & basically scrubbed her whole little body with the brush. I imagine that is probably why Brenna didn't enjoy bath time as much last time....but hey she has incredibly smooth skin now....
We did find out that Bean has another birthmark, it is not a permanent one but will grow in size for the next year & then disappear (sorry but I don't remember the technical term) which is a good thing because it is smack dab in the middle of her upper lip. If you look closely at the photo you can see it, close up it looks like a blood blister, on the photo it looks like a smudge. Other than that not too much to report, but expect a big announcement tomorrow as we are only 1 oz away from 3 lbs!

Beans' Big Belly

Greetings sports fans! Mom is back & let me assure you there will be no more blog delays-mainly because they are running out of stuff to take out of my belly! That & wearing pants is hard enough as is with so much of my abdomen covered with incisions....enough about me let's get to the good stuff-Brenna.
I am happy to report, once again, that Brenna is maintaining her 'boring' reputation (remember this is a good thing in preemie land) with very few changes. She is creeping up to her first big milestone of 3 lbs at a current weight of 2 lbs 14 oz (for those on the metric system 16 oz in a pound)! We expect her to be off of CPAP and at a very healthy 1500 grams by next week-& yes as soon as I can put her in her ducky outfit I will post pics! Her only issue at the moment, & in the grand scheme of things it is a very minor one, is that the air from the CPAP has caused distension in her belly. The biggest consequence of a big air belly is that it is uncomfortable for Brenna, but left unattended could cause some digestion issues. As a remedy they have lowered the CPAP setting from a 5 to a 4 to lessen the amount of air being blown into her lungs (& winding up in her belly) as well as inserting a second feeding tube to try & vent out some of the extra 'belly air.' For Dad & me the biggest consequence was not being able to hold her for 2 days because all the air in her belly made it too uncomfortable for her to Kangaroo :( Her belly seems to be a little bit better-thankfully better enough that it we can hold her again-but hopefully should be a non-issue very soon as she only needs to gain 200g to be rid of the CPAP once & for all. No new labs, x-rays or scans in the near future, we expect it to be a very boring week indeed. :)

Gallbladder… what the heck does that do anyway?

UPDATE: 8:20 p.m. - Aimee is out of surgery and everything went well!!!

So for those of you who don’t know, here is a little biology lesson. Bile is a digestive liquid continually secreted by the liver. Bile contains water, cholesterol, fats, bile salts, proteins, and bilirubin. Remember the blue “bili light” Brenna was under two weeks ago? The function of the gallbladder is to remove the water and other substances from the bile and to serve as a reservoir until bile is needed in the small intestine. If the liquid bile contains too much cholesterol, bile salts, or bilirubin, it can harden into gallstones.

And that short lesson brings us to yesterday evening when Aimee discovered that she had too much bilirubin in her system. When I say discovered, I mean she walked into the house crying and said “take me to the E.R. because I think I have too much bilirubin in my system” or was it “take me to the E.R. my abdomen is cramping worse than when I had preeclampsia and for once I’m sure there is no way I am pregnant!” Anyway, off we went to the hospital in Kyle and quickly discovered that Aimee had developed gallstones caused by elevated bilirubin levels due to her body attempting to recover after the preeclampsia and C-section.

The Kyle staff was great and transferred us to Seton main last night so that Aimee could have her surgery (scheduled for 6:30 p.m. today) and recovery in the same hospital as Brenna. As long as the surgery goes as planned, Aimee should be released sometime in the next 48 hrs, but for now, Daddy will be sitting bedside with Mom and best of all, taking advantage of Mom being knocked out on Dilaudid to steal a little extra kangaroo time with Brenna!

Rub-A-Dub-Dub, Brenna In A Tub!

Ok, maybe not exactly in a tub because she is too small, but Mom gave Brenna her first 'bath'! I never knew that two small buckets of warm water, a couple pieces of gauze & baby shampoo could be so much fun (seriously, this was the highlight of my day, cried on the way home). Fun for me anyway, Brenna did NOT like bath time-at the rate that she wiggles out of all her tubes & probes I thought she would enjoy naked time! Dad did get a couple great pics of Bean with her eyes open and sans snorkle gear, put a couple more of them on Facebook. I do have to add that-well first let me say that Brenna is my child & the cutest thing on the planet in my eyes (& she would be if she were green and had 3 eyes & 6 arms)-but she has a bit of a cone head due to the CPAP (technical term is CPAP head, seriously) that will reshape once she is breathing on her own. If it doesn't it must be inherited from Dad....;)
Brenna is still doing well, in fact no new news to report-just need for her to gain the weight, other than that just more of the same. We did get to decorate her Isolet after her bath with sheets that we brought (thanx Mom & Dad)-can't wait for her to be big enought to wear clothes because she has the CUTEST ducky romper (little duck feet...) that matches her ducky blanket! In the meantime the Nurse did say we could decorate her CPAP hat-Baby's R Us here I come!

2 Lbs 6 oz!

First, let me apologize for the tardiness of the Brennadate, but let me assure you the news has all been steady & good! Grandma’s & Grandpa’s have been in town & we spent some time getting the nursery together-now that we have a beautiful crib (thank you Grandma & Grandpa K!) we can bring her home! Well, we can bring her home when she’s big & ready…

Brenna has FINALLY started to gain weight-a whopping 4 oz in 4 days, at this rate we will be 2.5 lbs next week...only another 2.5 lbs to go… It seems that 1500 grams seems to be the magical premie number, everything ‘eventful’ seems to happen at this weight- we can lose the snorkel gear, wear clothing (we have the CUTEST little duck outfit for her to wear) & will be able to start nippeling (she is currently on a feeding tube, all breast milk though). Always the overachiever, Brenna has doubled her food intake in the past week going from 15 cc's to 30 cc's, she has been tolerating the feedings really well with less than 1 cc residual (the semi-digested leftover food, anything under 5.5 cc’s is good).

If you see the little mark on Brenna’s big ol’ belly that is her little birthmark it is small & sits right below the diaper line. At least I will not have to worry about anyone swapping out my baby-she’s markedJ!

Dr told me today to expect more of the same for the next couple of weeks; they do have to keep reminding me that in premie world boring is a good thing. He did tell me that Brenna turned 30 weeks on Thursday-I know, I know, & yes, she was born on a Tuesday…..? Apparently they track gestational age to the day (crazy, & I have no idea how) & she was born at 27 weeks and 5 days-hey anything that brings my little Bean a little closer to coming home=)

Bean's New Digs

First let me apologize for the tardiness of this entree (Mom), this Mommy was a little under the weather yesterday. I am in the process of adding new photos to the blog & facebook so stay tuned-I don't know why they are taking so long to load.....
Had great news today, Brenna got moved into a new Isolet (bed/machine that she currently lives in) because she is stable-can you believe it!!!!-& they needed the other Isolet for some new premies. I know I have a tendency to tear up every 30 minutes, but talk about tears of joy..!
Good news keeps on coming, Brenna's feedings have increased both in quantity and in frequency; in a week she has gone from 3 cc's every 6 hours to a whopping 11 cc's every 4 hours. Good thing the nurses have labeled me the 'Milk Machine' at the rate she's going! At the rate her food is increasing her weight should start going up at a steady pace-in the next week or two she should be off of her CPAP (snorkle looking breathing device) & fully breathing on her own.
Keeping it short tonight as it is way past my bedtime, please keep your fingers crossed & Brenna in your prayers. Sweet Dreams.....

Sweatin' the Small Stuff

Brenna is officially over a week old, only 12 more weeks to go......I know they say having a premie is like riding a roller coaster, all ups & downs....think I'm on the one that Fabio was on, yup rogue bird & broken nose......except my hair isn't nearly as pretty...
Brenna continues to do great, but this is a marathon & not a sprint with each hurdle we pass another one pops up on the horizon. As of today her bilirubin levels are now low enough that she has been taken off of light therapy & lost her little baby shades. I know that she only sees vague blobs, but there is nothing like having your baby look up into your eyes; she knows I'm there. Her digestion continues to be up & down, but they do continue to increase her food amount which is great because she is slowly gaining weight. At the premie age the stomach just hasn't developed yet & as Brenna's Dr. put it needs to be 'jump started' with food & sipositories (I give the nurses A LOT of credit-you can only imagine how tiny these things are & they are clear), hopefully the body just figures it out; in the mouth, out the other side. I may be paraphrasing just a little, but that is pretty much exactly how the Dr. explained it to me, really.
Only other 'point of interest' is her platelet levels are a little low, not low enough that the Dr. is concerned at the moment, but if it doesn't start to increase in the following week then the possible reasons would all be really unpleasant things with really unpleasant possible diseases &/or disabilities. While I sweat all the stuff big & small, this is one area where I am just going to wait & only worry if I have too; the unpleasantness being that unpleasant.
Tomorrow brings another round of tests so I will keep you posted, as of now our little girl is as great as she can be, just to make sure I am doing all I can I am going to say goodnight & do some Kangaroo Care:0)

Blue Light Special

I know what your thinking-really a tanning bed for the baby? Hey, this is Texas summer a girl needs to work on her tan & don't worry the CPAP hat is only temporary while we wait for the bleach blonde baby wig. Yes, I am joking maybe if I still lived in Dallas instead of Austin......
The blue light in the picture is Brenna's Bililight (Phototherapy) which shines light from the blue part of the spectrum (there aren't any harmful rays UVA/B etc..) to breakdown the amount of bilirubin in her system. Bilirubin is the byproduct of breaking down red blood cells in the body, not usually a problem, but in newborns & especially premies, there is an excess of blood cells (& thus bilirubin) which can cause a whole mess of problems ranging from jaundice to cerebral palsy. The light-do not ask me how cuz I do not know-turns the bilirubin into lumirubin which can be harmlessly secreted from her system. Oh, & yes it is because of the Bililight that Brenna has her first pair of baby shades.
Brenna's bilirubin level has gone up not a big problem so far, just means that she needs to spend more time under the Bililight to get them down, No big deal, but if you saw the Kangaroo Care picture you know that there is no light when we do this & yup, gotta cut down on Kangaroo time. I feel bad for Daddy, until Brenna's Bilirubin levels come down he's going to lose out on holding her.....;0)

More Pictures

I am still trying to figure out exactly how to upload pictures and video to the blog, but to see more Brenna pics in the meantime you can visit my Facebook page (Aimee Kalmus)

Brenna's Debut

A little background for those who don't already know-& I know we are still playing catch-up with e-mails, phone calls and texts. Brenna was born last Tuesday due to an emergency c-section as Mom had pre-eclampsea and the placenta had start to tear from the uterus putting both Mom & daughter at risk. Luckily my visit to the ER was early enough that both of us are now doing fine-Brenna is in fact GREAT! She was born at 27 weeks and was immediately flown to NICU at Seton Hospital in Central Austin and will be staying here until she reaches the 40 weeks/meets the criteria for her to go home.
The biggest risk with premie babies is bleeding in the brain; in 95% of all premies there is some sort of bleeding which can be 'normal' to severe which can lead to a series of problems/disabilities down the road. While it is still early, at least we have passed this major hurdle Brenna's brain scan came back normal-no bleeding in the brain at all-so far so good, like I said she is doing GREAT!!
One of the other big obsticals that face premie's is lung development/breathing on their own, once again I am proud to report that Brenna is breathing on her own & has been for a couple of days. She will be on CPAP (what looks like her snorkle in the pictures) until she doubles her weight-2 to 3 more weeks, but she is breathing on her own and has had very few apnea (stop breathing) incidents.
So far that is where Brenna is at, we are now able to do Kangaroo Care with her which is where Mom or Dad have skin to skin contact with her and hold her for at least an hour. This is supposed to be the best thing for Brenna at the moment, but let me tell you it is the best thing in the world for Mom & Dad.
I am trying to figure out how to get the pictures & video to post to the blog, so please bare with me in the meantime-I will get it up ASAP, well as soon as I am done with Brenna because all this talk about her, I need to go hold her.