Hadlee is here!

Sorry this post has taken me so long to get to. Things have been a little busy around here. For lack of time and energy, this post will be brief but full of lots of pictures of our newest arrival.

Hadlee arrived last Monday, December 6 at 9:15 a.m. via c section 5 weeks early. My pre eclampsia had gotten to the point where it was safer for me to deliver. It was tough delivering pre term, not knowing how well "baked" Hadlee would be at this point. Babies do a lot of developing that last month in utero. Hadlee came out and weighed 5 lbs 14 oz and was 18 inches long. She wasn't breathing well and was taken to the NICU and placed on a cpap machine. (It's the pictures of the mask type thing on her face. A few hours later the doctor decided to intubate her due to the fact that her lungs kept trying to collapse. Once intubated they administered a drug directly into her lungs called surfactant to help her lungs stay inflated. She also had to stay pretty sedated because too much wiggling can make the tube move and that wouldn't be safe for her because of where it sits in her throat. While intubated she couldn't make any noise so when she would cry you could see her crying but not hear her because the tube went between her vocal cords and into her trachea. She was intubated for a night and the next day they decided her lungs were well enough not to need the constant pressure the intubation provided. They put her back on her cpap machine which still gave pressure into her lungs but it wasn't quite as invasive. A couple days later she was able to move to a nasal cannula.

A week later she is doing well but is still in NICU for the time being. She has been off oxygen for over 24 hours now and is working on getting enough energy to take all her feeds by mouth instead of having some of them through her feeding tube. Her weight dropped to 5 lbs 3 oz but a couple days ago finally started gaining and is now up to 5 lbs 7 oz. Today she took 4 feeds in a row all by mouth but at 5:30 pm when her pediatrician called he said she was too tired to wake for her feeding and her nurse had to tube feed her. Hopefully she gets strong soon because it's been hard not having her home and it's hard going back and forth to the NICU several times a day.

Yesterday Hadlee was stable enough to take to the family room across from the nicu to have her feeding so the girls were finally able to hold their baby sister. It was a special time to spend about 30 minutes together as a family. The hardest part was giving Hadlee back to the NICU and leaving without her. We are hoping she will make it home before Christmas. So, if you wouldn't mind, keep Hadlee in your prayers that she can get strong enough to come home soon. I will try to be better at keeping the blog updated.

~The CPAP machine on Hadlee right after she was born.

~After she was intubated.

~Her itty bitty feet next to my pinky finger.

~Daddy with intubated and sedated Hadlee. It was hard because while intubated, we couldn't hold her.

~Back on the CPAP machine. The weight of it, although not much, did cause swelling in her face and bruising on her eyes. It has since gone away but you will notice it in some of these pictures.

~Holding mommy's finger and on the nasal canula. It was nice finally being able to see her face without so many tubes!

~The iv in her hand started leaking and they had to move it to her head. It looked worse than it actually was but was still great when it finally came out.

~Our little munchkin.

~Maybe she was tired of all the pictures??

All snuggled up. :)

~Sweet, content Hadlee.

~Getting a tube feeding.

~Daddy loves snuggling with her.

~Ready for bed.

~Sydney helping with a tube feed.

~Morgan, very excited, to finally hold her sister.

~Sydney loves having another baby sister and was so excited when she finally got to hold her.

That's our update! I will try to update again soon. Hopefully in the very near future the blog will read "Hadlee's Home!"