January 30

Ryleigh has been doing so much better since the onset of her tummy infection last week. They are slowly beginning to feed her once again. Hopefully the 3rd time is a charm. She has done very well considering she hasn't eaten in about a week. She has been getting IV nutrition but nothing through her feeding tube. Now they are giving her 1ml per hour continuously. She has done ok so far but it hasn't even been 24 hours yet. Time will tell. Our doctors are so great. They have really been on top of her. If the least little things seems wrong, they are ordering tests to figure out why. I love Boone Hospital. There are some amazing people that work there. The nurses are beginning to be like family. When Ryleigh became sick last week, the nurses were hugging me and trying to comfort me. They really do take a personal interest in all of these little babies. It takes a special person to do that job. We pray for the nurses and doctors every day. They are truly special.

Ryleigh weighs in at 2lb, 1oz!! What a big girl. I held her today for 2 hours. It was heaven! She slept the entire time. The other day while I was holding her, she was awake and I read a book to her. She stayed awake for at least 20 minutes and just seemed as if she were looking at me while I was reading to her. It was so precious. We have had to keep Ethan away from the hospital this week as he has taken another cold. The rest of us are fine so far. Hopefully we won't get sick either. There is a huge snow storm headed our way tomorrow. I am praying that it doesn't keep us away from seeing our baby. I will try to update again tomorrow. There hasn't been too much new to report. That is a good thing! Hopefully she is on the road to recovery and we can't wait until she can come home. She will be one month old on Monday :)

Well, yesterday was an interesting day to say the least. We started off with another phone call from the hospital. Ryleigh was not tolerating her feedings at all again and they needed to discontinue them until her belly was better. She was full of gas again and unable to breathe well and just not very comfortable. Her heart rate would drop and her oxygen sats would drop also. The bad thing about having to discontinue her feedings is that they would have to try to restart her IV which was taken out a few days ago. In a baby that small, a regular IV doesn't last very long. Their tiny veins can't handle it. That meant that if they discontinued her feedings for as long as they did last weekend, they would have to insert a central line. They don't do that at Boone which meant she would have to be transported over to the university to have that done. Dr. G. wanted to wait until evening to see how her belly did. She also discontinued her cpap which she thought was one of the causes of so much air in her belly. She is on a nasal canula now.

So yesterday afternoon was a waiting game for us. When we went back up to see her last evening, however, her belly was back to normal!! So no trip to the U, and no more cpap, and they started feeding her today continuously instead of a huge bolus all at once. She is getting food at a rate of 4 cc's per hour. She has tolerated this very well!! I think she is so much more comfortable without that cpap in her nose too!Today I got to hold her again for almost an hour. It was so nice today because now I can see her face without all of the machinery attached to her. It is the first time I have seen her face! I saw her for about 2 seconds right after she was born and then they whisked her away but I got to stare at that pretty face for the longest time today. And what a pretty face it is...

Quick post

Just have a few minutes to post. It is hard to keep up with the Caring Bridge, this, and miscellaneous phone calls. So this one is going to be quick.

Ryleigh is doing fantabulous! She is getting better every day! Chest tubes are gone, she is on cpap breathing room air, and is taking 13 ml. of milk every 4 hours. She is well on her way. Dr. O'Connor says she is starting to put on weight. She graduated from her critical care isolette to a new isolette. I visited with her yesterday and she had her eyes open for a little while. She is starting to squeeze my finger and we get to hold her once every day for at least an hour. Last night was dad's turn. She loves to be held. Her vitals stay nice and even when we hold her and she usually sleeps so sound that she snores.

I am doing better every day. I haven't needed any of my meds for a couple of days now.

We have witnessed so many miracles since Ryleigh has been born. There are too many to count. One miracle is that I was able to keep her as long as I did. Another is that I went into labor when I did. It was during shift change and there were 2 doctors who did my surgery and Dr. O'Connor had just come on after being on vacation. So Ryleigh had a whole team working on her. Dr. O'Connnor is an amazing person. He takes these babies and cares for them as if they were his own. He is always at the hospital. We are so blessed to have such good care from these people.

Another miracle is that Ryleigh was really doing poorly when she was born. She was not getting enough oxygen into her lungs. As soon as they let me hold her, her levels started increasing and she has not had a setback since. Another miracle is that she is doing as well as she is for a baby who weighs less than two pounds. We have experienced so many miracles and we are very grateful for every one of them. I will never take this experience for granted and I will hold it in my heart forever! For as many problems as this pregnancy has had, we have been very blessed to have this experience.

Until later,

Kelley

Happy Birthday, Ryleigh

The reason I haven't posted any updates about my latest doctor visit is because Ryleigh was born.

Ryleigh Elizabeth Gelnar

born 12/31/10 at 6:18 a.m.

2 lbs. 14 inches long

Here is the story:

Thursday evening, I had some cramping. It wasn't severe and I had a cold so I thought I just didn't feel well and went to bed. Cramping went away but at 2 a.m. it woke me up. The cramps were worse and about 5 minutes apart. I don't know what labor feels like so I wasn't sure if this was it or not. I took Ryleighs heart rate and it was 184. Not good for a girl who usually runs 140-150. I woke Dwaine and told him we needed to either call the hospital or go to the hospital. Next I passed two huge clots and then we knew for sure it was time to go. We called David and he was there to stay with Ethan in about 2 minutes. Thank goodness the boys were around. When I got to the hospital, I was admitted and they did my vitals. My temp. was 102 which meant infection had set in. Knowing that, Ryleigh had to come out NOW! I was admitted around 4:00 and I was on the surgery table at 6:00. Ryleigh was born at 6:18.

She had a pretty rough start. They showed her to me and she was gray. I heard one tiny squeak come from her and then they intubated her and put her on a vent. right away. I was terrified. The time they spent sewing me up seemed like eternity because they had taken her away and I would not get to see her until my spinal wore off. I had no idea how she was. As soon as my spinal did wear off, they transferred me to a wheelchair and took me right down to the NICU. They had spent a lot of time trying to get her oxygen sats. to come up and it wasn't working so we all feared that she would not make it. The doctor seemed pretty grim and they let me hold her since we may not ever get to.

As soon as they gave her to me, her sats went up 10 points. After we left, she went up another 10 points and her blood pressure went up too. Must have been that she needed her mommy and daddy. She has been stable ever since. She had to have two chest tubes because they had to turn the vent up as high as they could to get her lungs inflated and she had some small tears in her lungs. Today, both chest tubes are out and they are talking about taking her from the ventilator and putting her on cpap. She came off one of her meds and all of her blood work and scans have come back normal.

All I can say is GOD IS GOOD! That is who I give all the credit to.

She is stable today and has had a good day today too. Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully just as good as this one has been. Please, please keep praying for her, she is so tiny and has a long way to go. Thank you for keeping up with us and thank you for all the prayers. I will close by posting one of her pictures. :)