Home!

We were able to come home today. Lynnlee gained 3 ounces and her bilirubin level came down. It's so good to be home and fun to have our whole family together!

Thank you for all of your prayers!!! We have been so blessed the last 2 weeks!

Another Day

We stayed at the hospital last night with Lynnlee so I didn't post an update yesterday. We were hoping to come home today but it looks like we will be staying another day.

She has been losing weight instead of gaining and her bilirubin level has been going up. The doctor wants to see that she is gaining weight and that the bilirubin doesn't continue to increase before she sends her home.

It's hard to be here another day when I was really looking forward to brining her home but it's more important that we bring her home when she's ready. Hopefully she eats well today and the bilirubin doesn't increase!

Sunday

Lynnlee is doing so well that she was able to be moved from the Cardiac ICU to the Surgical Floor. One step closer to home! The doctor said she should be able to come home Monday or Tuesday!
James was able to meet his little sister for the first time! He is such a busy boy he didn't care to spend too much time by her but he did give her a little kiss.

Saturday

Lynnlee has done really well today. She came off the ventilator, had all of her tubes removed, and started to eat from a bottle! It was really fun to be able to hold her again.

Un-Orphaned

Yeah! We have officially been Un-Orphaned! James now has Grandparents he can actually visit and not just see on the computer. Great to have you home Mom and Dad!

Success!

The surgery was successful! They were able to repair what they needed to and she handled it very well!She will stay on the ventilator tonight so she can rest and heal. Then tomorrow they will try to get her breathing on her own.

It is amazing how small her incision is. It's under her left arm pit and so she should have a quick recovery. I feel so blessed that everything has gone so well! Thank you all for your prayers!


On a side note my parents returned home from their mission today! It is so nice to have them home! I will include a picture from the airport in my next post.

Surgery Today

Lynnlee is going through her first surgery today. It was originally scheduled for Monday, but because she is doing so well, the Doctors and Surgeons decided to bump it up to today. Which means we should be able to get her home a few days earlier now!

The procedure they are doing today is banding the pulmonary artery as depicted in the image and description below.

Pulmonary Artery Band
Doctors place a band around the Pulmonary Artery to restrict the blood flow going to the lungs called a Pulmonary Artery Band. This limits the amount of blood sent to the lungs making it less congested. http://www.childrensheartinstitute.org/educate/defects/atriovn2.htm

Just in review for everyone, this procedure is in preparation for other surgeries that Lynnlee will need in upcoming months and years because of her Tricuspid Atresia. A good site that I have found to explain this condition and processes is found here: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1310

Again we would like to thank everyone for their prayers and support, and we'd like to thank all the nurses and Doctors too, with the combination of the two our little Lynnlee is being well watched over.

Thursday

Today's update is in pictures. I took being able to hold her for the first few days for granted. Now that she's off the ventilator we've been able to hold her again. It felt so good. She's our little angel.

It's fun to see all of the faces newborns make while they are asleep. Marshall caught this smile on camera today. Lynnlee's dimples remind me of my mom's dimples.

The patch on her forhead measures her blood flow.

And she's off!

Lynnlee was able to come off the ventilator this afternoon! She is so strong and it's nice to have good news to end the day.

Many have asked how we are holding up through all of this. We are doing well. Obviously it's not always easy. We have our good days and not as good days. Marshall is the positive, strong one to get me through the not as good days. I just have to remember that it's all about baby steps. We'll get through this one day at a time.

Thanks to family and friends who watch James during the day so we can be at the hospital. Then we come home at night and spend a few hours with James before his bedtime. This schedule has helped me to feel normal. It's such a blessing to live close enough to Primary Childrens so that we can come home every night.

Thanks again for all of your prayers!

Wednesday

Usually I post my updates at night after we get home from Primary Childrens but today I found out about a cool parent resource center here. They have computers and such so I am able to post an update early.

When we got here today we talked to the doctor and found out the plan for our little Lynnlee. She definitely needs surgery on her pulmonary artery because it's too big and making her heart and lungs work too hard. They have scheduled the surgery for Monday.

They have to wait until Monday because there is some concern about her bowels. Some of the organs in her body don't get the blood supply they need because of her heart condition. Her bowels are one of the organs that have not been getting enough blood supply. That's why she was spitting up so much because her bowels weren't digesting the milk properly. She won't be drinking anything for the next 48 hours so her bowels can rest. Hopefully they won't be damaged through all of this and will be able to work after that.

We are hoping that she can come off the ventilator today. They are in the process of getting her to breathe on her own right now. Let's hope by the end of the day she is breathing on her own!

We haven't posted any new pictures in the last few days. She was a little jaundice and so she has been under lights to lower her bilirubin level. The good news is that her bilirubin level is starting to decrease so hopefully this is the last day she has to be under the lights.

Looks like she will be in the hospital for at least another 2 weeks. The good news is that the surgery is minor and won't be open heart surgery which will mean a quicker recovery!

Tuesday

Today Lynnlee had her tests done. They needed her to hold still for the MRI so they had to sedate her which also meant putting her on a ventilator to stabilize her breathing. All of her tests went well but they haven't been able to get her off the ventilator today. The doctor assured us that this is normal for a newborn and they are going to try and take her off the ventilator tomorrow. Let's hope she'll breathe on her own by then!

We were happy to receive the news that her MRI was completely normal. This means that the birth mark on her face is not linked to anything else and is just a birth mark.

So there's not too much else to update about today. The doctors are meeting in the morning so we will know a lot more after that. Can't wait!

Monday with Lynnlee

We thought we might be able to bring Lynnlee home today but when we got to Primary's today we found out they want to keep her atleast until Wednesday.

They were going to do an echocardiogram today but decided to move it until tomorrow. They want her heart to have another day to grow and change. So tomorrow she'll have an echocardiogram and MRI of her brain. You might wonder why an MRI of her brain. Well, she has a little birth mark on her right cheek and sometimes it can be linked to nerves in the brain, her eyes, and a couple of other things. They are just going to check things out and make sure everything is ok. An eye doctor checked her eyes today and said they looked great.

She's eating better. She was able to keep more food down so that is good.

We are learning that the doctors definitely know what's best for her. I know that sounds funny but we didn't want her to have to have surgery right off but we learned differently. The doctor told us today that they will most likely put a band on her pulmonary artery which will help her in the long run. We want what is best for her so I guess if that is what they need to do then we'll pray that she can get through this surgery whenever it may be.

All of her doctors are going to meet together on Wednesday and discuss what is best and when it's best. So she will either be having surgery this week before we bring her home or we will bring her home for a week or two and then she'll go back for surgery.

Pretty much by Wednesday we should have a better outlook on everything. I just have to keep reminding myself to stay positive and it will all work out. She's a tough little girl!

Birth Story and Update

I've been wanting to write an update but we've been so busy going from the U of U to Primary's that I haven't had a chance.

Here's the birth story:

Wednesday night and into Thursday morning I contracted like crazy. I couldn't sleep because they were so uncomfortable. I had an appointment Thursday morning so we decided to wait until then to drive to Salt Lake. When they checked me at my appointment I was dilated to a 5 and contracting. They hooked me up to the monitor for the afternoon and my contractions slowly went away. They were afraid to send me home since it's a 45 minute drive. They decided to keep me for the night to see if anything happened.

That whole night I contracted but my water never broke. When the doctor checked me Friday morning I was dilated to a 6. At that point I was admitted to the Labor and Delivery floor. I received an epidural, started pitocin and they broke my water. This was all around 2:00pm. It wasn't until 9:00 when I was ready to start pushing. Talk about slow progressing since I was already a 6 at 11:30 that morning. I pushed from 9:30 until 10:30 and then she was born. She was 8 lbs. 11 ounces and 20.5 inches long. She out did James. (James was 8 lbs. 9 ounces and 19 inches) My kids just like to be born at night I guess. James was born at 10:19 pm.

My room was right next to the NICU. There is even a window from my room to the NICU. As soon as she came out Marshall was able to help cut the cord and then they passed her through the window to the NICU nurse.

They stabilized her fast and then transported her to Primary Children's. Marshall was able to go with. They did an echocardiogram of her heart that and saw her heart defect which is called Tricuspid Atresia. So far for her heart defect she has experienced the best case scenario. She has had great oxygen levels and is able to breathe on her own without extra oxygen or a breathing tube. Her heart rate is normal. I attribute this to everyone's prayers! Thank you! Our prayers have been answered!

We were concerned about her pulmonary artery being big enough but our prayers were answered and it is very big. In fact it is so big that they might need to do a surgery in a few weeks to restrict the size. (Little did we know it could be too big) So now we are praying that it can be the right size and she won't have to have surgery in a few weeks.

She will for sure need surgery around 4-6 months of life and 3 years of age. These surgeries will help fix her heart defect and help her to live a normal life.

I was released from the U of U so today so we were able to spend most of the day with her at Primary's. She is eating ok. She is so sleepy and not wanting to eat too much. When she does eat she spits it back up so we are praying that this problem will work itself out. Today they put in a feeding tube to put the food in more slowly to see if that helped and it did a little bit.

Tomorrow (Monday) she has another echocardiogram. If the doctors are happy with what they see then she might be able to come home!

Thank you for all of your prayers! I hope all this made sense. It's late and I'm a little sleep deprived. I will continue to update when I can.

Lynnlee Rose Lowry

She's here! Lynnlee Rose Lowry was born last night at 10:30. She weighs 8 lbs. 11 ounces and is 20 1/2 inches long! Thank you for all your prayers! She is doing great! Stay tuned for the story and updates :)

False Alarm

We had a false alarm yesterday. I had been contracting since Saturday night and the contractions were becoming uncomfortable and regular. It's not a secret, but many don't know that our soon to be baby girl has a heart defect. I will be having her at the U of U so she can be seen by specialists right after birth. This makes it tricky on knowing when to go to the hospital. It's a 45 minute drive from American Fork.

At my last check up I was dilated to a 3 and 70% effaced. After sacrament meeting we decided to go to the U of U so I could be checked and monitored. When we got there I was dilated to a 4 and having steady contractions. Nothing changed after an hour and a half though. They told me to go walking for two hours and then come back. We walked all around the U of U, Primary's and the U of U campus. I was exhausted after. When they checked me again I was still a 4 and my contractions were slowing. Needless to say they sent us back home. Gotta love false alarms! I was lucky with James because my water broke so I knew for sure when to go to the hospital. My induction date is set for March 28th but who knows if she'll wait until then to come.

Sewing Project #3 & #4

I'm still working on sewing projects with my free time. It's helped the time pass faster in my last couple of weeks of pregnancy.

Sewing project #3 is a diaper bag. I was planning on buying one but couldn't really find one I liked that was affordable. I debated making one but knew I woudn't be able to do it on my own. Thank goodness for my sister Ali! She is amazing at sewing and helped me through the whole project. All in all this only cost me $15! The outside fabric is canvas. The inside fabric is cotton.

There are a few pockets inside and one big enough for a bottle.

The pattern didn't have any outside pockets but Ali helped me add a pocket under the flap. Thanks Ali for all of your help!

Sewing Project #4: Receiving blanket

A few weeks ago I bought flannel to make another receiving blanket. I've been on a floral kick with the sage green. I bought it separate from the fabric for the diaper bag. Little did I know they are the same pattern just different colors!