Asher Joseph's Journal: Felicity is here!!

Felicity is making a guest appearance on Asher's blog! Actually, Felicity made a surprise appearance by being born at 36 weeks, exactly 3 weeks before her scheduled c-section.

After thinking I was in labor for about a day and checking in the with doctors a few times it was finally decided that Felicity wanted to be born. On 4-4-14 at 10:05pm she arrived via repeat c-section weighing in at 5lbs 9oz. She cried immediately but was breathing fast, so she was taken to the special care nursery. I was able to give her a quick kiss before they took her away. Dave was able to follow her pretty quickly but I had to wait for 2 hours until I was out of my recovery period to see her. When I finally got to her she was in an oxygen hood and was breathing really fast but she still looked perfect.

For close to 2 days we were not able to hold her, just touch her little bum and talk to her. She continued to breath fast and didn't really tolerate any oxygen reductions in the hood. They tried a nasal cannula and finally ended up putting her on the CPap machine. This machine pushes airflow into the lungs to assist breathing. She seemed to do well with the CPap. On Sunday evening she began to get worse, they had to turn up the oxygen and called the NICU doctor who works at Children's hospital. After a chest x-ray was performed they diagnosed her with a pneumothorax (basically a collapsed lung from the pressure of the CPap). We were terrified. The transport team from CCHMC was called and a team of medical personnel including another NICU doctor showed up. They gave her a breathing tube and then inserted a needle into her chest to release the air trapped between hr chest wall and lung. She was stable, and we were transferred to the CCHMC NICU. Dave and I agreed seeing her like was the most terrifying thing we had ever seen. She was so helpless. Luckily, my amazing OB, Dr. Fleming, quickly showed up and made sure I was discharged from the hospital so I could go with her. Seriously, he's the best. He got to the hospital before Dave did (because Dave was arranging childcare for the other kids) and he hugged me and told me she would be okay. He didn't leave me again until I was with Dave and getting some more support.

By the time Dave and I got to Children's she was in her little isolet, intubated. Now, this may seem scary but she looked better than she had in 2 days. Her nurses were so nice and Felicity was just relaxed and breathing easy (well, the machine was breathing for her). The NICU doctor talked to us and said the pneumothorax was resolved and the breathing tube would only be in for about 12 hours. I thought I would still be waiting a while to hold her, but I was wrong. As soon as the nurses realized I hadn't held her they got me comfy in a recliner and put her on my chest. I got to snuggle her for such a long time. That was the best feeling ever (ever!). Then they gave her a dose of a drug to help expand her lungs and as promised, the tube came out. She really looked like a different baby, so calm and breathing easy with just a little help from a nasal cannula.

In the last few days she has breathed well enough to get rid of her oxygen, tolerated feeds enough to allow them to discontinue her IV fluids and kept her body temperature high enough to turn off the warmer. NOW she just needs to nurse well enough to gain weight and not need to take any breast milk through her feeding tube. I think she is well on her way since she hasn't needed the tube since early this morning. Hopefully in the next few days they feel comfortable with letting us go home since she is now coordinated enough to nurse well.

Now, for the pistures <3 Thank you for all the prayers!!!