This blog has several purposes mainly to help mom and dad keep all of the events that have been occurring in order and to help us remember all of the events that have been unfolding over the past couple of days. Also, it has been difficult to keep family informed because there are usually several new updates on the baby’s situation every several of hours.
I would like to say that Sam did enjoy a healthy pregnancy and that the baby’s health overall is great. She is a strong little girl and is cooping with everything very well.
Hannah was born with an emergency C-Section because every time mother would contract her heart rate would drop. After about 7 hours of being closely monitored the doctor did order that the do C-Section. Baby girl was born at 4:16 pm on September the 8th, 2009. She was 21 inches long and 8 lbs and 4 oz. She had difficulties crying and didn’t make her first noise until 4:18, that was a wonderful noise to hear. She had quite a bit of fluid still in her lungs that she was trying to get out. We were told that when a baby is born with a C-Section that they don’t have the opportunity to have the compression on their body from a natural birth and then a sudden decompression which helps remove more of the fluid from the body. That was only the start of several pieces of information that we started to hear.
It was another 7 hours before mom was able to hold her new precious new born baby. Baby girl was stable enough that they brought her in the room to see if she would nurse. We kept her for two hours and decided that we should get some rest at 1:30 in the morning. The reason why they had kept her in the nursery for so long was because she kept on going blue when ever she cried. They had originally said that it was caused by a blockage in her nasal passage, but we later learned that it was due to a cardiovascular abnormality.
Around 11:00 am baby girl had her hearing tested. She did not pass. They say this is normal for newborns not to pass their first hearing exam. They will give her another test before she is discharged form the hospital.
3:30 pm I went to the nursery to see when baby girl was going to have her CT scan. It happened that when I showed up there they were receiving a phone call from the radiologist saying that they were ready for her to come down. I was able to accompany her to the radiology room and wait outside while they were taking an “x-ray” of her facial bone structure. We had a visit from the ear nose and throat doctor at around 6:30 pm. He talked to us about the results from the CT scan. He was able to determine that she as something called choanal atresia. Everything was sounding very promising because what baby girl choanal atresia can be corrected through a couple simple surgeries. And then we heard the very dreaded word “but”… but there was something more serous with her heart he told us. We had originally been told that they had found a heart murmur during her routine check-up right after she was born. During all of this the NICU doctor had ordered an echo cardiogram. They took a more in-depth look at her heart and how it was functioning. The ear nose and throat doctor wasn’t able to tell us more than that they had found more complications.
Shortly after the ear nose and throat doctor we were able to go into the nursery to see baby girl. The NICU doctor was in the nursery to give us the latest and greatest on our baby girl. This was probably the most difficult information to handle, especially for daddy. We were told that she had a “double outlet right ventricle” meaning that she was going to have heart surgery. What is happening is that there is one ventricle that is on the right side of the heart that needs to be on the left side and because of it the blood traveling through that artery is bypassing the lungs and therefore not receiving the oxygen that the body needs. We still have yet to talk to the cardiologist but if this is the case then she will definitely need heart surgery. This was by far the most difficult news for me to handle and it took me a while to cope with the news.
When we heard about the heart problem we were able to spend some time with baby girl for a while in the nursery before she was admitted to the NICU. At this time we felt it important to give her a name and that is when we decided on Hannah Teed. This was our first name that we had liked, but since then we have thought of several other names and narrowed it down to Anabelle, Isabella, or Alexis. But after learning about what she is about to go through we felt it appropriate to go with our first impression. In Hebrew Hannah means, Grace of God.
After learning about everything that Hannah needs to have done on her and having many more exams to be done on her I would like to tell everyone that Sam is doing great. She is extremely calm and continues to tell me how much peace she feels for Hannah and her situation. We have been expressing our feeling to one another quite regularly and we are trying not to keep anything bottled up inside during this time. Sam is a great strength in my life and she is an amazing women. She is entirely optimistic about Hannah and I am blessed to have her in my life. I really do appreciate all of the prays that people are offering for our behalf and we do feel comforted as we are in the stage of gathering information.
Thank you for all the support, flowers, visits and words of encouragement. I know we are in the right place for Hannah to receive the proper care.
Around 11:00 am baby girl had her hearing tested. She did not pass. They say this is normal for newborns not to pass their first hearing exam. They will give her another test before she is discharged form the hospital.
3:30 pm I went to the nursery to see when baby girl was going to have her CT scan. It happened that when I showed up there they were receiving a phone call from the radiologist saying that they were ready for her to come down. I was able to accompany her to the radiology room and wait outside while they were taking an “x-ray” of her facial bone structure. We had a visit from the ear nose and throat doctor at around 6:30 pm. He talked to us about the results from the CT scan. He was able to determine that she as something called choanal atresia. Everything was sounding very promising because what baby girl choanal atresia can be corrected through a couple simple surgeries. And then we heard the very dreaded word “but”… but there was something more serous with her heart he told us. We had originally been told that they had found a heart murmur during her routine check-up right after she was born. During all of this the NICU doctor had ordered an echo cardiogram. They took a more in-depth look at her heart and how it was functioning. The ear nose and throat doctor wasn’t able to tell us more than that they had found more complications.
Shortly after the ear nose and throat doctor we were able to go into the nursery to see baby girl. The NICU doctor was in the nursery to give us the latest and greatest on our baby girl. This was probably the most difficult information to handle, especially for daddy. We were told that she had a “double outlet right ventricle” meaning that she was going to have heart surgery. What is happening is that there is one ventricle that is on the right side of the heart that needs to be on the left side and because of it the blood traveling through that artery is bypassing the lungs and therefore not receiving the oxygen that the body needs. We still have yet to talk to the cardiologist but if this is the case then she will definitely need heart surgery. This was by far the most difficult news for me to handle and it took me a while to cope with the news.
When we heard about the heart problem we were able to spend some time with baby girl for a while in the nursery before she was admitted to the NICU. At this time we felt it important to give her a name and that is when we decided on Hannah Teed. This was our first name that we had liked, but since then we have thought of several other names and narrowed it down to Anabelle, Isabella, or Alexis. But after learning about what she is about to go through we felt it appropriate to go with our first impression. In Hebrew Hannah means, Grace of God.
After learning about everything that Hannah needs to have done on her and having many more exams to be done on her I would like to tell everyone that Sam is doing great. She is extremely calm and continues to tell me how much peace she feels for Hannah and her situation. We have been expressing our feeling to one another quite regularly and we are trying not to keep anything bottled up inside during this time. Sam is a great strength in my life and she is an amazing women. She is entirely optimistic about Hannah and I am blessed to have her in my life. I really do appreciate all of the prays that people are offering for our behalf and we do feel comforted as we are in the stage of gathering information.
Thank you for all the support, flowers, visits and words of encouragement. I know we are in the right place for Hannah to receive the proper care.
7 comments:
Wow. You have certainly been on an emotional rollercoaster with that sweet, beautiful baby girl. We will be praying for you, too. What a beautiful name you have chosen for her! What a blessing it is to feel peace in the midst of such alarming and scary news! Please keep us posted. We are thinking of you and hoping that you'll all continue to feel Heaven's comfort and strength... and most importantly, that Hannah will be absolutely, perfectly healthy through a bit of a rough beginning.
We are thinking and praying for you. Give Sammy a hug for me. ~Amor
Wow. That sounds really emotional. I love the pictures of her. We are praying for you and hope that things continue to improve.
Looks like you have a beautiful little girl! We will keep you in our prayers. We love you!
We just want you to know that our thoughts and prayers are with you. We will be thinking of you and your beautiful little girl.
Oh Teeds, our prayers are with you!
Hi there. We are lifting your family up in prayer as you go through this. She is so beautiful. If you need anything at all, please let us know. Love her name!
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