I didn’t get a chance to post any other updates on Julie’s birthday. I had my hands full running back and forth between the hospital and our apartment (about 45 minutes each way at normal speeds), calling friends and family (my cell phone only worked in certain spots in the hospital), and visiting Julie and Sarah.
This update came from my sister-in-law to her friends:
Dear Family and Friends,
Julie Kristina was born at 12:04 PM today to Andy and Sarah Horn in Dalls, TX.
The delivery was a surprise and very fast. Andy barely had time to get her to the hospital before Julie was arriving. There was no time for the planned C-section, so she was born naturally with just a small snip to help her out. Andy said her color was good and she had a little bit of black hair.
Sarah is now sleeping and little Julie is in neo-natal intensive care.
Both Sarah and Julie had problems with fluids at the last. When they measured Sarah’s abdomen last week, they said she was as large as if she was 10 months pregnant! Julie had fluids in her chest and abdomen and a bit in her head. Obviously, there are a number of issues for the doctors to access in her care and treatment.
Please continue your prayers on their behalf, but praise the Lord for a safe delivery. The fact that Juile survived a natural birth is a very good sign.
Love,
Becky
Sarah felt remarkably well after a power nap following delivery. Despite the effects of labor, she slept deeply for the first time in weeks. After being moved to her room, she ordered lunch and enjoyed another short nap. The nausea disappeared and without a curious child in her tummy, she enjoyed a meal in peace and comfort.
Meanwhile, I was escorted into the NICU. The process of hand washing and asking permission to enter felt very strange. Once past the locked double doors, the nurse escorted me to Julie’s room.
The buzz from the crowded waiting area disappears in the long NICU hallway. Infrequently do the babies cry out. The parents speak softly and the staff works quietly most of the time. My shoes protest loudly against the clean tile floor.
The sign “Baby Horn” marked the place which Julie would occupy until she left the NICU. Outside the room, the duty nurse had a computer workstation and glass windows to view inside the room. The rooms were paired so a nurse could monitor both rooms. Two babies occupied each room.
The nurse gave me instructions to speak softly. I could not touch Julie’s sensitive skin just yet. So I watched carefully as the nurses in the room finish their final tasks including salve for Julie’s sensitive eyes and adjusting the many wires and tubes that connected Julie to the three machines surrounding her tiny clear plastic “baby box.” Each machine attached to a tall poll supported by wheels. The blue breathing machine – which I instantly dubbed Julie’s BFF – made the loudest sounds. The other two machines introduced fluids and medicine at their appointed rates through the lines in Julie’s hands and feet. I instantly recognized the EKG connectors and wires from my experiences when my father pioneered neonatal monitoring in the 1960s (a spin-off of the NASA space missions). Her heart rhythm displayed clearly on the large LED display overhead along with blood pressure, heart rate and blood oxygen percent.
Eventually, they closed the lid on the baby box and Julie rested from the continual attention since she entered the world about 2 hours before. Her color included black and blue along with her normal pink. She appeared larger than I expected, both longer and heavier. All the parts looked intact – little arms, legs, feet, hands, fingers and toes – so I concluded that she would be OK. She survived birth, so her chances of survival increased dramatically.
Eventually, I could perceive the swelling that the MRI had detected three days before. Her eyes nearly disappeared under her cheeks. Her nose and ears only partially stood out. The skin from her chin to her chest concealed her neck so swollen from fluid and her stomach seemed way to big for the rest of her body. I could have stood there for hours taking in everything, but I realized that Sarah hadn’t seen Julie at all and might start worrying, so I left to find her new room.
My brother Peter posted this update later in the day on FB:
Julie Kristina Horn was born on March 7, 2011, 12:04pm at 6 lbs 1 oz. There were approv 2 lbs of fluid as well. Julie is affected by CCAM, making up probably 2 lbs of that weight. Other vitals: Sustained speed to the hospital: 90 mph. The delivering physician was seen at a dead run heading to Sarah’s room.
I shared the news with Sarah although anxious to see Julie, she decided to wait a little while before venturing down to the NICU floor. Peter and his wife Marla came by that evening to give us our first gift for the baby: a diaper bag. We hadn’t even thought of such things yet. Julie came too early. We were so unprepared.
At some point during the evening, we requested a wheelchair and I rolled Sarah down the elevator and into the NICU. She looked into the plastic baby box as the doctor explained the situation. The prognosis remained good. Julie’s BFF breathing machine meant that she didn’t need the more intense ECMO. Another machine fed Julie a diuretic to help her expand the extra fluid. At this point the doctor believed Julie’s 6 lbs included 2 lbs of fluid, meaning really she weighed about 4 lbs.
The NICU rules precluded large crowds for visits – just two at a time including Sarah or me. This limited how much our friends could share in the experience. Our Sunday School class had just begun a calendar to provide meals while Sarah stayed home and confined to bed. Now, we needed them to wait until we got home again later in the week. After making a quick trip to our apartment to feed the cat and collect clothes and toiletries for us, I returned to the hospital to sleep in the room with Sarah sometime around midnight.