Yep, time flies. Isabella is two months old now (and a day), and the funny thing is that she wasn’t supposed to get born until tomorrow (October 27).. that she is already here, and is in good health, can only be seen as a small miracle.

I know, I know, I didn’t post in a while, and with that I didn’t show anything of Isabella anymore. This is mainly due to my busy schedule nowadays, mostly because of Isabella of course, but also because of some projects that I am working on, and because of that, I didn’t see much time to write something again.

Well, Isabella is, like I said, in good health. She has been to the doctor’s office today for a checkup as she is two months old now. They took her weight (she also gets her weight every week at the lactation nurse, because she was born so early and her weight needs to be closely monitored), and they took her length also. According to this scale (I don’t like this scale, as I will show you in a graph), she is now weighing  6 pounds and 2 ounces (2778 grams), and her length is 19.1 inch (48,5 centimeter). When you compare this to when she was only just born, then this is a big difference as her birth weight was only 2 pounds and 10.9 ounces (1220 grams). Yeah, she seems to be on a roll with her weight. I’ve placed her weights in a graph, by the way:

As you can see, there is an odd gap in that graph. This was the other time that they took her weight at the doctors’ office, and not with the (more secure) scale of the lactation office. Two days after that weight, she was weighed by the lactation nurse, and there she was back in her normal line. So if there is such a difference between those two, then she should actually weigh more right now. But ok, I won’t find out about that until next week.

At the end of this visit, Isabella received 3 injections and a small drink. She had to get a number of vaccinations, against things such as Polio, Diphtheria, Hepatitis B, Rotavirus, and more of these things. The nurse who gave her the shots, warned me that she might cry a lot as these injections seem to hurt badly. But what do you think, there were two small screams, and that was it. The nurse was quite surprised and said that normally all kids seem to cry a lot. I told her that it was possibly because her adventure in the hospital, where she had a lot of shots, and that this might have been a minor thing for her. But oh well, whatever may be the case, I am pretty proud of her that she is so incredibly strong.

Those shots made her pretty drowsy, which they told me that might happen. I don’t really mind that this happened as I now have the time to write a message here haha. She might get some fever, as a side effect of those injections, apparently there is a big possibility. I hope she wont get it, I doubt she’ll like it.

Anyways, I also have to give you guys a few new pictures, so you can see she grew a lot. So here are a few new ones of today:

She is currently pretty drowsy and sleepy, sometimes a bit weepy, so I will make some new pictures somewhere later this week, on which she will be a bit more awake, and a bit less weepy

Isabella is finally home since Sunday afternoon!

She was able to get into her new carseat pretty easy, so we didn’t have to purchase another one lol. I have to say that I feel a bit like she is drowning in her carseat, she is so small compared to that seat haha. As you can see on the following pictures, she really needs some extra support from those sheets:

This carseat is, however, just a temporary solution, as soon as she is big enough, she is going into her own real seat. Personally I think her real seat is a lot nicer and better in color.. plus we can have it on a stroller, so I don’t have to carry her constantly, which is also nice haha. Her own seat looks like the following, by the way:

Next to the seats above, she also has another seat which is placed in Michelle’s car for when she takes Isabella with her. But ok, that one is also a bit too big at the moment haha.

We stayed in the hospital the following night, Saturday to Sunday, because they offered us to room in for a night, so we could see if we’re ready ourselves.. they offer this to everyone so everyone can get used to their child for a night, to see if everything goes as planned, and when it does not go as planned, so that the nurses are still close by also. I had never heard of it before but I kind of like the idea, it is a good tool to get a feeling of how things are.

Of course we didn’t sleep much that night, of course there was Isabella making all kinds of sounds (not much, but still), there was a lot of noise coming from the hallway (after all, it is a hospital, not a hotel), and every now and then there was someone checking up on us around the time that Isabella needed to get her food. So we didn’t get much sleep and are pretty tired right now (because, yeah, try to catch up on your sleep when you have to feed a small kid every three hours haha)..  oh well, things will be alright

Here’s a few pictures of Isabella in her new environment, we will post some more photo’s of Isabella in her new room later of course:

It looks like we, even though it is a bit faster than expected, can bring some good news. But let me first start where we ended at the last post about Isabella.

The day after Isabella was allowed to stay out of the isolette, she was allowed to try breast feeding. This was, again, above all expectation. Instead of just playing around, which was the thing they expected, she seemed to be able to drink pretty well already.

When we arrived the day after that, it turned out that Isabella was moved a bit to a different location, but when we opened the door, we didn’t know this yet, so we saw the following:

This didn’t look anything like Isabella haha, it’s a doll which they also use for CPR classes and such. But, yes, it did make us wonder about it at first haha.

Then there were a few days in which not much new things happened, this is one of the reasons why I waited before I would write a new post. One of the things I can tell you, however, is that she wore some very cute outfits, like this one that she got from my mother:

Besides this there was not much to tell you, until we heard a couple of days that they would start to let her take all the feedings during a day by bottle or by breast, and that she would probably be allowed to go home in about a week. That was really good news, so we thought

When she would come exactly, was unknown yet, but we were asked to bring the carseat for her, so they could test if she fitted in it and if she wouldn’t get any problems with her breathing and such when she was in it. So we brought this carseat last night, and they tested it out last night (by the way, the carseat is a little bit too big (Isabella is only about 4 lbs, and just too short for it), so we can buy an extra seat for her this afternoon for the first week(s)).

Yesterday, when we visited her, I noticed that she was missing a cable on her body, as they took off the cable which they use to measure the oxygen in her blood. The nurse asked us if we didn’t notice anything else, and at first we didn’t as she was laying on her side, but it turned out that she also missing the feeding tube. They told us that this was done because she now took all feedings from the bottle,and they told us with that, if everything stays the same, that she could go home on Sunday.

Wow, that was really good news. I thought it was also a bit scary, which is not that weird of course, but oh well, it will be ok. We’re very happy about this news!! Really good news, and that it came on the day that marked her as being a month old (time flies), made it extra fun.

Tonight we will bring a new, and smaller, seat (this is one of the conditions to get her home.. in the Netherlands they do not make a problem out of it (well, not with Larissa back then anyways) and you can actually just hold your child, but over here things are a bit different, they don’t give you your baby without a fitting carseat.. oh well, it does make things safer, of course). So hopefully (and I expect it will be) we will be able to take her home this Sunday, we can’t wait!

Here’s some more photo’s of her without the cables in her face:

So, the next posting will probably be about her finally being home

Last week was a week full of surprises. First was there the helmet that she was allowed to take off, and all the other good news, and then we got to hear on Thursday that they wanted to try for the first time to let her drink from the bottle (the breast would be too heavy for her)! They didn’t expect that she would drink a lot, it was more to give her the taste of the milk, but unexpectedly she still drank a bit (4ml). She gets 28ml every three hours, so the rest was given to her through her feeding tube. Michelle was the one who gave her the milk:

The day after, on Friday, it was my turn. The nurse said that she didn’t think she would drink much as it was only the second time she tried to drink, a few ml would be all according to her. But what do you think? That little one drank 19ml of the 28, a lot more than expected. Isabella was really awake at that time, so this probably helped, but still, it was great to see her doing so well.

It was Michelle’s turn on Saturday again, and the nurse that was there at that time asked how it went on the days before Saturday. She said, after she heard how things went, that she expected it to end up somewhere between the 4ml and 19ml. But what do you think? She drank 27ml, almost everything that she had to drink at that time! Unbelievable, right? And that was not everything on that day, they also took out the tube that was up her nose for the extra air, so even that backup was not needed any more. That was another pleasant surprise for us, but not the last one haha.

Tonight, Sunday evening, we were at the NICU again, and on the moment we opened the door, we looked into the direction of Isabella’s isolette, but.. we saw the following:

An empty isolette? We didn’t know what happened, so we got kind of scared, but quickly the nurse told us what happened. They lowered the temperature of the isolette today, and that went pretty well, so well that Isabella now is allowed to lay in an open crib next to the isolette, without any extra heater. This means that Isabella now probably has no problems to keep herself warm. They do frequently check up on her now, to see if her temperature is still ok, and the isolette is still next to the crib, just in case she is cooling down, but still, it gives us some new hope that she can come home soon.. for now it all looks well.

Of course she had to drink again, she came up until 25ml, so the other three were given to her through the tube, but this was not really weird (and again it was above expectation) because, not long before she got this bottle, she also received 15ml through a bottle from a nurse. So in total she drank more than before. She is doing a bit better everyday, before you know it, she can come out of the hospital.

Yep, the helmet is gone since a day or two, they also took off her IV and PICC, and she gained over a pound already. Things are going well with the little one.. she even wears clothes these days, she starts to look more like a baby this way

Isabella still has a tube going to her nose for air. The airflow is off, but it is out of precaution so that, when they need to give her extra oxygen, they can easily give it to her also. There are actually two tubes going to her nose since today as her feeding tube is now going through her nose so that Isabella cannot easily pull the tube out of her stomach (she is very lively and she loves to grab things, and when it was in her mouth, it was very easy for her to pull it out).

Isabella is also allowed to get outside the isolette longer when we are there. I had her for a very long time in my arms yesterday, and today it was Michelle’s turn, we kind of take turns with each other. Isabella mostly does have to wear a hat when we she comes out of the isolette, but that looks pretty cute on her

Fortunately there’s only good news to tell when it is about Isabella, and that is a very good thing I think. I can ensure you that it is not always good news on the NICU floor. When you are there for a couple of hours, you can easily hear and see some of the things on the other baby’s and, no, that is not always good news.. sometimes I feel a bit guilty towards those people because I am happy that Isabella is doing really well. But oh well, those things happen, I know that too.

Anyways, we have a few new pictures to show you of Isabella without a helmet, while wearing clothes haha. You know, I wonder if Isabella is the only one getting clothes (the clothes are coming from the hospital, by the way), I haven’t seen any other baby’s in clothes anyways. Oh well, doesn’t matter, it looks pretty cute I think

Yep, we can’t get enough of her, so, on request, here’s another post with pictures and a video (in which we show a routine that is repeated every three hours in the hospital)

I wrote a pretty long message earlier today, so I will try to write less in this one and show more of Isabella

I will have some more pictures of Isabella tomorrow, also a few in which she did not wear her small helmet.

Below are two more short videos of Isabella. The first one is a short video in which we get to hear her cry for the very first time (today we heard it for the second time haha). And the second video shows how much she moves around. And as much as she moves around now, is exactly how she was inside Michelle’s belly.

I promised to write a bit about everything around the delivery of the baby, and since Michelle is home right now, I get a little bit more time (even though I will need to write this over multiple parts of the day before it comes online as a whole haha).

Last week, on Saturday August 22, Michelle woke me up around 6.30am, saying she saw blood after she went to the toilet. She was a bit worried and my first reaction was that it would probably be a hemorrhoid or something. It was exactly the same during the last time she saw some blood, and you have a lot of chance of hemorrhoids during your pregnancy, so it’s usually not something to worry much about.

She told me “no, I really think it is a vaginal bleeding”. I understood that I would not be able to sleep for a while so I asked her if she wanted me to take a look. After she told me that she wanted this, I took a soft and clean tissue to see if there was any blood coming from the hemorrhoid. Nothing. I then swiped gently near the labia and noticed that there was indeed some blood coming from that area.

It was no serious bleeding or anything, it was a bit red, nothing else. My first thoughts went to something my sister told me before, that when you cough, that it can happen that a small vein can collapse. It happened to her during her pregnancy and since Michelle coughed a lot (still from the flu earlier this year), I didn’t think it would be so weird if she actually had the same going on. I told Michelle that she shouldn’t worry too much right now and also checked online to see what else it could be.

Everything I read on the internet was different from what she had. Heavy bleeding, abdominal pains, nausea and so on and so on. She did not had any of those things, it was just a bit red. I told her that we might as well sleep some more and, if she would still be worried in the morning, or if the bleeding would become worse, we would call to the clinic. And so we did.

When we woke up a bit later that morning, Michelle went to the bathroom again, and noticed that it was still bleeding a little bit. She was a bit worried about it, so we called the clinic to see what we had to do. They told us on the phone that we would be better off by calling the hospital itself as there was no OB/GYN available at the clinic that day (Saturday) and so we called the hospital. The hospital told us that we could drop by that day, we could just come in on whatever time would be best for us, so they could take a look. About an hour later or so (we still had to wash ourselves, dress and eat something), we drove towards the hospital and went to the ‘labor & delivery’ floor.

Once arrived at ‘L&D’, Michelle got a delivery room assigned and she was told to put on a gown from the hospital and that a OB/GYN would take a look soon.

When the OB checked on Michelle, they did all kinds of tests. Michelle had to give some blood and urine, they felt her belly, the heart rate of both Michelle and the baby was checked, the blood pressure of Michelle was measured, and a lot more of these kinds of things. They also took an ultrasound of the belly, and they looked if the uterus itself was still in tact.

It showed that the delivery process didn’t start yet and that everything, at first look, looked ok inside the belly. However, they thought her bloodpressure was pretty high, it was around 155/100. We had to wait a bit more for the results of the blood and urine samples, and until that time, Michelle had to lay down on the bed that was available.

After a while, the doctors came back with the message that almost every value of the blood was ok, except for the white blood cells, which was a bit too high. The urine showed a higher amount of protein and since this all could show a preeclampsia (toxemia), they said they needed a 24 hours urine test. To conduct such a test, they need to collect urine over 24 hours and that meant that Michelle had to stay a night in the hospital.

The next morning, the doctor went to Michelle and told us that they found a much too high amount of proteïn inside her urine. He explained that when the value goes above 300, it is a mild form of preeclampsia. When the value is at 5000, they speak of a severe form of preeclampsia. Michelle’s values were above 7000, which meant a very severe case of preeclampsia according to the doctor. The high blood pressure and the thick (fluids) ankles also added to that diagnose. The doctor said that he wanted Michelle to stay another day in the hospital, and that they would give her magnesium-sulfate through her IV to prevent a seizure to happen (this is something that might happen during preeclampsia) We also had to take into account that the baby might be born premature, and since this also brought a risk for the baby, they told us that Michelle would receive two injections of steroids in her hip (one directly, the other 24 hours later), so the lungs of the baby could mature a bit (the lungs are normally not ready before 34 weeks of pregnancy and that makes the respiratory issue a big risk). A bit later that day, a woman of the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) dropped by to tell us what would happen in the situation that the baby would be born prematurely. For me, I really started to think that the baby would be showing herself within only a few days from then. The doctors were not so sure they said, but in a way, I already knew.

The magnesium-sulfate Michelle received is apparently a real mess. I read on the internet that some people compare it to an electrocution, and while Michelle did not agree on that, she did become very sick (probably also in combination with the preeclampsia). She felt warm, and was really nauseous. She couldn’t eat or drink anymore as it came right out of her stomach again (one of those nights, she actually vomited 6 times). They gave her medicines against the nausea and that made her very sleepy, she slept more than anything else after that. This was good for her as she would not feel the nausea any more (until the medication would stop working, of course). I already read it on the internet, and I agree on it: it is really strange to see that they make your wife sick because of the medications, just to give the baby a chance of survival. Because that was what they wanted to do, wait as long as possible so the baby would receive as much survival chances as possible.

Last Tuesday, the day of the delivery, it was not any different. She felt very sick and slept a lot, while she hardly ate or drank (she was not allowed to drink by the way, she was only allowed to take some water or ice to wash her mouth with) because of her IV which brought a lot of fluids into her body. The doctors would make a decision on this day to see if they would let the baby come, or not. And around the afternoon, the word was finally there: they would let the baby come through the normal way, the baby was in the right position and Michelle had a contraction now and then. I was happy with this news because Michelle was getting sicker and sicker each hour. The reason of that was of course the toxemia, which caused a lot of things, think about Michelle’s problems but also the fact that the heartbeat of the baby went slower and slower. It should normally be between 120 and 160, but more and more it was between 110 and 120. Not the best thing to have, although they did say the baby was healthy.

Here’s a picture of the monitor that measured almost everything:

The orange-like 113 shows the heart rate of the baby. The number in green is to see if there’s a contraction (it should be around 20 when everything is normal, 40 or above could mean a contraction). Below the baby’s heart rate, you can see Michelle’s blood pressure (upper and lower values) and next to that, in blue, you can see the oxygen Michelle is getting (the 99) and next to that is Michelle’s heart rate.

They brought Michelle from the bedroom (or whatever you want to call it, I mean the rooms where the women are brought to after the delivery is over) to a delivery room (she had to move between both rooms a lot last week. Around 4pm, they gave Michelle a third IV, this time with a fluid (Pitocin) so they could start the contractions. I asked the nurse how long it might take on average before the delivery would really start, and she told me that it could take anywhere between 5 hours and 2 days. Brrr.. that’s long.

Anyways, about an hour and half, to two hours, the OB went to check on Michelle. They felt a bit on her belly, and they suspected the baby to be in a breach position. The ultrasound, which they made right after this, confirmed their thoughts also and they decided at that point that it would be better to get a cesarean section. It would be possible that the baby still would turn around, but they couldn’t guarantee this, and turning her around themselves might be fatal as the baby might be chocked by the umbilical cord when it comes around the neck of the baby. They explained Michelle and me a lot of things and then they had to ask the question if Michelle approved a cesarean section (they wont do anything without your consent over here, really a difference with the Netherlands, but ok, that is probably because you can be sued for the most silliest little thing over here, which is very unlikely in the Netherlands). Michelle approved and they started everything so they could do the cesarean section.

They asked me if I wanted to be in the operating room during the cesarean section, of course did I want to be there. I received a short explanation of where to sit (at Michelle’s head, so I could stand her by), and received some clothes to wear. Here’s a picture of my head that I took with my video camera:

Just like the real deal haha. Michelle told me later to keep those clothes as she thought I looked handsome in it. I didn’t exactly follow her request and gave the clothes back after all haha.

The delivery, or surgery, was quick and went fine. All in all it lasted less than an hour (including the preparation of about half an hour). Michelle didn’t feel a thing but she did feel a bit nauseated during the surgery, even though she had some medication that should have prevented it. One of the nurses asked me somewhere during the surgery how I did, and I did perfectly ok I thought… I just felt sorry that I couldn’t look into Michelle’s belly while they took the baby out haha. Luckily a bit of blood doesn’t make me sick or anything

When the baby came out, they first cleaned her and before they would put her into an isolette for transport to the NICU, they showed Isabella to both Michelle and me. I filmed this moment, so here it is:

She was only just cleaned and put into warm blankets. She even looks into the direction of her new daddy as you can see in the video. I asked later on how much they could see, and even though they cannot see things as we can, they do believe that they can see shades and such. Faces they should also recognize. Who knows, she might have been thinking ‘is that the guy who I always heard talking?’ haha, who knows. I just thought it was great she looked into my general direction.

After they showed her to us, I went with the baby downstairs, to the NICU, so the brandnew mommy could come to her senses again on the recovery room. They did a lot to her in the NICU, as you could also see in the previous posts, just look at the cables and such. Sometimes it really hurted me when they put another needle into her.. I know they have to, but it’s not much fun.

And that’s about the whole story. I might have forgotten something, but I cannot figure out now if I did and what it would be.

Instead of 2 days of a delivery process, it turned out to be just two hours. When I see how fast Michelle is recovering, I think this has been the best solution for her. Pretty quick after the surgery she started to feel better, the first day a bit sleepy but when they finally removed all of her IV’s 24 hours after the delievery, she woke up pretty fast to go and see the baby and after three days (yesterday) she was allowed to get out of the hospital.

The only downside that I see right now, is that we don’t have the baby at home. Especially for Michelle this was a bit harsh yesterday when she was allowed to go home with me, she wasn’t so close to the baby in the hospital anymore. But oh well, it does give us some time to get everything ready for the baby here, within no-time Isabelle will be here, just watch.

Well, some of you might not believe it, but on August 25, 2009, at 7.08pm, Michelle gave birth of a little baby girl: Isabella Johanna Joosten.

It is a lot earlier than we planned, the due date was originally on October 27, 2009, so this is about two months early. Michelle has been in the hospital since last Saturday due to severe preeclampsia, or toxemia, and they decided today to bring the baby into this world today.

I will tell you a bit later with more detail about the preeclampsia of Michelle, and everything around it. Thing is, I really want to go to get some sleep as I did not have much sleep during the last days (neither did Michelle), but I couldn’t go to bed without posting a small message and adding a short video of the newborn.

Isabella is, even for her 31 weeks, way too small. This is due to the preeclampsia, but fortunately she will make up on this loss soon enough. She only weighs 2lbs and 10.9oz (1220 gram) and is 13.5 inch (34cm) in length. She is born through a Cesarean section because Isabelle was in a breach position (with her butt down first) and they did not want to wait much longer because of the severity of the preeclampsia.

Anyways, as said, it is getting late right now (it’s around 1.45am), so I will tell you guys more later about everything. Here’s a small video of the baby to show you, though (more will follow later):

It has been a while since I last wrote something, but that was because I was pretty busy, and since some things have happened that prevented me from writing. So here’s a little update.

About two weeks ago, Michelle got sick. After a few tests, it turned out she was negative for Influenza A and B, in other words: She did not have H1N1 (swine flu/Mexican flu). Fortunately it was like that as the complications can be very bad for pregnant women. The flu was very mild for her, her temperatures were not that high, the most she did was cough a lot.

A few days later, I fell ill also. It started with a pain on my chest (or actually more like some pressure, like someone was pressing on it.. I was painting the babyroom earlier that day, and so I was really sweating when I walked into the bedroom, where Michelle was with the airconditioning on. So I got the cold air right on my wet chest, I think the pressure was caused by this because it happened almost directly after this) and after about an hour, my temperature went straight up to 102.7F (39.3C). We called the (after hours) clinic and they told us that we should come by, especially because of the pain on the chest earlier.

In the hospital (the after hours clinic is in the hospital), they did all sort of tests, and they also made an EKG and X-rays of my chest. Fortunately there was nothing special (besides the fact that I had a high bloodpressure and a small anomaly in the EKG (probably something caused by me being scared for what it might have been, I was really afraid)). It was nothing to cause any worries, they said, it was very likely that I got what Michelle had earlier.

My fever went up to 103.5F (39.7C) the day after, even after I took Tylenol. The fever did not want to drop anymore, and so we contacted the clinic again with the request if they could test me on influenza A & B (which was not yet done by them). If this test was positive, then at least I could get something like Tamiflu to have the fever drop. The test was done, and turned out to be negative, so I just had to wait until the fever would drop. I did as they told me, and fortunately the fever dropped in the evening and it stayed around 101.3F (38.5) most of the day (only when the Tylenol stopped working, it went up again).. the fever was gone a few days later and slowly, but surely, I could start to do some things again. Now, about one and a half week after the start of the fever, I still feel very weak. It really got me well, whatever it was.

Anyways, last weekend, Michelle and I went to the post office to mail my tax return (also nice, I received the return at the end of July, and they expected it back before August 1st. The mail takes at least a week to get in the Netherlands, so that was pretty much impossible.. smart people there lol). After the post office, we went for some lunch and when we tried to drive off, from the parking lot, I wanted to cross a four-lane road. I looked left, nothing, I checked right, there was something but I could easily make it, I hit the gas and all of the sudden, out of nothing, there was a Honda Civic, coming from my left side, which I hit Fortunately we have a good insurance, the Civic was pretty well damaged, the whole side was smashed in. Our car received some damage also, in the right front of our bumper, but that was nothing compared to that Civic. Thank god there only the cars were damaged, nobody got hurt, and that’s maybe the most important thing.

But ok, these weeks were a few weeks that I don’t want to do over again. Who knows, there might be another week, next week, that we don’t want to do over again, I will write about that a bit later today.