Growing Crains: 2 weeks, 2 more visits to the hospital and a Baby Girl!!!

Let me start by announcing that Russ and I are the proud parents of Rhiannon James Crain. Our baby girl was born at 7:01pm on July 24, 2007. She was 11 weeks early weighing 3 lbs 3 oz and 15 3/4 inches long.

Okay, now let me fill you in on the last couple weeks. I last updated you the weekend we got home from the hospital, the first time. That Monday, I had my weekly dr's appt. Everything was fine. No contractions, no bleeding. My instructions were to continue bed rest and return on Thursday for my Glucose screen. Thursday came, the test went fine. I passed with a 104 (anything under 140 is acceptable). After the test I was hooked up to monitor my contractions. Still no contractions but Rhiannon's heart beat was spiking up to almost 220 and then returning to the 150 - 160 range. Dr Lake was concerned so were sent back to the high-risk OB, Dr Allaire, and were told that the Brethine I was taking was possibly making Rhiannon's heart beat too fast. He was also concerned that one side of her heart appeared to be larger than the other. So, I was admitted back to the hospital to be monitored. I was taken off the Brethine (medicine to keep me from having contractions) and overnight her heartbeat stabilized. Dr Carpenter, the pediatric cardiologist did a series of tests of her heart and told us that there appeared to be no structural problems with her heart and I was sent home. This was Friday, July 20.

I woke up Monday and felt terrible. I had a headache and was nauseous. My back was hurting and just couldn't seem to get comfortable. Later on that afternoon I started feeling cramping in my pelvic area but nothing I could consider a contraction. I took a warm bath and that relieved the discomfort for a few hours but after dinner I started having definite contractions. After I had 4 in 40 minutes, we went to the hospital around 11pm. I was 1.5cm dilated so I was admitted again into the hospital and was given medicine (Procardia and Magnesium) to stop the contractions but they didn't stop. At around 10 the next morning, my water broke and the nurse was concerned that it was all blood. Dr Harrison finished breaking my water around 6 and I delivered Rhiannon vaginally at 7:01pm. I was told that my placenta had ruptured, known as placenta abruptia, possibly causing the preterm labor. The NICU team was there waiting for her when she arrived. They had trouble intebating her and almost gave her daddy a heart attack with worry and anticipation. After almost 20 minutes, they were able to get her stabilized and after a brief kiss from Mommy, she was off to the NICU.

Rhiannon is a tiny thing but my little over achiever and has shocked the NICU staff with her progress. At 10am the morning after she was delivered they were able to take her off the ventilator and she has been breathing room air since then. She had a touch of jaundice but after a day under the billy light, it was successfully treated. They began feeding her breast milk on Thursday morning and she has been successfully digesting. She has quite the temper. If we don't place her just the right way, she pitches a huge fit and turns a bright shade of red. The nurses have already told us we were going to have our hands full when we bring her home!

I have started another website to update you all on her progress. It allows me to share more pictures and I have tons to show off. She's beautiful. The website is: http://www.babysites.com/sites/rhiannonjames/

I'm still updating between visits to the hospital but hope to have it finished by the end of the weekend.

Thank you all for your prayers. We know how blessed we are that Rhiannon is doing so well and completely believe that is from all of your prayers. Please continue to remember our little Angel as she is still fragile and has a long road ahead of her. And pray for me and Russ as we had to come home without her last night.

Below are pictures of me holding her for the second time and of her snoozing.