Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Great news!
Nurse Theresa called tonight just before 7:00 (when she gets off shift) to let us know that they were just about ready to take the bili light off of Derek, that he seemed to be feeding well, so they were planning on increasing his feeds during the night. This means that he may reach the goal of 45 ccs per feed by TOMORROW MORNING! Which means he might be home BY THURSDAY! Unbelievable. This kid is such a fighter.
Holding Derek
Yesterday morning, they took the tubes out of Derek's little nose and throat. He gave Daddy and Jiu Jiu (my brother, Alan) a hearty cry. At 2:00 pm, I was able to feed Derek his first 5 ccs of breast milk, although it's questionable how much actually got in there. They also had to put him under a UV light to lower his bilirubin levels. He's slightly jaundiced. Nurse Theresa also told us that his electrolyte levels are slightly low, so they were going to give him some potassium.
This morning, my mom and I went to see him for his 11:00 feeding. Theresa said that he didn't do so well with the feedings overnight and they had put a feeding tube in his nose, but they hadn't used it yet. His heart tube came out, though. I fed him a 17 cc bottle of formula and he sucked perhaps too anxiously and had the same problem of formula coming out his mouth. But after a few ccs, he gave me a burp, gave a little grunt and let out a bloop. Yep, he did a big old BM. Theresa said if he didn't take the formula orally, she would put it into the feeding tube. It's as if Derek understood what she was saying. He then very slowly and deliberately took about 10 ccs without dribbling at all. I helped him at first by holding his chin and cheeks, but then I let go and he was doing great. He took a break with 5 ccs to go, then came back for a couple more. Then he fell asleep. So cute.
He had also received boluses of calcium and magnesium, in addition to the potassium. Hopefully, that will fix his electrolyte deficiency. He needed new IVs because they weren't lasting long and he would get irritation.
The feeding consultant came by at 1:15 pm, but decided it was too soon to feed him again and said she would come back at 3:00 pm to feed him and see how he was doing. When she did, he once again stepped up to the plate and did great. He sucked down 10 ccs in no time flat without any dribble. Theresa told him that he was making her look bad. He dozed off a bit, then came back to finish off strong, finishing of the 17 cc bottle with flair.
Shortly afterwards, Theresa told us that his bloodwork looked good, which meant we could take him out of his tanning bed and hold him for about 45 minutes. I let Wai Po have the first crack at him. He is sooooo tiny! Then I got to hold him. First time since he was born. It felt really, really good.
This morning, my mom and I went to see him for his 11:00 feeding. Theresa said that he didn't do so well with the feedings overnight and they had put a feeding tube in his nose, but they hadn't used it yet. His heart tube came out, though. I fed him a 17 cc bottle of formula and he sucked perhaps too anxiously and had the same problem of formula coming out his mouth. But after a few ccs, he gave me a burp, gave a little grunt and let out a bloop. Yep, he did a big old BM. Theresa said if he didn't take the formula orally, she would put it into the feeding tube. It's as if Derek understood what she was saying. He then very slowly and deliberately took about 10 ccs without dribbling at all. I helped him at first by holding his chin and cheeks, but then I let go and he was doing great. He took a break with 5 ccs to go, then came back for a couple more. Then he fell asleep. So cute.
He had also received boluses of calcium and magnesium, in addition to the potassium. Hopefully, that will fix his electrolyte deficiency. He needed new IVs because they weren't lasting long and he would get irritation.
The feeding consultant came by at 1:15 pm, but decided it was too soon to feed him again and said she would come back at 3:00 pm to feed him and see how he was doing. When she did, he once again stepped up to the plate and did great. He sucked down 10 ccs in no time flat without any dribble. Theresa told him that he was making her look bad. He dozed off a bit, then came back to finish off strong, finishing of the 17 cc bottle with flair.
Shortly afterwards, Theresa told us that his bloodwork looked good, which meant we could take him out of his tanning bed and hold him for about 45 minutes. I let Wai Po have the first crack at him. He is sooooo tiny! Then I got to hold him. First time since he was born. It felt really, really good.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
The dramatic entrance
On the night of Wednesday, April 6, 2011, as I was watching a bit of American Idol and checking work emails, I felt my water break. But I wasn't sure, since I was induced with the other two kids, so waited until around 10:30 to call the doctor. She told me to go to the hospital to check it out, but it wasn't an emergency. I took a shower while my mother-in-law, Carmen, called my sister-in-law, Cindy. So Cindy picked me up around 11:15 or so and I was admitted into the hospital around midnight. Turns out, my water did break and we spent the night just waiting. Poor Cindy sat in a rocking chair all night. We had to stay in the triage room because it was a full house in the maternity ward. In the morning, there was still no action, so they started inducing me, giving me the oxytocin at 7:00 am. I progressed nicely and the started delivery around 11:40 and a beautiful boy, yet to be named, was born at 11:48 am on April 7, 2011. He was only 36 weeks and 3 days, so he weighed in at 5 lbs, 3 oz and measured 16 inches. Shortly after he arrived, the neonatologist, Dr. Zaid Alrawi, confirmed that he was having some respiratory difficulty and they took him to the NICU for examination. Basically, he went from pink to dark purple in a matter of minutes, as you can see from the pictures Cindy took. Dr. Alrawi was fantastic – he suspected a cardiac issue and ordered an EKG. It turns out, our baby had a very rare congenital heart defect called total anomalous pulmonary venous return (TAPVR – also known as TAPVConnection and TAPVDrainage – see http://cardioiap.org/TAPVD.pdf). His pulmonary veins were not connected properly to his heart, thereby mixing the “blue” blood with the oxygenated red blood so that his body wasn’t getting enough oxygen on its own. He responded well to oxygen and then they put him on a respirator. Dr. Michael Snyder, the pediatric cardiologist on duty that day, made the diagnosis. The decision was quickly made to move him to Columbia-Presbyterian for surgery and by 8:30 pm, the Columbia-Presbyterian EMS team was there moving him to the ambulance to whisk him down there - it was pretty incredible watching them in action. There were 3 EMS guys, plus the pediatric cardiology fellow from CP, Mark Egallea, riding along to make sure everything went smoothly.
Did I mention that Jeff was on a business trip in Tunisia? He had left on April 2 and was not due back until April 12. On April 7, he was scheduled to fly from Tunis to Dakar, Senegal, via Paris. We managed to catch him before he left for Paris to let him know and he got a flight back to New York from Paris. So when the baby was bron, Jeff was on a flight from Paris to New York and had no way of knowing what had happened until he landed at JFK (scheduled for 6:40 pm). I wasn't able to contact Jeff until about 7:45 and he didn’t arrive home until 8:45 pm. At that point, I had seen the baby being transferred by the EMS and he was on his way to CP. I told Jeff to go straight to CP to meet with the doctors down there.
Jeff wound up staying at CP until almost midnight and then he had to be back down there by 6:30 the next morning because the surgery was scheduled for 7:00 am. We still hadn't named the baby.
Jeff went back in the morning and we spoke at 6:20 am. I was waiting anxiously at White Plains Hospital and called him back around 7:30, but no answer. Around 7:50, Jeff called to say that they had prepped the baby and were ready to go into the OR. The surgery started around 8:00 am. The surgery took 3.5 hours and went very well and Jeff called at 11:30 to say that the baby was out of the OR. We were lucky to have the best doctors around the Children’s Hospital. His name is Dr. Jan Modest Quaegebeur and apparently pioneered this surgery.
I was basically a wreck all morning, but once the baby came out of surgery, I felt much better and my friends Andrea and Helen came just as I learned the surgery was over and spent the rest of the day with me. Jeff and I decided that night to name the baby Derek Yi-De Slater.
I finally got to see Jeff on Saturday morning when he came to get me. We had lunch at White Plains Hospital, then checked me out and headed straight for CP. Derek was doing well, but he was all puffy and swollen. He was so swollen, he couldn't open his little eyes. But he looked so much better than he did when he left White Plains and it was a huge relief to me. I think it was so much worse in my head.
We went back today and he looked much better than on Saturday - they had given him something to help him urinate and he gave it his all. He was not as swollen and could open his eyes. They are hoping to remove the tubes from his nose (they go down into his throat so the poor thing can’t make any sounds and cries silently when he’s uncomfortable) by tomorrow. He looks wonderful, despite all of the tubes and bandages, so we are thrilled. You can see the photos I took on my iPhone here: OurLittleTRex.
Did I mention that Jeff was on a business trip in Tunisia? He had left on April 2 and was not due back until April 12. On April 7, he was scheduled to fly from Tunis to Dakar, Senegal, via Paris. We managed to catch him before he left for Paris to let him know and he got a flight back to New York from Paris. So when the baby was bron, Jeff was on a flight from Paris to New York and had no way of knowing what had happened until he landed at JFK (scheduled for 6:40 pm). I wasn't able to contact Jeff until about 7:45 and he didn’t arrive home until 8:45 pm. At that point, I had seen the baby being transferred by the EMS and he was on his way to CP. I told Jeff to go straight to CP to meet with the doctors down there.
Jeff wound up staying at CP until almost midnight and then he had to be back down there by 6:30 the next morning because the surgery was scheduled for 7:00 am. We still hadn't named the baby.
Jeff went back in the morning and we spoke at 6:20 am. I was waiting anxiously at White Plains Hospital and called him back around 7:30, but no answer. Around 7:50, Jeff called to say that they had prepped the baby and were ready to go into the OR. The surgery started around 8:00 am. The surgery took 3.5 hours and went very well and Jeff called at 11:30 to say that the baby was out of the OR. We were lucky to have the best doctors around the Children’s Hospital. His name is Dr. Jan Modest Quaegebeur and apparently pioneered this surgery.
I was basically a wreck all morning, but once the baby came out of surgery, I felt much better and my friends Andrea and Helen came just as I learned the surgery was over and spent the rest of the day with me. Jeff and I decided that night to name the baby Derek Yi-De Slater.
I finally got to see Jeff on Saturday morning when he came to get me. We had lunch at White Plains Hospital, then checked me out and headed straight for CP. Derek was doing well, but he was all puffy and swollen. He was so swollen, he couldn't open his little eyes. But he looked so much better than he did when he left White Plains and it was a huge relief to me. I think it was so much worse in my head.
We went back today and he looked much better than on Saturday - they had given him something to help him urinate and he gave it his all. He was not as swollen and could open his eyes. They are hoping to remove the tubes from his nose (they go down into his throat so the poor thing can’t make any sounds and cries silently when he’s uncomfortable) by tomorrow. He looks wonderful, despite all of the tubes and bandages, so we are thrilled. You can see the photos I took on my iPhone here: OurLittleTRex.
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