Thursday, January 28, 2010
January 28, 2009
Just wanted to give a quick update about Avery's progress the past few days...talked to the nurse this a.m. who told me that Avery was weighed today and she is up to 1 lb. 4 oz! That was great news to hear. She had a brain scan done on Wednesday night which came back negative for bleeding on the brain, which is very common for preemies. This brain scan will be done every Wednesday night going forward. Her belly is still a little bit distended, but it has gone down in the past few days. They are waiting for her to pass some stool and hoping that her belly will go down after that. My family is "praying for poop" at this point. If her belly doesn't go down by Monday they will do a test which will show us if her digestive and gastric systems are working properly. If all goes well she will be able to start officially "feeding" in the next couple of weeks. Right now she is just getting nutrients, it's everything she needs, but to see her feeding would be wonderful. They also did another echo on her heart to check the murmur that she when she was born. The murmur is gone and her heart is functioning perfectly.
I wish I had my camera when I visited her last night because she looked so great. She wasn't under the bilirubin lights (her jaundice levels have gone down) so she didn't have those silly glasses on and she was warm so she wasn't wearing a hat. I got to see her open her eyes for the first time. She kept taking little peeks at me and my mother, who was teasing her and saying "come on Avery make poopy, come on little girl." I think Avery just wanted to see who was bugging her! And her primary nurse, Penny, took such great care of her yesterday. She put some lotion on her skin, which is soooo delicate, because the stickiness of the wires she has attached to her have been leaving marks on her skin. The lotion worked great, her skin looked healthy and pink. And she really is amazing to see. I wish I could take all of you who care for her so much to the NICU with me to meet her. She is perfect, just tiny, but absolutely perfect. She even has some blonde peach fuzz on her head. We are convinced that she is going to look just like her big sister!
I want to personally thank all of my friends and family who donated to the March of Dimes in Avery's name. We have raised almost $2,000 for preemies thanks to all of you. And thank you most of all to Brian Dowd who started the site and really got the word out. Brian, I can never thank you enough for doing that. It means so much. And we have plans in the works to create a March of Dimes team to participate in the walk in Seaside in April. I will definitely have more information coming soon if you are interested in walking with us in Brielle and Avery's honor. We will be "Team BrAvery". Get it????
I also wanted to update everyone on my health....I am doing very well. I saw my doctor yesterday who took out all of my staples (all 30 of them) and checked my incision. I will be going for some blood work in a few weeks to find out why this keeps happening to me when I am pregnant. The dr. seems to think it is a problem with the coagulation of my blood. We'll soon find out. I am feeling better every day and really looking forward to getting back to normal. I can't wait to be able to drive again (I have to wait 2 weeks from the date of the c-section) and to be able to do all the things around the house I need to do. I'm planning on joining the gym and getting my strength back so that I will be ready for Avery when she comes home. Right now my focus is on my daughters and their well being. Unfortunately, there are some people in my life whose priorities are not matching up with mine and I have to let them go. Their loss, not mine.
I wish I had my camera when I visited her last night because she looked so great. She wasn't under the bilirubin lights (her jaundice levels have gone down) so she didn't have those silly glasses on and she was warm so she wasn't wearing a hat. I got to see her open her eyes for the first time. She kept taking little peeks at me and my mother, who was teasing her and saying "come on Avery make poopy, come on little girl." I think Avery just wanted to see who was bugging her! And her primary nurse, Penny, took such great care of her yesterday. She put some lotion on her skin, which is soooo delicate, because the stickiness of the wires she has attached to her have been leaving marks on her skin. The lotion worked great, her skin looked healthy and pink. And she really is amazing to see. I wish I could take all of you who care for her so much to the NICU with me to meet her. She is perfect, just tiny, but absolutely perfect. She even has some blonde peach fuzz on her head. We are convinced that she is going to look just like her big sister!
I want to personally thank all of my friends and family who donated to the March of Dimes in Avery's name. We have raised almost $2,000 for preemies thanks to all of you. And thank you most of all to Brian Dowd who started the site and really got the word out. Brian, I can never thank you enough for doing that. It means so much. And we have plans in the works to create a March of Dimes team to participate in the walk in Seaside in April. I will definitely have more information coming soon if you are interested in walking with us in Brielle and Avery's honor. We will be "Team BrAvery". Get it????
I also wanted to update everyone on my health....I am doing very well. I saw my doctor yesterday who took out all of my staples (all 30 of them) and checked my incision. I will be going for some blood work in a few weeks to find out why this keeps happening to me when I am pregnant. The dr. seems to think it is a problem with the coagulation of my blood. We'll soon find out. I am feeling better every day and really looking forward to getting back to normal. I can't wait to be able to drive again (I have to wait 2 weeks from the date of the c-section) and to be able to do all the things around the house I need to do. I'm planning on joining the gym and getting my strength back so that I will be ready for Avery when she comes home. Right now my focus is on my daughters and their well being. Unfortunately, there are some people in my life whose priorities are not matching up with mine and I have to let them go. Their loss, not mine.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Welcome!
I'm creating this blog as a way to update all of my friends and family on Avery's progress in the NICU as she grows. Here is Avery's story so far...
Avery Carmella Eck'Art was born on January 19, 2010 at 7:28 a.m. She weighed 1 lb. 1 oz. at birth. She was born prematurely at 26 weeks due to my severe case of pre-ecclampsia (pregnancy induced high blood pressure).
On Monday, January 18th, I was at home and not feeling well. I had a bad stomach ache and couldn't keep any food down. I could also feel my heart racing. I knew immediately that these were the signs of pre-ecclampsia because I had the same symptoms right before I gave birth to Brielle six years ago (Brielle was also born early at 30 weeks). I called Luke and asked him to stop at the store and pick up a blood pressure cuff and some Tums for me. We tested my blood pressure which showed up as 189/115. We knew we had to head directly to the ER. We got to the ER at Southern Ocean County Hospital and they took my blood pressure again and again it was through the roof. They brought me directly to Labor and Delivery and continued to monitor my blood pressure along with doing blood work, setting up an IV, and measuring my urine output. My parents were called and sat with me through the night. The on call doctor called my high risk doctor who told me that I had to head up to Jersey Shore University Medical Center immediately. I was taken by ambulance to Jersey Shore. I arrived there shortly after 4:30 a.m.
After more monitoring and a meeting with Dr. Fernandez, my high risk doctor, the decision was made that Avery had to be delivered via c-section immediately. She was not receiving the nutrients that she needed from me and I was in risk of having a stroke due to my high blood pressure. My mom headed into the OR with me and Avery was delivered at 7:28 a.m. She even let out a tiny yell as she was being born. She was extremely tiny, but holding her own. I headed to the recovery room and Avery headed to the NICU where she has been ever since, being cared for 24/7 by the best doctors and nurses in the area.
I stayed in the hospital for 4 days and visited with Avery every day. She has her ups and downs, but mostly good news so far. We are being "optimistic, but realistic" regarding her situation. Obviously she is still considered "critical", but she is growing more and more stable by the day. We had a few small scares regarding a heart murmur (which has been rectified with medication), kidney function (low urine output was recorded for a day, but has since improved), and multiple blood transfusions already. Good news is that she is tolerating all of this quite well. She is a strong little girl who has a long road ahead of her, but with all the prayers and thoughts and love from her friends and family we are confident that she will gain strength day by day and grow up to be a strong, beautiful girl just like her big sister.
My plan is to update this blog every few days to let everyone know about her progress and to post some pics as I take them so you can see her grow. Thank you for reading and thank you for your support so far...
Avery Carmella Eck'Art was born on January 19, 2010 at 7:28 a.m. She weighed 1 lb. 1 oz. at birth. She was born prematurely at 26 weeks due to my severe case of pre-ecclampsia (pregnancy induced high blood pressure).
On Monday, January 18th, I was at home and not feeling well. I had a bad stomach ache and couldn't keep any food down. I could also feel my heart racing. I knew immediately that these were the signs of pre-ecclampsia because I had the same symptoms right before I gave birth to Brielle six years ago (Brielle was also born early at 30 weeks). I called Luke and asked him to stop at the store and pick up a blood pressure cuff and some Tums for me. We tested my blood pressure which showed up as 189/115. We knew we had to head directly to the ER. We got to the ER at Southern Ocean County Hospital and they took my blood pressure again and again it was through the roof. They brought me directly to Labor and Delivery and continued to monitor my blood pressure along with doing blood work, setting up an IV, and measuring my urine output. My parents were called and sat with me through the night. The on call doctor called my high risk doctor who told me that I had to head up to Jersey Shore University Medical Center immediately. I was taken by ambulance to Jersey Shore. I arrived there shortly after 4:30 a.m.
After more monitoring and a meeting with Dr. Fernandez, my high risk doctor, the decision was made that Avery had to be delivered via c-section immediately. She was not receiving the nutrients that she needed from me and I was in risk of having a stroke due to my high blood pressure. My mom headed into the OR with me and Avery was delivered at 7:28 a.m. She even let out a tiny yell as she was being born. She was extremely tiny, but holding her own. I headed to the recovery room and Avery headed to the NICU where she has been ever since, being cared for 24/7 by the best doctors and nurses in the area.
I stayed in the hospital for 4 days and visited with Avery every day. She has her ups and downs, but mostly good news so far. We are being "optimistic, but realistic" regarding her situation. Obviously she is still considered "critical", but she is growing more and more stable by the day. We had a few small scares regarding a heart murmur (which has been rectified with medication), kidney function (low urine output was recorded for a day, but has since improved), and multiple blood transfusions already. Good news is that she is tolerating all of this quite well. She is a strong little girl who has a long road ahead of her, but with all the prayers and thoughts and love from her friends and family we are confident that she will gain strength day by day and grow up to be a strong, beautiful girl just like her big sister.
My plan is to update this blog every few days to let everyone know about her progress and to post some pics as I take them so you can see her grow. Thank you for reading and thank you for your support so far...
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