WhyNot, weird, but great news! I hope your little one keeps pulling!
WhyNot, that’s wonderful news!
Did the nurses take the tubeless photos? If so, it’s just so cool that they understand the importance of milestones like this.
That is so awesome! What a little trouper!
WhyNot
I hope and trust all is going well. An article in todays paper recounts the experiences of several families and early arriving little ones.
Former ‘preemies,’ critically illbabies gather for 35th anniversaryof intensive care nursery
Center of page under Health & Fitness. Click on “More,” Register Email Address & a PassWord, to go to full article with pictures in sidebar.
I will be praying for little Caileigh and you.
Persevere,
spingears
YAY FOR CALLEIGH!
Now, <Jim Rose voice> the Scientist in me has got to know!
She BY HAND pulled those things out!?! That is some arm strength not to mention discomfort-endurance! Wow!
Wow, I just found this thread today by doing a search for “premature”.
Why did I do the search? Well, this past Saturday 3/12 my wife also just had an emergency C-Section with our twin girls. Like your baby ours were 23 weeks 6 days old and weighed 1 lb. 4 ounces each.
It was one hell of a weekend. Saturday was both the best day of my life and the worst.
So far so good with both of them even though they are only 40 hours old. They are in great hands with the NICU at NorthMemorial in Minneapolis.
I’m so scared for both of them and just want them to hang in there.
WhyNot, you are very inspiring by posting on here. I hope I can post good news updates soon like you are.
Ally Lynn- 3/12/05 18:00
Emma Ann- 3/12/05 18:01
Hampshire, congratulations and I’m sure we’ll all be thinking of you/praying for you and your two new babies.
WhyNot, I can’t believe a month has gone by! I’m so glad Caileigh is doing well.
Those little hands hardly seem big enough to pull the tube like that. You’re going to have to watch that one when she’s three or four. She seems to have a mind of her own and the strength (or stubbornness) to go after what she wants. I hope the CPAP works for her from here on out. It’s so good to hear that she’s still hanging in there and doing well.
We’re praying for Caleigh at our regular prayer meeting.
And we’ll add Ally and Emma to the list.
Congratulations, Hampshire and Hampshirewife. We keep parents on the prayer list, too.
I can’t believe I missed this thread for a whole month!
Prayers and good wishes to all three babies and their parents.
Ditto for me! I think somone buried it.
Oh, I do hope the Whys have a joyous homecoming with Calleigh very soon. Keep eating, little one. Keep pumping, WhyNot. I can still recall the sound of that breast pump. Oy vey.
I know I’ve said this before but it bears repeating: I just love baby toes.
Goodness, Hampshire, best of luck. As Caileigh’s showing, it’s not without hope. I can’t imagine having two of ‘em to worry about, though. Caileigh and I will be rootin’ for you. While I’m no where near an expert, please feel free to email me (address in profile) if you have any questions or rants or just need someone who’s been there very recently to commiserate with. I’ve found it’s very difficult to find information on babies as little as ours are - there’s lot of info on 28 weekers or older, but 23-24 is very difficult. And, as I’m sure you know by now, there’s a huge difference between 23 and 28 weeks.
Caileigh gave us a bit of a scare over the weekend, which is why I didn’t post. On Saturday, her oxygenation levels kept crashing, she kept stopping her breathing and her heart rate slowed to a near stop. This has happened periodically all along (it’s part of her simply learning to breathe all the time), but it got pretty bad on Saturday, and they even needed to “bag” her (use that hand-held squeezy air thing you see on ER) to get her to breathe again once.
So they did an X-ray and found a spot on her bowel that they didn’t like the look of. So they immediately took her off her milk, put her back on an IV for nutrients and fluids and put her on antibiotics. The fear is something called NEC , an infection which essentially kills part of the intestine.
Three x-rays 12 hours apart have shown the same small spot of what seems to be dilation in the intestine - but it’s gotten no worse. Blood cultures have shown no infection over the intervening 48 hours, so today they stopped the antibiotics and started slowly (2 mL every two hours) feeding her milk again.
So we’re still not sure what that is on the x-ray or if it will prove to be significant or not. But she’s breathing and her heart is beating much better. In fact, yesterday they took her off the CPAP and put her on something called a “Vapotherm”, which is like that clear nasal cannula (clear plastic tube with prongy things that go up the nostrils) that you see on TV shows, but the Vapotherm blows air into her nose at a higher pressure than a regular cannula. It also causes less tissue damage to the nose, because it doesn’t have to be pressed into her face to form a seal. They’ve been able to reduce her oxygen to around 21%, down from the high thirties it was at over the weekend.
WhyNot, you are certainly on a roller coaster here. I’m glad to hear that Caileigh is continuing to progress. We’re praying for her!
And Hampshire, keep us posted. We’ll be praying for you and your family as well.
What’s up with all of these MiniDopers being in such a hurry to get here?
(Whoops, forgot this part):
Yep, that’s our girl. Actually, I’ve noticed that these micropremies actually seem porportionally stronger than the full term newborns I’ve known. She can lift her head from both a stomach and a back position, for example, and roll about half way over, and likes to do push ups and Downward Dog (for those who like yoga.) I suspect all of these will be harder for her to do when she gets a good layer of baby fat and her own body gets too heavy for her to move around so much and the fat rolls impede movement.
I’ve never been intubated, so I don’t know how it feels. It is important to note, however, that a neonatal vent does not have a cuff at the bottom. The cuff in a pediatric or adult vent prevents it from moving up and out easily. It’s deflated before extubation. A cuff in a neonate would damage the developing trachea. So (while I’m not sure about this) it may be that it’s easier to self-extubate for a neonate without that cuff to hold the tube in securely.
Still, we’re all very proud of her. Except that she keeps fingering her feeding tube and her Vapotherm with a look of great concentration. I can almost see her plotting: “hmm…I got that last thing out…maybe if I try it again…” 
SO glad to hear she is doing better! I posted in MPSIMS about domperidone if you are interested. In a nutshell: domperidone is FRIEND.
Fingers remain crossed for Calleigh.
Welcome, Ally and Emma–best of luck to you both (and mom and dad of course).
Whynot -that is good news! One month, already. And that is so weird about the dream…
I am curious-she is now 27 weeks–do they consider her as a 27 weeker, or do they look at her as 23weeks+4 (in terms of developement). I am an RN, but I work with adults. (and I have folks self-extubate all the time… 
).
Hampshire & Hampshirettes Congrats and Good vibes are being sent to you and your wife!
Wow!
All these preemies and twins… what is up with the dopers?
I read this thread every day and I have all these kids Calleigh, Emma, Ally, Audrey, Selena and Tinkleberry in my thoughts.
No wonder I’m so absentminded…the dopers are asplodin’!
Good question, and better worded than when I tried to ask it! My dad (the neonatal Pharm D.) and I had a chat about this, and what he said is that basically 23+4 is not the same as 27 at birth. There’s some things, like NEC, that she’s statistically less prone to than a 27-weeker-at-birth, because her bowels have been working for 4 weeks now and recieving breast milk, which is a great preventative for NEC. There’s other things, like respiratory problems, that she’s at higher risk for, because her lungs didn’t get the optimal environment (the womb) to develop these last four weeks the way a 27-weeker-at-birth’s did.
So while of course the nurses are vigilant in watching for all the problems they can, they have to be aware of different risks for Caileigh and for her 28 week born last Thursday roommate, even though they’re exactly the same age from conception. (And, when I can detach myself emotionally, it’s fascinating watching the both of them and seeing the differences.)
69 hours old and they’re still kicking. Lungs and heartrates are good.
Both girls had their first head ultrasounds today.
Emma is doing great.
Unfortunately Ally is not doing as well. She has a level IV brain hemmorage that they now have to watch very closely. It can cause long term development problems with motor skills and muscules and lead to things like cerebral palsy.
Today has been one of the rough days.
The people working in the NICU have been the best. I’d like to think they all have a special place in heaven reserved for them for all the great work they do.
Thanks for your prayers.
Hold in there, Hamp. We’re pulling for you and the NewHampshires.
[hijack]
I have to confess something. (Our twins were merely 5 weeks premature, relative giants compared to those here.) The one aspect of fatherhood I couldn’t handle was - clipping finger and toenails. I tried. I really tried. But. Their fingers and toes are so small! I was terrified I would clip one of 'em off.
[/hijack]
Still praying.
And I hereby volunteer the SlowTwins for babysitting.