Vital Statistics as of today

When Amelia was born, she had some trouble breathing. When the water around her broke, it was not the usual color. There was myconium (baby's first bowel movement a.k.a. poo) in the embryotic fluid. At some point Amelia inhaled a lot of the embryotic fluid into her lungs. For those who don't know, myconium is a tar like substance (use your imagination). Needless to say, this made it very difficult for Amelia to breathe. She was rushed to the nursery where the doctors did everything they could to clear her mouth, nose and throat of the bad embryotic fluid. Amelia was given an X-ray that confirmed the fact that her lungs were nearly full of fluid. They immediately gave her a lot of oxygen to help her breathe and get the oxygen she needed.

Once they got the X-ray taken and Amelia stablized, they placed an oxygen hood over her head to help her get oxygen without having one of those face masks on. The hood is a clear plastic cylinder with lid in it. It has a thermometer to help regulate the temperature in the hood, an oxygen intake and a moisture intake. The moisture was pumped in to help Amelia's throat stay wet and to help break up the gunk in her lungs.

At this point Amelia was working very hard to be able to breathe. She was taking short, fast breathes and she was being given nearly 80% oxygen through the hood. The doctor told me that if Amelia wasn't able to get enough oxygen or if she got too tired to breathe, they would have to put her on a ventilator to help her breathe. He said most babies pull through this but some who have as much fluid in their lungs as Amelia don't. While this wasn't the best news, I just knew that she would be okay. I had given Amelia a blessing when I brought her into the nursery and I knew there were a lot of family and friends praying for her health.

That was at about 1 A.M. By 4 A.M. she was still breathing on her own and the oxygen was down to 60%. That meant she was able to better process the air she was getting. The doctor was still concerned that Amelia would tire out, but he said he was impressed with her strength so far.

Eventually, Cari and I had to get some sleep so we did. By morning, Amelia was still breathing on her own and the oxygen was down to 45%. Amelia continued to get better and better throughout the day until they didn't need to have her in the oyxgen hood any more. Way to go girl.

And Now the Pictures

This is shot of Cari after she got her epideral. Notice the lack of pain? So did Cari. The epideral couldn't have been timed any better. Cari had really been strong and tough through many hours of contractions. She was dialated about 5 centimeters when she got the epideral. Her contractions didn't slow down and they didn't decrease in itensity even though Cari had to ask us if she was still having contractions. Cari didn't feel the contractions again until right at the end when the intesity of the contractions went off the chart.

Here's a picture of Cari in bed with her Mom and her tormentor (I mean coach).

This is a shot of Amelia on Sunday afternoon after she got the oxygen hood taken off. I guess I could have gotten one with the hood on, but it didn't seem right at the time. Anyway, you can see some of the different monitors attached to her. She had monitors for her heart rate, her respitory rate, the temperature of the bed she's in, and the amount of oxygen she has in her blood. The teddy bear on her chest is the one that monitors the temperature of her bed. There is a big hamburger warmer over the crib and that sensor continually adjusts the heat so she doesn't get too much heat or get too little heat.

This is another shot of Amelia in her bed. This where she's been since she came out of the delivery room. You can see the monitors on her better. She also has a miniture IV in her left arm where they've been giving her sugar water and antibiotics. Her umbilical cord is shorter than usual because they tried to place an IV in her cord when she was really sick yesterday. They did that to better supply her with more fluid and antibiotics. They are bigger tubes that what is in her arm so they could give her bigger doses of medicine and fluids. Unfortunately, the procedure didn't work and in the process of taking out the IVs, they had to snip off a lot of her umbilical cord.

No, that's not a giant chin coming to get you in your sleep. I was trying to show the little dipple/cleft in ther chin. Proof that she got stuck with some of my genes.

This is another shot of where Amelia has been so far. The hamburger warmer is the thing holding up that yellow sign. You can also see one of the many nurses we've had so far all of whom have been VERY nice.

This is Amelia leaving her crib for the first time since I brought her to the nursery after she was born. You can see the green screen to the right of the nurse where most of the monitor's information was displayed.

Here Cari gets to hold Amelia again and feed her her first meal. Cari is of course very happy to get to hold her baby girl. She sucked out about half the contents of the bottle before falling asleep. While this was very cute, her oxygen intake dropped and so we had to wake her up so she would take deeper breathes. The amazing thing is that this is about 7:00 PM on Sunday, and not 12 hours earlier, the doctor and nurses had told us that Amelia would probably be under the oxygen hood for the rest of the day and that she might be able to eat a little on Monday. Baby girl is already stunning the critics and out performing all expectations. The doctor told me many times how he was very impressed by her strength and ability to keep breathing for so long.

Here's a picture of the luckiest guy in the world IMHO. It's a shot of me with the two best things that have ever happened to me. Thank You Cari for bringing Amelia to us and thank you Amelia for just being the most precious thing I've ever seen.

Here I get to hold Amelia's hand while she rests after feeding. I took her hand while she was sucking on the bottle mainly because she was trying to grip the bottle but missed and got her own nose. Her little finger nails were leaving their mark so I decided to take advantage of the situation and hold my little baby's hand. Expect to see A LOT more of this.

Well, that's it for now. I'll try to keep posting more pictures and comments here.