Day of life # 2 for Piper, 24 weeks and 1 day pregnant with Paisley… Father’s Day and Piper’s baptism

Again thank you for everyone’s overwhelming support and concern. There have been so many wonderful messages, emails, texts, etc that we have been unable to respond to everyone individually. So thank you! We appreciate it!

Happy Father’s Day to Jordon! He already has proven to be an amazing dad… He loves both Piper and Paisley (and Chase too) so much, is a wonderful husband, and has been taking amazing care of his family.  I look forward to watching him grow as a father and couldn’t have picked a better dad for our two girls.

Today Piper was baptized by Pastor Schneider. He lifted us all up in prayer and baptized Piper with a drop of sterile water on her head, helping to welcome her as a child in God’s kingdom.  It was a very special moment.

Piper had a little bit of a rough night and day today. We were told that typically premies will have a “honeymoon period” for the first 24 or 48 hours of life. We were then told that Piper’s honeymoon period has officially ended and she is just starting to face the many challenges that she will have to fight to overcome. Last night and today she has been struggling with fluctuating sodium levels in her blood. Apparently she has been losing quite a bit of water through her very thin skin and as a result, her sodium level shot up dangerously high last night. The doctors then attempted to correct this level very slowly by changing her fluids, because bringing the sodium level down too fast could precipitate brain swelling and a seizure. Unfortunately, her sodium level dropped very quickly and she has been at risk of these complications. The good news is that she is not currently showing any clinical signs of brain swelling or seizure and they will continue to monitor for this while trying to keep her sodium and other electrolytes under control. Unfortunately, because of these electrolyte abnormalities, they were not willing to try to wean her off the ventilator yet. Once she is more stable, this will be attempted. Initially, Piper was going to have an ultrasound tomorrow to assess for a brain bleed (which is a routine thing to be done). Because she is not exhibiting any signs of a brain bleed, they are going to wait until Friday to get this done. At that same time, she will have an ultrasound of her kidneys because of the increased fluid seen in her right kidney which was seen on the ultrasound of her still in utero. In regards to nutrition, they still plan to start giving her donor breast milk in the near future. We have had a few generous breastfeeding friends offer their milk to Piper and so we discussed this with the doctors. They prefer that Piper get the breast milk from a mother that has given birth to a very premature baby (which they can get through the donor system), as this milk will have more of the nutrients that she needs (vs. milk of a mother that gave birth to a full term baby).

I was able to go outside today for about 10 minutes… it was the first time I have been outside in 11 days. It was nice to get fresh air! I have had a lot more cramping today. The doctors were initally unsure if this was normal postpartum cramping (from my left uterus starting to shrink) or if this was a concern regarding the activity of the right uterus with Paisley. They checked me this morning and my right cervix is still closed/thick and so they are pretty comfortable with saying that my cramping is just to be expected given that I just delivered Piper. I have been feeling very conflicted today… I want to spend a lot of time in the NICU with Piper, but she also needs minimal stimulation at this point (they are trying to keep the incubator closed, dark, and as quiet as possible for now). Also, the time I spend in the NICU tends to be somewhat stressful as I am constantly watching her monitors and hearing her alarms go off for various reasons. I don’t want this stress to impact my body and subsequently put me into labor with Paisley. So I am trying to navigate that fine line and find the right balance of being there for Piper and yet taking care of myself and Paisley. I’m not sure if I’ve found that balance quite yet, but will keep trying.