this will be quick. tracee was discharged from the hospital yesterday afternoon which was a huge blessing! we were so glad to get home and begin to rest in our own house and yet torn because we had to leave gavin. we know that he is in the best possible hands as at his size and stature there is nothing tracee and i could possibly do for him. we had a pretty good afternoon here at home and evening - gavin was tolerating his feedings and was receiving his first blood transfusion and all looked ok as of 7:30 when tracee had called. about 11ish we decided to call over to the NICU to check on gavin before bed. when we spoke to the nurse she informed me that he had begun to turn blue and that he must have either dislodged his breathing tube or had a lot of secretions in the way that was blocking it. the oscillator wasn't moving his little belly the way it should. i asked to speak to the dr. after she informed me that he was now returning back to stable. the dr. spoke to us and told us that he had been able to act pretty quickly but that there is no way to tell at this point if any damage had been done to gavin's body. we will have to wait until they do an ultrasound of his brain at about 7 days of life. all kinds of thoughts and emotions began to run through our bodies as we pondered all of this and took it in over the phone. the dr. was so clinical with us calling gavin "the infant." he's our son, he has a name. i was reading in Hebrews 11 this morning about faith. we must believe with conviction that gavin will be healed and that NO damage was done to his body over this!!! "now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1
this is what we stand on this morning! we have to remain confident and sure in what we hope for for gavin. for whatever reason the nights are ridiculously hard for us. things seem to get out of control at night and he has his dips during these times. please pray hard for protection over him and for us.
last night we were hit with another blow in an attempt to shake our faith once again. but tracee and i are holding each other tightly and trusting in the living God who heals and still performs miracles on an ongoing basis!
be in prayer with us and pray that today is a really good day and that his lungs begin to take on a whole new ability. we love him more than anything.
jeramy
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
rain, rain go away
i heard that the weather was nice today. from the window i didn't see any rainclouds or evidence of wet streets, but in here, we were singing that little rhyme "rain rain go away, come again another day." tracee woke me up this morning at 5:50 scared about some twitching she was experiencing due to a mild epileptic condition that she has. she hasn't had any issues in about a year but they are brought on by stress, fatigue and anxiety. hmmmm...have we had any of that? i need to be better about making sure she gets the rest she needs but quite frankly i was so excited to be getting her back to normal that i didn't think much about it. so we shut it down hard core here today - no visitors, and signs posted on the door stating "mom sleeping." her and i both did so. i was able to lay in bed with her today and both of us got the best sleep we have had in weeks. even though we won't be bringing gavin home with us, we are excited to begin to get some things back to normal and having a chance to live again.
it looks like gavin will continue to be on the oscillator for another week or so but they were able to bring down some of his oxygen levels through that machine and still keep his oxygenation rate in the range they want which is exciting for us! he isn't on any more dopamine and was able to get his first feeding today (as i said, a micro amount) and that seemed to go ok. they only introduce food to their little guts at this age to begin to get them ready for some real nutrition later on. tracee was able to provide his feeding! she was able to get a couple of mL's into a bottle but that is all it takes! a couple of nurses were telling me how adorable they thought he was and i agree. :-)
one of the moms in there today was telling me about her baby who is one of gavin's podmates. he is 36.5 weeks old now but was born at 26.2 and was 2.5 pounds. he now weighs 5lb.14oz. although he wasn't really growth restricted like gavin, it is exciting to see how much he has grown and that he is in a position to go home in a few weeks after being in there since January 26th.
gavin remains under the spotlight and his lungs are still hazy on the xrays, but we remain steadfast in the Lord and rejuvenated by those who provide scripture to us and words of encouragement. i pray over his little giraffe incubator everytime i go and visit him. every little detail about him is perfect. God didn't make any mistakes. He is now using gavin to grow tracee and i. my son is ministering to us and that isn't exactly how we had planned it. nevertheless, we desire to just take it day by day. you can specifically pray for his lungs to open up some more and that he will continue to tolerate his feedings. you can pray for his blood pressures and an upcoming blood transfusion that he will most certainly need. you can pray for tracee's improved health as we begin to approach a discharge date and time. you can pray for rest for me and calm in the storms of my family. thank you dear friends and others that we don't know who read, it is an encouragement to us.
God bless you all.
jeramy
it looks like gavin will continue to be on the oscillator for another week or so but they were able to bring down some of his oxygen levels through that machine and still keep his oxygenation rate in the range they want which is exciting for us! he isn't on any more dopamine and was able to get his first feeding today (as i said, a micro amount) and that seemed to go ok. they only introduce food to their little guts at this age to begin to get them ready for some real nutrition later on. tracee was able to provide his feeding! she was able to get a couple of mL's into a bottle but that is all it takes! a couple of nurses were telling me how adorable they thought he was and i agree. :-)
one of the moms in there today was telling me about her baby who is one of gavin's podmates. he is 36.5 weeks old now but was born at 26.2 and was 2.5 pounds. he now weighs 5lb.14oz. although he wasn't really growth restricted like gavin, it is exciting to see how much he has grown and that he is in a position to go home in a few weeks after being in there since January 26th.
gavin remains under the spotlight and his lungs are still hazy on the xrays, but we remain steadfast in the Lord and rejuvenated by those who provide scripture to us and words of encouragement. i pray over his little giraffe incubator everytime i go and visit him. every little detail about him is perfect. God didn't make any mistakes. He is now using gavin to grow tracee and i. my son is ministering to us and that isn't exactly how we had planned it. nevertheless, we desire to just take it day by day. you can specifically pray for his lungs to open up some more and that he will continue to tolerate his feedings. you can pray for his blood pressures and an upcoming blood transfusion that he will most certainly need. you can pray for tracee's improved health as we begin to approach a discharge date and time. you can pray for rest for me and calm in the storms of my family. thank you dear friends and others that we don't know who read, it is an encouragement to us.
God bless you all.
jeramy
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
catching some rays
today was a much better day than yesterday. thank God!! we really needed that and He delivered. today i had a chance to take my dad into the NICU to see gavin and then tracee's sister aimee was able to come by and see him as well. about that time they placed him under a special light to help give him some color back as he has started to become a bit jaundiced. so gavin is catching some rays for the next couple of days under the light. he continues to stay sedated so he remains quiet and content and they can treat him the way they need to without him being too upset. they started a round of antibiotics on him today too as a precautionary measure. my brother josh stopped by this evening and we all went in as that was my first time to see him under the light. he has a cool little pair of "sunglasses" on to keep the light out of his eyes. he is adorable! tracee and i just keep admiring him and saying how beautiful he is. we thought his hair was much darker than it is, but under the light you can really tell that it's a bit lighter. today was exciting for us as they were able to ween gavin off of dopamine (used to help raise his blood pressure)and then he can begin his feedings. they have placed a tube down to his stomach to slowly see how that will go. please pray that he will tolerate this as his little gut is so immature. he is going to get a whopping 1mL every 6 hours of breast milk!
tracee is getting back to normal as she was able to get her IV out today and she is starting to walk around which is awesome. she was able to take a shower a bit ago and i know that makes her feel better. it was special for tracee to get to spend some time in the NICU with gavin all by herself today. she was over there for about 45 minutes with him - so glad she could have some mommy/son time :-) we have been told time and again that this process will be 1 step forward and 2 steps back. i think we are starting to get an understanding of that but we continue to pray and have you pray for more steps forwards than backwards. God doesn't make mistakes and He knew exactly what He was doing in gavin's timeline. we have to continually remind ourselves of that. please pray for the NICU dr's and nurses as they pour into our little one.
thank you to those who have helped with meals, it is so nice to have food brought in and just one less thing to think about. we are still asking that visitors hold off from visiting for another day as tracee tries to get the rest she needs and me too! i have slept very little of late and need to be refreshed for both tracee and gavin. "in the day of trouble i will call to You, for You will answer me. for You are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God." Psalm 86:7,10
go suns!!
jeramy
tracee is getting back to normal as she was able to get her IV out today and she is starting to walk around which is awesome. she was able to take a shower a bit ago and i know that makes her feel better. it was special for tracee to get to spend some time in the NICU with gavin all by herself today. she was over there for about 45 minutes with him - so glad she could have some mommy/son time :-) we have been told time and again that this process will be 1 step forward and 2 steps back. i think we are starting to get an understanding of that but we continue to pray and have you pray for more steps forwards than backwards. God doesn't make mistakes and He knew exactly what He was doing in gavin's timeline. we have to continually remind ourselves of that. please pray for the NICU dr's and nurses as they pour into our little one.
thank you to those who have helped with meals, it is so nice to have food brought in and just one less thing to think about. we are still asking that visitors hold off from visiting for another day as tracee tries to get the rest she needs and me too! i have slept very little of late and need to be refreshed for both tracee and gavin. "in the day of trouble i will call to You, for You will answer me. for You are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God." Psalm 86:7,10
go suns!!
jeramy
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
i'm humbled
i'm trying to write this right now and i have to stop and lean my head back against the wall and stare to the Heavens as i look for composure. i'm choking back tears as i type this very moment. when we discovered that there were complications and issues we would have to overcome, we decided in that moment that we would give God all of the glory and prayed that these circumstances would draw people close to Jesus. we are seeing that unfold before our very eyes. as i check facebook or read the comments on the blog, i am unable to contain myself. scripture tells us that the words of the Lord are sharper than any 2 edged sword, able to separate bone from sinew (paraphrase) and that is absolutely true. i am cut to the core as i read some of the responses and posts from you all. my life will never be the same. i don't have much else to say; other than thank you. please continue to post and to share with us all what God is doing in and through you during this time.
tracee is recovering slowly but surely and that is encouraging and a blessing to me. on another note, my dad called today to let me know that my mom was admitted to scottsdale thompson peak hospital this afternoon with an unknown GI issue but that it could possibly be colitis or a bad bacterial infection. so, i've got both my wife and my mom on morphine in 2 different hospitals at the same time. it really just is what it is. we are praying for 24 hours of good news, taking it 1 day at a time.
jeramy
tracee is recovering slowly but surely and that is encouraging and a blessing to me. on another note, my dad called today to let me know that my mom was admitted to scottsdale thompson peak hospital this afternoon with an unknown GI issue but that it could possibly be colitis or a bad bacterial infection. so, i've got both my wife and my mom on morphine in 2 different hospitals at the same time. it really just is what it is. we are praying for 24 hours of good news, taking it 1 day at a time.
jeramy
4/5/10, 8:11, 11.5, 540 and a bunch of other numbers
gavin james williams was welcomed into the world by a NICU staff of 5, 3 doctors and an anesthesiologist - oh and tracee and i of course. i did my best impression of paparazzi with a flip in one hand and our camera in the other. it was hard to do that and hold tracee's hand at the same time. nevertheless he made his entrance at 8:11pm last night on april 5th. it's an unbelievable experience. to everyone out there that is a parent and has witnessed a c section delivery before you understand. but for us, witnessing it at the minute level that we witnessed it is something else. i remember thinking and probably saying "he's so small." and he is. 1 lb. 3oz. and 11.5 inches long. this kid is awesome. he is doing pretty darn good if i don't say so myself and i was obviously reassured by the doctors and the team of NICU staff that said so themselves. one really cool thing that gavin did was pee all up the respiratory staff member's arm as they laid him on his incubator bed in the OR. this is super special to me because when i was born, just before they weighed me, i peed all over the nurse! like father like son. once they got him all situated in the NICU with making sure his tubes were in the right places, i was able to come out and talk to our families. it was so great having them here as support. i got to ring the baby chime to celebrate gavin's entrance!
after getting everyone updated and showing them some pictures, i went down to visit with tracee. she was at rest and somewhat out of it (understandably) but i was able to show her some pictures and rejoice with her over our new bundle of joy. we prayed and thanked God for him. i said goodbye to our families and sent them in to say goodnight to tracee. we were privaleged to have bill and amy cavness with us. they continue to support and provide counsel to tracee and i and we love them very much.
after they all left i went down to check on gavin one last time and wish him a goodnight too. since they were pretty happy with his vitals and numbers we are pretty happy.
i just want to drive home the continued plea for prayers for gavin. the first week is very critical in terms of potential brain bleeds and other complications that might come up. the doctor came in today (one of the neonatologists) and explained what is going on for gavin. babies can sometimes have a honeymoon stage for the first couple of days where they appear to be doing better than they are. we STAND FIRM in God's provision and TRUST that He will continue to cup gavin in His hands and get him through this most critical time. pray for his health and safety!! pray fervently friends. tracee and i have been brought to tears so many times over posts to the blog that you have left and for messages on fb, via text and emails.
"we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." 2 Corinthians 2:8-9.
more to come.
jeramy
after getting everyone updated and showing them some pictures, i went down to visit with tracee. she was at rest and somewhat out of it (understandably) but i was able to show her some pictures and rejoice with her over our new bundle of joy. we prayed and thanked God for him. i said goodbye to our families and sent them in to say goodnight to tracee. we were privaleged to have bill and amy cavness with us. they continue to support and provide counsel to tracee and i and we love them very much.
after they all left i went down to check on gavin one last time and wish him a goodnight too. since they were pretty happy with his vitals and numbers we are pretty happy.
i just want to drive home the continued plea for prayers for gavin. the first week is very critical in terms of potential brain bleeds and other complications that might come up. the doctor came in today (one of the neonatologists) and explained what is going on for gavin. babies can sometimes have a honeymoon stage for the first couple of days where they appear to be doing better than they are. we STAND FIRM in God's provision and TRUST that He will continue to cup gavin in His hands and get him through this most critical time. pray for his health and safety!! pray fervently friends. tracee and i have been brought to tears so many times over posts to the blog that you have left and for messages on fb, via text and emails.
"we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." 2 Corinthians 2:8-9.
more to come.
jeramy
Monday, April 5, 2010
7:30pm
baby gavin is on his way in less than an hour. please pray for the Lord's provision and for the perfect care that we know He will provide.
we are getting tracee all prepped now and i'm just about to get a bite to eat and get my mind right before we head in. the nurses are keeping tracee's spirits up and i'm doing my best as well. parenthood is upon us and then we will begin our next part of the journey: recouperating tracee and nurturing baby gavin.
thank you to all -
jeramy
we are getting tracee all prepped now and i'm just about to get a bite to eat and get my mind right before we head in. the nurses are keeping tracee's spirits up and i'm doing my best as well. parenthood is upon us and then we will begin our next part of the journey: recouperating tracee and nurturing baby gavin.
thank you to all -
jeramy
the question
"to be or not to be, that is the question" as we have all heard it.
well for us it has become to deliver or not to deliver: that truly is the question. right now we have some medical debate over whether it is time or not and it continues to put tracee and i back to placing our hope and trust in the Lord. baby gavin scored another 8of8 on his biophysical profile today. he had the hiccups on the ultrasound :-). both tracee and he have been lethargic due to the medicines she has been on as we balance the progression of gavin in the womb and the preeclampsia in tracee. this is so hard for us, i won't even begin to sugar coat the ups and downs we have experienced for several weeks now and especially in the last week since we have been in here. we know that your thoughts and prayers continue to go out to us and for us and we are forever grateful for that. our thought has been that we feel privelaged that this circumstance has caused so many people to cry out to God and to pray for us and for gavin. we know that God has purpose in all He does and if people have drawn closer to Him in this time, amen. we are tired. from air mattresses that continue to deflate in the middle of the night to tracee trying to find a comfortable place being hooked up to any and everything, makes it quite challenging.
the weather looks like it's nice out there but i wouldn't know. neither tracee nor i have been outside since saturday. if i never hear another blood pressure monitor beep or an IV pump chirp when it's empty, I'll be ok. obviously you can sense some frustrations; it's just me being real.
if there are things that i'm not addressing or any questions or concerns that you might have, please leave us a comment on the blog and i'll do my best to address it. like so many psalmists did, they rattled off complaints and frustrations and then always made sure to end with acknowledgement of the Lord. i will do the same. it's so nice to know that we have a paraclete, a helper who goes before us and prepares a path and defends us in our time of need. He hears the cries of His children and He fights for us.
jeramy
well for us it has become to deliver or not to deliver: that truly is the question. right now we have some medical debate over whether it is time or not and it continues to put tracee and i back to placing our hope and trust in the Lord. baby gavin scored another 8of8 on his biophysical profile today. he had the hiccups on the ultrasound :-). both tracee and he have been lethargic due to the medicines she has been on as we balance the progression of gavin in the womb and the preeclampsia in tracee. this is so hard for us, i won't even begin to sugar coat the ups and downs we have experienced for several weeks now and especially in the last week since we have been in here. we know that your thoughts and prayers continue to go out to us and for us and we are forever grateful for that. our thought has been that we feel privelaged that this circumstance has caused so many people to cry out to God and to pray for us and for gavin. we know that God has purpose in all He does and if people have drawn closer to Him in this time, amen. we are tired. from air mattresses that continue to deflate in the middle of the night to tracee trying to find a comfortable place being hooked up to any and everything, makes it quite challenging.
the weather looks like it's nice out there but i wouldn't know. neither tracee nor i have been outside since saturday. if i never hear another blood pressure monitor beep or an IV pump chirp when it's empty, I'll be ok. obviously you can sense some frustrations; it's just me being real.
if there are things that i'm not addressing or any questions or concerns that you might have, please leave us a comment on the blog and i'll do my best to address it. like so many psalmists did, they rattled off complaints and frustrations and then always made sure to end with acknowledgement of the Lord. i will do the same. it's so nice to know that we have a paraclete, a helper who goes before us and prepares a path and defends us in our time of need. He hears the cries of His children and He fights for us.
jeramy
Sunday, April 4, 2010
poked and prodded
so i am pretty sure that this is a cattle phrase, however that is exactly what tracee has been going through over the past 15 hours. her symptoms with the preeclampsia took a bit of a turn late last night and her blood pressure started moving north of 200/100. the concern for tracee's health pushed the dr's forward with a number of medicines to combat the high blood pressure and to slow down what was, in that moment, "a possible imminent delivery." our families rushed down to join us sometime after 10:30 and we hung out until about 11:30 to find out that delivery was now being pushed to the back burner as the medicine had brought her blood pressure back in line. the medicine worked so well in fact that her blood pressure did a complete 180 and was now on the low end of the spectrum. she was put back on constant fetal monitoring as they anticipated that the medicine would make gavin sleepy and lethargic, just as it did to tracee. i am so proud of tracee and the little trooper she has been in all of this to lay in that bed and take the needles and the monitoring and the medicines, etc. all in the name of protecting our family's health. we continue to covet your prayers as we celebrate Easter Sunday here in the hospital. one of the doctors from phoenix perinatal came in with another doctor today to discuss what had occured with tracee and baby over the last bit of time. they seemed relieved to see us in the position we are in now and thankful that they didn't have to pull the trigger and deliver last night. we are so thankful for each and every morning that comes as it spells a new day and one more day that gavin gets to spend in the womb. i prayed that God would place His hand on tracee and that He would hold gavin in His hands at that very moment and i feel that He delivered in that moment. the dr's explained to us this morning that things can change very quickly as we witnessed last night. we are trying to do some quick visits with family today but from here on out we are asking that no one stop by and visit. tracee and gavin need their rest and we need to leave room for the dr's and the nurses to do what they need to do.
we love and thank you all for continuing to read the blog and pass it along and keeping us in your prayers. songs come to my mind each and every day. this morning: God is good all the time, He put a song of praise in this heart of mine. He sustains.
jeramy
we love and thank you all for continuing to read the blog and pass it along and keeping us in your prayers. songs come to my mind each and every day. this morning: God is good all the time, He put a song of praise in this heart of mine. He sustains.
jeramy
Saturday, April 3, 2010
the NICU
jeramy here. a couple of days ago we had a chance to visit the NICU and meet and greet the team and get a tour of what's to come. one of the neonatologists was there to greet us along with one of the NICU's chief nurses. the neonatologist that met us had also done our neonatal consultation on tuesday and gave us a pretty good idea of what to expect for babies born at 26 weeks. things like their sucking reflexes haven't really kicked in yet and the front of their eyes are there but the nerves that reach out to attach to the retina have yet to do so and that will still take some time.
the NICU is broken into 5 different pods and there are 4 beds to a pod. they walked us down to the first pod to give us a glimpse of what the "bigger" babies look like. these babies are about 4-5 pounds or so. as you move further down the line, the babies get smaller and smaller. God becomes even more real in that moment as you comprehend how He cares for the little ones as the Scriptures describe.
we felt very confident in the NICU and know that gavin will get excellent care. there are so many people in there and they all have a specific job. these guys know what they are doing. the neonatologist loves his job and didn't skip a beat when explaining things which made tracee and i extremely confident. i might have mentioned this before but gavin's "go home" date will be based off of his original due date which is july 6th. so you all can do the math but we are looking at about a 3 month stay in the NICU for gavin. can this really be happening? i say that because when we stop and really think about it, it seems so surreal as if it isn't really happening to us.
we keep praying towards april 13th (28 weeks) and that he would put on some more weight between now and then. we covet all of your continued prayers and "we wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. in Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name." Psalm 33:20-21.
please continue to read the blog and pass it along to others. while we love to get visitors we need to limit visit times to about 20-25 minutes and please no medical questions about what is going on as we will do our best to provide all of that information here. that way you guys can bring as much normalcy inside this hospital room as possible. we love you and thank you.
jeramy
the NICU is broken into 5 different pods and there are 4 beds to a pod. they walked us down to the first pod to give us a glimpse of what the "bigger" babies look like. these babies are about 4-5 pounds or so. as you move further down the line, the babies get smaller and smaller. God becomes even more real in that moment as you comprehend how He cares for the little ones as the Scriptures describe.
we felt very confident in the NICU and know that gavin will get excellent care. there are so many people in there and they all have a specific job. these guys know what they are doing. the neonatologist loves his job and didn't skip a beat when explaining things which made tracee and i extremely confident. i might have mentioned this before but gavin's "go home" date will be based off of his original due date which is july 6th. so you all can do the math but we are looking at about a 3 month stay in the NICU for gavin. can this really be happening? i say that because when we stop and really think about it, it seems so surreal as if it isn't really happening to us.
we keep praying towards april 13th (28 weeks) and that he would put on some more weight between now and then. we covet all of your continued prayers and "we wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. in Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name." Psalm 33:20-21.
please continue to read the blog and pass it along to others. while we love to get visitors we need to limit visit times to about 20-25 minutes and please no medical questions about what is going on as we will do our best to provide all of that information here. that way you guys can bring as much normalcy inside this hospital room as possible. we love you and thank you.
jeramy
Thursday, April 1, 2010
getting back online
so i, jeramy/hubby have been designated to take this part of our journey over at this point to give tracee some time to continue to relax and focus on what is most important right now: taking care of baby gavin and tracee.
as a rule of thumb moving forward we are asking that each and every person read our blog first before coming to visit. when people are here we aren't going to answer medical related questions as it is too much to repeat and re-repeat ourselves over and over again regarding the health of tracee and gavin. please pass this blog on to any and everyone who would like to know our status and this will serve as the most up to date information and a way that people can continue to pray for us and love on us.
let me start where we left off - or if not, this is the best you guys are gonna get ;-):
monday afternoon we had our scheduled ultrasound at phoenix perinatal. earlier before this appointment at 4pm, tracee had gone over to see her o.b. and get her urine checked as well as her blood pressure. tracee called me just before 4 to check on my status as i was heading over from work. i met her there and we did our "very regular" weekly ultrasound. the doctor came in (who happens to be tracee's o.b's brother-in-law) and he went over everything with us. he let us know that he started phoenix perinatal back in the day and he was responsible for hiring most of the dr's. who are there. that was very reassuring for us. gavin's biophysical profile was 8 out of 8 again (measures his movement/breathing/fluid levels, etc) go gavin! his recommendation was to do ultrasounds on monday's and thursday's moving forward and continue to chart gavin's growth and do his biophysical profiles to make sure all was well with him. just as all 3 of us had been in agreement about what the plan would be, tracee brought up the fact that her doctor's assistant had called to tell her to mention to the dr. doing our ultrasound that her urine was at a "3+." once tracee gave the perinatologist this information his demeanor changed and he said "oh, ok. well that changes everything then." based on what he now knew, tracee's protein levels in her urine were on the rise and that was a major symptom of preeclampsia. he described preeclampsia like that of a snowstorm. it can come on and be upon you before you even now it. with that information he discussed things with tracee's doctor and decided to admit tracee to scottsdale shea hospital and we have been here ever since. the initial plan was to do a 24 hour urine screen to make sure that they weren't getting false results on what the urine was telling them. about 5:30pm we got over to the hospital and by about 8pm she had begun her testing. in addition to that they hooked gavin up to a fetal monitor to track his heart rate and monitor for contractions and tracee's blood pressure. tracee's doctor came in late that night about 11pm and discussed with us that her thoughts were that this baby was going to be coming to us sooner rather than later and that at this point tracee being released after 24 hours wasn't going to be an option any longer. bummer! however, we knew that this was the best possible place for her to be as we wouldn't have the stress of wondering whether he was doing good or not from home.
that first night was a rough night of sleep. tracee had about 12 pillows on her bed trying to get comfortable. the nurses kept coming in to put her back on her back as they kept losing gavin on the monitor. being stuck on your back and pregnant in an uncomfortable labor and delivery bed was not a good mix. it wasn't any better for me either. i slept on this "slightly padded" bench/couch and got about 2.5 hours of sleep.
tuesday was filled with continued monitoring and blood draws and of course complete bed rest. the dr's and nurses continue to evaluate the best plan of attack for keeping tracee and gavin safe at the same time. tracee's doctor was in on her day off and explained that gavin had done some funky stuff for about a 4 minute period with his heart rate and so she wanted to continue to monitor him to make sure they didn't see anything else like that or a continued pattern that may warrant delivery. continued prayer!
we were greeted with lots of visitors on tuesday and tracee felt compelled to entertain them all and be as good of a host as she possibly could. not only is she doing that for gavin but trying for everyone else. as you can possibly imagine that came to a head and tracee's emotions finally got the best of her in front of most of our family here. that was the signal to shut it down for the night and get to bed about 9pm. i got smart and opted for a blow up air mattress! both of us slept much better - probably tracee even moreso with the ambien. she always gets the good stuff!
bright and early on wednesday morning, tracee's doctor was at our bedside about 6am to let tracee know that the urine results were back: above normal is anything greater than 300 in terms of protein in the urine and she was at a 3815. ok, severe preeclampsia was the continued diagnosis and basically that was what they were now determining was a big contributing factor to gavin's growth restriction and some of the blood flow problems he has been having with his cord. at least at this point we had somewhat of a diagnosis as up until this point gavin had been labeled "a mystery."
Good news on her doctor's visit though - gavin's heart and activity had looked great and her blood pressures had come down and were much improved so tracee was taken off of constant monitoring for gavin and she was now allowed to take a once a day wheelchair trip around the hospital and enjoy a little more freedom! :-)
the nursing staff in addition to the doctors have been amazing and as it turns out, rachel, our 7pm to 7am nurse, is a Christian and prays for us and for baby gavin. thank you Lord for your guidance and provision. we visited the NICU for our tour about 11:30 but i will write about that in a separate post. we were greeted with our first meal being brought to us here in the hospital by some dear friends. thank you! we had a few more visitors last night but in a very relaxed environment. i stepped out for a bit with the boys and grabbed a beer and was able to relax a bit away from the hospital. mel and krystal stayed here with tracee and i know she really enjoyed that time with good girlfriends.
they continue to monitor gavin once every 12 hours to see how he is doing and every time they take him off after about 20-30 minutes as they are seeing everything they want to see!! yeah!! tracee has been doing hydrotherapy in the jetted tub here and continues to take it easy and is doing well. we are so thankful and know that God is walking with us step by step and has a plan. "the Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth." Psalm 145:18.
today has been a pretty uneventful day and we will look to do our wheelchair run here soon and hopefully get her a few minutes of fresh air outside. oh yeah, gavin had his ultrasound here in the hospital this morning and he continues to look great and got a 100% (8 out of 8) again on his biophysical profile test!! that's my boy!
we are turning our focus and our prayers towards getting gavin to 28 weeks as that is a big milestone for little babies in terms of long term health and viability, etc. fyi - that day is april 13th. save the date. and then when we get there, we will give you a new one. :-)
that's it for now (yeah, i know i already wrote a short story novel) but we wanted to try and get everyone caught up. remember to continue to check back and direct everyone to this as the source of information. we love you all.
jeramy
as a rule of thumb moving forward we are asking that each and every person read our blog first before coming to visit. when people are here we aren't going to answer medical related questions as it is too much to repeat and re-repeat ourselves over and over again regarding the health of tracee and gavin. please pass this blog on to any and everyone who would like to know our status and this will serve as the most up to date information and a way that people can continue to pray for us and love on us.
let me start where we left off - or if not, this is the best you guys are gonna get ;-):
monday afternoon we had our scheduled ultrasound at phoenix perinatal. earlier before this appointment at 4pm, tracee had gone over to see her o.b. and get her urine checked as well as her blood pressure. tracee called me just before 4 to check on my status as i was heading over from work. i met her there and we did our "very regular" weekly ultrasound. the doctor came in (who happens to be tracee's o.b's brother-in-law) and he went over everything with us. he let us know that he started phoenix perinatal back in the day and he was responsible for hiring most of the dr's. who are there. that was very reassuring for us. gavin's biophysical profile was 8 out of 8 again (measures his movement/breathing/fluid levels, etc) go gavin! his recommendation was to do ultrasounds on monday's and thursday's moving forward and continue to chart gavin's growth and do his biophysical profiles to make sure all was well with him. just as all 3 of us had been in agreement about what the plan would be, tracee brought up the fact that her doctor's assistant had called to tell her to mention to the dr. doing our ultrasound that her urine was at a "3+." once tracee gave the perinatologist this information his demeanor changed and he said "oh, ok. well that changes everything then." based on what he now knew, tracee's protein levels in her urine were on the rise and that was a major symptom of preeclampsia. he described preeclampsia like that of a snowstorm. it can come on and be upon you before you even now it. with that information he discussed things with tracee's doctor and decided to admit tracee to scottsdale shea hospital and we have been here ever since. the initial plan was to do a 24 hour urine screen to make sure that they weren't getting false results on what the urine was telling them. about 5:30pm we got over to the hospital and by about 8pm she had begun her testing. in addition to that they hooked gavin up to a fetal monitor to track his heart rate and monitor for contractions and tracee's blood pressure. tracee's doctor came in late that night about 11pm and discussed with us that her thoughts were that this baby was going to be coming to us sooner rather than later and that at this point tracee being released after 24 hours wasn't going to be an option any longer. bummer! however, we knew that this was the best possible place for her to be as we wouldn't have the stress of wondering whether he was doing good or not from home.
that first night was a rough night of sleep. tracee had about 12 pillows on her bed trying to get comfortable. the nurses kept coming in to put her back on her back as they kept losing gavin on the monitor. being stuck on your back and pregnant in an uncomfortable labor and delivery bed was not a good mix. it wasn't any better for me either. i slept on this "slightly padded" bench/couch and got about 2.5 hours of sleep.
tuesday was filled with continued monitoring and blood draws and of course complete bed rest. the dr's and nurses continue to evaluate the best plan of attack for keeping tracee and gavin safe at the same time. tracee's doctor was in on her day off and explained that gavin had done some funky stuff for about a 4 minute period with his heart rate and so she wanted to continue to monitor him to make sure they didn't see anything else like that or a continued pattern that may warrant delivery. continued prayer!
we were greeted with lots of visitors on tuesday and tracee felt compelled to entertain them all and be as good of a host as she possibly could. not only is she doing that for gavin but trying for everyone else. as you can possibly imagine that came to a head and tracee's emotions finally got the best of her in front of most of our family here. that was the signal to shut it down for the night and get to bed about 9pm. i got smart and opted for a blow up air mattress! both of us slept much better - probably tracee even moreso with the ambien. she always gets the good stuff!
bright and early on wednesday morning, tracee's doctor was at our bedside about 6am to let tracee know that the urine results were back: above normal is anything greater than 300 in terms of protein in the urine and she was at a 3815. ok, severe preeclampsia was the continued diagnosis and basically that was what they were now determining was a big contributing factor to gavin's growth restriction and some of the blood flow problems he has been having with his cord. at least at this point we had somewhat of a diagnosis as up until this point gavin had been labeled "a mystery."
Good news on her doctor's visit though - gavin's heart and activity had looked great and her blood pressures had come down and were much improved so tracee was taken off of constant monitoring for gavin and she was now allowed to take a once a day wheelchair trip around the hospital and enjoy a little more freedom! :-)
the nursing staff in addition to the doctors have been amazing and as it turns out, rachel, our 7pm to 7am nurse, is a Christian and prays for us and for baby gavin. thank you Lord for your guidance and provision. we visited the NICU for our tour about 11:30 but i will write about that in a separate post. we were greeted with our first meal being brought to us here in the hospital by some dear friends. thank you! we had a few more visitors last night but in a very relaxed environment. i stepped out for a bit with the boys and grabbed a beer and was able to relax a bit away from the hospital. mel and krystal stayed here with tracee and i know she really enjoyed that time with good girlfriends.
they continue to monitor gavin once every 12 hours to see how he is doing and every time they take him off after about 20-30 minutes as they are seeing everything they want to see!! yeah!! tracee has been doing hydrotherapy in the jetted tub here and continues to take it easy and is doing well. we are so thankful and know that God is walking with us step by step and has a plan. "the Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth." Psalm 145:18.
today has been a pretty uneventful day and we will look to do our wheelchair run here soon and hopefully get her a few minutes of fresh air outside. oh yeah, gavin had his ultrasound here in the hospital this morning and he continues to look great and got a 100% (8 out of 8) again on his biophysical profile test!! that's my boy!
we are turning our focus and our prayers towards getting gavin to 28 weeks as that is a big milestone for little babies in terms of long term health and viability, etc. fyi - that day is april 13th. save the date. and then when we get there, we will give you a new one. :-)
that's it for now (yeah, i know i already wrote a short story novel) but we wanted to try and get everyone caught up. remember to continue to check back and direct everyone to this as the source of information. we love you all.
jeramy
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