For those of you in the loop and those of you who've skirted the edges...
I was due to have a baby girl on May 13th but because of some complications with my blood pressure and liver function *severe preeclampsia* and the baby's heart rate I gave "birth" through emergency c-section on Sunday March 1st at 640 am to Keara Lillian Nixie Wilson. She was born 1 lb 13 oz and 13 inches long. She's still in the NICU at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, OH. She's putting on weight slowly and has had minor complications usually associated with premature babies. I was only 29 weeks along and it seems my OB just took my symptoms of preeclampsia as basic symptoms of pregnancy...needless to say, I'm never going back there again.
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers...it's been a difficult week. All in all we get to hold her today and started "feeding" her and changing her diapers a few days ago. I'm so excited about holding little Keara today that I've managed to keep myself awake most of the night.
At the hospital on Sat. Night/Sun. Morning they determined that the severe preeclampsia had lead to placental abruption and a decreased heart rate in the baby...they put me on magnesium sulfate to keep me from stroking out or otherwise seizing. I was on that nasty stuff twice the day of giving birth, then they put me back on it after my blood pressure skyrocketed to 210 over 110...I was stable enough to leave the hospital on Thursday but it may be late April or May before we get to bring little Keara home.
She's off her ventilator and on a CPAP machine...she's gained an ounce and a centimeter...she's fiesty as hell and refuses to be swaddled or bundled in any way...she likes to rip the CPAP out of her nose and her temperature gauge off of her little body. So, in a way this "we have three minutes to get your baby out of you" decision turned out a lot more positively than I ever thought it could. I thank the Gods with every fiber of my being that this precious little life was spared...
A breakdown of our thoughts on naming our daughter:
Going into the hospital we had roughly 27 names listed (come on it took me three years to name a dog Rocky)
We sat with her on the third day at the hospital and said "she looks like a Keara" which means Dark...we stuck with the traditional Irish spelling. I really wanted to give her a third name, a more spiritual name. We decided that she was our little spring flower which is where Lillian, meaning lily plant, came into the mix. Then on the car ride down to Dayton on Saturday pre-event I'd mentioned that I'd liked the name Nix or Nixie out of the baby book I had been reading...it's rooted in Teutonic mythology but it's also a feminine dir. of Nox meaning Night. So, we gave her a sentence for a name: "Out of the Dark Night, comes a Lily." Waxing poetic about our darkened situation that gave this planet another special little person. All in all, she can be called Keara, Ke-Ke, Lillian, Lily, Nix, or Nixie. Also, if she becomes famous she can be Keara Nix or some such business...
Sorry for the postponed posting, but I've not had a lot of time out of ICU myself and my daughter is currently more important than sleep or regular body functions so the usually "attached to the internet Candi" hasn't been feeling much like typing over the last week.
Blessings,
~Candi, Aaron, Sophie, Mr. P, and baby Keara~
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers...it's been a difficult week. All in all we get to hold her today and started "feeding" her and changing her diapers a few days ago. I'm so excited about holding little Keara today that I've managed to keep myself awake most of the night.
At the hospital on Sat. Night/Sun. Morning they determined that the severe preeclampsia had lead to placental abruption and a decreased heart rate in the baby...they put me on magnesium sulfate to keep me from stroking out or otherwise seizing. I was on that nasty stuff twice the day of giving birth, then they put me back on it after my blood pressure skyrocketed to 210 over 110...I was stable enough to leave the hospital on Thursday but it may be late April or May before we get to bring little Keara home.
She's off her ventilator and on a CPAP machine...she's gained an ounce and a centimeter...she's fiesty as hell and refuses to be swaddled or bundled in any way...she likes to rip the CPAP out of her nose and her temperature gauge off of her little body. So, in a way this "we have three minutes to get your baby out of you" decision turned out a lot more positively than I ever thought it could. I thank the Gods with every fiber of my being that this precious little life was spared...
A breakdown of our thoughts on naming our daughter:
Going into the hospital we had roughly 27 names listed (come on it took me three years to name a dog Rocky)
We sat with her on the third day at the hospital and said "she looks like a Keara" which means Dark...we stuck with the traditional Irish spelling. I really wanted to give her a third name, a more spiritual name. We decided that she was our little spring flower which is where Lillian, meaning lily plant, came into the mix. Then on the car ride down to Dayton on Saturday pre-event I'd mentioned that I'd liked the name Nix or Nixie out of the baby book I had been reading...it's rooted in Teutonic mythology but it's also a feminine dir. of Nox meaning Night. So, we gave her a sentence for a name: "Out of the Dark Night, comes a Lily." Waxing poetic about our darkened situation that gave this planet another special little person. All in all, she can be called Keara, Ke-Ke, Lillian, Lily, Nix, or Nixie. Also, if she becomes famous she can be Keara Nix or some such business...
Sorry for the postponed posting, but I've not had a lot of time out of ICU myself and my daughter is currently more important than sleep or regular body functions so the usually "attached to the internet Candi" hasn't been feeling much like typing over the last week.
Blessings,
~Candi, Aaron, Sophie, Mr. P, and baby Keara~