Pictures dad wanted to post

Maren's surgery

Hello all,

We are back from the hospital. Maren had her surgery on Thursday to remove the cyst on her tongue. The surgery took about an hour and 30 minutes and according to the surgeon went very well. The cyst was apparently quite large and surprised both surgeons who performed the procedure. She woke up groggy and not exactly happy. She was admitted into the NICU and within a couple hours she was drinking from the bottle. What a relief, I thought we were destined for another feeding tube. Not this time.. my baby was hungry and she downed 4 ounces.

My two girls.

Daddy applied his certified swaddling technique and made a very large pink burrito. You can tell her little mouth is a bit swollen. More wires to manage but nothing mom and dad couldn't handle.

Me and one of my girls.

Susan and I spent the night in the smallest room I've ever seen. Probably no more than 9' X 9'. The bed was so small that we decided to sleep head to toe. We realized that the room was probably smaller than our bed at home. Talk about cozy.

That is all, thank you again for all of your kind words and support, we very much appreciate it. Susan and I are hoping to get back to normalcy sometime soon.

James

Grandparents Visit

Last week, my parents stopped by for a short visit to see Maren for the first time since she's been home from the hospital.


James's parents came to stay with us for a week, and they were a big help. They couldn't get enough of holding Maren, and helped us feed her with the bottle as well as helping out in many ways around the house. Their help was very welcome!

We had a couple of nice weather days, and took Gordon and Jerene to the beach park where Gordon and James flew a handmade kite that Gordon had brought up from Texas. Unfortunately there wasn't much wind that day, but it was very pretty. It was Maren's first trip to the park, and I bottle fed her under the "hooter hider" to keep her brand new skin out of the sun.

Gordon and Jerene bought us a swing with a cute "rainforest" theme, and Maren already seems to like it. It's definitely going to come in handy in the coming weeks and months.

Maren is scheduled for surgery tomorrow at Children's Hospital. Unfortunately, we found out today that there may not be room for her in the NICU there tomorrow, so if that is still the case in the morning, we may have to reschedule. We have been looking forward to the surgery because we think it may solve some of Maren's troubles with feeding, so we hope it goes forward tomorrow, but will keep everyone posted.

Children's Hospital

Today we took Maren to an otolaryngologist - ear, nose & throat doctor basically - at Children's Hospital in Seattle. He took a look at her tongue and immediately got us into radiology for a CT scan of her head. It meant another IV had to be inserted, to inject a substance that would provide contrast to her blood vessels on the CT scan. After crying from the IV, Maren quickly fell asleep and stayed asleep during the CT scan, which was over very fast.

We went back to the doctor, who pulled up Maren's CT results on his computer in the exam room. Very impressive use of technology at that hospital! He thinks Maren has a cyst under her tongue that he will need to remove surgically. We are scheduled for her surgery at the end of this month. She will need to stay in the NICU there for a couple of days after the surgery, so they can be sure the swelling goes down and doesn't block her airway. Poor Maren is unfortunately getting used to a lot of poking and prodding, but she is a trooper! And we are very confident that Children's Hospital is the best place in the area for this procedure and they will take very good care of our little girl.

When we got home, Maren's sleep and eating schedule (if you can call it a schedule at this point) was thrown way off, and she has been eating like it's going out of style. We're still trying to get her to go to sleep so we can take a much-needed nap!

Home at Last! And Some Big "Thank You"s

This was our private room in the hospital, which we moved to on Maren's third day there.

The doctors and nurses required us to jump through a bunch of different hoops before we could take Maren home. We had to show that she would eat a certain amount of milk with each feeding, and then they switched it to let us find a more natural schedule with Maren, but she still had a milk quota to meet every 24 hours. We were also informed on our last evening in the hospital that Maren would have to pass a carseat test, where her blood oxygen levels had to maintain a certain level for one hour in the carseat. Here's Maren taking the test in the carseat, placed in her hospital crib.

And here's her daddy wondering if he will next have to pass the swaddling-while-juggling-the-bottle test! Here's the monitor showing Maren's stats during her hospital stay. The monitors kept beeping because the sensors would fall off of her skin - she's non-stick like Teflon! We don't miss the continuous beeps throughout the night.

Maren gets ready to go home

Maren is out of the NICU and getting acquainted with her new home. After all the poking, prodding, monitors and cords attached to her at the hospital, now she has gone completely "wireless"! Her mommy and daddy are pleased to report that we are getting to know our daughter's natural rhythms and needs at home - the "normal" newborn baby adjustments, especially to our sleep schedules.

James is an awesome daddy. He is fast becoming an expert at swaddling, though our princess has one arm that she just won't straighten. She must've had both arms up in the womb, because she came out that way - broad shouldered - ouch!!! James has been going the extra mile and waking up every time Maren does, changing a lot of diapers, and supporting me as I breastfeed Maren. At the hospital, she really got used to the bottle, but I am happy to say she appears to be adjusting well to breastfeeding now that we are at home and have had more time to work on it in a more peaceful environment.

Now that we are home and have a chance to do so, we'd like to thank several people who have given us a lot of moral and material support over the past week. Sheila spent a lot of her vacation time to stay at our house and take care of us in so many ways. As a sister and a mom herself, she has given me a lot of advice and support. It has been especially helpful to hear her stories about her first few days with her son, Aidan, and to be reassured about what is "normal" for a newborn baby and for a new mom to think and feel. Sheila brought us the clothes and supplies we needed and some home-cooked meals to the hospital, which were very welcome. I'm so glad she was able to be here to attend Maren's birth and to support us emotionally as we dealt with Maren's hospitalization.

Bill Hurtt stayed at our house to look after Aidan as Sheila looked after us. I'm happy that he had a chance to meet Maren, and next time she won't be hooked up to any monitors! Bill cooked and cleaned our house for us, and we came home on Saturday to a pristine-looking home. Thanks Bill! Roberta Hurtt also helped look after Aidan and she woke up in the middle of the night to see us off to the birth center when I went into labor. She spent all of her vacation time with us and had to leave before she could meet Maren. I hope we can all get together soon so Maren can spend time with her adopted grandparents.

More Maren

Hi all,

I'd like to thank you all for your nice words of encouragement. They came at the perfect time for Susan and I. We are on day 6 of our fun filled hospital visit. Maren is eating on her own now and the feeding tube has been removed. I counted 14 cords at one point coming off her little body. Heart breaking for parents to see. She is down to only four now. Yeaaa!!
Most of our days and nights are spent listening to heart rate, pulse oxygen, and respiratory monitors beep at every little shift in her arm or body. It gets to be quite annoying after a while. They weigh every diaper, check her temperature every three hours, prick her heel for blood to run an oxygen content test every morning, weigh her on a scale(naked) she hates it, poke and poke and poke. Arghhhh!!!! We are so looking forward to going home.

Maren and her mommy. What a couple of beauties. Notice all the lovely wires coming out of Maren. You think swaddling and changing a newborn is tough when they are squirming around, try it with wires everywhere.

Maren and her daddy. She has a little jaundice in this picture but that has cleared up now.

All in all I feel like my adventure into fatherhood has been a baptism in fire but the second I hold my baby girl all the weight is lifted off my shoulders and I know it's worth it. Just look at this face.

Daddy's girl

Thanks again

PS. The doctor is confident we can be out by Saturday morning. I think I may just dance the jig at the nurses station. :)

The NICU

Maren is doing so much better now, breathing on her own and all of her vital signs look great. We are still in the NICU because her doctor wants her to complete a full week's round of antibiotics, and wants to make sure she can feed normally before we can take her home.

We are working on breastfeeding, but Maren's tongue is unusual and doesn't extend out of her mouth, so it has been a special challenge. The neonatologist will refer us to a pediatric ear/nose/throat doctor to visit after Maren is out of the NICU so we can discuss potential options and whether Maren is "tongue-tied". The tongue issue is completely unrelated to her breathing problem at birth and would have been there separately anyway. Today Maren latched on to the breast during two separate feedings, and I felt so proud! I loved looking into her little eyes and seeing her look so content. Breastfeeding is challenging but I also see it as a special privilege, and I hope we are successful and can continue.

Last night we were told that we might need to share our semi-private room in the NICU with another family. That didn't end up happening, but it made us decide to go home for the night, about 35 minutes away. We felt guilty leaving at first, but we noticed that most families don't stay through the night. Actually, we got a decent night's sleep for the first time since last Thursday night, which might be better for us and Maren in the long run. We are planning to stay tonight as long as we can to get in some more rounds of breastfeeding, and just nap when we can.

Maren Talise Schalla is here!

We don't have much time to post right now, but there is a complete description of Maren's arrival, with photos, on the Hurtts' website at: http://chrishurtt.blogspot.com/2008/05/maren-talise-schallas-arrival.html

Just Waiting Around

We are at due date + 6 now, and will definitely be welcoming a May baby any time now. At least we are keeping busy and having fun while we wait for Shrimp to decide to come out. Last night, Mom and Dad came over and all of us had dinner at our house. Later in the evening, I drew a little circle with marker around my belly button and encouraged my nephew Aidan to doodle on my tight tummy.

Here is the end result (washed off just fine):

This morning we decided to go for a long walk in a nearby park that has hiking trails. I feel like maybe if I keep moving, Shrimp will decide to come out! The park has a swingset and slide, but unfortunately everything was damp from last night's rain.

It didn't keep Sheila and Aidan from enjoying the slide with Grandma Roberta!

Aidan seemed to like the trails through the woods, and even took a seat in the vegetation off the beaten path. James and I love playing with him and seeing what we have to look forward to when Shrimp grows to be a toddler.