Nina's new milestones

Last Monday was a day of celebration: Nina was exactly one month old. The nurses made a nice decoration for over her crib for everybody to see. She is doing very well and over two kilos now! Also, she celebrated her first Halloween today: no tricks, just treats.

End of sailing season

Unfortunately the end of the sailing season had come and all boats had to be taken out of the water by November 1st. So last Sunday we had to get our Wind Spirit organized. With help from our neighbour, both in man power and horse power ie. car with a hitch, we managed to get her out under our management for the first time. Now she is out on her trailer next to the house. Of course she needed a good (high pressure) cleaning before going into hibernation.

Nina is growing

It's been more than a week since our last post, so time for a Nina newsflash again. She is already past her 4 (American) pound milestone and is now aiming for 2 kilograms. Yesterday they took her out of the Isolette and moved her into a regular crib since she's well able to maintain her bodytemperature and has grown so much over the last week. She's still not too fond of bright lights, but is slowly getting used to keeping her eyes open and taking in the little world around her.

Opa & Oma Slats visit

Opa & Oma Slats came to visit their new granddaughter last week. They were privileged because as grandparents they are allowed in the special care nursery and were able to hold and feed Nina as well. Needless to say they are very proud and they were also very happy to see with their own eyes that everything is going fine not only with their granddaughter, but also their daughter and son-in-law.

Yoon & Wouter in Waukegan

These guests had planned to come long in advance so even though Nina had just been born, we were ready to welcome them. They showed off their rented convertible on the roads of Chicagoland, guided by TomTom, which sometimes did not get them to the place they thought they were going, but was always good to meet some nice people. The dinner experience in Libertyville was memorable. Not only because of the huge burgers, but also because of Yoon's new business venture as edible jewelry designer.

1605 grams!

An update on our little miracle. Nina continues to gain weight and has now reached 1605 grams. Her little cheeks are getting fuller, her small hands are getting more plump. She's moving and opening her eyes more and more during the feedings, which is great fun to observe. She also already has a great head of hair! See for yourself...

Knuffelkoe Klara II

Fresh grandparent's C present is keeping Nina company in her cozy incubator.

Nina is doing well and is drinking 24ml of mothermilk every three hours. Her weight is going up and down; last night she gained a little again and today her total weight was 1386g. In order to increase the efficiency of the feedings, an additive is added to the mothermilk that slightly increases the calorie count and should give Nina a bit more energy to grow.

Although most of the feedings are via the tube, every 8 hours Nina get's a chance to drink from the bottle. This morning she drunk approx. 15ml of her ration herself. Bravo!

Even Jip is celebrating....

Kazio's drawing

Thank you Kazio for the nice drawing. All the way from Warsaw to Chicago !

Nina gained 19 grams today and is receiving already 16ml every three hours.

A few more pictures of Nina

Today was the first day that both of us went to the hospital as visitors. Nina is doing well and receives 13ml of Anita's milk every 3 hours. Not yet from a bottle but via a small tube directly to her stomach. Her digestive system is working and gave us another new milestone today: her first poo...

A short recap...

After we heard today that Anita is going to be fine, it might be the right time for a short recap of what happened last weekend…

Wednesday night, Anita was having a lot of pain in he chest and was feeling very bad. The next day (Thursday) she had an earlier scheduled appointment with the doctor who decided to keep her in the hospital for observation because of higher liver enzyme values in the blood he drew from her that day. The next day (Friday), blood results were looking fine again and as Anita was feeling well, she was allowed to leave the hospital and go home.

Saturday morning Anita woke up with a lot of pain in her chest and back again. As the pain was really bad she called for her doctor who advised her to go see him in the hospital, where we arrived at around 11:30 AM. As earlier taken urine samples showed no reasons for concern regarding blood poisoning, our doctor asked another specialist for a second opinion and drew more blood from Anita in the meantime. Also, Anita received drugs to help her deal with her pain.

The other specialist was pretty clear in his diagnosis: Anita’s complaints were most probably caused by HELLP syndrome. When you google HELLP, you will see that this not very common syndrome is a form of blood poisoning that can cause serious risks for mother and child.

In the meantime the results of the blood samples arrived and showed increased liver enzyme values again. It was decided that Anita should stay in the hospital for further observation. More blood was drawn for further testing.

When the new blood test results, showing further increased enzyme values, arrived at the beginning of the evening, things started to go really fast. The doctor was called back to the hospital and Anita was prepared for an early delivery of the baby. This delivery was necessary in order to save mother and child.

At 21:55 our Nina was born in an operation room. 2 months early.

Unfortunately, Anita was not able to enjoy her newborn daughter as her blood continued to deteriorate. The combination of a high blood pressure and worsening conditions of her blood were causing serious risks for complications which could be life threatening.

On Sunday afternoon Anita’s blood values deteriorated so much that it was decided to give her a blood transfusion. Sunday evening we heard that the transfusion was successful and had a positive effect on Anita’s blood quality.

After the transfusion Anita’s blood continued to improve and today (Monday), the doctor told us that the critical phase was over and that Anita should be fine again.

Nina will have to stay in the hospital for at least another 4 weeks to grow and get stronger. Looking back on the last 72 hours, this seems like a small offer.

This morning, Anita was able to see and hold our Nina for the first time…

It is an understatement to say that I'm the happiest man on this planet.