1 Week Old

Hannah is a week old already. She is doing quite well and has gained back the 5oz that she lost in the days after she was born. She's over 1600 grams now (about 3lb, 9oz).

Sleepy girl.
She's in "sleep and grow" mode at the NICU.
But that doesn't stop her from kicking and squirming!
She likes to sleep like her Daddy, with her hands/arms over her face!

First Bath

Hannah had her first bath tonight.

Originally the day shift nurse told me she thought it would be around 11pm, so I should call to confirm when I should drive back down to "help"....but when I called the night nurse told me that she'd given her the bath at 8pm since she wasn't sure if I was coming back....ARGH. The only thing I was "unsure" of was whether Jon would drive me back down at 11pm since he is trying to make sure I get my rest (but he'd even agreed since he knew I really wanted to be there). An earlier bath wouldn't have been a problem at all -- how I wish she'd called to check! How frustrating. But, the nurse knew that I wanted to be there so she took pictures for me and has printed them out. As soon as we get back from the hospital on Monday evening and figure out how to scan them into our computer, I'll add them to this post.

Feeding Update

Hannah is doing quite well. She had her IV removed this morning and is no longer getting nutrition from any source other than me (well, we're supplementing what I can produce with donor breast milk until I can cover all of her feedings).

She is now "eating" 24mL at each feeding. It seems like each time I turn around the number goes up. We started at about 5, then have quickly increased to 8, 16, 20, and now 24. It's exciting to see the improvements.

I'm working pretty hard to supply all of her nutritional needs. I'm drinking about 120 oz of water every day (I fill up this giant jug the hospital gave me about 4 times!) and eating like crazy. I'm pumping every 2-3 hours, which is not easy but I know how important it is, so it that makes it easier to continue. Tomorrow morning I'll be switching to a different brand of hospital-grade rental pump, since I've recently learned that I have a bad pump for a "preemie mom" and they actually make a special pump for NICU moms who have to do all of their pumping with no baby at home to "help out." Thank goodness for my friend Kim, who is a lactation consultant, gave me all sorts of advice/information on this stuff (and drove to my house immediately when I called and told her I was having a problem with production on Saturday morning)! The consultant who saw me in the hospital never mentioned the NICU brand (Symphony) to me, and neither did the woman at the rental center at the hospital. Oh well -- at least now I know.

Baby Shower

A few months ago my family and friends started to plan various baby showers for me....Originally I was going to have 2 -- one in WV and one in OH -- then I was going to have 3 (WV, OH & PA)....and then they all got cancelled when I went into the hospital. We finally decided that I'd have one shower (sooner rather than later in case something happened to cause an early delivery) in the hospital on the high risk OB floor where I was intending to spend the rest of my pregnancy. We set the date for January 26th, and my only responsibility was to "stay healthy" and to get an order from my doctor that I was allowed to attend.

Well, leave it to little Hannah to make sure that she reminds me that I am not in control....the week of the shower she decided to make her appearance. So, her early delivery had a number of people questioning whether the shower on the high risk OB floor would still happen. Ultimately we decided that yes, since I'd want to be at the hospital NICU anyways, it made sense -- plus, my friends/family would have an awful time trying to let everyone know that it was cancelled on a few days notice.

Here are some pictures from the shower:

Day 2 Pictures (January 23)

Here are some more pictures of Hannah. She seems to improve each day.

Hannah likes to hold her pacifier herself!
C-Pap is already off and she is breathing on her own
Eyes open for the first time
Mommy napping during the 2 hours of "kangaroo time" (skin-to-skin under a shirt)

Sleepy girl with her pacifier

Day 1 Pictures (January 22)

Proud Papa
Hannah in her incubator
Mommy & Hannah
First Time Mom gets to hold Hannah

Birth Pictures (January 21)

Here are some pictures from Hannah's late-night arrival (she's like her Daddy already!). Although we didn't get any pictures of it, even though she came early Jon was still able to cut the cord!

Jon watching the NICU team with Hannah in the delivery room

NICU team

Jon holds her hand in the delivery room

Hannah all hooked up and in the NICU for the night

Dr. Ruedrich with Hannah Marie (aka "Best OB in the WORLD")

Our Little Girl Has Arrived!!

Our little girl, Hannah Marie Woolley, surprised us by arriving about 10 weeks early on January 21, 2008 at 10:21pm. She weighed in at 3.8 lbs and was 16 1/2 inches long. Since we were only 30 weeks (and 3 days) into the pregnancy, our doctor is estimating that she will likely be in the NICU at Riverside Methodist Hospital here in Columbus for about 6 weeks.

We had thought I could stay pregnant another 6 weeks on bedrest at the hospital, but I had some amniotic fluid leak over the weekend (which was technically my water breaking) and the revised timeline was 4 more weeks (after they put me on antibotics to prevent infection and allow me to stay pregnant). I had an ultrasound in the morning and the doctor determined that I'd only lost a little bit of fluid, so it was likely a slow leak of fluid, but everything was still looking good and there were no indications that I'd go into labor right away.

Well, our fiesty little girl must have had other thoughts and kicked me into labor that same day and it progressed quite rapidly, which my doctor didn't want to try to stop. I had some contractions in the morning, but they were irregular. During my normal afternoon monitoring session (around 2pm), they started to get a little more regular and they called a doctor to examine me -- and I was dialated 2cm (YIKES! -- Find Jon!), so they decided to transfer me down to labor and delivery to see if it was "real" or not. I ended up in labor and delivery around 5pm with Jon on his way back to the hospital.

I was 4cm at 7pm when I went ahead and got the epidural, and our nurse in labor and delivery (who had 39 years of experience) was estimating a 2am birth, so everyone (doctor included) was shocked that she was pretty much ready to come out before 10pm. In fact, the nurse didn't tell me how close I was to delivering to give the doctor time to show up and get changed! We'd been meeting with a NICU nurse who was telling us what we could expect when the baby was born and my nurse mentioned that I needed to let her know when I felt pressure -- well, I did, so she checked me again and immediately had my doctor paged! In the end, 2 rounds of 3 pushes each and Hannah came out pink and crying (and breathing on her own)!

My wonderful doctor examined my placenta and told me that his diagnosis of a previa changed once he saw it and he was calling it a partial abruption (where the placenta pulls away from the uterine wall -- it can be dangerous from a bleeding standpoint and from a "nutrition to the baby" standpoint). That was actually good news because it means the odds of an abruption happening twice are low, as opposed to a previa (where having it once makes it highly likely for future pregnancies).

Since Hannah was so little I couldn't hold her right away, but they let Jon go with her to the NICU and I got to touch her before she went up and then visit with her once I was out of recovery. She is doing quite well - initially they put her on a c-pap machine to help keep her lungs inflated so she wouldn't have to work so hard to breathe, but they removed it after about 36 hours and she is now breathing on her own. Right now I'm working to pump enough so I can cover all of her nutritional needs (which is about 8mL per feeding). She is a fiesty little girl who kicks at the monitors that are on her just like she used to kick at the monitors they had on me when she was inside -- she has a mind of her own and does not like to be monitored!

Please pray for her development and health these next few weeks until we're able to bring her home. I was discharged from the hospital last night, so I anticipate spending much of my time at the hospital until I'm able to bring her home with me!