Jacquie's First Hospital Note...

Hello Family and Friends,

I would like to begin by thanking everyone for their support. Thanks for the phone calls, visits and e-mails, I love hearing from you and it helps me get through the day. John has been down loading the e-mails from home and then bringing them to me and I am now responding, so I am getting the e-mails, too I can be reached by phone 011497031-6683336 from the US and 07031-668-3336 via Germany. I would also like to thank all of our wonderful friends who have come forward to help us with the girls and many other things. We could not have done it as easily without you. You took a load of stress off of us, just knowing that our girls were being well taken care of.
Some of you may be hearing this for the second time so please bear with me. I will keep this short and to the point. (I hear chuckles from some of you that think I am not capable of short and to the point) Thursday I slipped in water and fell at the store, Friday morning I had the C-section all went well. I believe Alexander’s Apgar scores were normal. He took a turn for the worse and began the fight for his life about 20 minutes after he was born, 1105, August 4th, 2006. He was having trouble breathing and then couldn’t breathe on his own. He was placed on a ventalator, incubated and taken to the NICU. Friday night he was finally stable. Saturday stable and diagnosed with a severe lung infection and underdeveloped lungs due to being premature, which apparently can happen to babies of Mommies who have Gestational Diabetes, even when it is regulated and controlled carefully. Sunday, stable and being given 40-50% oxygen through his ventilator tube. 50% is the max they are able to give, 21% is the goal, standard oxygen composition in a room. Stable was the key word. Yesterday, Monday, was wonderful. The phrase for the day was “He is making progress”. Oxygen was at 21% all day and night, IV in hand was removed and he had a very strong grip on my finger each time I came to visit. We are waiting for the microbiology lab report to come back to determine EXACTLY what type of infection is in his lungs so we go from a general antibiotic to an antibiotic used for the specific bacteria. We are also patiently waiting for his lungs to develop which they will, these things just take time. He may be off the ventilator by the end of this week and as the pediatrician said, please don’t ask when he is leaving NICU and graduating to the kinder ward or when he will be released from the hospital, he also said please don’t ask when you can hold him. Bottom line he is improving Divine intervention definitely played a role in this from the beginning, what appeared to be a good pregnancy, was not. Had I not fallen, they would have waited until today for the c-section. Apparently the lung infection would have been much worse (if that is possible), because it was inutero. Although Alexander is considered a preemie, it looks like his due date was at the very end of August, but it was better to take him earlier and let his lungs develop outside without the infection, rather than inside with the infection. Although, Alexander is 7lbs 1oz, he is bigger because of the Gestational Diabetes in weight, but as you will notice he is only 19 ¾ inches long. Can someone recalculate the weight? 3190 grams is????? We calculated on John’s cell phone during a really bad time so I don’t know if we got it right. Everything else looks good, heart, liver, kidney, neuro, etc…

We were unsure of the name, we had not decided between, Alexander John or Ryan John, but by Friday night we thought nothing could be more appropriate than Alexander: defender of mankind, pillar of strength. Alexander the Great: conqueror. He will conquer and win this battle. BTW we will probably go with Zander as a nickname, I am calling him Alexander at the moment, but we will not be calling him Alex.

The girls are hanging in there; John has been playing Mr. Mom the last 2 days and doing a heck of a job. He said to me today I woke up early and did this and that, I just don’t know where the time goes. HMMMM!!! I have been waking up at 6:00 and going all day. I definitely got more rest with Anika rooming in with me when I had her. I have also been waking up to Alexander’s feeding schedule, weird. I keep very busy; with my 10 minute walk each way to see Alexander in the NICU. I forgo my Physical therapy and consider the walking enough, plus PT interferes with my visits. Visitation is strict 1000-1200 and 1400-1900, parents only. Lexi can look through the outside window and see Alexander. We scrub in, wear scrubs, no jewelry. With that said to everyone, I will leave this e-mail behind me and only talk about positive things and a bright future. Please, keep thinking positive energy and powerful prayers. I am on my way to see my beautiful son and hold his feet and hands, and stroke his head. He has such soft and silky, black hair, I just love it. These visits are the highlights of my day. I look forward to hearing from you

Just got back from the NICU and I got to hold Alexander for about an hour. He can be held 3 times a week now. They seem to think they can take him off the ventilator in about 3 days. Baby steps

Take Care and God Bless