Matt & Kat

Time flies and already Micah is 4 weeks old! He’s still doing wonderfully and better than we imagined he would do. Here’s the quick summary of what he’s done in the last week and a half:

• Moved twice, from ICU1 to ICU2, and then very quickly again out of ICU2 and into the “Special Care” room
• Moved out of his incubator into a crib
• Had a blood transfusion due to low hemoglobin levels, which were making it hard for him to keep his blood saturated with Oxygen

The blood transfusion sounds scary, but it was very straightforward and nothing to worry about. It’s obviously a fairly major procedure, but he’s noticeable better looking (e.g. pinker) since he got it, and his rate of desaturations (episodes when his blood oxygen level drops) are decreasing.

His weight is increasing nicely, 1.937kg as of today so he’s likely to hit 2kg tomorrow or the day after. The main focus for him and us now, is getting his feeding established. He’s starting to learn how to suck and has taken a few feeds from the bottle, but the complicated combination of suck, swallow and breathe is still a little bit of a challenge for him. His desaturations are most frequent when he’s feeding so most of his food is still being delivered via the tube straight into his stomach to make sure we don’t wear him out.

We’ve had several meetings with the nurses and midwives to plan for his eventual discharge. Learning about all the follow-up visits in various locations all over Dublin that we’ll need to take him to, and various practical tasks like how to perform CPR and resuscitate an infant, and a demonstration on how to bath him. It’s all helping to make us feel more ready to bring him home, but changing his nappy while he squirms and wriggles (and poos mid process) is still a fairly stressful few minutes for his daddy!

The daily grind of getting to the hospital and spending time with him is starting to take its toll, especially now that we’re being encouraged to be present for as many of his feeds as possible. We’re both very keen to get him home as soon as possible. As tiring as it will be to have to look after him 24/7, it still seems like an attractive option to just be able to do so at home rather than having to travel somewhere else…

We’re continuing to post photos and videos to the Picasa galleries and have our fingers crossed that the going home date may occur sometime towards the end of next week!

Two and a half weeks after his arrival Micah is doing very well. We notice the little changes each day and are very proud of our little man and the progress he’s making.

During his first week Micah lost quite a bit of weight and had a rough time with his IV lines. He needed the IV for medication and “total parenteral nutrition”, his specially made up food. A new IV was put in nearly every day as his little veins didn’t hold up for long. It was very sad to see his little hands and feet and even the sides of his head marked by the attempts to find successful IV points! Thankfully after a gradual introduction to milk feeds through a tube Micah was eventually able to tolerate and digest breast milk and is now being fed fully on milk with no more need for the IV line. He is now 1.46kg and nearly back to his birth weight hurray!!!

As well as ditching the IV, Micah has graduated to breathing without the CPAP mask. He no longer needs the extra help that was provided by the continuous air pressure. He is managing to breath well on his own with only the occasional forgetful spell when he needs a gentle nudge to remember his inhales and exhales.

Needless to say, without the needles and noisy CPAP mask Micah is a much happier baby. In the last few days he seems more aware of us and alert to things. He is a daily joy and blessing.

The routine of hospital visits is working well and we’re learning the ropes of the NICU. We’re able to help give Micah his feeds and change his nappies when we’re there. I spend each afternoon at the hospital and Matt visits in the evenings after work. We both look forward to each opportunity for some eye contact and cuddle time! I am able to hold Micah nearly every afternoon and Matt has also had lots of cuddle time during the weekend visits.

We’ll add more progress updates here in the weeks to come as Micah inches closer to that eagerly awaited day when we can take him home! You can also see our many photos and videos of Micah on Picasa.

Things moved very fast today to bring Micah George Brown into the world at 3:28pm Sat 19 Feb 2011, weighing 1.5kg.

Kat started having some minor contractions overnight, which progressively got stronger and stronger. By the time I got to the hospital about 11am they were coming every 10 minutes and were clearly not at all pleasant. Just after 2pm we were down to every 5 minutes and the midwife decided to declare Kat “in labour” after a quick examination and they bundled us down the hall to the delivery suite.

The examination seemed to trigger things to move even faster, and about 20 minutes after we’d been in the delivery room, just after Kat had asked for an epidural, they decided that there was no time for that and it was time to just start pushing. So push she did, very nicely, even though we never had a chance for antenatal classes or training and within about another 20 minutes Micah was out. The whole thing seems like a bit of a blur to me now, and of course I was very emotional and tearful all the way through while trying my best to be a good supportive husband…

We have no idea what a normal birth is like, but we had lots of attention – at least 4 doctors, 3 midwives and a couple of other nurses and support people in the room all focussed on Kat and Micah. They cut the cord immediately and whisked him across to a heated table for an initial assessment and then we managed a quick hug with mum and a family photo before he was straight into the incubator and up to the Neonatal ICU.

For nearly 30 weeks he’s doing very well, he’s breathing on his own with just a bit of support from the CPAP machine to help his lungs take it easy. I sat with him for a couple of hours tonight in the ICU while Kat slept and had a great time watching him blow bubbles at me and stretch his tiny little arms and legs.

So, a day of excitement and emotion! We’re very happy and confident that our little boy is going to do great over the next few months as he fights and grows up to his “normal” size so we can bring him home!

We got plenty of photos, which you can see in Micah’s First Hours in Picasa, or use the small slideshow below.

This is just a short update to say that there is nothing new to say! This in itself is excellent news

I’m still on hospital bed rest at Holles St National Maternity Hospital where I have very little to complain about. I’m in a 4 bed room here which is good and I’m all set up with my laptop, phone, dvds and snacks. There’s a lot of time to fill but I’m incredibly thankful for every uneventful day that passes.

I’m now at 27 weeks + 3 days with no signs of infection or imminent labour. We’re working towards the 28 week mark which is a significant one in terms of development and decreasing risk for bubs. At that point if there’s been no change and baby continues to show healthy movement and weight they will consider sending me home to rest from there.

I’d like to say a huge thanks to all the friends and family who’ve been praying with us for this little baby. It is such an encouragement to us knowing we have your love and support. There are so many things that we could be worried and upset by at this point, risks and potential problems… but I’m not dwelling on these things and instead am just trusting that God is faithful, He is in control, and He will give us everything we need for whatever lies ahead.

We’ll update again if there are any changes but until then if there is no news here you can take it as a good sign!

It’s been said that pregnancy can be a rollercoaster, and we’ve well and truly experienced that over the past few days. It started with a great weekend – our friends Graeme and Ruth from London were visiting and we had a wonderful time showing them around Dublin and chatting about life, vegan food and babies. After dropping them off at the airport, we made a quick trip past Ikea and spent the evening assembling the cot and changing table, full of excitement to see our baby’s room starting to take shape! The weekend was a high point.

Monday morning also started well, I headed off to the first day of work in the fancy new Google engineering building in Dublin. Around 11am Kat started noticing things weren’t right, and by 2pm it was clear it wasn’t just the baby bouncing around on her bladder, so she came into the Hospital (conveniently located 10 mins down the road from my office). By 4pm she was admitted, diagnosed with Premature Pre-term Rupture of Membrane (PPROM) and we were told that they had notified the newborn ICU and labour could begin at any point in time! Obviously a huge shock to us at 26 weeks and 1 day, we hadn’t even started to read the third-trimester/delivery/labour sections of the books, and our antenatal classes aren’t scheduled until March… Monday evening was a definite low point.

Today (Tue 25th in Dublin) has been a much better day, we received a series of good news:

• The antibiotics Kat is on are doing their job and warding off infection so far, they also managed to administer two steroid injections over the last 24 hours to help speed up the development of the baby (particularly the lungs) in case there is an early delivery.
• The baby is positioned perfectly, head down, and remains healthy, active and just the right size and weight for 26 weeks.
• There are still no actual signs of labour beginning (pain, dilation, etc).

We also met with a wonderful pediatrician to talk through what to expect if we do end up in labour in the next week, slightly intimidating, but still good information to have.

After having some time today to reflect, pray, talk and come to terms with the abrupt change in circumstances, we’re feeling roughly at a mid-point now. There is still a (small) chance that the baby will carry to term, or at least for another couple of weeks but we really just have to take each day at a time and be thankful for every day that passes uneventfully!

We’re also very thankful for our wonderful “family” of friends here in Dublin that have made sure we have all the support we need, our family and friends around the world who we know are praying for us too and the fact that we live in a part of the world where we have excellent health insurance and expert medical care literally just up the road. You can certainly imagine worse scenarios to be in!

We’d appreciate your prayers over the next days/weeks, particularly that Kat and the baby will both remain healthy (e.g. no infection and lots of growth respectively).

We will of course let you know when the next major developments occur…

The last 3 months have been an exciting time for us… On August 27th we learned that I’m pregnant! We were both delighted and a little dazed and overwhelmed (even though it was planned) about the new adventure we had stepped in to. Now, at the end of the first trimester we’re still delighted of course, a little less dazed and very pleased now to be able to share our news with everyone else.

Our new arrival is expected sometime around May 2nd next year and we’re planning to have the baby here in Dublin. Apart from continual exhaustion and occasional morning sickness (bleh!!!) pregnancy has so far been fairly uneventful. These first months have been a time of waiting more that anything else while our happy news was still a secret shared just between us. The next month should be more fun and eventful – we’ll go for our first antenatal appointment, watch my little baby bump start to grow and have our first ultrasound scan so we can see how things are cooking. Watch this space for more baby news over the coming months