Sweet baby face

These are both from today, showing where Camilla is now, and (finally!) a bit more of what her face looks like. She's been so covered by the CPAP mask most of the time since her birth that these glimpses have been rare. The great news, however, is that they are becoming more frequent, because she is spending more time every day off of the CPAP and only with the assistance of a nasal cannula, the thin tube just below her nose.

So much has happened since we last posted! Camilla has been holding her own since birth, but has started to make some real progress ahead in the past few days. Overall, she's doing really well. Here's Camillas current progress report in more detail:

She's gaining weight: she lost several ounces initially, but had returned to within 5 grams of her birth weight by one week old.

She's still breathing on her own, and needing less and less assistance: she never needed to be intubated, but had been on the CPAP since birth. Within the last few days, she has gone from trying out the cannula for one hour a day to now wearing it for 18 hours a day!

Which leads me to one of the most important factors in her progress report: her heart. The duct outside of her heart is still open. Two rounds of medication failed to close it, and in fact it remained fairly large. At the beginning of this week, the possibility of surgery to close that duct was being discussed--a scary thought for us, since it would mean that Camilla would have to go under general anesthesia, as well as having another medication to paralyze her during the surgery so that they could perform with precision the ligation on this tiny duct.

However, the doctors wanted to wait a few days to see how she was breathing--the major indicator of whether this open duct was causing her problems or not (if the duct remains open, blood that has already been to the lungs cycles through the heart and then is pumped back to the lungs, rather than out to the rest of the body, thus causing more work for the heart and the potential for more fluid to collect in her lungs). Thankfully, her breathing couldn't be better! The doctors decided that they aren't even going to do another echocardiogram to see what the duct looks like because she is doing so well with her breathing, and in fact is needing less and less assistance. They'll just keep seeing how she does and then check the duct later--there's still the possibility that it could close on its own. Thanks to all of you who have been praying for this particularly.

Eating: Camilla is now in her 4th day of receiving milk through a feeding tube. Since they shouldn't be digesting anything for several months yet, preemies digestive systems get off to a very slow start. She's still receiving pretty much all of her nutrition through an IV, but she's also now receiving about 1/2 teaspoon of milk every 3 hours and is now digesting it well. After a few more days, they'll start to slowly increase the amount of milk she's getting, and that's when she can really start to gain weight.

Stay tuned--we'll keep you updated here, though it may take us a while to catch up.

Marsupial Therapy / Kangaroo Care

We were able to start holding Camilla just a few days after she was born. We can hold her even when she has the CPAP mask on, even with all of her wires and tubes and IV lines. Getting to hold her like this is the best thing that we get to do every day. She is so calm when we hold her--she sleeps most of the time and her breathing and heart rate are solid and steady. I've read that the temperature of mothers' bodies even automatically adjust to make sure that the baby stays at just the right temperature.

Bill's first diaper change

The first of many...

Under the bili light

This is what we saw when we arrived at the hospital a few days ago. Camilla was jaundiced, so she needed to spend some time under a special phototherapy light to help her body process a chemical called bilirubin. Preemies' livers have a hard time dealing with bilirubin, so the sight of babies under this blue light is a common one in the NICU.

Camilla's baptism

Our long-time family friend, Deacon Dan Foley, came to the hospital last Friday afternoon, May 29, to baptize Camilla. Though she has been doing so well since birth, she does have a long way to go before she's out of the woods, so we wanted to do everything for her that we could. I can only imagine that she has the honor of being one of the world's smallest baptized Christians. It's hard to envision many others smaller than her!

It was a brief but beautiful ceremony. The nurses gave Deacon Dan a tiny pink plastic vial of sterile water, which he sprinkled over Camilla's head while saying the words of baptism. You can see the drops in the pictures below: they stayed beaded up on her head for some time.

Camilla Magdalena Mangan

Welcome Camilla!

Camilla surprised us with her arrival at 2:06 a.m., Tuesday, May 26. As we type this, she is well. She joins us as a sheer colossus in comparison to Eva at a staggering 2 lbs 14 oz. Wow! Though she is also about 5 days older in comparison to when Eva was born..

Camilla's arrival was being watched for considering Eva, and found Christi on modified bedrest for the previous month as a preventative measure. This may have prevented her from giving birth sooner, though we're speculating at best. She arrived with speed. With Eva we were able to contain her for 48 hours allowing shots of betamethazone(a steroid that helps the lungs produce serfactant which is a lubricant that allows the lungs to open and close). Camilla received 1 shot and showed up about 5 hours later. She was placed on and continues to be assisted(though very little as of today) by a CPAP machine. CPAP is NOT intubation, and simply helps breathing by adding a little more pressure as needed as well as the saturation of her air. We breathe 21 % oxygen and she has been receiving anywhere form 21 - 35 % saturation.(This could be an incorrect description)

Upon seeing her I was amazed at her size in relation to Eva, as she is a full inch and 12 oz. larger. This is significant as she is strong and very much a fighter. (Christi knows this from her relentless kicking in the womb) She has some hurdles of course as anyone born at this time should, though she is progressing rapidly.

Thank you Dr. Fleming, Dr. Weiner, Dr. Kennedy, Dr. Judge and all the nurses and respiratory therapists(too many to remember all the names of at the moment) and everyone on staff at St. Joseph Mercy hospital who have eased our stay and provided remarkable care for Camilla. As well as to everyone else for continued support through prayers and all the intangibles and ways people have made this intense week easier and joyful.

Babbo

Halloween then and now

Here was Eva's first halloween--look closely to see her in the incubator.



And here was our halloween this year! What a difference a year makes...