Clara Judith Sherwood

ClaireBear in her new home 

Well it is Good news with some “not so good news” with Clara the past few days. Clara has been out of the isollete and in a crib for a couple days now and seems to be able to maintain her body temperature. Krystal and I feel this is a major hurdle cleared and the crib adds a sense of normalcy and reality to the situation. We may be bringing her home soon. She is over 4lbs and is starting to take the bottles with minimal effects. She has taken 3 bottles at 35 cc today then other five feeds are done by feeding tube. Once she takes to 8 bottles per day I think we are home free. So I will at least post the “DBC” Daily Bottle Count for everyone each day.
Now for the not so good news, Clara has been diagnosis with BPD Bronchial Pulmonary Displacia. Clara’s lungs were damaged at birth and/or by the ventilator. She now has scare tissue in her lungs and this damaged tissue does not oxygenate the blood, so she has reach a size where it is very stressful for her to supply her body with oxygenated blood. Over the next few years she will add new lung tissue and this will lessen the effects of the scare tissue. So to help her, the medical staff has turned up the supplied oxygen to 100% at a pressure of .1 liters per minute. This treatment reduces the energy needed and stress Clara was facing with her breathing. Now she will now have the reserves to feed by bottle and continue to grow and add new lung tissue.

Our little Tiger! 

Clara's New Home! 

Gammy feeding Clara 

Poppa and Clara 

Clara is making steady progress. She is now getting 35 cc every three hours and they add fortifier for extra calories. She is now allowed two bottles feeds every day. She has finished a couple of bottles but sometimes she has a hard time with the breathing and gets choked and then has to finish the feed thru the feeding tube. She is doing a better job of keeping her body temp. up but we still have to monitor it when she is outside of the isollete. She has gotten her first round of vaccinations (Parvo, Rabies, and Kennel Cough, ect). She also has gotten two pimples on her face. She weighs 3lbs 14ozs.

Gammy "Watch that Pole" Sherwood & Poppa Sherwood are visiting Clara this weekend. They have had the chance to hold and feed Clara.

Dad and Clara's first bottle 

Clara's first bottle 

Clara is doing well. They have decreased her O2 pressure to .6 liters/min but she is still at 30%. Her weight has held at 3.5 lbs for the last few days so the doctor's have put her back on milk fortifier(gives her more calories). She is taking 30 cc every three hours.

Her latest cranial ultrasound showed that her ventricles are just about back to normal size and the bleed has resolved itself. That is very good news but does not rule out development issues later on in life. We will just cross our fingers.

Krystal is still sick and has not seen Clara since last Friday. She is chomping at bit to see Clara but understands the risk she poses to Clara and the other babies in the NICU.

The Doctors decided to try one bottle feeding per day to see if Clara has the ability to suck, swallow, breath. So I got to give her the first bottle today. We started out with a pre-term nipple but she was sucking so hard that she would choke her self so the nurse changed to a term nipple (smaller hole) and she took right to it. She was able to take in 22 of the 30 cc from the bottle. She was also able to keep her stats up during the feed. We (or I) will give her 1 bottle each day for the rest of the week and stating next week they will give her one feed on the bottle and one on the teat.


Cheers for Now.....
Mike (Professional Baby Feeder)

Uncle Scott & Clara

Clara and Aunt Wendy

Clara's Room

The doctors have officially classified Clara as "Progressive" but she will remain in the "cootie ward" for the duration of her stay. They are pushing her pretty hard right now. She is almost maxxed out on her feeding (27 cc every three hours), her isollete heat has been lower and she must maintain her own body temp with clothes and blankets. She is not receiving any medications to assist her and they are trying to wean her 02 levels. Yesterday they had to increase her o2 levels during feeding because her saturated O2 levels would drop. She has not been as active as in the past but the nurses expect it because of the stress they are putting on her. Uncle Scott and Aunt Wendy come up to visit Clara and got to hold her for a few minutes. Krystal has a cold and is unable to see Clara until she gets better.

Clara getting some Poppie love last Sunday

Getting a Rubdown from Mom 

Belly Shot 

Happy NCAA tournament time to everyone !!!

Clara is doing fine. She needed "topped off" on her blood today. Her hemoglobin was a bit low.
We started physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) today. You may ask what is the difference; at Clara's age not much. The OT does work with head control and the eyes. They showed us how to do baby massage and a few other helpful tips. We will work with her daily and they will work with her twice a week. Once they remove the PCVC (IV) she will be considered in "Progressive Care". Rumor has it she will be put in a crib in the next few days "Yeppie" we get rid of the isollette. She is up to 17 cc of milk every three hours and weigh 3 lbs 8 ozs. She has started wearing clothes again .
We have been busy get the house ready for her. I have finished the cedar fence in the nursery and Krystal has started getting the baby gadgets geared up.

Well it’s been two months since Clara and Jake were born. Time flies when you’re having fun! Everyday we walk down the hall to the NICU it seems like an eternity but on the other hand it seems like yesterday Krystal and I were preparing the nursery and everything was going along on schedule. We still have a long road in front of us, but sure is nice having Clara along with us. Again we appreciate everything our families, friends, co-workers, doctors, nurses, and hospital staff has done for us. I am still in awe of the love a support since day 1.
Clara is doing well. She is tolerating her feeding; they continue to increase 1 cc the amount every 12 hours. She weighs 3 lb 4ozs. We hope to start physical therapy this week or early next week. The therapist stopped by to check her records and told us that she was going to meet with the doctors and see if she could expedite the consult orders.

Cheers for Now.....
Mike

Taking a breaking from it all! 

Clara wearing a hat Nanna made 

Clara had a good day. She has resumed her feedings and has switched over to the Low Pressure 02 device. She is now at <1 liter per minute of o2 at 25-30%. With some help, she is back to pooping. Krystal reports that they are large and stinky! Why to Go Clara! Make Daddy proud. They have decided to suspend her caffine treatments to she if she can maintain her heart and breathing rate on her own.

Cheers for now...........

Mike

Touchdown 

Clara and Dad 

Focusing 

Clara has finished her antibiotic treatments and will resume her breast milk feedings Sunday evening. She had a very good weekend, we were able to do K care several times and she responded positively. She now keeps her eyes for several minutes at a time and try's to focus on either Krystal and I or the pictures in her isollete. She now weighs 3 lbs 2 ozs.

Cheers for now.....
Mike

C. Judith (as Judy Caldwell calls Clara) is still the same. She has gained some weight back is with in 4/10th of an ounce from 3 lbs. So with rounding she is 3 lbs. Krystal did get to Kcare yesterday and Clara responded very well. I hope to get my turn today.
Using the computer, we have started to record ourselves reading story's, Cleveland Indians boxscores & articles, and singing. Then we burn it to CD and play it on Clara's CD player in her isolettte (thanks to Aunt Judy and Kristie).

Cheers for Now....
Mike

Clara is doing well. The medical staff is just being very careful with this stomach issue. All of the cultures have come back negative, will one still pending. They have switched antibiotics so the MERSA does not become resistant. The doctors and nurses have commented several times on how well she is doing and not showing the sign & symptoms of this illness.
She has only lost one or two ounces since going back on the IV feeds and her O2 percentages are around 21%-25% her O2 pressure is at 3 liters but they may start to wean her again.
Clara continues to be active in her isolette with periods of have her eyes open during her cares. We hope to resume Kcare this evening. I Can't Wait!

Cheers for Now....

Mike

Bows 

"Snug as a Bug in a Rug" 

Clara as a dress up doll 

Clara has had a bump in the road of her development. Her digestive tract has been overworked and is causing her problems. So the medical staff has decided to stop all breast milk feeding for at least a week to give her gut a break, and put her back on IV feeding and antibiotics to treat a possible infection in her bowels. She is showing minimal outward signs of problems. Her stats are very good including an average heart rate, she is down to 21-25% on her O2. I spent several hours with her today and if we did not get a phone call last night I would have never know anything was wrong. I talked with the Doctor today and he seemed very optimistic but just wants to be very cautious. They has asked us to keep her stimulation to the very minimum. So Kcare is on hold until further notice.
She is up to 2lbs 15 ozs and is 14 3/4 inches long. Her eyes are developing very well and her crainial ultrasound read came back unchanged. Krystal was able to play "dress-up" yesterday with Clara and she tolerated it for several hours until the Doctors ordered her feedings stopped last night.

Krystal and I are very disappointed but understand that this comes with the territory. We will continue love and support her the best way possible.

Cheers for now...
Mike

Clara has a rough Saturday. She was having trouble keeping her saturated 02 up (Destat) and she has several "Brady's" (her heart slows way down or stop). So she got lots of attention from the nursing staff. They decided to give her a blood transfusion to help get her hemoglobin up. Krystal spent most of the day with her and noticed that Clara was very tired and moved very little. Kcare was not an option yesterday, the nurses wanted to give her a day to get her strength up. Her weight is now 2lbs 13oz, so Krystal and the nurses will get to "Play Dress-up" very soon. Special thanks to the Sadler's/Hege's for the box of Preemie clothes. Clara will be very well dressed for awhile.

March 4th 

Clara 

Clara continues to grow, now it is getting scary for me. I see differences every time I see her, such as her hands growing in to her fingers and the amount of hair on her head. She is 2 lbs 10oz exactly 1 pound heavier than birth. They continue to decrease her 02 pressure (down to 2 liters/minute). We had her outside of her isolette three times today and she did just fine.
Krystal continues to put her to the teat as much as possible and Clara has "latched on" several times but we don't thinks she is feeding. The nurses caution us that the coordination it take to feed is a tough task for Preemie. We hope that she moves to the progressive side of the Cootie Nursery by early next week.

Clara and Mommy having some fun on Krystal's Birthday (too bad Nurse Wendy forgot the flash) 

Today is Krystal's 33rd birthday, and I think she got the greatest present possible from Clara. While doing Kcare today, Clara was sucking, so we put her to the teat and sure enough she started to mouth and suck alittle. She even kept her eyes open for over ten minutes.
We had our weekly meeting with the NICU social worker, during the meeting she informed us that Clara is ready for physical therapy, so we will meet with a PT and she will teach us how to do therapy and we will be responsible for working with her daily. Then she will evaluate Clara weekly. Finally we get a chance to be active parental units.

Cheers for now......
Mike

OH look what I found! JACKPOT!!!