The Tubre Quads
Type: (Family Blog) A post Serious.Life picked to share with you (unedited from the blog): Trucking Right Along Well, hello out there. This is Jaclyn. It has been some time since I have felt up to writing, but I know Torey has been doing a fantastic job keeping you updated. He has been so amazing through this process and I can’t believe how often he heads to the NICU. He would live there if I let him. He is fully aware of their feeding schedule, their nurses, he has done an excellent job of looking after and keeping up with them. He gives me updates every few hours since I can only go visit once or twice a day. Well, a lot has changed since my last update! 27 weeks 3 days was definitely not part of the plans, but my body said it was time. I had a scary few days, but my blood pressure is becoming more stable (now around 150/90), I am overcoming the pulmonary edema with frequent coughing and walking (always fun when you had a C-section 2 days ago!) and am hoping to be discharged Sunday. Anyway, enough about me – lets talk about the little ones! Dr. Elliott carefully delivered each baby, gave me and Torey a quick peek and handed them off to their neonatologist. Each baby had a neonataologist and 3 nurses. I had 2 doctors, 2 nurses and an anesthesiologist, there were also a few medical students along for the ride so you can imagine how busy the OR was. What was most amazing to me is how organized everything was. No one had to speak – they all knew what to do and when. It was almost as if they deliver quads everyday. I was most impressed with the Banner Good Samaritan Hospital staff and Phoenix Children’s Hospital delivery and NICU teams. Each baby was immediately put on a ventilator in order to stabilize them and determine their condition. They were assessed in the OR, given an Apgar score and moved to the NICU one by one. First Cullen, then Emma, then Abbey, then Tyger… Baby A – Abbey Grace
She was the first born at 9:04a.m. and weighed 2 lbs 4 oz. Her Apgar scores were taken at 1, 5 and 10 minutes and were 7/10, 6/10, and 8/10. She was put on a ventilator to assist her breathing and was removed from the vent yesterday. She is now on CPAP and is doing well with it. She has been on caffeine to stimulate her breathing and is eating 2 cc’s every 6 hrs via a tube inserted into her stomach. There is not too much else to say about Abbey. She is amazing and doing a great job – progressing right along with her head full of black hair.
Baby B – Tyger McKinnie
He was the second born at 9:05 a.m. and weighed 1 lb 10 oz. He is our smallest baby. Dr. Elliott was laughing while delivering him because he was swinging his arms and screaming before he could get him out. He is our little fighter. His Apgar scores were taken at 1 and 5 minutes and were 8/10 and 8/10. Like the others he was put on a ventilator in the OR, but he has not come off the vent yet and probably will not for a few more days or even weeks. About every three hours he gets tired and stops breathing and the vent has to take over. Once his nurse touches his feet and reminds him to breath he catches back up and does it on his own. He has long road ahead of him. Torey got to change his pee pee diaper this afternoon. Some pictures are attached for you. Torey is so good with them already. I hope to be able to get my hands on him soon. His day nurse, Trina, is so in love with him. She is fantastic and really takes good care of him. She calls him her little "pee-pot" because he needs frequent diaper changes and HATES for his diaper to be wet. He gets fussy if it is not changed frequently. He has been given caffeine for his breathing. He got ½ cc of milk the first night and has been increased to 1 cc every 6 hours. He seems to be tolerating his feedings farily well.
Baby C – Cullen "The Moose" McKinnie
He was the third born at 9:06 a.m. and weighed 2 lb 11 oz. He is our biggest baby. It is sad to think we call this tiny baby "The Moose", but when you compare him to Tyger…he is a moose! He is covered in hair. His Apgar scores were taken at 1 and 5 minutes and were 6/10 and 7/10. He was put on a ventilator in the OR, but switched to CPAP in the OR and he hasn’t looked back. He is doing a great job. He is breathing well, eating 2 cc’s every 6 hours and had his first bowel movement today. This is quite an accomplishment considering his intestines should not be functioning until his due date in December. They really push these babies in the NICU and so far, he has been up for the challenge. All the other babies remain on humidity in their incubators, but he has been taken off. He is really doing well and I hope to get my hands on him next week.
Baby D – Emma Claire
She was last to be born at 9:06 a.m. and weighed 2 lb 3 oz. Her Apgar scores were taken at 1 and 5 minutes and were 7/10 and 7/10. She was put on the ventilator in the OR and moved to CPAP in the OR since she was doing so well. She had a minor setback this morning and had to be moved back to the vent. The nurses and doctors say this is farily normal and we will have ups and downs with each baby. She is being given antibiotics right now due to a possible infected umbilical cord. The umbilical cord has been cut back and is being tested, so the antibiotics are just a precautionary measure right now. Overall she is doing well. Shs is eating 2 cc’s every 6 hours and has been given caffeine to stimulate her breathing.
A special thanks to Dow - my boss Bill and by coworkers George and Kirk who are doing an excellent job covering for me - especially with the short notice due to my early delivery.
That is all I have for now. We will post more pictures as we get them. They only open the incubators as needed since they are so new. Thanks for the prayers. All the babies have a long road ahead so keep on praying for them.
Jac, Torey, Abbey, Tyger, Cullen and Emma ~
