Monday, September 26, 2011

Mary Jacinta may be home this weekend!!


Our sweet baby girl is doing so well. Thanks for your many prayers, the ROP has lessened to stage 2 and the opthamologist thinks she will need no treatment! She is only bottle feeding, about 1.5 ounces every 3 hours, the breathing and feeding tubes have been removed, and she is in an open air big girl bed - no more incubator for MJ :)

The nurses all said that we need to bring her car sear for the car seat challenge test to see her oxygen and heart rate levels for an hour while she sits in the seat and if she passes..... She comes home!!!

I am so ready for her to be home, I can hardly stand it. 5 + weeks of daily 80 mile trips to the hospital are so hard especially being so tired all the time. I am really anxious about being responsible for her total care with no nurse around (although my sis and friend are nurses and live around the corner). She will have a monitor for several months and I hope I can keep myself sane when it goes off but I can't wait to have her HOME!!!!!

I am also worried financially since I will be taking an extra 3 weeks off without pay since my dd isn't for another 3.5 weeks but I trust God will provide!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Monday, September 19, 2011

Prayers for Mary Jacinta please

Please pray for our little MJ, she has stage 3 ROP - Retinapathy of Prematurity. Stages 1-2 clear up on their own usually, stage 3 clears up 50% of the time, and 50% of the time goes on to stage 4-5 which can lead to blindness....I have my cell phone in my hand at all times today waiting on the opthamologist to call us back with more details. The only information we got about ROP was from the nurse practitioner who was looking up information in the book to tell us - which didn't make me feel like she knew much of what she was talking about. Of course I have googled it and made myself a nervous wreck thinking about what can happen if hers does not regress. He will come back this weekend to see if hers has progressed to stage 4 or regressed to stage 1,2. Please pray for out little MJ's vision. I was happy to find out the patroness of vision problems is Saint Lucy, and if this baby is a girl we are naming her Lucia and calling her Lucy, so maybe her sister is already praying for her eyes to be healed in utero!

We had our adoption shower Saturday night after finding out this news and I am so thankful we did - it helped keep my mind off the bad news and just rejoice in the adoption with our friends. They had two dogwoods - one pink, one white with money envelopes tied on the trees. We were so very blessed by so many wonderful friends who wanted to help us afford this adoption. (Sara, Ellen, Ashley, MOrgan, Shannon thank you so much for such a wonderful shower :)

The birthmom was there in her room Sunday when we got to the hospital and I was freaking out. They had not emailed or called to tell us they were coming like they usually do and I suddenly felt so possessive of her - I wanted to snatch MJ out her arms and run down the hall! DH and I have got to make some serious decisions and email them about what we are expecting to happen in this adoption. We have not been forthcoming enough about our wishes obviously in relaying them to the birth family. I hated feeling like that about my baby, I feel like we have been EXTREMELY compassionate towards them visiting and their feelings, but now it is coming at the cost of our own feelings. We wanted to let them come and visit when they wanted to especially since she is still pumping for MJ, but I want to know when they plan on coming and not be surprised when I come see my baby!!The nurses could tell it was an uncomfortable situation and came in, took MJ from the BM and repositioned her ECG and oxygen wires, asked us if we were ready to feed her, gave us the bottle and we got her out of the incubator to feed her. They still stayed for another 30 minutes and my heart was pumping the whole time. They finally left and we were able to enjoy a few more hours with her alone. They told her that she has more than enough milk there and they have run out of freezer space for MJ so she can pump and keep it at home, they will let her know when they need more. The nurse told us she has enough to feed a third world country right now! I just have to wonder if this is partly an attempt to keep latching on to MJ?? We can tell them not to come back at all if we want, but I feel guilty doing that too??

Anyone have any more information about ROP? I know the fact that she was born before 32 weeks, under 2.5 pounds, and is on oxygen are all major contributors to her contracting ROP.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Mary Jacinta is OURS!! (almost :)

Just now finding a minute to post our WONDERFUL NEWS!! BM signed the surrender papers on Tuesday afternoon at 5:30 so Mary Jacinta is ours!! Now begins the search for the birthfather which our lawyer and the family is not concerned about at all. He has most likely skipped the country and wants nothing to do with the baby. Finalization should be sometime in November/December, we are putting a rush on the legal process to make this princess ours forever!!!

MJ had to be put back on nasal oxygen tubes Tuesday but the nurses say this is no big deal and happens often. She was probably worn out from all her visitors Monday (us, my sister, brother, SIL, nephews, BM and her parents - awkward situation, more on that later....)so praying she'll be off the oxygen soon. She is weighing in at a hefty 2 pounds 11.8 ounces - from the original drop 2.5 weeks ago at 2 pounds. Praise GOD!!!

another picture dad??


Hi everyone!!