Healthy and Holidaying

Well, most of August was spent on the road. Hannah has now flown to England twice and to the US once. We've discovered that now is a really good time to travel as Hannah slept through all the flights. The only problem was a jet-lagged 3 month old at the journey's end!

Before we could take Hannah on an international flight we had to get her checked out by the pediatric heart specialist. An ultrasound scan of her heart and an ECG showed that she has only very minor problems left. The valve, that was damaged by the fast heart beat, had healed, the hole between two chambers had shrunk to a 'microscopic' size, but the lung bypass was still open. The doctor advised that premature babies often have the open bypass and that it should close within a year. All-in-all the doctor was very pleased with her health :)

So we went to the US to introduce Hannah to all her aunts, uncles, cousins, great-grandmas and friends. After a short stay in Ames, where Grandma and Mum went crazy in the Yonkers sale....








Hannah got to meet both her great-grandmas



(I don't know why these pictures are so big!)



and throw-up on G'ma V.




The family trip to Okoboji was much cooler than we expected, but that was OK because G'ma and G'pa made Hannah snug before subjecting her to the elements.



After a week and a half in the US it was time to visit the other side of the family in England and to spend some time with the other grandparents.



Which Hannah loved. Lots of friends came to visit while in England but we're just not that great at taking photos ;)

More Cuddles

Hannah didn't have to spend long getting used to a reduction in cuddle quantity. Two days after the Vardemans left Uncle Matt and Gemma came to visit and Hannah proved that she can make a grown man broody :)



Time was short so cuddles were shared....

Long Time....

Hannah had a check-up at the hospital at the beginning of July which showed that she was making very good progress. She's been given permission to travel and her appointment with the heart specialist has been brought forward to the end of August.

Hannah has had a busy few weeks with a lot of guests giving a lot of cuddles.
Hannah's G'ma and G'pa V came to visit for 10 days together with her uncle Andrew.
Uncle Andrew heard that Hannah had always wanted a monkey so that's what she got....




Hannah spent most of the time being snuggled by her relatives, either her Grandparents...




which she found very comforting..


or her uncle...




Micah is teaching Hannah that to live in our house is to be teased, prodded and poked:



but she still loves him:



I never had dolls as a little girl but I'm making up for it now. Here she is in the shirt Sarah bought for her in Mexico.



Most of the time Hannah doesn't mind being the centre of attention and photographs don't bother her but, sometimes a girl needs some peace!

Getting Cuter All The Time

There isn't any big news to report about Hannah these days. She's growing all the time (9.5 lbs this morning), and is generally just being a baby (albeit a very cute and good one).

Hannah's been getting used to doing what Mum and Dad do. She's been to a couple of parties, and mostly just enjoys hanging out.

We've been having fun dressing Hannah up in all of her pretty outfits so here's a selection of photos...

Bath time is always fun, and Hannah looks great in her hooded towel (thank you uncle David)



Martins Mum knitted Hannah a cardigan with matching hat that goes very well with her white outfit.



Here, Hannah just looked her froggy self, so I couldn't help including the picture.



Aunt Joyce and family sent Hannah some very pretty clothes but the best of all is that hat :-)



Hannah received this outfit from work, and we all agreed that she looks like she's just stepped out of a nursery ryhme.



Hannah has lots more pretty clothes so watch this space for more updates...


For those of you continuing to pray for our little girl, she has a control appointment at the hospital here in Sonderborg on the 5th July. Please pray that that goes as well (as we are expecting).

Life at Home

Hannah came home from the hospital on the 31st May. Since then Hannah has been experiencing many firsts.
Monday was the first night that Hannah slept in a (special baby) sleeping bag next to her parents bed.



On Tuesday Hannah went back to the hospital for a blood test and to be weighed. She hadn't gained enough weight so had to go back again on Friday before she was officially discharged.
We bought Hannah her first bed on Tuesday so Tuesday night was her first night in her own bed.



Grandma Gower and Auntie Cath came to visit on Wednesday so this was the first time that Hannah was held by both of them:



On Friday we were back to the hospital. Hannah had put on a lot of weight so she was officially discharged. Now she just has to go back in a months time for a check-up and to the heart specialist in November. Other than that, it's just regular baby check-ups.

On Sunday it was time for church so Hannah had to put 'Sunday clothes' on for the first time. She looked very beautiful in her pretty dress. Here she is lying next to the bear she got from Martin:



The other purchase we made this week was a car seat so Sunday was also her first time in a car. She decided that was pretty sleep inducing :-)



We can see that Hannah is a lot bigger than she used to be. She's starting to get proper baby fat with little pudgy wrists and numerous chins. Hannah is a pretty easy baby up to this point, she eats when she should, sleeps when she should, plays a little and rarely cries.
We're very glad to have her home and can't wait until she can meet you all.

Home!!!

Look at me, no wires!!!



Hannah came home today!!! She has an appointment tomorrow morning at the hospital for a blood test, but she's home for the night...so much for sleeping...

Update: Week 3

Things continue to go the right way for Hannah. Her breathing and heart rate have been stable enough in the last week that the doctors have taken her off all of her heart rate and blood oxygen monitors. The only monitor that she has left is a mat that she lies on to make sure we know if she stops breathing.

The only tube that is still attached is her feeding tube, and that may be going soon as well!! On Monday, she started to breast feed a little, and has progressed very well through the week. Yesterday, she had two feeds where she got 82 ml and 77 ml all by herself. She is now on a trial period where, throughout the day, rather than being fed at regular intervals, we wait until Hannah lets us know she's hungry, and then she gets only what she breast feeds. This way, there is a better chance that she will eat a full meal rather than just sucking a little, falling right to sleep, and expecting the food to just come anyway. At night, she still gets fed through the tube. If she can eat enough by herself that she still gains weight as she should, out comes the tube....

....and, when the tube comes out, Hannah comes home!!!!!

The doctors and nurses think that it could be as little as a week before she's ready to come home (she will still, of course, have to go in for regular checks). Alex, who is now tied to the hospital except for very short periods right after Hannah feeds, is really looking forward to "life on the outside" again, and I am really looking forward to not having to go to the hospital to visit my family.

Now, on another note, my mom has provided some insight on the question of who Hannah looks like by e-mailing some of my baby pictures. You can judge for yourself, but I'd have to say that Hannah is definitely her Dad's girl.

Baby Micah



Baby Hannah

Update: Week 2

Hannah has continued to grow and improve this week. Hannah has not used her CPAP since Sunday morning, so the nurses have removed the equipment from her area (which means that she is now breathing 100% on her own and doing very well at it).

She has permission to sit with Mom (Mum for our English readers) and Dad almost as often as we like.



Both Alex's parents and my Mom have come to visit and returned home (Grandpa V has to teach, so he wasn't able to come along this time). Here is a picture of the three Vardeman women.



Hannah got a bit too yellow, so she spent a couple of days this week with a special UV insert in her shirt. Her biliruben level dropped enough after two days that she's once again free of the light.



Hannah has had a couple of go's at breastfeeding, but isn't quite there yet (sorry, no picture on this one ;). She does fairly well getting the milk into her mouth, but hasn't quite figured out what to do with it at that point. It usually runs down her chin into Alex's lap. The nurses say that it is still a bit early to expect things to function on that front.

Hannah also had her first bath on Tuesday. She didn't seem too bothered by it (she's now been poked, prodded, and stuck by so many different people and instruments that not much phases this little girl).



In general, Hannah's doing really well. Her weight is up to a little over 2500 grams (about 5.5 pounds), and she's growing daily. She has not had any more attacks where her heart has beaten excessively fast. The only hiccup that we are experiencing at the moment is that she has periods where her heart beats pretty irregularly. The doctors do not seem terribly concerned about this (the oxygen saturation level in her blood remains quite high the entire time), and believe it is an effect of having too high of a blood concentration level of the heart medicine she is taking (digoxin) to control the racing heart beat (supraventicular tachycardia). The doctors have reduced her dosage of the digoxin and are taking daily blood tests to monitor the level of medicine in her blood.

All in all, she seems like a happy girl.



If you're praying, please pray

1) That her medicine gets dialed in right, and her heart beat settles into a nice even pattern (even if the doctors aren't that concerned, Mom and Dad have a bit of a hard time being 100% relaxed when they see the gages swinging up and down intermittently).

2) That as her heart matures she grows out of the heart problems as the doctors are predicting.

3) That she continues to grow, and learns to eat properly.

4) That she has no further compliations from her early birth

5) That her Mom and Dad can learn to relax and know that everything is in God's hands (probably especially her Dad--I think Alex and the nurses are begining to conspire to find a way to ban me from staring at Hannah's gages and reading articles from medical journals on the internet).

History

Here are copies of the e-mail updates that I sent out originally (for those of you who I missed on either one).

Hi Everyone,

Alex and I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to send us words of encouragement and to remember us in your prayers (I know that I'm still missing many people with this e-mail, so please forward as appropriate).

Hannah's condition has improved in leaps and bounds over the last week (although she still doesn't have a middle name).

During her first day at the Odense University hospital, Hannah's weight peaked at 2950 grams (6.4 lb) due to a huge amount of swelling. She was retaining so much water that she couldn't open her eyes, or bend her arms and legs. She was having regular attacks where her heart rate would shoot up to around 300 bpm.

During the day on Monday, Hannah began to receive medicine to control her irregular heart beat, and a diuretic to reduce her swelling.


On Tuesday morning at 4:00 AM, Hannah had her last episode with a high heart rate to date (and hopefully ever!!!). During the day, a cardiologist examined her heart, and did not find any irregularities. It is his opinion that for the first few months, the medicine will control Hannah's heart rate, and as her heart tissue matures, she will most likely grow out of the problem. During the night on Tuesday, Hannah lost 600 grams of retained water--we saw her eyes on Wednesday morning for the first time since just after she was born.

Hannah had a very good day on Wednesday, and on Thursday, she got permission to come back to the hospital in Sønderborg. Since she's been in Sønderborg, things have been going better and better. She is now out of the incubator and in a special heated bed. Both Alex and I have been able to hold her for extended periods. The number of cords and cables attached to her has steadily decreased. She is eating more and more, and for a trial period is off of her IV drip (if she can digest enough milk to keep her growing, she doesn't have to get stuck again). Since 3:00 AM this morning, she has been breathing on her own--no extra oxygen, no machinery. She will still probably have to have her continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP for those of you who like acronyms) intermittently to give her developing lungs a break, but it's really great to see her doing it by herself for an amount of time.

Now, Hannah has to grow and mature. The doctors tell us to expect that she will be in the hospital for 4-6 weeks before she can come home. During this time, Alex is allowed to stay in a bed just down the hall so that she can be with Hannah as often as possible.

For those of you who are praying for us, please pray that Hannah will be able to digest more and more food and put on weight, that her heart will mature from the problems with irregularity, and that she won't experience any additional complications from her early birth.

To avoid clogging up the e-mail system to send further updates, for those who are interested in following Hannah's development, I'm going to try, within the next few days, to begin putting periodic updates out on the family web site (www.the-vardemans.net).

Also, in an attempt to keep my work and private e-mails separate, if you wish to reply to this update, please do so on my private e-mail address (I sent this from my work account because I don't have everyone's e-mail addresses on my home computer).

---

Hi All,

I'm sure that I didn't get everyone copied that I should have (I don't have
all of the addresses on hand), so please forward on as you see fit.

For those of you who don't know, our baby was delivered by emergency
C-section on Sunday at 11:28 (exactly 7 weeks early). It took a bit of
doing, but they stabilized her breathing and heart rate, and transferred
both her and Alex to the University Hospital in Odense (which specializes
in neo-natal care). The baby (girl--sorry, no name yet, we're still
discussing that one), is overall in stable condition, but has problems with
an irregular heart beat. Most of the time, her heart operates fine, but
suddenly, without reason, it will jump up to around 300 beats per minute
(about double what it should be at). She has been receiving medicine which
is supposed to control the condition, and we're praying right now that that
will work. Also, there is a bit of a problem with retained water (she
have been receiving a lot of fluids interveniously, has a little trouble
peeing on her own, and the heart condition doesn't help things), so she is
quite swollen, and receiving medicine to help get the water out of her
body.

Once she is in a more stable condition, she will be transferred back down
to the hospital here in Sonderborg (the hospital in Odense is 2 hours drive
from Sonderborg).

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers, and we are looking forward to
the time when you can all meet our new daughter.