Wednesday March 30, 2016

Since the last blog post there have been some great improvements with Seraya!

The first thing is that she graduated to a different pod which is for babies who only need to receive intermediate care. She is no longer in need of intensive care which is great! We have a window seat which is really nice. We like this a lot better than her old spot:) Praise be to God for this incredible blessing that she can be one step closer to eventually coming home!!

Seraya is still being fed every 3 hours from a ng-tube. She is now up to receiving 60 mls per feed. It is still pumped into her over a 2 hour period and so she only gets an hour break between her feeds. She has been steadily gaining weight and so last week they discontinued most of the extra fortifiers they were adding to my milk. Currently they are only adding a human milk fortifier. We are grateful that she continues to gain so well, as she has still has to work hard to breathe and so her body uses a lot of her energy on this. Currently she is weighing in at around 6 pounds 8 ounces:)

Another big change for Seraya is that they switched her to an opti (high)-flow breathing machine instead of cpap. This machine still provides some pressure to help keep her lungs open. She is also still requiring around 30-35% oxygen. Brian and I are enjoying this alot more than cpap, as there are less tubes. It is easier to take her in and out of bed which is great. We find that she seems to be a lot more comfortable on this type of machine as well.

So far they have not had to tap her resoivoir at all, as it has been helping to drain the fluid properly from her head down her spine. Each day the neurosurgeon comes up and takes a look and feel of her head, but so far he has felt no pressure. We are very thankful for this good news. Eventually she will need this resoivoir taken out and they will put in a shunt which will be permanent. But we are not there quite yet:)

She had an ultra sound done of her kidneys. When a baby is born as premature as Seraya was, they want to do routine checkups of their organs just to make sure they are functioning properly and are not damaged due to the effects of being born so early. The results showed that her kidneys seemed to be functioning properly! We were very happy to hear this news.

Last week we were able to give Seraya her first “real” bath in a little white tub. This was very exciting for us, as it shows she is getting stronger and is able to tolerate more. She seemed to enjoy it very much and hardly cried at all. We bathe her every other night.

We continue to be thankful for the progress Seraya continues to make, as each week goes by. She is slowly becoming stronger and continues to grow. In the coming weeks we hope that her lungs will continue to grow and develop, so she will be able to go onto a low-flow breathing machine. Once she is on this, she will be allowed to start oral feeds. We are starting to very much look forward to being able to take our daughter home. We would like to thank everyone once again for their prayers, gifts, cards and words of encouragement. They are always very appreciated and are a great comfort to us. 

Psalm 57: 9-11
"I will praise you O Lord among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth."

Saturday, March 5, 2016

It has been quite a trying week for our sweet Seraya. Each week they have just been monitoring her head with ultrasounds to make sure the fluid was draining. Once a week her nurse would measure her head circumference as well just to make sure it wasn't increasing rapidly. So far there had been no change which we were really happy about. But this Monday morning I was holding her when the neurosurgeon came up to examine her head. He immediately said she would need surgery as he could tell she had pressure building up. A few of the signs were, her fontenelle was bulging and it was tight at the top of her head. So they explained the procedure to us. 

Basically what they had to do was relieve some of the pressure on her brain. So they inserted a ventricular reservoir to help drain some of the fluid. A reservoir is tubing which allows the doctors to remove extra fluid from the ventricles that may be causing pressure. They insert a small needle into the reservoir and extract fluid that way. This will continue to be done whenever necessary, or whenever she has pressure building up again.

The surgery would only take about 30 minutes we were told and they said it was quite a straightforward procedure so we weren't too concerned. Brian and I took turns holding her up until 8 o'clock Monday night which was when the surgery was supposed to be. It ended up being a little late and she was rolled into the OR at around 8:45. We waited patiently for it to be over and hear how she did. She came out at 10:15 and they told us that it had went really well with no complications. What a relief this was to hear. 

Seraya was doing good after the surgery, but her heart rate was over 200. They thought this could be because she had pain and so they started her on fentanyl. Brian and I left her for the night around 2 AM Tuesday morning as they ensured us she was doing good. Her heart rate had come down a little to about the 190's. As the night went on Seraya started to decline very rapidly and they were not sure why. Her head continued to grow and she was needing 95-100% oxygen all night. They tried her on a few different ventilators doing their best to try and stabilize her. She was given 2 blood transfusions and a platelet transfusion. They started her on a broad spectrum of antibiotics just to cover all bases in case she was developing another infection. They inserted an arterial line in, so they could monitor her blood pressure at all times as it was all over the place. Her one lung had totally collapsed and a part of her other lung. This is why her breathing was so unstable. They also gave her a dose of hydrocortisone steroids to help relieve some of her stress. They put her back on high pressures to re-open her little lungs. The nurse called us back at around 5 AM as they weren't sure what else they could do for Seraya. Things were not looking good! The doctors and rt's spent all night around Serayas bedside doing everything possible they could to help her. It was extremely difficult to see Seraya in the shape she was in when we arrived, as she had been doing so well before her surgery. She had 3 ivs in her little body and did not look herself at all. They had given her a paralytic to keep her completely still. But as the morning went on she slowly started to stabilize. She was able to continue to go down on her oxygen slowly as her lungs were blown up again. Her head had stopped growing. As the day went on things started to improve with our sweet baby girl once again. The next day she was alot more stable, so she was switched back to cpap, as she had been intubated for the surgery. She is back on a pressure of 8 which is what she was on before surgery. They started feeding her again on Wednesday also which was great as then she could be off the iv feeding. Her head circumference went down, and after the surgeon examined her head, he ensured us that the reservoir was working! What a blessing this was! We did not think something this serious and scary would happen with her again, but it just shows how she is so completely in Gods loving arms at all times. Brian and I are so very thankful once again for answered prayers!!

Serayas eyes have continued to stabilize. She is still receiving weekly eye exams and so far they have remained a stage 2 instead of a stage 3 which is good news!

She is currently receiving 38 mls of milk which is pumped into her over 2 hours. She is fed every 3 hours and so basically she is always being fed:) She is gaining nicely and currently weighs around 5 pounds! She's getting nice and chubby.

Praise be to God for his great love toward us. He continues to watch over Seraya and enable her to continue to grow and get stronger. He also continues to provide Brian and I the strength we need to continue on this roller coaster we have been on. We would like to thank everyone for all their continued support and prayers for our family. It is very greatly appreciated!!

Isaiah 40: 10-11

"See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. He tends his flocks like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; He gently leads those that have young."