Ella had a really good, stable night. The doctor says that her lungs sound considerably better today than they did yesterday. All of her stats are well within the acceptable range.

Her Jaundice levels are up a touch, but are still below requiring treatment for her weight and age. They plan to start steiroid treatments today to bring her swelling down in anticipation that she will have the respirattion tube removed in about 24 hours. The worry is that any swelling in her trachea will seal off her airway again upon Extubation, but they will be ready to quickly react when they reattempt.

All good news for now. Stay posted for more updates.

Overnight, Ella’s stats looked really good so the doctor decided to extubate her. When they did that, it appears that they dislodged some mucus in her lungs that sealed her airway and prevented her from breathing. At the same time, her heart rate sharply dropped and the doctor began chest compressions. They quickly re-intubated her which allowed her to breathe normally again and all of her vitals went back to normal, thankfully.

The plan now is that she will stay on the ventilator for now and we’ll wait for her to settle for 24 hours before starting her on steroids to ensure that any swelling that may be in her throat is gone when they reattempt the extubation in about 48 hours.

Currently, her stats are looking really good and she’s resting easy. We’ll update this blog as time progresses.

Our baby girl is doing much better tonight. They had to give her a little morphine, because she woke up mad about the tubes. She tried to yank them out herself, so she now has to wear a mitten. Her vitals are where they should be, and her O2 is down to 21% (normal). As long as she stays steady overnight, they will take her breathing tube out tomorrow. Hopefully, she won’t need any further assistance, and they can start feeding her milk to see how she does. The x-rays have been clean, and there hasn’t been any more air in her chest cavity. They will do another x-ray in the morning to be sure.

Jameson still only cares about seeing Nemo. On the way to the hospital tonight we asked him who he was going to see. Jameson said it in this order…

1. Nemo

2. Dori

3. Dad Nemo

4. Baby sister

We see where she ranks to him.

The nurses made a sign for Ella’s door. (All the babies in the NICU have their own rooms, and places for the parents to sleep.)

(“Welcome to the world Ella”)

We have had an eventful past couple of days around here. I’ll start with last Saturday, February 27th.

We heard there was a really good fish market in downtown Kirkland, so we decided to check it out. We thought it’d be fun for Jameson to see all the fish and the action. We arrived downtown, and walked out one of the docks on Lake Washington. Jameson loved seeing the boats and the checking for fish.

Good thing the fish were “sleeping” because it started to sprinkle and we didn’t want to stand on the dock any longer. We walked the streets, and checked out the little shops. It was lots of fun, but we never found the fish market. We were getting hungry, so we decided to find food.

On the way back to our car, we had to cross the street. They have these little flags for pedestrians with a sign that said how 65 pedestrians have bene killed in Kirkland, but 0 pedestrians holding flags were killed. So we grabbed our flag and crossed the street.

 

We headed over to a Hot Dog restaurant I’d seen on my way home from a doctors appointment.  Definitely not as good as Sinbads hotdogs in Reno, and overly priced for what you get. But it did give me a chance to show Kevin where the hospital was for future reference. (Little did I know this would come in handy the next day.)

After our outing and lunch, we came home for naps. Saturday night we had a ward activity we attended, then came home.

Sunday started out with church. We were a little late, but no big deal. We attended our meetings, confirmed dinner with the missionaries, invited another couple over for dinner, then came home. I had made sandwiches for lunch, then put Jameson down for a nap. I wasn’t feeling good, even a little nauseous. I started making dinner, thinking maybe I need to throw away the lunch meat in the fridge. We had planned to have dinner a little earlier since Kevin had home teaching at 6. The missionaries showed up at 4:30, and the other couple followed not long after. I didn’t eat dinner, still feeling sick. I was also dying of the heat, which is not uncommon, and couldn’t sit comfortable. Also, not uncommon. Finally, though, the heat was making the nausea worse so I opened the door and sat in front of it. Dinner was done and Kevin had to leave, which meant our guest would be leaving soon, also. I was greatful, because I was really starting to not feel good. After everyone left, I headed upstairs. Everything I did eat decided to make another appearance. I was in constant pain, and there was no separation to say they were contractions. I called the hospital, and they asked what my stats were at my last appt. Well my doctor doesn’t check the cervix till 38 weeks so I had no idea. They told me they wouldn’t be able to really tell me if it was labor or not without checking me. I told them I would hold out another hour (I had to wait for Kevin to finish home teaching) and then I would call and let them know what I decided to do.

After about 20 minutes, my thought was forget this, I’m going to the hospital. I tried calling Kevin and couldn’t reach him. Jameson kept asking if I was ok, but then would jump on me. Finally Kevin called and I told him to get home, because I thought I was having contractions. While I waited for him, I threw stuff in bags: 1 for Jameson, 1 for me, and 1 for the baby. He got home, and was ready to just leave. I told him to change Jameson and change his clothes. He did not need to go to the hospital in his suit. Although, he would have looked dang good in any pictures. 🙂

We got to the hospital at 8 pm, and they checked me only to find I was only about 50% effaced and dialated to a 1. So we walked the halls. Deja-vu, except this time we had a 2 year old running around with us. They told us to come back around 9:15, so we walked for a while. In the mean time, we called some friends to let them know what was going on and we might need them to come get Jmo. We got back to the nurses, and they checked again to find I was more like 80% effaced and dialated to a 3 maybe 4. So we were emitted. Our friend came and got Jameson. She was so great to take him back to our house so he could sleep in his own bed. While Kevin was taking Jameson down to the car, I was waiting to be taken upstairs. I told the nurse I was going to throw up and needed something. She apparently didn’t think I was too serious, because she took her time. Another nurse saw me holding my mouth concentrating, and asked if I needed something. When I nodded she turned quickly just as the other nurse came back with a bucket. Thank goodness, because she was just in time. Kevin came back in wondering what had happend while I was cleaning up.

We checked into our room, and immediately got things going for the epideral. They said I was severly dehydrated and started an IV of sugar water besides my saline solution. Finally, about midnight, I was able to receive the epidural. She had to numb me twice, which hurt more than the contractions happening at the same time. She was able to finish up without complications, and I finally started to feel the effects of the drugs. Once that kicked in, the contractions stopped. The nurse, Holly, wondered if the dehydration triggered the contractions and once I had all the solutions in me, they stopped. So they started petocin, and broke my water. The contractions started up again, and became stronger so they limited my petocin. Eventually, around 4:30 am they turned it off as I was doing well enough on my own. Holly was on her break when another nurse came and told me to change positions. She helped me get rearranged, then left. Right after she left, the contractions came so hard, I pushed my call button. I told the nurse the contractions were bad and I felt like pushing. She asked me what I meant, so I told her again, “I want to push with these contractions.” The whole night since I had received the epideral, I had only been at a 4. The nurse came back and checked, and I was at a 9.5. She called Holly and told her break time was over. By the time Holly came in I was ready to go, but someone beat me to the doctor. I told them I would deal with the contractions till the doctor could come.

We had been joking with Holly the whole night about keeping our placenta and selling it on craigslist to those who make pills out of them to eat. Apparently, some believe it helps with post pardum and other things. Kevin was talking about how he could get a side business going that night with all the deliveries. We joked about it the whole night and each new nurse that came in would look at us like we were crazy, not knowing we were joking. Even our doctor got in on it saying we could get more because our placenta gives the baby hair so it must have more fiber.

I also told the nurse helping with the epideral it was a good thing my back wasn’t hairy or I’d be getting a waxing job with all the tape she was using. So when she came to take it out, she asked if I was ready for my wax job. The nurses in the room at the time all turned and look to see my reaction not knowing about our joke.

Besides the pain, it was a pretty funny night. We were even joking in between pushing. The baby looked good and was dropping good. We thought it would be pretty easy, but as she got closer they could tell she was face up. Not a fun thing. It took a few more pushes than it should have, but after about an hour, she was born at 6:39 am. (I think she wanted to compete with Jameson. We checked in the hospital at 8pm with him, also, but he was born at 6:33 am.) They immediately placed her on my chest for me to see.

She wasn’t crying very loud, which was a concern. They took her after a few minutes and weighed her… She weighed 7 lbs 8 oz. and was 20.75 in long.  She only scored a 5 and an 8 on the APGAR score, so they got her wrapped up and Kevin took her up to the NICU. The nurses and doctor asked what we were going to name her. We thought we had a few more weeks to decide, but we gave her the only name we’ve ever had…

Ella Mae.

(Ella was a nickname given to my great-grandmother, Ellen Roberts. My grandma said most people called her Ella and didn’t even know her name was Ellen. She was a very strong woman, having to raise her children alone after her husband died when my grandmother was only 5. Mae comes from my father’s mother. My grandmother’s name is Eula Mae. She has always been a strong example and very thoughtful person. She serves in her church callings and her family, and never says anything negative. I hope our Ella can follow their examples.)

We had decided we better tell our families, so after Kevin left, I sent a picture I had taken of Kevin and Ella to my parents. Within a few minutes my mom was calling asking what was going on.

Originally, they thought she just had some fluid in her lungs she needed to work out from the delivery. They called me around 10 and told me she was fine and they would be bringing her down in the next hour. Kevin came back around 11:30 with Jameson, and they had not brought Ella down. He went upstairs to find out why. That when we were told she needed oxygen and would be upstairs longer. Kevin went home Monday night to stay with Jameson.

Tuesday morning, things were looking better. They had given her a feeding tube to give her milk (the orange tube in the picture). They did have to switch from the helmet O2 environment to the tubes in her nose.

 

Jameson got to see his baby sister for the first time. He was even soft as he touched her with one finger.

After seeing her, I headed back down to be discharged. Our labor nurse, Holly left us a nice note in our room.

(“Hi Brittany, Kevin, and family Hope you’re all doing well!!! Best wishes. Heart, Holly (your labor nurse)”)

Things took a turn for the worse in the afternoon. Kevin explained in this post. We brought Jameson to see her Tuesday night and all he cared about was Nemo.

He also got to play with the toys for a while since we had to wait for different procedures to be done.

Here is Ella after the line was put in through her belly button, and her oxygen tube is in her mouth.

Kevin was able to have some help and give her a blessing Tuesday night. We left feeling better that her vitals were steady and lower than they had been all day. That brings us up to Wednesday, which I will leave for another post.

After the flurry of activity last night, Ella is resting easy. An X-Ray this morning confirmed that there was no more air in her chest cavity. The only complication is that she’s too strong. The nurses say that they rarely see babies this large (to me she’s small still) in the ICU, and that because they are big and strong, they fight the respirator. Because of this, she’s staying slightly sedated for the time being. I just talked to the doctor and he said that they are optimistically shooting to have the ventilator tube out by tomorrow if all goes well.

 Her respiratory rate is stable in the 50s and 60s (normal is 40s), her oxygen saturation levels are in the high 90s (good) and she’s only requiring 25% oxygen (normal air is 21% O2).

First off, thank you to everyone for your phone calls, emails, and overall well wishes. We are truly blessed to have such support.

We want to give everyone an update on Ella’s condition because of the rapidly changing news, and I don’t mean for this to scare anyone. We and the doctors are very optimistic, and despite some challenges, she’s doing really well now. Also,  Brittany was able to come home today and is getting around just fine.

Ella was born with Infant Respiratory Distress Syndrome which was caught early, although it wasn’t immediately apparent how severe the condition was. The quick explanation of this is that she was born with a deficiency of a substance referred to as Surfactant. This substance occurs naturally in the lungs of healthy babies and allows the alvioli of the lungs to expand more easily which allows for easy breathing. Because Ella didn’t have this, she was short of breath constantly (breathing 140-160 times a minute) which stressed other parts of her lungs over her first 36 hours of life. This caused a rupture in her lungs which introduced air into her chest cavity making it even more difficult to breathe.

Ella was switched this morning from an oxygen enriched environment to a nasal oxygen tube and then to a respiratory tube in her trachea this afternoon. This helped her breathe a little better although she was still breathing hard.

Ella’s doctor was on the case when we arrived to see her this afternoon. He quickly put a tube in through an artery at her belly button which rests in her Aorta for the purpose of being able to monitor her blood metrics, and another that rests further below which will allow for electrolytes and other fluids. He then gave her a natural Surfactant administered through her breathing tube which almost immediately opened up her lungs and allowed for easier breathing. After monitoring her for about an hour, the Doctor decided to extract the air from her chest cavity which he did using a syringe. He extracted 20cc of air which was confirmed by an X-Ray a few minutes later.

The last we saw, her rate of breathing was nearly half of what it was before and she was needing less oxygen than before (Which are both great). We are extremely grateful for the expertise of the staff that helped our sweet baby. We’ll be spending a lot of time with  her in the hospital which may extend over the next week or more.

  (Lunch time, around noon, with oxygen and feeding tube.)

  (Tonight, about 9:30, after the different procedures. Her cheeks are red from reacting to the tape used, but she was resting comfortably.)

I wanted to let everyone know that Ella Mae Brazell has arrived! 

She was born March 1^st at 6:30am, about 3 weeks early, and weighed 7 pounds and 9 ounces. She’s very healthy and both she and mom are resting well after a long night. We’re very excited to welcome her, and her big brother Jameson says that he’s excited too (we’ll see).  Stay posted for more updates soon!

 

***update: She weighed 7 lbs 8 oz. and was 20.75 in. The nurses didn’t convert it right at first, but the computer automatically converts.***