Video of Brandon 7/7/08

Brandon crying and moving around

July 7, 2008 4:30 p.m.

We have gone to see Brandon twice today. He is doing really well. He has been lying on his side which he seems to love. He has been sucking on a pacifier for the first time today and really loves it! Overall he is doing really well. We found out he has a PDA which is a heart murmur. He will be given neoprophin 3 times, 24 hours apart, which should close it. PDA's are very common in babies born from 26-29 weeks and are not a concern. He saw a cardiologist today who confirmed that. Brandon has been under a bilirubin (jaundice) light since yesterday since his levels are a little high. Again very common. I am posting some pictures from today. We were able to put some things in his incubator today...a stuffed elephant, a picture of Stu and me, a picture of Hershey, and a fire patch from Oakhurst. It makes his incubator much more homey looking. The new incubator is regulating his temperature. The nurse gave us one of his diapers. They are actually a little big on him. It is the same size as my cell phone.

July 7, 2008 7:30 a.m.

Now that we had the baby I am going to update on here frequently. That way everybody will be able to know what is going on at all times. Brandon Tyler Newman was born at 8:50 a.m. on Saturday, July 5th by emergency c-section. He was born at 26 weeks and 1 day. He weighed 1 pound, 14 ounces and was 13 inches long. It happened so quickly that I had to have a general so I was completely knocked out. I came into the hospital on Friday evening around 7:30 because I was bleeding. Dr. Rogers did an ultrasound and thought the blood could be coming from the girls placenta since it had to stay in after I delivered her because of the other baby. He told me that I was going to stay in the hospital since he wanted the baby's heartbeat monitored. He said there was a chance that I would need a c-section depending on if I started to bleed more, had stomach pain, or the baby was in stress. All night the heartrate would drop and then go back up. In the morning Dr. Rogers came in to talk to us and the heartrate dropped but was not going back up. Dr. Rogers said we had to get the baby out right away. The heartrate did go back up again finally but I guess he was afraid it would happen again. After the c-section when Dr. Rogers came to talk to us he said it was a good thing he did the c-section. The blood was coming from both placentas so there is a good chance that we could have lost Brandon if we had waited and also I could have needed an emergency hysterectomy. Thank goodness neither of those happened. So far Brandon is doing really well. He scored an 8 on the apgar which is great for a preemie. He has been breathing on his own since 1:15 on the day he was born. He is just on a CPAP which is like an apnea machine. He is a very active little boy. According to his day nurse he is too active because it is sometimes hard for the nurse to do things on him since he is moving around so much. Yesterday Brandon pulled out his temperature regulator 9 times! The nurse last night said that Brandon's vitals are good. They were giving him lipids through an IV when we were there. I called this morning to see how he was doing and she said he was doing great. They just had to put him into a new incubator because his temperature is still having some difficulty regulating. They seemed to think it could just be the incubator that he was in. I will update later after we hear from Brandon's doctor and see Brandon.

Update

I had an appointment yesterday with Dr. Gonzales, my high risk doctor. The baby is weighing 1 pound, 9 ounces and is in the 42nd percentile which the doctor says is good. The baby has plenty of fluid and is looking good. My cerclage is holding and the doctor said he is happy that I have one since my cervix is down to 2 cm. Last week I saw Dr. Henderson, one of my regular ob's and he also said everything looks good and said a few times that we are probably out of the woods. Both doctors said to continue lying down and reclining but I am allowed to get up yo get drinks and food and to shower. I am also allowed to go to the fireworks on the 4th and a few other things if I sit in a reclining chair. It will be nice to get out of the house. I will try to post updated ultrasound pictures in the next few days.

How quickly things change

I was home alone on the morning of May 18th when I felt like my water broke. I quickly called Stu and my doctor, Dr. Henderson, who told us to meet him at Monmouth Medical Center. Once we got there the doctor did an ultrasound and confirmed that our daughter's sac had broken. When this happens preterm it is called premature rupture of membranes. We were told the chance of her surviving was very slim since her lungs would not develop without fluid. We were also told there was a good chance that we would lose our son. We then met with Dr. Nath, the high risk doctor who told us every possible scenario. I was eventually moved to a room in antepartum where I started bedrest. A week and a day after I went into antepartum I started having 1-2 contractions an hour and around three thirty pm pn Memorial Day I delivered our baby girl who did not make it since she was born a little over 20 weeks. Babies are noy viable until 24 weeks at the earliest. After I delivered her Dr, Gould gave me one shot to stop contractions. My cervix then closed on its own and the boy stayed inside. We saw Dr. Gozales the next day who did a scan and said everything looked good. The following Saturday I had a cerclage put in and the next day, 2 weeks after I went in, I got to come home to do bedrest at home. We are thinking positive thoughts for our son and taking things a day at a time,

It's...

a boy and a girl! We went to Dr. Gonzales yesterday for our level 2 ultrasound. The ultrasound tech was able to tell us right away that baby a is a girl and baby b is a boy. We even got the spread eagle position from the boy to prove it but I didn't want to put the picture on here and embarrass him before he is even born! We are very excited that there is one of each. The tech and doctor looked for and took measurements of everything...legs, arms, hands, fingers, feet, toes, heart chambers, kidneys, head, etc. Everything looks great on both! The boy is the top picture and the girl is the bottom picture. Now we have to come up with names for each.

17 Week Doctor's Appointment

I went to the last doctor in my group, Dr. Rogers, yesterday for my 4 week appointment. He did a scan so he could find both of the babies but I didn't get any pictures. Both of the babies are looking good still. One of them was flailing its arms and legs all over the place. It has been very active every time I have had a scan or ultrasound. The other one is much more calm. I am curious to see if they are like that once they are out...one constantly moving and the other much calmer. I go back to my OBGYN in four weeks. I got a phone call earlier in the week from the high risk doctor's office. They said my blood test came back so they knew the chance of down's sydrome. They said the babies are fine. There is a 1:370 chance of down's sydrome which they do not seem concerned about at all. Next Friday is my big appointment at the high risk doctor. I go for my level 2 ultrasound and should find out what the babies are as long as they cooperate.