Locks of Love

K, I can't figure out why everything is underlined or how to turn it off...anyway,
Today I donated 11 inches of my hair to an organization called Locks of Love, which provides hair pieces to children who have lost their hair due to illness, and whose families cannot afford to buy them wigs and hair pieces. I haven't had a haircut since April with the intent to donate and I am glad I could help


Before the big snip: You have to have the hair secured in a ponytail or braid

After the big snip, but before the actual cut and style

The finished product, but a horrible picture of me

finished product from behind

Christmas Day

On Christmas morning Alayna was so excited she could hardly contain herself!
(this is her in her bed...you can see how she sleeps on the padding)

Our stockings all set out by Santa

Alayna's Christmas PJ's from Grandma and Papa (Yoho)

Alayna's loot when we were all done...what a lucky girl!

We had a great day...we opened Christmas as our own little family first thing, then went to Jeff's parents to open gifts and have breakfast with them and all of his brothers and sisters. Then we came home and had Keith and Stacia (Kendra's brother & his wife) over for gifts, games, and dinner.

What was one of the greatest Christmas presents? Alayna has started only waking up ONCE during the night for feedings!!!! So we are now getting 4 and 5 hour stretches of sleep!!!

Yay Christmas!

I am so excited for Christmas and can't believe it's almost here! I love Christmas music, the lights, decorations, the treats (particularly winter OREO's...mmmm.), the parties, and of course, the religious significance of celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. What a miracle and what peace that knowledge gives us. Of course this Christmas is even more special because it is our first Christmas with Alayna. Enjoy some pictures from the last couple of weeks. I am trying to be better at taking more pictures!

This was just before the Lindsay family Christmas party (Jeff's mother's side). This dress is from our friends Casey and Amber, who have a little girl 3 months older than Alayna. She has this dress too!

Posing for the camera!

Our awesome gingerbread house!

Our Christmas Tree

Lately

We visited the pediatrician last Thursday, the day after we came home from the hospital. She was exactly 6 weeks old that day and weighed in at 8lbs 2 oz! When I was born (I was only 5 days late) I was 8lbs. 3oz. so that is so weird to me.
Another milestone....I know this is so lame and I'm way to nostalgic but she wore her last newborn size diaper yesterday and is now into size 1 diapers! So far she's only really worn newborn size clothing...even most 0-3 month sizes have been too big, but now she is outgrowing the newborn stuff and transitioning into 0-3 month clothes!
We bought some foam padding that she sleeps on to keep her body at an incline. It looks so funny when she's sleeping. We'll take a picture and post that on another entry soon! She seems to do better in her crib now. We always wondered why she always had to be held until she was in a deep sleep before we could lay her down, and as soon as she woke up she wanted out of her crib. We think it's really helping because she will lie awake in her crib now.....soooo nice!
Alayna's Bathrobe


This is the first thing I bought after I found out I was having a girl.
And this is her first time wearing it, at my nephew's baptism. This
was taken Saturday night just hours before we took her to the hospital.

These carrier covers are the best inventions! Especially

this one b/c you can take her in and out of the carrier without

taking the cover off!

We LOVE being her parents!!!!!!!!!

Primary Children's Hospital Stay

K, so I'm not the blogging expert and I accidentally posted the pictures in backwards order from the way I wanted them.

Here she is taking a snoozer while we were completing the check out processes.
Getting a bath from the nurse

The first real snow of the season...the view from her 3rd room

The 2nd room she was in in the PICU

Her CT Scan...you can see her green binkie in her mouth!

More CT Scan

Her 3rd EEG...they monitored her for 1 hour

Then they cover the leads with gauze so she doesn't mess them up

Her EKG...only takes 10 seconds once it's all set up

The Verdict

.....is acid reflux

Yesterday was a big day. She had an EKG and her heart looked totally normal. She had a CT scan that also came back normal. She also had yet another EEG that came back normal. That to me was the best news because her last EEG in the hospital 4 weeks ago had some slight abnormalities, but nothing at all this time. The cultures taken to test for bacterial and viral infections have all come back negative. She also had a visit from the neurologist that's been working w/ her since she was born and he agreed that it was likely not a seizure and she is now totally off of phenobarbital.

So, by what the doctors call deductive reasoning (meaning, we've tested for everything else so this is what it must be), they're concluding she just had a bad acid reflux episode. She moved rooms yesterday so she's now in her own room, just like anyone in the hospital recovering. There is a couch and a bathroom too. I spent the night with her and this morning the doctors told her she could go home this afternoon if we felt comfortable with it. We decided to stay one more night and leave tomorrow morning.

Apparently acid reflux is fairly common, and there are a few things we can do to prevent this from happening again (which the chances of are very slim). After she eats we will hold her upright for about 1/2 hour, and we will put her crib on an incline so her head is higher than her feet. I am also going to stay away from acidic foods such as citrus, tomato based foods, and spicy foods, since those things might go to her through my milk. We will be giving her Zantac twice a day as well. I also asked if it does happen again, is there anything we should do differently than what we did Sunday morning, and they said we did exactly what we should have by suctioning her and getting her to the nearest hospital ASAP. That was good to know.

We've been taking pictures but I am writing from the hospital computers so we will have to post them later. In the meantime, Alayna is totally grounded from going anywhere and I think Jeff and I will be the youngest people in history to sprout gray hairs!

Back to the Hospital

At 3:30 Sunday morning we woke up to a cry from Alayna. I went to her crib in our room and wasn't surprised that she had woken up because it was about time for her to eat. Then things started going downhill really fast as she sounded like she had a lot of mucus and saliva in her nose and throat and couldn't clear it out. She would scream then stop breathing for a few seconds, then start breathing again. She could occasionally cough but wasn't swallowing the secretions. We could also tell she wanted to sneeze but was mad that she couldn't. We started suctioning her nose and mouth with a bulb syringe, and got some junk out, but it wasn't getting better. We rushed her to Lakeview Hospital (just about a mile or two away), where she was intibated (breathing tube down her throat) once again. They weren't positive that it was totally necessary but it was more of a precaution. She was also sedated and given an IV in her HEAD (We HATED that...she didn't even have that during her 10 days at the U of U NICU). Since Lakeview is not equipped to help infants like her, they life flighted her (once again...but by helicopter this time) to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake.



She is now at the PICU (Pediatric ICU) at Primary Childrens. When we first got there they were thinking there were 3 main possibilities: a seizure, acid reflux, or an infection either viral or bacterial. After a long day today and a visit from the neurologist, the doctors don't think she had a seizure (we didn't think so either). They took blood and urine samples and did a spinal tap to test those fluids for possible infections. It will take 2 days for all of the results to come back, but so far all have come back negative. After a few hours at Primary Children's, they turned off the oxygen and she was breathing just fine on her own, so they extibated her. She is on 4 antibiotics and will have another EEG tomorrow just to make sure everything still looks ok.


The hardest part is, that's all we know right now, and there isn't much we can do. What kills us is that because of being intibated, her little voice is hoarse and since she isn't sedated, when she cries it just breaks your heart.


Please pray for Alayna. We know she is in good hands but as Jeff would say, "this is for the birds!!!!!!!"

Bath Time and Smiles

Here are a couple pictures from bath time tonight. She does really well in baths until it's time to wash her hair (we save that part for last)!

This morning she was a happy girl and I could get her to smile! Since it was just the 2 of us, it was hard to get her to smile then hurry and take a picture before it went away. This was the best I could do!

Can you believe she's already a month old????

Reminder

Just a reminder that we are going to change our blog settings in a couple days to make the blog private. This means in order to read our blog, we have to add your e-mail address to our approved list. So send us your e-mail addresses if you'd like to be able to still read it. You can leave it as a comment on this post or e-mail it to me: kendra.yoho@gmail.com .If you've already sent me your address, no worries. Thanks!

Doctor's Appointments

This week Alayna has already had appointments with 2 important people: her neurologist and her pediatrician.

The neurologist appointment was at Primary Children's Hospital. Jeff even left work early so he could go to it. The doctor did some exercises with her to check her muscle tone, symmetry of her right and left sides (does one side react more or less than the other), reflexes, and responsiveness. He said she looks totally normal to him and you'd never know what she'd been through. Then he showed us images from her MRI and that was really interesting to look at. He went on to assure us that her MRI was completely normal, which we already knew of course. Alayna will have a follow up appointment with him in 3-4 months. OH, and he said that we can start weaning her off of Phenobarbitol. She's been taking 3ML daily, and starting yesterday she'll be down to 2ML daily for a week, then 1ML for a week, then she's done! Exciting but also kind of nerve-wracking because we need to make sure nothing weird happens as she gets off of the medicine that might indicate that she's having a seizure. But I really think everything is going to be fine.

The Pediatrician's appointment today was just a well-baby check. She now weighs 7lb 13oz (she was born at 6lb 14oz), which puts her in the 25th percentile for weight. She is gaining at the perfect rate so that tells us her feedings are going well. It's so weird to think that when I was born, I was 8lb 3oz, and she doesn't even weigh that much at 4 weeks old! They didn't do her length or head circumference today, but as of 2 weeks ago when they last saw her, she was in the 50th percentile for both. Her pediatrician also couldn't find anything abnormal or wrong with her. Although we all know she is at risk for developmental delays, so far so is perfect and right on track!

We will post some pictures tomorrow from Thanksgiving and her 4 week old birthday!

Making Blog Private

We decided to make our blog private. Please send us your e-mail addresses so we can add you to our list and you can continue reading. We love having people we know read our blog but just want the protection from the crazies out there. If you want, you can leave your e-mail address as a comment on this post or e-mail it to me at: kendra.yoho@gmail.com. We'll give it a few days before we change the settings.

Hair Tip From Alayna Kate

When you inherit your mom's curls and your dad's cowlicks, you are sure to have some fun hair! This is right after her bath. Her hair is most curly when it's damp.

NOTE: this picture was also taken seconds after she peed all over Jeff. We dried her off after her bath then in the seconds it took Kendra to get the camera, she peed all over Jeff, the kitchen floor, and her clean, dry body.

After her baths we blow dry her body and hair to get her warm. This is how her hair turns out of I get a little crazy with the blow dryer. We call this the Mad Scientist look.

A Must-Have for A New Mom!

I'd highly recommend this book for a new mother. I own the What to Expect When You're Expecting book and read it a ton during my pregnancy, and now this book, What to Expect the First Year has been awesome. It's got everything from how to clip your baby's nails, changing a diaper, what you need to have ready in baby's nursery, how to bathe your baby the most efficiently, to the latest research in preventing SIDS. It also gives mom's helpful advice and knowledge on their recovery after childbirth, nursing, etc. It gives a month-by-month on what your baby should be able to do for their first year. It sounds like I'm a salesman for the book and I'm not, I'm just sharing something that's been super helpful to me!

Time Flies

Taken Yesterday: 3 weeks old!

We love this froggie outfit on her!

This is a cute sign my mom made for her when we brought her home from the hospital. It is still on our wall!

She's our little turkey! Her dad bought this outfit for her weeks before she was even born.

Yesterday was Alayna's 3 week mark from when she was born. Her favorite things to do these days are eat, sleep, swing in her swing, cuddle, and going on walks. She and I have enjoyed walks just about every day this week. The weather has been gorgeous so I just wrap her in a blanket, put a hat on her, and hold her while we walk and enjoy the fresh air. I love watching her observe the new scenery and how it intrigues her. Let me clarify, I love watching her do pretty much everything. Sometimes even crying. She didn't cry until about the time she came home from the NICU, which we attribute to the sedatives she was on, plus her throat was irritated from being intibated (sp?) 3 times and having a feeding tube down her throat. It worried us and made us sad that we hadn't heard her cry. I can now tell you though that our daughter can most definitely cry!

Next week she will have a follow-up appointment with her neurologist. He will evaluate her and decide if she should remain on Phenobarbitol (medicine that prevents seizures) and if so, how much. Right now we give her 3ML every evening. Spotting seizures in infants is very difficult, but we and the doctors don't think she's had one since a day or 2 after she was born. She is doing so well and we can't get over what a miracle she is!

2 Weeks

Our little ladybug is 2 weeks old today! It's hard to digest everything that has happened the last 2 weeks and how much our lives have changed. She is doing so well and we are SO happy to have her home.
I had a doctors appointment last week, and my CNM and the team of doctors she works with still have the placenta and cord clippings. After examining them thoroughly, they're still stumped. They have no clue what happened the night she was born, and we'll probably never know. Not the most comforting thing, but what is important is that she is doing so well. She had her first pediatricians appt. today and she is gaining weight appropriately and everything looks good.

Homecoming

We finally got to bring Alayna home today. We roomed in with her last night at the hospital and that went well. It was a long day today and we finally left the hospital around 2:30. Check out processes for NICU babies are pretty intense. They set us up with appointments with the neurologist, pediatrician, and occupational therapists. She will continue to receive early intervention treatments so if she has any delays or complications, they can be caught and treated early. She was sound asleep for the ride home.

Good News!

Tonight Kendra and I get to "room in" with our girl. They have asked to come and stay the night in a private room with her to make sure that we are okay to take her home. They ask all parents to do this before they take their kids home for the first time. It is still looking like she will get to come home tomorrow. Today we took her car seat to the hospital and they put her in it for a while to make sure that she could handle the car ride home. Dr. Coulter, who has been her neonatologist since the first night she was there, told me today that they are blown away by how fast she is recovering he said she truly is a miracle baby. We know that we have been blessed and are truly grateful to all our family and friends for the prayers and love that have been directed to us. Thank you so much we are forever in your debt.

Ups and Downs

She might be at the U of U hospital, but she cheers for the Cougars! This is an outfit daddy bought for her. The nurse (who also roots for the right team) found her a navy blue bow, too!

Name tag above her crib that one of the nurses made, with her perfect footprints!

She's in a crib now!

Fantastic News: During the doctors "rounds" today (where they all pow wow and move around to discuss each baby together), they are expecting her to come HOME on MONDAY!!! This is of course assuming all goes well, so even if it's not Monday we're ok. It's just so great that they even have a projected day, because the doctors don't like to do that. Probably so parents don't hold them to it.

Not-so-great happenings: today I developed a breast infection called Mastitis. I started shaking and shivering uncontrollably at the hospital around noon and ran a high fever, but am doing better now. I think we caught it pretty early. We had to contact my dr. (on a Saturday) to get an antibiotic prescription and get that in my system right away. Even after just a few hours I feel tons better. But that's so not what we needed right now. Symptoms should only last a day or 2 from what I understand so I really hope that is the case with me.

Second EEG

Good news! We got the second EEG results back and it looks good. We are on our way up to the hospital right now to put her in her BYU outfit for the game today. Last night at the hospital Dr. Coulter ( who has been her neonatoligist since the beginning) said that "To be honest for you guys the first night I examined your little girl I was scared for you guys, but know i am totally excited. the progress she is making has made my whole week!" this was so awesome to hear the my little ninja is fighting and shocking everyone at the hospital. That's about it as for the updates, for now its just watching her and making sure she is eating and staying stable. Thanks again for all of our friends love and support!

Quick Update

Here's a very brief update as I have to go back to the hospital in a few minutes:

-Alayna made a HUGE step of progress today: She can nurse! We gave it a try and the Occupational Therapist wasn't expecting her to do anything much, but she nursed for a whole 10 minutes. Which is great but now means I need to be there at the hospital even more often! This was huge because although we've gotten her to suck on a binkie a lot the last 2 or 3 days, we couldn't really get her to swallow. She did that today while she nursed.

-She had another EEG. The results came back from her last one (which measures electrical activity in her brain), and one of the waves came back a little lower than they like. But then they realized the results could've been skewed because while they did the test she was sedated AND on the cooling treatments AND only a day old. So they gave her another EEG yesterday so now we're all hoping that one will be a little more normal.

-She changed rooms again and now shares a nurse w/ 2 other babies. Because she's not getting any antibiotics or IVs (milk only) she got put into an outfit! No more naked baby!

Those are really the main things from the last 2 days. Thank you and we'll continue to keep you informed and post more pictures soon!

Thanks!

Thanks to all our friends and family for all of your love, support, prayers, etc...
We can really feel it. If you leave a comment on here please put your name because we are interested to know who the comments are from. Sometimes it is hard to know who you are from your screen names. Thanks again!

Another Big Day: MRI, food, and poop!

Some big things that happened today:
-Her MRI results came back and everything looked normal. What a huge relief! The MRI gave a picture of her brain to look for any obvious injury or damage, and didn't find any. Now we are waiting for results from her EEG, which tracks the electrical activity in her brain.
-She POOPED!!!! When you've been through what we've been though, you learn to appreciate the tiniest milestones like that!
-She is quickly being weaned off of IV's for nutrition and almost completely onto milk. She is still feeding through tubes in her nose, but is digesting everything beautifully.
-She can cough and hiccup
-She made TONS of progress on her sucking reflex. She sucked on a binkie a lot today. We and the nurses and doctors will be working with her on the suck-swallow system so she can get to feed through a bottle.
-She is off of antibiotics!
-She is now working with an Occupational Therapist (a lot like a physical therapist), to loosen up her stiff muscles (a result from her traumatic birth). The OT works with her a couple times a day to stretch her muscles and improve her range of motion. She also taught us how to do some exercises today with Alayna so we can help that process. Even after just today we're noticing progress in her movement.
-What a great day! Jeff and I are so exhausted though. We want to be with her every minute and are so excited to eventually bring her home so we don't have to make the drive every day. Thankfully, my recovery has been very smooth and quick.

Alayna's Field Trips

Alayna's second meal (we missed the first one)

Daddy's Girl...he loves her so much

Our happy family picture

The Life Flight Team packing her up for the MRI

Mommy's first time holding her

They had to shave a spot on her head for a monitor because she had so much hair...so sad! We love her hair.

Her new room

Moving her to her new roomWe love this picture. I especially love the little bows the nurses put on her head!

Daddy got to brush her hair!

Daddy changing her diaper...the first of many =)

Her eyes are wide open...that hasn't happened too often!

The last 2 days have been very positive for us. First off, Alayna had her MRI today, but we won't know the results until tomorrow, so there's one more delay.

Yesterday was a big day for our little girl. She was brought back to normal body temperature and handled that really well. She is currently able to regulate her own temperature without a warmer, she is just wrapped in a blanket like any other baby. We also got to change her diaper for the first time, who would have thought that would be so exciting!??! I think it's because we finally get to feel like we're parents and doing something for her rather than just watching. When we're there, the nurses let us change her and take her temperature. She was a lot more alert yesterday because she was off the cooling treatments and not as heavily sedated.

Since she finished her cooling treatments, she also got to be moved to a different part of the NICU. Now she just has one roommate and shares a nurse with that baby. That room is a lot quieter and actually has places to sit down, so that's been nice. Also, yesterday I got to hold her for the first time!!!!! It was a little scarey for me with all of the things she's hooked up to, but the nurses help with that.

She is continuing to have good urine output, and her digestive system has been making noises for a couple of days, signaling it is ready for food. These are all very good signs. Her liver, which was damaged from the trauma of birth, has also healed and her bilirubin counts are perfect.

Today was another big day. She had her MRI around 10am and was transported again by the Life Flight crew to Primary Children's Hospital (which is connected to the U of U hospital, so you don't even need to go outside). The MRI took about an hour and Jeff and I just waited during that time, then she was transported right back to U of U. We were originally told the results would be given in 3-4 hours, so we planned on sticking around.

Todays milestones: She ate! They tried giving her 8ML of my milk, then they wait 3 hours and suck anything left in her stomach to see if her digestive system is working. She is fed through tubes in her nose because she hasn't learned the suck-swallow-breathe system yet. After 3 hours she had digested 95% of the milk so her digestive system is working!

The whole sucking-swallowing reflex is also a big deal, so we're trying to get that started. Until now they've had to just suction mucous from her mouth because she doesn't swallow. Today by stimulating her lip with touch and my milk, we got her to swallow a few times. She is sedated today because of the MRI (they need her to hold still), so tomorrow we should make even more progress with getting her to suck on a pacifier and swallow her own spit.

Jeff got to hold her today. It was awesome. He also got to brush her hair yesterday so he has just been on cloud 9.

We are still anxious about the results of the MRI tomorrow, but we've felt a lot of peace and comfort the last couple days. She's alive and with us, so part of us is like "who cares what is the result of the MRI???" She's made so much progress and that has been so encouraging to us, and we love her so much. We are so pleased with every nurse and doctor that has worked with her and with the care she's getting. But, just because we love the U of U hospital DOESN'T mean we love their football team! Again we are so grateful for the outpouring of love and support from our friends and family. Enjoy some pictures!