Day 13

Wednesday 5/2

Today was a tough day, maybe one of the harder days since Isabelle arrived almost two weeks ago. Not for any single reason but more just the accumulation of emotions from the last two weeks, lack of sleep and an ill-advised google search. First off, for any new parent who stumbled on this blog, take my advice and stay off google.

After Susan delivered Isabelle the doctors sent her placenta for a biopsy, this is standard procedure for anyone who delivers early. Their task is to look for any anomalies that could have contributed to early delivery. Today the results were posted to Susan’s online health portal and she received an email notifying her of the update. The doctors didn’t know this information was made available, so Susan was the first to see the results. Embedded in a bunch of medical terms were a few phrases us mere mortals could understand, placenta… infection… inflammation… that was about all we understood. Google is a powerful tool, but if you type infected placenta into the web, the results will send you into a rabbit hole even Alice couldn’t crawl out of. No need to get into the possible complications an infection could cause, but safe to say our heads went spinning this morning.

The fact of the matter is, roughly 80% of women who deliver early show some signs of inflammation or infection and all we needed was a quick call to our doctor to relieve the anxiety. Yes, there are a few serious infections that could cause lasting damage but luckily Susan’s was mild and not the type to worry about. It is still unclear if this inflammation contributed to the early delivery and the truth is we probably will never know the cause. Isabelle just wanted to join the family.

I think Isabelle had a good day overall. She was very active at lunch, blinking and looking around, waving and grabbing our fingers, and keeping the blowouts to a manageable level.

However, there is a growing concern that the doctors want to watch closely. For the last two days, Isabelle has required a little more oxygen and spit up a few times. If this trend continues the doctors will probably order an x-ray to make sure her lungs can fully expand and are developing properly. Hopefully, she will have a good next few days, we’ll let you know when she does.

Thanks to Kyle for bringing us Greek Corner gyros!