(Two) Down

One last post on this year’s March for Babies (though you can still donate to this year!).

While I didn’t meet my personal goal of $2000 this year, I went into Walk day at $1655, which felt pretty good! Plus, our team went in with $4060 – over $1000 more than our goal of $3000! That kept us at a proud, third place finish overall.

Hi friends,

One last post on this year’s March for Babies (though you can still donate to this year!).

Saturday was a beautiful day. Just like last year, it was so inspiring to see so many families in one place whose lives have been affected by March of Dimes in some way. We take solace in knowing we’re not the only ones, and we celebrate the success we’ve had because of the work of March of Dimes.

While I didn’t meet my personal goal of $2000 this year, I went into Walk day at $1655, which felt pretty good! Plus, our team went in with $4060 – over $1000 more than our goal of $3000! That kept us at a proud, third place finish overall (second in family teams).

One last big thank you to the following people who helped us do this!
Grandpa and Grandma Grasmeyer
Grandpa and Grandma Merritt
Aunt Jenna and Uncle Josh
Becky and Ryan Grasmeyer
Aunt Sharon and Uncle George
Mark and Heather Swierenga
Dan and Claire Larabel
Bill and Emily Madsen
Tyler and Tessa DeNooyer
Alesha and Jeremy Schut
Betsy and Eli Cromwell
Kimberly Reich
Autumn Bollman
Sarah and Josh Stuitje
Sarah Potter
Dale Waite
Lauren Edwards
Sue Snow
Anne Jansingh
Vicki DeKoning
Susan Whichard Babin

Two walks down, many to come!

(Two) Days

We’re just two days away from March Two (not the date – the March for Babies)! We’re not going to reach our goal of two thousand dollars this year, and though I’m bummed, I think I’m ok with it…

We’re just two days away from March Two (not the date – the March for Babies)! We’re not going to reach our goal of two thousand dollars this year, and though I’m bummed, I think I’m ok with it.

I can understand that the farther you get from your situation (in our case, Oaklee’s start), the less the people around you see it as a dire situation. Kevin and I are lucky to be able to see past Oaklee’s start most days and just enjoy living life with our (almost) two year old. It’s been a wild ride over these past two years, but we’re finally sailing smoother seas. 

I can only hope that by the time we have baby number two, we will only ever have smooth seas, we won’t spend a day in the NICU, and maybe… maybe our heart for the March of Dimes will one day fade, two (oops). 

But for this year, thank you to those of you who’ve chosen to invest again in an organization that means so much to us:
Grandpa and Grandma Grasmeyer
Grandpa and Grandma Merritt
Aunt Jenna and Uncle Josh
Becky and Ryan Grasmeyer
Aunt Sharon and Uncle George
Mark and Heather Swierenga
Dan and Claire Larabel
Bill and Emily Madsen
Alesha and Jeremy Schut
Betsy and Eli Cromwell
Kimberly Reich
Sarah and Josh Stuitje
Sarah Potter
Dale Waite
Lauren Edwards
Sue Snow
Anne Jansingh
Vicki DeKoning
Susan Whichard Babin

(Two) Weeks

With just two weeks to go until the March for Babies, I’m excited to report that we are in the Circle of Champions, having raised over $1000! We had a goal to raise $2000 this year, and I don’t think we’ll get there, but I am so happy to be able to give any amount to an organization that is fighting for the health of moms and babies in need.

With just two weeks to go until the March for Babies, I’m excited to report that we are in the Circle of Champions, having raised over $1000!

We had a goal to raise $2000 this year, and I don’t think we’ll get there, but I am so happy to be able to give any amount to an organization that is fighting for the health of moms and babies in need.

We learned two years ago how quickly you can become a mom or baby in need. We’ll forever be grateful for the ways God has blessed this organization to help those moms and babies through research and medical advancements that have helped saved thousands of lives.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the following people who’ve helped us raise this much so far:
Grandpa and Grandma Grasmeyer
Grandpa and Grandma Merritt
Aunt Jenna and Uncle Josh
Becky and Ryan Grasmeyer
Aunt Sharon and Uncle George
Mark and Heather Swierenga
Dan and Claire Larabel
Alesha and Jeremy Schut
Sarah Potter
Dale Waite
Sue Snow
Anne Jansingh
Vicki DeKoning

Baby(‘s) (Two)

Kevin and I know all too well how blessed we are to have brought Oaklee into the world in the twenty-first century. Even 25 years earlier, things would have gone so differently. The research of organizations like March of Dimes is monumental in the care of preemies like Oaklee. Please consider making a contribution towards that research. No parent deserves to lose a child they’ve barely had. While we are incredibly lucky to have Oaklee with us today, there are thousands of parents every year who cannot say the same. Let’s change that together. 

Almost exactly two years ago, Kevin and I learned we would have to lean on medical advancements for the life of our baby. When my body began expelling vast amounts of blood at 16 weeks pregnant, we questioned whether the pregnancy would last and if so, how long it could manage.

11.5 weeks later, it could last no longer. Oaklee was born three months too soon. Her road was rocky at first. She spent 69 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She received an absurd amount of treatments and tests and scans for someone who was only 69 days old, but she came home with us.

Now she’s almost two. You might never be able to tell she was a preemie, but you probably didn’t have to live the life that follows prematurity.

You probably didn’t have to let the doctors sweep your baby and the machines keeping her alive out of the operating room minutes after her birth. You probably didn’t have to leave your baby in the hospital when you were discharged to go home. You probably didn’t have to cart your baby to specialist after specialist for the first 18 months of her life to determine if she was developmentally ok.

And you probably didn’t have to re-consider your future family planning because of how the birth of your first child went.

In one month, my family walks for Oaklee at the March for Babies. My family walks for Oaklee, and my family walks for any of my yet-to-be-born children. I want to believe I am never going to face the situation we faced with my first pregnancy again. But just in case, I cling tightly to the important research and changing practices in the healthcare of moms and babies like me and Oaklee. 

Please consider supporting the work of March of Dimes with me – for my family, for my yet-to-be-born children, for your family, for your neighbors, for your friends… You just never know who will end up using these life-saving resources.

(Two) Years Ago

Kevin and I know all too well how blessed we are to have brought Oaklee into the world in the twenty-first century. Even 25 years earlier, things would have gone so differently. The research of organizations like March of Dimes is monumental in the care of preemies like Oaklee. Please consider making a contribution towards that research. No parent deserves to lose a child they’ve barely had. While we are incredibly lucky to have Oaklee with us today, there are thousands of parents every year who cannot say the same. Let’s change that together. 

Two years ago on this day, Kevin and I excitedly told our families we were expecting a baby. What we weren’t expecting, was to have to tell them just 24 days later that things were not ok.

Over the course of April 6 and 7, we learned the terms “previa” and “abruption”. Relieved our baby was still alive, we knew she would have to fight to thrive amidst this situation. 

Just two and a half months later, my body was no longer fit to carry my child. She had fought and I had progressively given her a worse and worse atmosphere to develop in.

The doctors pulled my baby from me three months early to save her life. There were hours where it looked like she might not make it despite the incredible fight she’d put up on the inside. But there are medical advances that stepped in when I was no longer able to keep her safe. 

Kevin and I know all too well how blessed we are to have brought Oaklee into the world in the twenty-first century. Even 25 years earlier, things would have gone so differently. The research of organizations like March of Dimes is monumental in the care of preemies like Oaklee. 

Please, PLEASE consider making a contribution towards that research. No parent deserves to lose a child they’ve barely had. While we are incredibly lucky to have Oaklee with us today, there are thousands of parents every year who cannot say the same. Let’s change that together. 

March (Two)

If it’s in your heart to give, we pray you’ll consider donating towards Oaklee’s team in the March for Babies on May 5 in Grand Rapids, MI.

Friends,

I am beyond excited to be joining up with fellow mommies of preemies this year and marching once again in March of Dimes’ March for Babies!

After Oaklee was born three months premature, I started hearing names here and there of girls from my past who had also had premature babies and had also spent time living the NICU life. I could not believe how many of us there are even just from my high school! For my second March, I’m teaming up with these ladies and their babes, and together we’re fighting for healthy moms and strong babies.

As I’ve mentioned before, 1 in 10 babies are born premature. Prematurity is the #1 cause of infant mortality.

So what does March of Dimes do? Allow me to borrow their simplest definition: “March of Dimes leads the fight for the health of all moms and babies.” And then let’s add words from their materials to explain they, “focus on fighting birth defects, premature birth and infant death with innovations like newborn screenings and surfactant therapy; education for medical professionals and the public about best practices; and lifesaving research. [They] provide comfort and support to families in NICUs and advocated for those who need [them] most, moms and babies.”

So what did March of Dimes do for us? March of Dimes grantees helped develop surfactant therapy, which was introduced in 1990, and has since then reduced the rate of death by Respiratory Distress Syndrome (which Oaklee was diagnosed with upon birth) in half. They’re also working on new approaches to deliver inhaled nitric oxide (a treatment Oaklee also had) to where it is needed in the lungs to prevent Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia. This is the type of research we need people to do, and the frontrunner for why this little family of three wants to raise money for an organization that may have literally saved Oaklee’s life.

On a smaller scale, the March of Dimes NICU Family Support is also a great program. Being in the NICU is hell. I wouldn’t wish any amount of time there on my worst enemy, but I’m so very grateful for the good things the NICU Family Support program is doing because the little things make a huge difference. They gave us booklets of information that took words like “surfactant therapy” and “bronchopulmonary dysplasia” and put them into laymen’s terms that even the just-gave-birth-and-desperately-in-need-of-a-transfusion woman could understand. They offered educational classes with previous NICU parents and Lactation Consultants and other various experts. They gave us keepsake books, milestone markers and little gift bags. And, oh my gosh, the little rubber duckies we found at Oaklee’s isolette on the holidays she spent in the NICU… It truly is the little things, isn’t it?

Simply put, raising $2000 is not enough to repay March of Dimes for what they did for us, but we’ll start there, and someday we’ll find a way to continue giving, to continue improving the outlook for premature babies like Oaklee.

So if it’s in your heart to give, I pray you’ll consider donating towards Oaklee’s team in the March for Babies on May 4 in Grand Rapids, MI. And if you’re local, we’d love to have you walk on our team with us. So many of you have already proven your place in the village that will raise our child and it is such a blessing to have you on Team Oaklee today and every day.

NICU Awareness Day

If you’ve had a child in the NICU, you’ve seen something you can’t unsee. Even when my child was on the up and up, I sobbed listening to the grandma sing Jesus Loves Me to the three pound baby whom doctors had been swarming just hours before as he came out of surgery. Even when my child was coming home, I watched a mom and dad spend their last day with the daughter they’d never bring home. While our NICU stay was long, I truly believe you could have the peachiest, little NICU stay and still be changed by your experience. If your child has been in the NICU, your child has been a patient in an entire area of a hospital dedicated to saving the lives of the freshest of babes, often too fresh. The things you see, the vibes you feel, the stories you hear… you don’t get these anywhere else. 

For many people, the acronym “NICU” isn’t one they have to say more than a handful of times in their lives. It never becomes a concrete place. It’s never stored in their phones as a contact. It’s never the thing keeping them from truly being parents to their newborn baby.

There are some who never even know what “NICU” stands for.

Then there are those who’s friend or family member enters the NICU world with the birth of a child. They see it. They hear about it. They try to understand it.

And then there are the parents who, warned or not, have their babies whisked away for various reasons, and they live it.

Since Oaklee’s 69 day stay in the NICU (of which we were warned about given our pregnancy), I’ve gained and re-gained friends who can say, “Yes, I’ve been there too.” Almost immediately every time we take out a ruler – whose baby was smaller, whose baby was born earlier, whose NICU stay was longer – to know just on what level this comrade can relate. I’ll admit, given our situation, my husband and I struggle to consider a baby “premature” if they did not have to spend time in the NICU or if they were born after 34 weeks.

But the truth is, if you’ve had a child in the NICU, you’ve seen something you can’t unsee. Even when my child was on the up and up, I sobbed listening to the grandma sing Jesus Loves Me to the three pound baby whom doctors had been swarming just hours before as he came out of surgery. Even when my child was coming home, I watched a mom and dad spend their last day with the daughter they’d never bring home. While our NICU stay was long, I truly believe you could have the peachiest, little NICU stay and still be changed by your experience. If your child has been in the NICU, your child has been a patient in an entire area of a hospital dedicated to saving the lives of the freshest of babes, often too fresh. The things you see, the vibes you feel, the stories you hear… you don’t get these anywhere else.

NICU stays end on all sorts of levels of positivity and negativity, but each one changes the people involved.

I hope your experience with it is limited to our story or the stories of friends or family members who’ve already done their time. It’s NICU Awareness Day, but I pray you never have to be aware of what that world looks like.

Still, should you ever find yourself there, I wish I could remind you daily that God gives life out of muck and mire. It doesn’t always look like it did for us – the literal life of our daughter – but He’s there, and He has purpose.

Due Date

By the time we got to that September due date, Oaklee had been in the hospital for 69 days and home for 18 days. She’d grown heaps since being home. She weighed about 7.5 lb – which seemed huge to us considering she started at almost a third of that weight. While we were still frantic and trying to figure out how to take care of a baby, let alone, a long term NICU graduate, Oaklee was doing great. 

In these first weeks at home, I largely spent my time pumping, washing pump parts, sorting ounces of breast milk, mixing bottles, giving bottles and cleaning bottles. We were at the beginning of our bottle-to-breast journey and I was already getting burned out.

9.23.17

“We thought this day would be so different. Maybe we’d have a newborn. Maybe I’d be 40 weeks pregnant. Instead, we’re praising God for our 12 week and 2 day old sweet little miracle. Happy due date baby girl.”

I loved the idea of a September baby. Back on January 16, everything felt cookie cutter perfect. It was a new year, our lives were on a new track, we’d have one last summer to go wherever and do whatever we please, and by the holidays, we would have a newborn to dote on.

But by April 7, we knew we were on a different trajectory. We stopped looking forward to September and started praying for at least August, eventually even just July. And then at the end of June, Oaklee graced us with her minuscule appearance, 12 weeks and 2 days early.

By the time we got to that September due date, Oaklee had been in the hospital for 69 days and home for 18 days. She’d grown heaps since being home. She weighed about 7.5 lb – which seemed huge to us considering she started at almost a third of that weight. While we were still frantic and trying to figure out how to take care of a baby, let alone, a long term NICU graduate, Oaklee was doing great.

In these first weeks at home, I largely spent my time pumping, washing pump parts, sorting ounces of breast milk, mixing bottles, giving bottles and cleaning bottles. We were at the beginning of our bottle-to-breast journey and I was already getting burned out.

“I so badly wish I could cut pumping out of the equation. It requires extra gear and extra time, but I want so badly to nurse Oaklee, so it’s a must until we meet in the middle. I’m trying to navigate that change, but it’s hard. I want to know she’s getting well fed and not play this guessing game.”

At this point I was letting Oaklee try to nurse one time per day. Stop watch in hand, I’d time her and record how many minutes she was successfully breast feeding. She generally ranged anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. Upon NICU graduation, we were advised to follow a breastfeeding sliding scale. If Oaklee nursed 0-8 minutes, we were to offer a full bottle after nursing. If she nursed 8-15 minutes, we were to offer a half bottle after nursing. If she nurses 15 or more minutes, we could consider it a full feeding and skip the bottle.

15 minute nursing sessions were rare, but when they happened, I cried. When they didn’t happen, I also cried.

When I didn’t try to nurse, Oaklee was getting precisely measured 80 ml (approximately 2.5 oz) bottles of breast milk mixed with Human Milk Fortifier (HMF) for additional calories/nutrients. We would gradually increase this number as we felt she could take more, constantly encouraging her to eat more, gain more weight and grow faster. The pressure for more, more, more was very real.

Yes, she’d been discharged, but on the condition that we’d push her hard, if not harder than the NICU had pushed her. We had to prove she could thrive to the several doctors and nurses who would be following her post NICU.

Eat. Gain. Grow.

No, she wasn’t a feeder grower anymore, she was just a baby, but one who’d been asked to do things for the past 12 weeks and 2 days that she wasn’t supposed to do until today.

Just focusing on growing was a colossal task in itself, but 12 weeks and 2 days ago the focus was merely on living and Oaklee achieved that, so…

In the stats:
Birth weight: 2lb, 12oz
Last known weight: 6lb 9oz (9.5.17)
Gestational age: 40 weeks
Actual age: 12 weeks, 2 days
Days in the hospital: 69
Days home: 18
Appointments since home: 2

Homegoings

Our NICU days were over. Our dreams of snuggling our baby at home had come true. But our hearts were not unscathed from our successful experience. We did not escape without our eyes being opened to the hell that is an intensive care unit for newborn babies. In fact, on our very last day there, we saw the worst of it…

9.6.17

“Love finally snuggling my girl at home!”

Oh, how rough our first night was. Every little grunt or wiggle had us lurching to the end of our bed to check on Oaklee in her pack and play. She was used to noises and light 24/7 and we were asking her to sleep in the largely silent darkness. She didn’t sleep well, so neither did we. But still, we woke up, snuggled our baby, drank our coffee and were a family… in our own home.

Our NICU days were over. Our dreams of snuggling our baby at home had come true. But our hearts were not unscathed from our successful experience. We did not escape without our eyes being opened to the hell that is an intensive care unit for newborn babies. In fact, on our very last day there, we saw the worst of it…

To the parents of the baby who was rushed away into surgery as we spent our last day in the NICU,

Do you know that I still think of you? I still picture you. I still pray for you. I still cry for you.

I don’t even know your names, but I watched your baby’s story unfold from the isolette across Area 11.

Dad, it was you who made me realize what my own husband went through on the day our daughter was born. I saw you come in, following the isolette that held your tiny baby and was surrounded by a team in scrubs who were working quickly to run every test, check every level, plug in every cord and secure every tube. I watched you stand back, helpless, stoic, the fate of your new baby in the hands of people you’d just met in your panic-stricken state. I heard the nurse who told you you could hold your baby’s hand, and saw you uncertainly reach your arm through the door to touch your child for your first time. I felt, all over again, what this day probably felt like to you, the horrid excitement of welcoming a baby too soon.

Mom, in you, I realized how special the innate dedication truly is that comes immediately when you join the NICU mommy tribe. They wheeled you over in your hospital bed to show you the life you’d given. You cried. I cried. I remembered that day in my own story. Your visit was far too short, but they took you away for your own recovery. Before you came back, you’d pumped, committing to giving the very best to the baby you didn’t carry for 9 months and only briefly saw. You continued pumping for weeks, doing skin-to-skin, visiting daily. You poured all your love into that little girl and then you poured more.

The night before Oaklee was discharged, my husband and I stayed late, wanting to be sure she was succeeding at what she needed to do to come home. We watched the nurses exchange glances and words about your daughter and knew something was wrong. We didn’t know your baby would never come home.

We came back the next morning with grins that stretched ear-to-ear. Our girl had done what it took to get the ok to come home. She was being discharged, while your daughter was being discharged to a destination only death will bring you to. With several teams of doctors, surgeons and nurses in the room, the energy was vast and vastly somber. We watched as, again, you stood back helpless, your daughter’s isolette surrounded by people more qualified than you to give her what was best for her. Our nurse apologized to us that our discharge was taking so long, but we didn’t care. We knew we’d take our baby home, we just wanted the same for you.

On September 5, though, we took Oaklee home, and God took your daughter home, and for that, I am so, so sorry. My heart will forever ache for you. I watched you live my greatest fear on the greatest day of my life.

Your daughter is whole in heaven, and you’re broken on earth, missing a part of your heart, the life you gave. I will never think that’s fair.

I still think of you. I still picture you. I still pray for you. I still cry for you.

And I hope you’ve found even a glimpse of the healing I was so afraid I’d never find if my story followed the lines of yours.

In the stats:
Birth weight: 2lb, 12oz
Last known weight: 6lb 9oz (9.5.17)
Gestational age: 37 weeks, 4 days
Actual age: 9 weeks, 6 days
Days in the hospital: 69
Days home: 1

Homecoming

Ten days into our two week homecoming goal, I made a 7:00 am phone call up to the NICU to ask Nurse T, Oaklee’s night nurse, “Are we going into work today? Or are we taking our baby home?”

Nurse T responded, “You’re taking your baby home.”

And just like that, September 5 became the happiest day of my life…

9.5.17

“Finally bringing a child home you almost lost is, indeed, one of the greatest days you can face in your life.”

Ten days into our two week homecoming goal, I made a 7:00 am phone call up to the NICU to ask Nurse T, Oaklee’s night nurse, “Are we going into work today? Or are we taking our baby home?”

Nurse T responded, “You’re taking your baby home.”

And just like that, September 5 became the happiest day of my life…

But September 5 didn’t just happen. Amongst the past 69 days, September 2, 3 and 4 were key players.

It was Labor Day weekend. We came at it with a vengeance, spending almost every waking minute either with Oaklee or preparing for Oaklee to come home.

On the 2nd, we took what would become our last few moments to ourselves for a while. We slept in and then began the large task of giving our house a bath. We left no speck of dust or dirt or germ behind, knowing we’d very soon be bringing home a child with a compromised immune system. We got up to the hospital after lunch and committed to being there for three of Oaklee’s eight Care Times. Oaklee ate best for us, and we needed her to be at her best in order to make it to the next step soon.

We snuck away between her 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm Care Times to treat ourselves to a nice dinner out – something we’d not done since our 20 week ultrasound back in early May – and then we made our way back to make sure we were the ones feeding our girl. After the nurse’s shift change at 7:00 pm, we chatted with our nurse, Nurse T, and got her on Team Oaklee. Our chat sounded something like this:

“Listen, we’re getting out of here. Oaklee is coming home as soon as possible, and we need to know you’re going to do everything you can to make that happen.”

Nurse T nodded and said, “Of course.”

“We need to know you’re going to tell the next nurse at shift change the same thing.”

“I can do that.”

We’d learned over the past week that you’re either on Team Oaklee or you’re not and there was no place at Oaklee’s bedside for someone who was not on Team Oaklee.

In the morning of the 3rd, Oaklee had eaten well enough to be switched to the ad lib, on demand feeding style, the next step. This meant she had a minimum amount of milk she had to take in any given 6 hour period over the course of 48 hours while continuing to gain weight. She failed in her first 6 hour window, and started over in the afternoon. This is when Kevin and I jumped on pins and needles. We spent the bulk of our day up at the hospital, feeding her ourselves despite being blessed with another nurse who was on Team Oaklee. Nurse T came back that evening.

We chose not to share the possibility of Oaklee coming home in 48 hours with our family or friends because we’d been sending out so many back and forth updates over the past several months and didn’t want to place another level of pressure on these final days. We were already the ones who were checking in at weird hours to see if Oaklee was still doing it. I called Nurse T at 2:00 am while pumping to ask how it was going. Oaklee was still successful.

On Monday, Labor Day, we enlisted the help of my husband’s parents to finish up that house bath before, again, spending the vast majority of our time up at the hospital. Oaklee had another great nurse that day, and Nurse T returned for the night once again.

Still successfully meeting her eating requirements, we knew Oaklee could potentially be coming home the next morning. Nurse T had to all but pry my fingers from Oaklee’s bed to convince me to go home Monday night. I didn’t want to risk not being the one to feed her in these last 12 hours, but I also knew this was my last opportunity to sleep well.

We left around 10:00 pm. I slept like a child leaving for Disney World in the morning.

I called Nurse T again at 2:00 am. Oaklee was still doing it. We woke up in time to get ready for work in case that’s where we were headed, but when I called Nurse T at 7:00 am, our day, our week, our lives forever changed. We notified our bosses we would not be coming into work today. In fact, I was, instead, beginning my 8 week maternity leave.

We ran some errands that morning which included moving breastmilk from our deep freezer to my parent’s to make room for the breastmilk we’d be bringing home from the hospital’s freezer (and leaving approximately 250 oz of breastmilk in a cooler on the floor of my parents garage, which we’d discover days too late and I’d literally cry over). And then we made our final drive to Parking Lot 3, our final ascent to Floor 3 and our final walk to Area 11.

We walked in the room like we owned the place. Oaklee’s nurse, Nurse R, was one who’d been on Team Oaklee from the start and one of the nurses we’d asked to be a primary nurse for Oaklee. She greeted us with a big grin despite the chaos the room was currently in with doctors rounding and special teams coming in to work with a baby who was regressing. Among final reviews from a few different teams, we had to wait until we’d been given Oaklee’s discharge summary. Oaklee was easily passing her final reviews and so we sat, patiently, watching the scene unfold around us, itching to bring our baby home.

Eventually, Dr. D – the doctor who gave us our first neonatal consult, the one who got on board with our two week goal – came over and began our discharge summary. She walked us back through Oaklee’s NICU stay.

  • Oaklee was admitted on June 29 at 2 lb, 12 oz, 15 in.
  • She spent 2 days on the high frequency oscillator, 1 day on the ventilator, 35 days on the CPAP and 13 days on the nasal cannula.
  • She was treated for Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Pulmonary Hypoplasia, Pulmonary Hypertension, a Pneumothorax, Apnea of Prematurity and Chronic Lung Disease.
  • She received Nitric Oxide for 1 day, Curosurf for 1 day and Caffeine Citrate for 45 days.
  • She was diagnosed with Patent Ductus Arteriosus, which resolved by July 3 and Patent Foramen Ovale.
  • Her cranial ultrasounds came back normal.
  • She was treated for Osteopenia for 8 days with Ergocalciferol.
  • She was treated for Sepsis for 3 days with Ampicillin and Gentamicin.
  • She was treated for Indirect Hyperbilirubinemia for a combined 7 days.
  • She was diagnosed with Anemia of Prematurity.
  • She was given multivitamins and Ferrous Sulfate for 48 days.
  • She was given Starter TPN for 1 day and Total Parenteral Nutrition and lipids for 5 days.
  • She was given Prolacta for 36 days, Prolacta Cream for 23 days and Liquid HMF for 32 days.
  • She was being discharged with the active diagnoses of none other than Prematurity, Anemia, Chronic Lung Disease and Patent Foramen Ovale.
  • After 69 days in the NICU, Oaklee was ours to take home… with no NG tube in tow.

When Dr. D concluded, there was nothing left to do but collect our things and go home. After “cutting the cord,” Kevin went to the Nutrition Room to pick up my extra breastmilk and take it to the car. I changed Oaklee into her homecoming outfit and stood there in the busy room, holding my completely cord-free baby for my first time ever. I asked Nurse R if I could leave the room with her while I waited for Kevin to come back. She said yes so, for the first time, I walked out of Area 11 with my baby in my arms. Upon Kevin’s return, we packed up the last of our things, made our way out to our car, and took our baby home.

Cord Free

Our days in the medical mile of Grand Rapids began over Memorial Day weekend. Now, over Labor Day weekend, they ended. And while, yes, June 29 was Oaklee’s birthday, September 5 was the celebration.

Going Home

Oscillator –> Ventilator –> CPAP –> Feeder Grower –> CPAP –> Nasal Cannula –> Feeder Grower –> Discharge

In the stats:
Birth weight: 2lb, 12oz
Last known weight: 6lb 9oz (9.5.17)
Gestational Age: 37 weeks, 3 days
Days in the hospital: 69
Sets of visitors to see Oaklee: 52
Days on High Frequency Oscillator: 2
Days on Ventilator: 1
Days on CPAP: 35
Days on Nasal Cannula: 13