My 30th Birthday

The BEST birthday gift ever is this little peanut but an even better gift was being able to finally hold her and hear her cry after 2 days of not being able to do either.  This is me holding her on Saturday after she had just been extubated!  

You can just see the exhaustion in her eyes...

 After she had those two episodes on Monday she had another scary one on Thursday at 2am.  We got a call at 4am and you can imagine what that must have felt like to see that 215 number on your phone in the middle of the night. HORRIBLE!  I sat up and immediately said Bill's name to make sure he was up before I answered the call.  It was the nurse practitioner telling us that Micah had another BAD episode and this time they had to put her on a ventilator. GASP....GASP again!  The only good thing was that she was still doing most of her breathing on her own. She needed to be intubated to keep her airway safe. (intubation=a breathing tube put into the mouth and it goes all the way down to where the lungs branch out.  It will keep her airway open so no secretions or reflux can get into her lungs) After having those 3 life threatening episodes in 1 week we knew there was bound to be something wrong with her lungs.  Every time she would reflux she would aspirate and after that happening 3 times she ended up with a collapsed lung.  POOR THING is only 5 weeks old and she has already been through so much....what a fighter!!! But anyway while she was intubated you could not hear her, which was the hardest part. We would see her face crying hysterically but nothing was coming out.  ABSOLUTELY horrible! Another thing that was just horrendous to see was an IV in her scalp. Her veins are so hard to find that they had to resort to the scalp.  When we finally saw her Thursday morning I cried for about 2 hours just because of that damn IV.  

 This is her crying for the first time after being extubated (tube getting removed). She is very annoyed by me kissing her to death...

We also got to play dress up once she was able to be taken out of her crib. I HATED not being able to feel her warm skin against mine for two days. This onesie was made by my Aunt Cindy!  I am in LOVE with it. Thanks Aunt Cindy! Micah was in heaven when I put this on her.  

As of right now Micah is on CPAP,  that bigger tube underneath her nose, which is giving her a small dose of oxygen and she is awaiting another surgery to get a nissin. The nissin will stop her reflux completely, it is a small wrap on her flap that connects her stomach to her esophagus. This will prevent anything that could possibly come back up her throat.  She can't get surgery again until her gtube completely heals, so it could be another 2-3 weeks.  At least this will give her time to grow at CHOP considering she is NOT ready to come home and we are okay with that.  She got extubated on Saturday and the doctors looked at her lung one more time and it seemed to be getting better.  She sounds VERY congested but at least she is breathing on her own and does not have that horrible tube down her throat anymore.  

Here is our peanut all ready for a good night's sleep on Saturday night....   

Back to my birthday.....it was amazing!  I arrived at CHOP and saw this on Micah's crib.  Soooo stinking cute!  I was ECSTATIC to see Micah's foot prints.  Man, are they huge or what?!?!  

Annie, Micah's night nurse, dressed her in this adorable outfit for my birthday.  OMG.....I could of died when I saw her!  I love that the nurses love dressing her up as much as I do. They all say Micah is best dressed baby at CHOP! Props go to my friend Cheryl for making this adorable hat for her.  You are AMAZING Cheryl, THANK YOU!

After we left CHOP, Bill and I went out for a nice dinner and then stopped at my parent's house for cake and presents.  My whole family put together 30 gifts for me.  It was one of the coolest ideas I've seen in a while.  My nieces and nephew took turns bringing me my presents one by one.  Let's just say I have A LOT of candy now =)

I got lots of yummy pastry treats today!!! A big THANKS to Dave & Nancy, Bri & Steph, and Dana!  I will be stocked for the next couple of weeks, thanks guys!!! 

We Heart Micah!