Home!

Nov 8, Day 24
Carissa is Home! We are so thankful God has made her well so quickly. Her hospital stay has been much shorter and easier then we were told to expect. We are convinced that this is due to the many prayers offered up for her and the care of her heavenly Father. Thank you everyone for your prayers and your help as she went through this part of her journey. Please pray with us that she continues to do well, without any more hospital stays.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

November 7

She passed the Car-seat test. Her evening weight on November 6 was 5lbs 9.5 oz, (up 16 grams from the previous day) not a big enough gain to make the Doctors happy. She had ha a period of being off the IV's and not at full feeds, so they were not surprised. Her evening weight November 7 was 5lbs, 12.5 oz, up 72 grams from the day before.

Nov 6

We switched Carissa to nursing full time, without me pumping first. She did well through the night without IV's. I am allowed to nurse her every 3 hours. They don't want it to be more then that because she was not supposed to be at full feeds till this afternoon. The doctors say if she does well we will switch to nursing on demand tommorow. We were also told to bring in a carseat so she can do a carseat test. She needs to be buckled in it for 1.5 hours without her blood oxygen levels dropping, the nurses think she will do great. If all goes well they are discussing possible discharge FRIDAY! she needs to pass the test, be nursing successfully, and gain weight (not loose it). Please pray this works!

Nov 5

I received special permission for mom to hold carissa when I was gone, so I spent the afternoon of nov 4 till afternoon of november 5 at home, and Oma got her cuddles in. When I got back they told me I could start non-nutritive breastfeeding! I pumped, and then nursed Carissa. She did amazing! They weighed her before and after, so we knew she drank 28 mls, they gave her the other 10mls in a bottle. I was allowed to do this once a shift. Just before the 7:00 shift change the nurse noticed a red streak from her IV live, so they took it out. they decided to leave it out since she is what they call a "hard poke" (each IV or PICC has taken 5-6 attempts) and she is close enough to full feeds to be OK without it.

October 19-Nov 4

Quick updates to catch us up....
 Oct 19
 The Doctors removed Carissa from the ventilator and she is breathing on her own, Adina and Dennis got to hold her for the first time.  
oct 20
Carissa pooped for the first time, this is exciting because it means that there are no obstructions in her bowels or kinks. That means no more surgery, unless they develop later. She is so far ahead of where we even dared to hope for. A true miracle and blessing.

Oct 21

the turned off the suction on her nose tube and switched it to a straight drain

Oct 22

They clamped the tube draining her stomach, and she tolerated it without many spits. 

oct 23

Carissa got her first feeds. She received 3 mls of milk every three hours. They removed the stomach draining tube and replaced it with a feeding tube. It was the first time I had seen her face without tubes, and they gave me a few moments to take a picture. She constanlty surprises us by how well she is doing. . She is getting all her nutrion via intravenous for now while her bowels are healing.
We praise and thank God for such an incredible blessing and miracle,
and we love her to bits.

Oct 24

The doctors decided to try increasing her feeds quickly, and increased by 3 mls every 3 hours, she got up to 15mls by 9:00 pm, then had to cut back to 6mls because she was spitting green too much, this means the food wasn't going through.   She is well enough to move into a crib, this was a great step because it means we are allowed to hold her whenever we want now, family is also allowed to hold her when they visit. 

Oct 25

they decreased feeds to 3mls since she was still spitting

Oct 26

Carissa got her first "bottle" feeds. since she is still at 3ml every 3 hours they didn't put the bottle on, but just put the milk into the nipple. She loves it! the first time she just played with it, till a drop came out, then she started drinking fast. A feed takes less the 30 seconds, then we need to hold her without moving too much for about 20 min so she doesn't spit. She pulled her feeding tube out and since we weren't using it we enjoyed seeing her without tubes all day

Oct 27Since Carissa had too many spit ups and is not pooping on her own they stopped all feeds  she is not impressed she loves her milk and enjoyed every drop they gave her. They checked with -rays to see if there are any obstructions or kinks in her bowels but they can't find any so they figure they just need to slow down and give her more time. Had it worked she would have been able to go home very quickly, but that was not happening. A bit of a setback but she's been running since the moment she was born, a step back now and then is to be expected.  Oct 28they put Carissa back on the suction drainage nose tube since she was still spitting.Oct 29 today the amount they were draining has slowed down (and changed from dark green to light green/clearish) so they could turn off the suction and just drain her every diaper change with the syringe. She is still off her feeds, and will be at least till the drainage tube comes out. She hates it, and spent the night crying, and only calms down when I hold her.
Oct 30
they clamped Carissa's stomach drain tube, and she didn't spit at all.
She passed her birth-weight(4lbs 12.5 oz) and is at 4 lbs 14.5 oz
Oct 31

Carissa was able to begin feeds again! Her stomach fluids had cleared and she stopped spitting up so doctors oked it. She is receiving 3mls by mouth every three hours and the will slowly increase this as time goes on. The important word here is slowly. They tried aggressively and it back fired so now they will proceed more slowly. Her nose tube has been removed and she looks much more comfortable.

All in all much reason for thankfulness

Nov 1

Carissa is up to 6 ml every three hours-so far its going well. If she keeps doing well with no spits they are hoping to increase each feed by 3 ml every 12 hours starting tomorrow at 9 am. 
She passed her birth-weight on wed at 4 lbs 14.5 oz, today she is 5 lbs 4 oz

Nov 2

feeds of 9mls and 12 mls, some white milky bubbles with burps, but no green spit.

Nov 3 

feeds of 15 mls and 18 mls, weight is 5lbs 7 oz

Nov 4 

They have been having a hard time with her PICC lines and IV's. her veins are very spidery, and every time they try to replace them they try about 6 times before being successful. they also fail regularly and she doesn't have many more places they can try. Because they don't have many more more options they want to try increasing her feeds faster to get her to full feeds (aprox 45 mls for her weight) before the IV they put in today falls out. They decided to increase by 3 mls every 6 hours. Her feeds today were at 21mls, 24 mls and 27 mls. 

Oct 17 and 18

Thursday Oct 17-
Carissa was on a high dose of Fentanol, and was barely moving. She was intubated and not taking any breaths on her own because the meds that numbed her pain and relazed her muscles also suppressed her breathing. We had to be carefull with touching her, a rub would make her arch her back in pain, she could only tolerate the ocassional firm still touch.

Friday Oct 18.
The Drs started decreasing her Fentanol, and Carissa started trying to breath over her tube ocassionaly, but it did most of her breathing for her. She was more awake, but also more agitated. I was able to help with her care, doing a diaper change, mouth care and taking her temperature. We were able to give her her first kiss that evening.

Oct 16- Carissa is born!

They started induction at 8 am, but progress was slow because we were still early. By around 6:30pm they decided to break my water. Carissa had been head down at every ultrasound since 20 weeks, but as soon as they broke my water she decided to flip to breach. They tried manually flipping her, then brought us to the OR for a C-section. Carissa Danielle Holwerda was born at 6:56 pm, weighing 4 lbs 12.5 oz. (she was 5th percentile for weight) I was so happy to hear her cry as she was born, and until she left the room. I did not get to hold her, and only saw her across the room, but Dennis was able to cut her cord. Thankfully she inherited Dennis's long back, and had less intestine out then the Drs had expected. She went immedatly for surgery and had primary closure within an hour of birth.  after a few hours I was able to see her in the NICU, but could only stay a few minutes, with no touching. We are so thankful to our heavenly Father for how well everything went, He held Carissa in his loving hands and protected her. Primary closure is possible in less then 10% of gastro babies, and we were told at 22 weeks already that it looked like too much intestine was out for it to be an option. Prayers are powerfull!