Dane has a PDA (no, not a blackberry)

Sometimes I feel like life goes two steps forward with one step back.... We found out today that Dane has a PDA (a patent ductus arteriosus). This is a relatively common congenital defect where the ductus arteriosus fails to close after birth. Prior to birth, it functions as a shunt allowing blood to flow from the pulmonary artery to the aortic arch, allowing the blood to bypass the lungs (which are not filled with oxygen prior to birth). Usually, after the baby is born this shunt naturally closes and forces blood to go to the lungs. If it doesn't close, as in Dane's case, deoxygenated blood bypasses the lungs and goes back to the systemic arterial circulation. This decreases the amount of oxygen available to the baby's body. The neonatologist believes that this decreased oxygen is why Dane was breathing harder than everyone would have liked yesterday (which caused them to put him on the high-flow room air by nasal cannula). The neonatologist found that Dane had a PDA by hearing a heart murmur and confirmed his suspicion with an echocardiogram. The treatment is often quite straightforward, using 3 doses of indomethacin spaced 12 hours apart, which causes the shunt to close. (Indomethacin is a NSAID, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, like aspirin or ibuprofen.) To give this medication, Dane got another IV (this time in his other arm) so that today he had both arms protected with boards - I thought he looked like he had little wings. Also, this was the first day that Dane got to wear clothes (vs. just his diaper and being wrapped in blankets)! Very exciting (more for us than him, I assume). Anyway, we thought it was fun that he was wearing an outfit (even if it was very large on him).


Also, Larissa thought it was great that I had the chance to change Dane's diaper today (Larissa hasn't yet done that...I would just like to point out that tomorrow will be her turn). Yippie...I imagine there will be many more chances to do that again.

This is another situation where I'm glad to have some medical background. I trust the doctors, but knowing that this is somewhat common and very treatable...it really helps. Feeling like we move two steps forward and one back can be frustrating and scary, but so far we've seen things working out. Keep praying for all three of us. Thanks! :)

Madison visitor!

Monday, we were so blessed to have our great friend Katy come all the way from Madison to visit for a couple hours. We had a beautiful day for it and enjoyed some encouraging time of chatting and introducing baby Dane to his Aunt Katy. When we got there, Dane had needed a bit of assistance breathing again overnight, so he had a nasal cannula in addition to his feeding tube. It's hard to see such a tiny guy with all the tubes and wires attached, but our doctor explained to me that it wasn't a big deal. Dane was still breathing room air (so he wasn't at a point where he needed extra oxygen, just a little push to get enough into his lungs), and it didn't mean anything negative for his health. He's still doing great and even managing to gain weight most days (granted in tiny increments!). They've upped his feedings every day and even added a fat emulsion, so he can start filling out his very lanky frame. One of Katy's observations was that he has incredibly long fingers and toes. He is going to be one tall dude from the looks of it!
Dane loves to be held and is so calm and content when we snuggle him close. Katy, Mark and I spent an hour or so enjoying all his fun little faces and squirming and then Katy had to get back on the road. It was so nice to catch up and introduce them to each other!

Home, for two of us

On Sunday evening, Mark and I finally convinced the doctors that I needed to get home to start truly healing. One of the ironies of being in the hospital is that being woken up every 2 hours for blood draws (14 needle sticks in 4 days for me), blood pressures and various other poking and prodding didn't allow me to heal. They estimate that it could take up to 6 weeks for my body to finally start regulating again. One of the main problems with that is that as a light sleeper to begin with, I got maybe 10 hours of sleep total in the four days I was there - not good for my mental or physical state. So, Mark, my hero, was able to convince the doc that he'd take over my BPs and medicine dispensing if they'd let me go home to my own bed. He's been calling that information in a couple times daily, and I feel 1000 times better trying to recuperate here in my own clothes than in the hospital. Thank God for a husband who can take care of me this way - I'm blessed! We knew the MD would come in handy some day, just not so soon:)

One of the scary things that you don't hear very often when people are discussing pregnancy is that your body can actually become "addicted" to the hormones your body's been producing since you became pregnant. While the doctors, seeing all the swelling, told me my body was allergic to these hormones, I also became addicted to them. Hence, since I gave birth on Thursday, I'd had really bad shakes, like I was coming off of drugs. It was a scary experience, but once again, I'm so thankful I had Mark to explain this stuff to me so I didn't continue to think I was having a heart attack! I can't imagine a better person to go through all this with. And it only makes it that much easier that he's still able to joke around about things, not letting me focus too much on the difficulty of being separated from Dane for the first time in 7 months. It's hard to be sitting on the couch at night with Mark and feel like we're not quite complete any more. I'm so glad that he's being cared for as well as he is, but man, is it hard to be away from our little guy! We can just keep thanking God that he's doing so well, and it's likely we'll get to finally bring him home in a few weeks!
In the meantime, if you think about it, we're just asking people to pray for his safety and a return to health for me, so once the babe is ready to come home, we're ready for him! Thanks to everyone who's been praying the whole time - we're lucky to have all of you!

A family visit

Throughout the whole process, we have been super lucky to have our families visiting from Wisconsin. The Anderson family made the very speedy trip down on Thursday night and the Moyer family came down the next day staying until Sunday afternoon. The Andersons brought me a beautiful bouquet in a little red wagon, so in the 24 hours until I was allowed to actually see Dane for the first time, I got to dream about all the fun we'd have playing together in the future! We also got some exciting news that Mark's brother Steve is considering NIU in Dekalb, IL, for law school. This would be awesome, as it's only a 50 minute trip from Wheaton to where he'd be for the next three years! Yay for the possibility of having family a bit closer!

We came home to a house that was cleaner than it's been since we moved in, probably ever. 2 lasagna's in the freezer, cake and ice cream in the fridge, a vacuumed, dusted house with fresh sheets on the bed made the transition home much easier for me than it would have been given the state the house was in before we left! (that's what I get for having a health inspector for a father and an excellent cook for a mom) Thanks, Grandparents for all your help and care while we were slightly busy with other things! We even got to talk to my sister, Bethany, a number of times this weekend, despite her being in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She's on a mission trip for a year, which is tough for everyone, but thanks to Skype, we've been able to keep her very in the loop as far as all the changes go. We're looking forward to having her closer to home again as well, but until then, thank God for Skype!
We feel very lucky that Dane will have such a fun and loving family to come home to!

NICU Tanning Beds

Dane had a high bilirubin level thismorning on his blood tests. They will be putting him under the lights for the next couple days, based on the bilirubin levels. At least he gets to wear some attractive eye protection.

improvements

Dane got off of the bubble CPAP this morning! He is now breathing on his own with no supplemental oxygen. As an added bonus, this means we can see his face a lot better. He sure is cute. And so much hair!






Dane was a bit camera-shy, wanting to hide his face...


Dane holding mom's thumb.


Dane holding dad's wedding ring...he's so small!

NICU

After delivery, Dane was immediately brought to the Central Dupage Hospital NICU. We were told that he would probably be there until he was technically "full term," so for the next 3-6 weeks. He was initially intubated but, after receiving one dose of surfactant to help with breathing, he was quickly moved from the ventilator to a bubble CPAP that allowed him to breathe but provided positive pressure in his airways to help keep the airways open. He was started on tube feedings (the tube going into his mouth) and had several monitors on his tiny body to measure heartrate, respiration rate, and body temperature. He got his own tiny apartment to live in (the incubator), which helped him keep a constant body temperature.

Dane makes quite an entrance

At 6am on Thursday, March 26th, 2009, Larissa started to feel contractions. They weren't extremely painful but they were coming every 3 minutes. By this time, I (Mark) was already at the hospital for the day. When she called me, the contractions had been going on already for about 2 hours and I encouraged her to call the hospital. They said that because the contractions weren't very painful that she should call back if she was unable to breathe easily through the contractions. While the contractions didn't get any more painful, they didn't stop, either. At 1pm (when the contractions had been going on for 7 hours), Larissa called the hospital again and they told her to come in and get checked out. After going in, the told her that 1) she had preeclampsia and 2) she was going to be admitted overnight for observation. At this point, I left the hospital and drove (slightly over the speed limit) to her. When I got there, the OB doctor was just determining that not only did Larissa have preeclampsia but she was also in real labor and would be having the baby that night. We called our parents to let them know. My parents and brother probably made a world speed record in traveling from Madison to Wheaton. Larissa got an epidural and, after that, didn't really have any pain problems. She is sure that the last weeks leading up to the delivery were much harder than the delivery itself. At 11:22pm on Thursday, March 26th, 2009, Dane Everett Anderson was born. He was 32 6/7 weeks into the pregnancy. Because of this, he was quickly whisked away to the NICU.