Day 3 - Doctor and a Bath

Our little family settled into our new routine this weekend. Vera was changed and fed every three hours at 12, 3, 6 and 9 in the hospital, so we've kept that schedule at home. I've convinced Holly that we don't need to team up on her, but rather alternate. We are doing pretty good taking two "sessions" each and letting the other one rest or do non-baby stuff.

Today is our 3rd day and we had to throw in a few curve balls. Vera had her first doctor's appointment at 11:30am. This meant that little Vera got to try out her car seat again. Remember, this is a car seat made for small babies starting at 4lbs. Most car seats start at 5lbs, so she's even smaller than she looks.



After missing a turn and getting a little off track, we finally arrived. The doctor is in a pretty nice medical office building that has valet parking so you can hop out with your kid(s) and they'll park your car. We skipped that this time, but I could see how that would be helpful. Everyone was super nice. We had to undress Vera and wrap her up in a paper blanket. Here is Mom and Vera posing for the camera at her first Doctor's visit.



She weighted in at 5 pounds and 2 ounces, so she is still gaining weight as expected. The doctor said everything looked good and answered our long list of questions.



After an exciting day outside of the house, we attempted her first bath at home. Our little bath thingy fit best in the kitchen sink, so that's what we tried. It worked pretty well for our first attempt. Vera did as good as can be expected.


After bath time and her evening snack, we settled down for a quick family picture. Yes. Our Christmas tree is already up.

Vera Comes Home

The NICU is very careful not to give estimates on when your baby will come home. I guess they've had too many disappointed parents when they miss the estimated date. We started getting a few "maybe" dates last Wedensday. There was "Maybe Monday or Tuesday" that then turned into "Maybe Sunday evening" that finally turned into "Maybe Saturday late afternoon." Well, the final call came this morning at 8am. We were getting ready to head out the door for our 9am feeding and the doctor called. "You can come get your baby now. After the 9am bottle, she is all yours." Needless to say, we were very happy that Vera keeps over achieving on her milestones. When she was born, they said she'd be in the hospital for 3-7 weeks. She came home after 2 weeks and 6 days. Well done baby girl.

When we arrived at the hospital, there was a lot to get done. It went something like this:

• 9:10 - We arrive a little late because I was fighting the car seat. That seems to be a right of passage into parenthood. First things first, we give Vera her last NICU bottle.
  


• 9:45 - The nurse brings up what was described as "a little bit of leftover breast milk." There was 57 bottles. Geez. Where are we going to put that?
  


• 10:00 - The photography people were suppose to arrive by 10am, but no one had heard from them. The nurse started paging them.
  


• 10:15 - The nurse walks us through all the discharge information and goes over our instructions again.
  


• 10:30 - The photography people have called back and are "on their way"
  


• 10:45 - I make a run to the car to take a load of "stuff" once I get Holly to confirm we don't need any of it anymore. It's amazing how much "stuff" a baby has.
  


• 11:00 - Holly asks where the cute white outfit is. I'm not sure what she is talking about, but I'm sure it is in the car with the "stuff" we didn't need anymore. I sent Holly to the car on this one.
  


• 11:01 - Photography lady shows up right after Holly leaves, but we start getting everything setup.
  


• 11:05 - The first high-dollar professional photographs are shot and the lady looks perplexed. Seems her camera isn't working right. She has to run somewhere and get another camera.
  


• 11:15 - We are back in action and the camera is working. We got a lot of good pictures. Here's one that I took in between professional shots to give you an idea. She did a better job of covering up the wires, but Vera lifted up the blanket on this one to show extra skin. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.
  

• 11:20 The lady asks, "Do you guys have a special stuffed animal we can put in one of the pictures?" ARG. It's with the "stuff." This time I walk quickly to the car to get the Indiana Sock Monkey. Our plan is have him show up from time to time in Vera's pictures over the years.
  


• 11:40 - We finish with the pictures and the photography lady has to go and get her cart where she can load the pictures for our review. The nurse disconnects Vera from the remaining wires and sensors and we put her in yet another outfit called "Her going home outfit." Seems you can't go home in just any outfit. We took a quick Mom and Dad picture.

• 11:45 - I was then told to wrap Vera up in "Her going home blanket." For all I've learned in the last 3 weeks, I have a long way to go apparently on baby protocol.
  


• 11:45-12:00 - We review the pictures. There were some really good ones that will probably make an appearance in a future blog post.
  


• 12:01 - I get very anxious that we are missing the noon bottle. The nurse assures me the baby will live and it is better to take her home right before a feeding rather than right after a feeding. Think of the last time you shook up a soda or beer. Same concept.
  

Getting ready to roll out.


Vera is really in there and can breath. I promise.



See. Happy Vera breathing good in her Coming Home Outfit, Coming Home Hat and Coming Home Blanket.

• 12:05 - We make it to the car and buckle Vera up for the ride home. Holly is in the back seat monitoring and I'm driving like a driver's education student all the way home. Hands at 10 & 2.
  


• 12:20 - Vera arrives home after a rather uneventful drive. I carry her into her nursery and attempt to change her. I get the old diaper off and clean her up, but I'm missing her special bum cream which is in one of the bags of stuff. I holler down to Holly to bring it up as I hear 57 frozen bottles of milk fall on the kitchen floor. Vera cries.
  


• 12:21 - Stress hits me like a brick. Why is Holly putting away frozen breast milk when our baby is 21 minutes behind her feeding time? Why are these wipes so hard to get out? Why did I drop the bum medicine in a random bag of stuff instead of somewhere I could find it quickly? Why isn't Holly looking for it? Did Vera just pee on her "Coming home blanket?" ARG. "I NEED BUM CREAM STAT!"
  


• 12:30 - Vera is changed including a fresh layer of bum cream. Bottle is warm. Holly and Vera settle down in the glider for her first bottle at home. Vera starts chugging it like it's the best bottle she's ever tasted.
  


• 12:31 - I take a deep breath. My daughter is home.
  

• 12:50 - Bottle complete. Our cat, Norm, sat quietly on the floor beside Holly for the entire bottle feeding, but felt the need to participate in one picture. He is a pretty laid back cat unless strangers are in the house. His interest in Vera has been surprisingly low compared to what I expected.
  

Thanksgiving, Mama Lucy, and a Car Seat

This Thanksgiving with everything going on Matthew and I didn't think we would be able to have a traditional Thanksgiving; however, Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jim saw to it that we did. They drove down on Thanksgiving Day with a car full of food. Matthew cooked a turkey complete with dipping sauce, and I made sweet potato casserole. We accomplished a complete Thanksgiving meal in about an hour, and it was good food and company. Then we headed up to the hospital to hang out with Vera. This card was hanging on her crib when I arrived. The NICU nurses made them for all the parents; I can only imagine how hard it is to get preemie hand prints. It made my day though!

Here is a picture of Aunt Kathy with Vera. She got in some quality snuggle time. They also got to see Matthew change Vera's diaper, which is always an experience. Vera may be little, but when it comes to her diapers look out.

Mama Lucy has a gift when it comes to babies. I think it is her

calming voice and good heart that puts them at easy. Vera had a blast sitting on her lap and singing songs. To prove how happy she was, see picture to the left. This was taken while in Mama Lucy's hands.

While Ruth Anne and Mama Lucy were there, Vera had to take her car seat test. In order to leave the NICU, preemies have to be able to sit in their car seat for ninety minutes without a change in heart rate or oxygen levels. Vera passed with flying colors, but please note how tiny she looks in that thing. As of today, 4 lbs. 14 oz.

After all that it was Ruthie's turn to hold her. Ruthie also surprised me and took us out to eat at Crackle Barrel. One of my favorite things to eat is the Chef Salad, and I wasn't allowed to eat it during pregnancy. All I can say was that it was as delicious as I remembered. It was a great visit and we hope Ruthie and Mama Lucy come back soon!

As Thanksgiving Approaches...

Since Vera went into the NICU, and since I have been well enough to move, the two of us come up with one thing we are thankful for every morning as we rock together. Here are just a few of the things we came up with.

1. NICU nurses: they care for Vera when Matthew and I cannot be there and actually make it bearable to go home at night without her.

2. Magic blue lights: they helped Vera get all the vitamins she needed to be healthy and process blood cells on her own.

3. Bottles with fast flow tops: they allow Vera to take a bottle on her own!

4. Grandmas. No explanation needed here.

5. Warm blankets and hats: Again, no explanation needed.

6. The "Good Morning Song" from Singing in the Rain. We sing it together every morning, and yes, Matthew needs to learn it too.

7. The beautiful colors on all the trees outside, especially the bright yellow ones. This one is just me, but I told her about it and she smiled.

8. God's Grace: when I thought I could not take going back and forth to the hospital and leaving Vera there every time, the grace and strength that was given to me to see me through this.

9. Friends and family who have support us throughout all of this; we could not have survived without you.

10-infinity: All these things and more to be thankful for, but most importantly I am thankful for Vera. It still blows my mind how close we came to loosing her and I just can't imagine that scenario. She is truly our miracle, and I thank God for her every day. We are blessed daily, and sometimes it takes something big like Vera to make us remember how blessed we really are. Happy Thanksgiving all.

Two Weeks Old!

Today Vera turned two weeks old. She is officially taking a 35cc bottle four times a day without any help, hallelujah! Here are some of her other stats. She is 17.13 inches long, with a weight of 4 pounds 3.2 ounces. Her head has a circumference, yes I used a math term in real life, of 30.5 cm. All in all, she is doing fabulous, she is just little. Here she is next to her Indiana sock monkey; please note the size difference. Hopefully she'll be home soon.

Small Mircales

Today at her three o'clock feeding, Vera finished an entire bottle! This was the first time she has been able to do so, and I just lost it. She has been close before, but that was with the nurse's help. Today it was just the two of us and we did it! The nurse now thinks I am crazy, but it made me so happy that I cried. This means she is just one step closer to eating entirely on her own and coming home. Here she is napping with daddy after her big performance.

Vera Hits 4 lbs.

Just the other day the nurses told us that Vera is officially four pounds and gaining. Four pounds sounds like a lot, but I just thought you may like to have some perspective on this. Here are some other things that I found that weigh four pounds.

1. Here is what four pounds of sweet, red pepper looks like. Makes me want some fajitas.











2. A laptop computer weighs in at just four pounds.







3. This lady with her blue ribbon zucchini that weighs...you guessed it, four pounds. Look how happy she looks.








4. A really good catch can weigh four pounds (this one is for you Uncle Richard)










5. And last, but certainly not least, is our sweet baby Vera. This is a photo snapped right at four pounds. She is way better then a fish or a pepper! I also have to admit that she is changing my thoughts on the color pink. I still think red is far better, but dang she looks good in pink.

Guga Goes Back to Indiana

This past week was wonderful, thanks to my mom who came in from Indiana to help Matthew and I out. It was so nice to have someone here to help with things in general. Never underestimate how nice it is to have someone help clean and treat you like a kid again. Mom also got to spend some quality time with her first granddaughter. Once she got the "I'm a Grandma" button, see left, there was no going back; she wore it everyday. We had a good time hanging out in the NICU and putting hats and outfits on Vera. When Guga wasn't holding Vera, I took every chance I could. Here we are all snuggled up. She currently weighs in at a whopping 3 pounds 15 ounces. Sounds little, but she is mighty! After all, she is my daughter. It was fabulous to have mom here and really hard to say goodbye today at the Marta station. The only good news is that she'll be back shortly for Christmas, and then again for Vera's baptism. Thanks for everything mom; we love you!

New Duck Blanket

Too cute not to share. Vera is still making great progress each day feeding more and more from a bottle.

Guga Strikes Again

Guga (Holly's mom) has been looking for a larger size sock monkey for Vera's nursery. Well she finally found the right one and it is now hanging out in Vera's bassinet waiting for her to come home.

Personally, I think it is a little scary. It looks like it might hop out of there and run around the room on its own at night. Hopefully, Vera will see the cute and cuddly side like most seem to do.

Happy One Week Birthday

Today at 9:07, Vera was officially one week old. Here she is relaxing in her hospital crib after Matthew unwrapped her. I may be a little biased, but I think she look adorable in her little pink leopard print. Too bad it is preemie size, and still too big!






We also got to help give Vera her first bath this evening. Here she is screaming during the scrub down. However, she loved being out under the heat lamp afterwards. Her skin is so soft and sweet; best smell ever!




Here I am attempting to give Vera a bottle. For her size, she is doing very well taking milk out of the bottle. She is still trying to figure out the process, but we'll see. This is ultimately what she will need to do to be released from the NICU. Remember her and her bottle feeding abilities in your prayers please.

So far it has been a crazy, stressful, emotional rollacoster of a week, but I wouldn't trade a moment of it because it gave me Vera! We are truly blessed to have our sweet baby girl.

More Pictures Available

I've updated our sideshow on the blog to use the pictures we've taken in the last week of sweet baby Vera. You can also view the full album here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/materry/BabyHospital#

Here is one of our favorites. (Photo credit to Aunt Kimberly). I think the NICU at Northside should use it on their marketing materials.

"Northside Neonatal Intensive-Care Unit -- We are here to lend your preemie a helping hand."

Uncle Richard - Family Representative

Needless to say, when my family heard of Holly's hospitalization and our baby coming nearly 7 weeks early, they all wanted to jump in the car and head to the hospital. My preference was to have everyone stay put until we knew more. I remember my mom telling me, "Call me soon and give me an update. If I don't answer the home phone, call my mobile because I jumped in the car headed your way."

About 2 hours later, my brother arrives at the hospital from North Augusta, SC. I had given him the same request to stay home until I knew what we needed and when. He said the entire family was going to ignore me and come to the hospital anyway. He said he got them to agree to stay home if he came and represented them.

So Uncle Richard was the elected Terry family representative. He was able to stay a couple of days and lend a helping hand. This enabled my Aunt, Uncle and Grandmother to come a few days later and spend more quality time with us. They were then followed up with my Mom, Kimberly and Holly's Mom that just arrived yesterday. Spacing out the family has proven to be a very good approach.

Thanks to everyone for being so understanding and helpful. Vera also appreciates Uncle Richard for being here to welcome her into the world.

Notice the uncle button Richard is wearing.

I Go To Prepare a Place For You

Since baby Vera arrived 7 weeks early with very little warning, part of our panic was due to all the work left to do on her nursery. We simply weren't ready for Vera's arrival for multiple reasons, but she didn't seem to care.

After Vera was stable in the NICU and Holly was steadily improving, the nursery was one of my to-do items that needed to get done ASAP. I had a little time based on Vera's estimated departure from the hospital, but not based on Holly's. I didn't want Holly coming home from such an ordeal and having to worry about finishing a nursery. It was really hard to leave the hospital with the two most important people in my life in such precarious situations, but there were preparations that needed to be made for their homecoming.

Luckily, two angels arrived to help; Mom and sister-in-law Kimberly. We put up the rest of the curtains, raised the crib bed, wash most of the clothes and bedding, cleaned, unpacked gifts, reorganized, hung paintings, etc. etc. etc.

Mom and Kimberly worked really hard and Vera now has a wonderful nursery waiting on her to come home. When Holly made it home Thursday night and got to see the finished product, she was very happy to say the least based on the tears of joy I saw.

Thanks Aunt Kimberly and Grandma Ruthie!

Notice the sock monkey paintings on the wall done by Grandma Ruthie. It's hard to tell in the pictures, but sock monkeys are our theme and the curtain borders and bedding have little sock monkeys running around on them.

Notice the sock monkey sitting beside the elephant on the shelf contributing to our theme.

Vera Gets a Big Girl Crib

Baby Vera hit another milestone today and got moved out of her heated crib to a normal crib where she has a maintain her own temperature. We are also able to start using our own clothes and blankets. Note the Clemson blanket from Grandma Schneider (Guga) is put to good use.

Vera's new crib in the NICU

Vera meets Guga

A New Take on the Idea of "Regifting"

Since the holidays are fastly approaching, and since I have a new take on life due to the events of the past few days, I thought I would share with you my thoughts on "re-gifting". Under normal circumstances, this would trigger winces from me, but after Sunday night, no longer.

After receiving news that I would be delivering my baby at 33 weeks, I said goodbye to my husband and the end of a corridor, and was wheeled into the operating room by myself. Due to my severe condition, I had to be completely under during birth, not even Matthew could be by my side. I was scared out of my mind, and that is the best words can do. I just was left there with about twenty doctors, and my thoughts, which were not good. It was the first time in my life where I actually asked Jesus to let me stay around and see Matthew and my baby. And then I went out. I would later be told by various nurses that if we had waited to come in as planned, my life, and that of Vera's would have been in more then jeopardy; one or both of us may not have been here.

I awoke to a tremendous amount of pain, and the news that I had a baby girl who was breathing and doing wonderfully in the NICU with my husband. There it is. My "regift". I was blessed once to call Matthew my husband, and Sunday night, I got him back. In the same right, seven months prior, we received the news that we would be having a baby girl. When I heard that news again, it was better then anything I have ever, or may ever hear, come out of anyone's mouth. I will never take my family or friends for granted again; they are precious gifts that at any moment could be taken away. I thank God for all my memories of you all. You, my friends and family, and now baby girl, are the best gifts I could ever be blessed with. Thanks be to God who gave me all these blessings. It is because of him and His Angels that Vera and I are here.

Quick Baby Update

Holly is doing very well and will probably come home today. Vera took 1/3 of her feeding last night from a bottle which was very impressive for such a young baby. They think she may come home some time next week. It's a great sign of how well she is doing, but the idea of taking her home so early kinda scares us.

My mom, sister-in-law, and super great friend are helping put the finishing touches on the nursery. It really helps Holly and me focus on the baby with such wonderful family and friends.

Here is the team in progress with the nursery.

Vera Declares November Birthday

As most of you know, our baby's due date was estimated to be December 23, 2010 as illustrated by the little elephant tracker at the top of the page. Most people do comment on how this is not an optimal time to have a birthday as Christmas causes multiple issues specifically around number of presents. Apparently, little Vera was listening and plotting her own resolution to this problem.

Holly got sick late Wednesday / early Thursday and called the doctor who thought it was probably a stomach virus that was going around. She then had symptoms of a urinary track infection on Friday night / Saturday morning and the doctor called in some antibiotics. On Sunday, Holly was in quite a bit of pain and wasn't getting better so we headed to Northisde Hospital around 4:30pm.

We got to a room pretty quickly and they ordered some typical blood tests. The nurse came in around 6pm and said the results were "a little off" and the doctor had been called. We requested the she elaborate. Her question back to us was, "How well do you take news?" Our eyes got pretty big and we requested she go ahead and give us the full story. She said, "Well, based on your blood work, you'll be having a baby tonight." Since we came in with a stomach virus and a urinary track infection, we were a little surprised that we'd deliver a baby.

Needless to say, we were a little freaked out. I was in denial for a bit thinking the doctor would arrive and tell us we could "fix" it and keep Vera in a few more weeks. However, her condition was preeclampsia and the only fix at her stage is to deliver the baby. The doctor was very clear on this. Her kidneys and liver were shutting down and she would barely be able to make it another 24 hours much less a week.

So Northside Hospital sprang into action. Doctors and nurses came in and out getting everything ready and telling us what to expect every step of the way. I called our moms and Holly's sister and our family also sprang into action. It seems prayer chains around the country were activated. Our Pastor seemed to materialize out of no where and was a much bigger help to us than he will ever know. He was just leaving dinner right beside the hospital and was able to pull right in and come see us. My brother from North Augusta, SC and Holly's sister who is nearby came to the hospital. It's was very nice to have a few extra helping hands. Our friend Jason even went and got our camera and hung out in the waiting room.

Holly wasn't dilated at all, so inducing a delivery would have been a 24 hour process so they did a c-section. They rolled her into the Operating Room at 8:45pm and Vera was born at 9:07pm.

The nurse came out several times to update me during that extremely long 22 minutes. They anticipated having to incubate her or give her a ventilator, but Vera came out crying and breathing on her own. They let me follow her up to the baby version of the ICU (NICU). Holly said there were 10+ doctors in the OR and I was met by another 7-8 doctors or nurses in the NICU. They were various specialists as a precaution depending on what problems Vera may have. The exam doctor start calling out information and everyone kept smiling. Turns out she was much better off than they would have expected. She began eating right away and had 100% oxygen levels meaning her lungs were in very good shape.

I went back down to find Holly in the recovery room already awake and being very brave. She is an amazing woman and I'm a very lucky guy to have her as my wife.

The recovery time for mom and Vera changes depending on who I ask. Currently, I think Holly will go home Friday or Saturday and Vera has 3-4 weeks in the hospital. Time will tell, but everyone is still doing very well.

This is Vera right after delivery on her way up to the NICU.

Here she is settled into her new bed.

Aunt Heidi

Looks bigger than 3 pounds and 11 ounces right? She is tall, but not much meat on her bones. We are working on fattening her up.