Our Beautiful Isabella!

Big Brother Aidan & Isabella

Isabella is coming home tomorrow!

3 am - I called again after I pumped to see how Ella was doing. Great news! The nurse turned to oxygen off, removed the nasal cannula and she is doing well on room air. One more thing gone and another step toward the door. The plan today was to attempt to breastfeed.

11 am - I texted Damian while he had Aidan at his swim lesson to tell him Ella looks great! The oxygen had been off since early this morning and she no longer had things attached to her except for the monitors. Also, I told him to make sure he brings the car seat to the hospital because the doctor wanted to do the car seat test today! If she doesn't desaturate and her vital signs looked good she will come home tomorrow! YEAH!!!

2 pm - Isabella passed her hearing test today! Her hat is off and she looks like a new kid. She has beautiful dark brown hair! I breastfed for the first time and she did great! Ella latched on pretty quickly and did well on one side. Aidan visited her again and gave her the pink bear he picked out for her from his big brother class he attended. He also wore his "I am a Big Brother" shirt again! His choice.

3:30 pm - Aidan did a great job while visiting Ella. He was so gentle and gave her a big kiss as you can see in the picture. Ella continues to do well!

7:30 pm - Damian & I had a stress free dinner out before we went back to the hospital. Our baby girl is scheduled to come home tomorrow and is doing great! We joked because it was probably the last time we will have a dinner, just the two of us, for a long time!!!

Thank you to all for your kind notes, thoughts, and prayers! We are ecstatic Isabella will be joining us at home tomorrow!

Isabella April 18, 2009

3 am - I have been pumping at home and starting to get more. I called the NICU to see how Ella was doing. The nurse said that she continued to do well.

11 am - Ella did so well overnight I got to feed her from a bottle for the first time. She took 45 ml's! The oxygen has been weened down and they hope to have it off within a day or two. The IV fluids had been turned off since Ella was tolerating the feedings so well!

2 pm - Damian fed her this time and she ate 50 ml's while I pumped! Big brother Aidan got to see her for the first time today. He was so great with her! He was talking to her telling her, "It is your big brother Aidan" and "I love you!" He was so interested in the environment of the NICU. He was curious about the monitors so Damian told him about the EKG waveforms and all the numbers. Damian said that maybe we have a doctor, nurse or better yet a future nurse anesthetist on our hands!

5:30 pm - Isabella ate 55 ml's and was bright eyed the whole time she ate. Since she has been doing so well, the oral gastric tube was removed. Ella got a little mad but as silly as this sounds it was good to hear her cry. The nurse told us that if she was off the oxygen by tomorrow & then for 24 hours, she could probably be home by Monday! While we were hanging out at the hospital all day, Damian & I attended an infant CPR class!

8:30 pm - Ella did well eating again! The nurse plans to remove the nasal cannula tonight to see how she does. We will be back again tomorrow after morning rounds.

Isabella April 17, 2009

8 am - It was absolutely beautiful outside today after two rainy, gloomy days. We told ourselves that it was going to be a great day! Ella did well overnight and a bassinet is ready for her if she does well on the nasal cannula today. We fed her again and I am getting more breastmilk for Ella. We will be back after the 11 am morning rounds to see what the Dr. says.

11:20 am - What a surprise!!! Ella was off of CPAP and had been on the nasal cannula since 9 am and doing great! The tube feedings had been increased and she continued to tolerate them well. If she keeps this pace up she would be upgraded to the bassinet. She was more awake, alert, moving around and showing signs she is ready for breastfeeding by rooting around for the pacifier. As long as she can tolerate 40 ml's of breastmilk and be off of the oxygen for 24 hrs., she could go home on Sunday!

5 pm - Ella is doing AWESOME!!! The tube feedings were increased to 25 ml's and she is on a low level of oxygen. At 8 pm her feeding was increased to 30 ml's and by tomorrow morning they could be at 40 ml's.

8:30 pm - Ella continues to do GREAT!!! She received 30 ml's of feeding and tolerated them well. The nurses have been great! Tonight's was a little rough around the edges at first but was nicer as time went by. She was a little particular about things but she is a nurse and Damian said he can't blame her because, "All nurses are anal. " We will be back in the morning after rounds.

Isabella April 16, 2009

8 am - I have been pumping and we have been taking the breastmilk to the NICU every three hours for Ella. She has been tolerating the feedings well & is pooping and peeing well. The neonatologist has been great! He showed us the chest x-rays and the one today showed that the fluid has has cleared from Isabella's lungs. Her labs look good as well. The goal is to increase her feedings and decrease the IV fluids as tolerated. They also want to wean the amount of oxygen she is receiving and eventually try humidified oxygen with a nasal cannula!

1 pm - Ella is looking better and better each time we see her! Her respirations are slowing down and she is getting a whopping 10 ml's of breastmilk/formula every 3 hours.

11 pm - No nasal cannula yet but she still looks great! She continues to tolerate the feedings well. I continued to pump for Ella and we take it to her every 3 hours. We also have been checking her temperature and changing her tiny diapers. We were disappointed that she wasn't on the nasal cannula yet but we have to trust that the Dr.'s and nurses are doing what is best for her. Ella began showing us her feistiness & got mad a few times when we change her. It was fine with us because she never really cried a lot after she was born. This means she is getting stronger, but her oxygen saturation decreases when she does and takes a minute to recover. Our hope that she will be on the nasal cannula tomorrow!

Isabella Colleen Brant's Birthday! April 15, 2009 @ 9:10 AM

April 14, 2009 - I had contractions that were around 5 minutes apart for several hours through the night and we went to the hospital. We were sent home at 8:30 am due to failure to progress. At around 12:30pm my water broke and back to the hospital we went and got admitted this time. After a few hours of monitoring they started the Pitocin to speed up the labor.

April 15, 2009 -Through the night the contractions got closer and more intense and around 2:30 am I decided I had been brave enough and decided to get an epidural. I was much more comfortable and Damian & I finally got a some much needed rest.

7:30 am - The Dr. arrived discovered that there was still a fluid sac that was cushioning Isabella's head which is why the labor was so long! Once it was broke things went FAST!!!

8:30 am - The contractions got intense and the epidural was not really working well. The Dr. and nurse came in and I was fully dilated and ready to push! Finally!!!

9:10 am - After 20 minutes of pushing Isabella Colleen Brant was born! Yeah!!! 6 lbs 6 oz and 19 inches long. She is beautiful!!! She spent about an hour with us when they decided to take her to the NICU for observation. She was breathing a little too fast.

4 pm - Isabella was stable but had to have CPAP to help give her oxygen and get the fluid out of her lungs. She also had a feeding tube so that she could be fed.

We continued to visit Isabella throughout the day so that we could help with the feedings.

Still Growing!

Ella should arrive any day now! We are anxiously awaiting her arrival. As you can see, she is still growing, and her room is all set just for her. We'll keep you posted!

Happy Easter!

Our Easter celebration started last night with the dying of Easter eggs. Aidan had a great time, and as you can see, some of our eggs are super hero themed! This morning we headed to church followed by an Easter egg hunt.

Happy Easter! We hope you are having a great day with family and friends!