Hannah, Day 7

Hannah is still doing well, slightly better than last night when we said goodbye to Steven. The goal for Hannah now is to wean her from the ventilator so she can breathe on her own.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and kind words for Steven, and to our TI friends for the cookie bouquet and delivered meals. These things are helping anchor us to the goodwill and kindness that we sometimes overlook in easier times, but is so essential to pull us through challenges like this.

Steven Cameron Minor, July 15 - July 22, 2007

Steven passed away early this morning in his parent's arms.

Steven

Steven is not doing well. The doctor called and said that he's weaker and his lungs are just not developed enough to provide the oxygenation he needs. Although there's a chance he might pull out of it, we're bracing ourselves for a phone call to get to the NICU as soon as possible.

Hannah is still OK.

Day 6, Morning

Hannah and Steven are OK. Steven had a spell this morning where his heart rate dropped and he had to be resuscitated, but he's OK for now. We're going to go up there after lunch to see them and drop off some breast milk. It'll be a week or two before they can try feeding them mother's milk (they're getting mostly glucose now), but we need to build up a supply so it's there when the doctors need it.

Day 5

Just phoned the NICU to check on the twins. Both are doing OK. Hannah's ductus arteriosus has responded to medication and started to close. This is a blood vessel shunt present in all newborns that essentially avoids wasting bloodflow to the lungs while the baby is not yet using them in the womb. After birth, this shunt usually closes down by itself and allows bloodflow to the now-active lungs. In preemies, the mechanism that causes the shunt to close often needs some help via a medication that stimulates the shunt to close. If that doesn't work, it's possible to surgically close it. Of course, this is usually done as a last resort.

Half Home

Carla and I are home now; the other half of the family is still up at the NICU, of course. Hannah is doing as well as can be expected, at last check. Steven is having trouble finding ventilator settings he likes. We have to find a routine that allows us some moments of sanity between the paralyzing worry. The only relief we've found so far are some stories online of other 24-week or 10-ounce preemies that survived.

Hannah and Steven, July 15th, 2007

This isn't where I intended to go when I started this blog; the entries below are from a simpler time before our lives were turned upside down.

Last Sunday, July 15th, Carla had to undergo an emergency C-section because of rapidly progressing pre-eclampsia. This condition can essentially kill the mother and children, the only cure is to deliver the children. In this case, it meant that Hannah and Steven were brought into the world after only 24.5 weeks of gestation. These are two very premature babies, and it is a miracle that they are even still with us today. Hannah weighed about 24 ounces, and Steven weighed 10. Nobody in this hospital's neonatal ICU (NICU) can remember a smaller baby.

Four days later, both are still hanging on, in stable but critical condition. They will be in ICU for many months, if things go well. Carla battled high blood pressure and edema for several days, but is now almost back to normal, physically. We might even be released tomorrow.

The Tuesday before the forced delivery, Carla had been admitted to the hospital after a routine check-up showed that her cervix was allowing Steven's amniotic membrane to poke through. On Thursday morning her doctors performed a cerclage, which essentially sews the cervix shut to keep the babies in place. The intent was to allow several more weeks or months of development in the womb. That was not to be.

But it was only because she was being monitored closely after this surgery that the symptoms of pre-eclampsia were noticed and acted upon quickly enough to avoid eclampsia, which causes seizures severe enough to kill or disable both mother and child. Fortunately, the doctors also gave Carla a preemptive steroid shot to develop the babies' lungs, just in case they were delivered pre-term. Hopefully, this gave them an added boost before they needed it Sunday night.

At the moment, both Hannah and Steven are doing OK. I'll try to keep this blog updated, since there a lot of people wringing their hands over the fate of these two precious lives.

Shortly after delivery, after both babies were whisked away to ICU but before they were swaddled with the tubes, wires, and restraints that are now keeping them alive, I touched Hannah's tiny little hand. She grabbed my finger and held on. I'm not a religious person, but I pray every day now that she and her brother can both hang on like that until we can take them home.