Pearls and Perfection Problems: November 2014

In the previous post, I stated that the first few weeks of Emersyn's life have been some of the most WONDERFUL but HARDEST days in my life. In the third week of Emersyn's life, we were thrilled that her eye was looking so much better, and I cherished those moments especially in the morning time when she would make eye contact with me for a long time while I talked to her. However, the evenings were rather trying. From around 5pm - midnight, we could not find anything to settle her. Daniel and I would take turns with her to relieve the frustrated parent and give them a moment to take some deep breaths. I would get her to sleep, but as soon as I would lay her down she was awake and crying again. Many nights, we would give in and I would just lay her on my chest and she would sleep on me for several hours. Don't judge, when your baby is tired but cannot stay asleep and you have not had sleep yourself, it's okay to break the rules :)

As I mentioned in my last post, we visited the doctor on Thursday, November 6th, and they were concerned with her weight gain and made a weight check appointment for the following Thursday. I took her for the follow up for the first time by myself and her weight was 6lbs 11oz. She had actually lost 4oz from the previous Thursday and was 11oz below her birth weight still. The nurse came in the room and told me I was going to have to start supplementing (I was currently breastfeeding only). I was crushed, but determined. I asked her could I try pumping and give her extra breast milk by bottle (which the doctor the week before suggested that I not pump until Emersyn's weight was up). She said that Emersyn's pediatrician was not working that day, but that she would get another doctor to come speak with me. The doctor came in and I expressed my concern with formula feeding, since my desire was to exclusively breastfeed. I was afraid that if she tasted the formula, she would no longer want to breastfeed, etc. I was not completely happy with the suggestions, so I went home and made an appointment for the following Monday with the lactation consultant at Spartanburg Regional, where I had Emersyn.

When I met with the lactation consultant, she had me weigh Emersyn before I fed her and after I fed her in the office (her weight was 6lbs 15oz). The scale they have measures to the milliliter, so I was able to see exactly how much she was able to receive from the breast feeding. She fed on both sides for 20 minutes and when we weighed her, we realized that she only got 1 ounce! Here was the problem. I was not producing enough milk (probably due to the stress, lack of consistent meals, and Emersyn not wanting to eat as much during the eye problems). The lactation consultant made out a plan of action for me, hugged me, gave me a tissue to wipe my tears, and assured me it was going to be okay. She wanted me to be able to strictly breastfeed just as much as I did. She told me I had been given some bad advice, and that I should have been pumping weeks ago when I noticed that Emersyn was not gaining weight. Luckily my mama was with me at the appointment and heard what huge demand this was going to be of my time so she spent the next several days with us and was a HUGE lifesaving help. SO, for a week, the consultant had me feeding Emersyn for 20 minutes on both sides and then pumping after every feed for 15 minutes. I am to feed when Emersyn wants it (feed on demand) which ranges between every hour and a half to four hours depending on the time of the day. She told me to also do a "power pump" once a day where I pump 10 minutes, rest 10 minutes and continue this for an hour and 10 minutes. As you can imagine, I pretty much feel like a moo cow these days, but it has been SOOO worth it!! She also let me rent the awesome baby scale they have so I have been able to weigh Emersyn before feedings and after feedings when I want to make sure she is getting at least 2 ounces at each feeding and when she isn't I know to feed her some of the milk I have pumped in a bottle. I am so happy to say that as of our last appointment on Wednesday, she is weighing around 7lbs 9oz!!! She has gained around 10oz in ten days : ) All the nursing, pumping, eating, and drinking of water has helped!

What's even better is my baby is HAPPY! She is no longer crying in the evening as much (she was apparently too hungry to sleep the week before). She is sleeping around 12 hours at night with only a few feedings in between, she takes long naps in the day BY HERSELF (most of the time unless mommy just wants to cuddle), and my milk supply has increased due to the extra pumping. We are finally getting on somewhat of a schedule and can hopefully just enjoy our time together before I go back to work. Sorry if this is too much information for some of you, but I really wanted to share our experience especially for those soon to be or freshly new moms who may have the same struggles I have had. I have posted more pictures below including some of my favorite pictures from her recent newborn session!!

Meeting More Family and Friends

My cousin Jake

My cousin Rick

With Kathryn, my college roommate

Monica that I teach with and her husband Nick

And their baby girl, Lillian. The two girls were born 20 days apart and are already buddies : )

Talking to Annette, who I teach with also.

Cousin Matt loves looking at me!

Rocking with Papa

My First Thanksgiving!

Getting ready to go to church for the first time to the Thanksgiving Sunrise Service!

At Momom and Papa's for Thanksgiving lunch :)

Meeting my Uncle Dan

Cousin JC and Aunt Sarah

My cousins JC and Drew

Family photo on Thanksgiving

Some Pictures from Newborn Session

Emersyn was 4 weeks old this week and we are now to a point of "normal" if there is such a thing : ) I will honestly say that the first few weeks with our sweet baby girl were the most WONDERFUL and HARDEST weeks in my life. She was born on Tuesday, October 28th at 4:42am. We were moved from the delivery room to our other room around 6:30am and stayed until that Thursday around 3:30pm. We had lots of people who wanted to meet Emersyn!! Mama, Daddy, my brother Clay, and Daniel's parents had waited all day and night for her arrival, and other family and friends came in during our stay as well.

Emersyn's Hospital Stay

Leaving the delivery floor and headed to our room with our new baby!

Emersyn's cousins Addison and Emma

Emma, Emersyn, me, and Addison

Daniel's mom (Gran Gran) with all her granddaughters

Emersyn and Gran Gran

Proud Parents!

Daniel with all his girls! I love how Emersyn is already making eye contact with him : )

Daniel quickly learned how to change diapers. Emersyn's was his first ever!!

Daniel's friend Houston

Snuggling with my baby!

Dr. Giep who delivered our sweet girl.

All snuggled up!

My daddy with Emersyn

Exhausted from having no sleep from Sunday through Tuesday!!

They can't get enough pictures!

Proud new grandparents

The bow for Emersyn's hospital door that my mom (Mimi) made

Emersyn with Aunt Cindy (NeeNee)

Papa (Daniel's dad) holding Emersyn

Daniel's dad snuck away from the hospital to get us a dozen doughnuts and Emersyn her first Krispy Kreme hat!!

Momom and Papa with their first great-grandchild (my dad's parents)

Taking a look at Emersyn!

MamaDoris with her 7th great-grand child (my mom's mom)

MamaDoris and PaPa Painter

Emersyn and her Aunt Barbara (my mom's sister)

Emersyn with Aunt Elizabeth (Daniel's oldest sister)

Our youth pastor, Martin

Terry and Katrina, our pastor and his wife

Emersyn with her great-grandma Shirley (Daniel's maternal grandma)

Grandma Shirley and Lloyd

Emersyn with my dad (he hasn't decided what he wants her to call him yet)

Emersyn's oldest first cousin, Matt

Aunt Jennifer (Daniel's sister)

Uncle Clay - her only uncle!!

Aunt Maria looking at her toes

Emersyn with cousin Mikey

Daddy and Emersyn

The grandmas :)

Aunt Sarah (my dad's sister)

My friend Jeanna

Emersyn with her new friend Abigail

Emersyn with Aunt GiGi (Jeanne)

Mommy loving on me!!

With my Aunt Kim (Daniel's Aunt)

Emma and Addison brought us a milkshake to share from Chick-fil-A

Uncle Clay

First bath, washing my hair

Skin to skin time after my bath to warm up

We were discharged from the hospital on Thursday, October 30th and brought Emersyn to her home around 4:00 in the afternoon. We had a fun photo shoot while introducing her to her home, and then Daniel took her around the house to each room telling her all about them. Life was good!! We had our baby, we had our own bed, and we actually had time for some sleep without constant interruptions. Before we left the hospital, they scheduled her first pediatric visit for Friday, October 31st, just one day after leaving the hospital due to them being closed on the weekend.

Coming Home

Taking home the flowers from Papa (Daniel's dad)

Showing Emersyn her home

Emersyn and Mimi

Friday we had lots of visitors and Emersyn was given her first bath at home! In the hospital, we had noticed that her left eye had some red spots around it, but the pediatrician that visited us said it was stork bite marks. Friday we noticed that the same left eye had yellow mucus in the corner and was more swollen. Thankfully we had a pediatrician appointment already scheduled for 3:20 that afternoon. The pediatrician said it looked like dacryocystiti (blocked tear duct) and that she had some neonatal conjunctivitis (baby pink eye). She prescribed us some very expensive eye drops to use three times a day to fight the infection, and showed us how to do massages and warm compresses. She told us to call immediately if she started running a fever or stopped eating because she would need to be admitted to the hospital. She made us an appointment the following morning on Saturday at their sister office with the doctor on call.

First Full Day at Home from the Hospital

Emersyn's Great Great Aunt Jessie came to see her Friday morning

After her first bath given by GiGi and MamaDoris. You can already see her eye is swollen :(

Emersyn and GiGi

My friend Jennifer came to visit!

College roomies

Baby Grace and Emersyn meeting for the first time

Lots of her cousins also came to visit! Emersyn with Hannah

Cousin Hannah and cousin Will

Cousin Will

Ben, Hannah, and Will

Cousin Drew

Cousin Luke

Emersyn and MamaDoris

First trip to the doctor

Daniel and I did the drops, massaging, and warm compresses. We also took her temperature each time we changed her diaper, and thankfully she did not run a fever. The next morning, we took her back to the doctor and he said the white of her eye looked much better (the pink eye part), and that the drops were doing their job. He made us a follow up appointment for Monday with her normal pediatrician. The remainder of the weekend we continued with the same procedures: drops, massaging, warm compresses, and checking her temperature. The swelling of her eye seemed to be getting worse and we could even see the clogged infection under the skin. It looked like someone had punched her in the eye and that she had a huge teenage pimple. She was pitiful to say the least.

Our poor baby on Sunday night :( Mommy shed lots of tears!!

Monday morning, Daniel, Emersyn,and I headed to the doctor yet again. As soon as we got on the interstate, I started praying and crying because I KNEW things were not better, and I was terrified of the solution. We saw the pediatrician again and she was not pleased with the progress. She said she wanted us to go see a pediatric optometrist and that she would call and make an appointment right then for us. Her office was near our waiting room, so I was listening as hard as I could to the phone conversation. I started crying again as I heard her explain my precious 6 day old's condition. She came back and told us that the eye doctor was going to take us immediately. My first thoughts were, this is NOT GOOD! It must be real bad if she has to take us right now!

Of course I cried the whole drive over to the eye doctor, I cried the whole time I was filling out the paper work, I cried while talking to the nurse explaining what had been happening, AND I cried as the eye doctor examined her. She told us that it was dacryocystitis. She explained that Emersyn was probably born without a tear duct in her left eye, so when she does have tears, they flow down the corner of her eye beside her nose and pocket. There is no way for them to drain which is what caused the extreme swelling. She said that in older children (6 months and up usually) she would put in a stent and let them drain out, but since she is only 6 days old it is near to impossible to see the opening in the side of her eye near her nose to get the stent in. She massaged the area around her eye and she screamed to the top of her lungs. Of course I was crying right along with her. She told us to do warm compresses 4-6 times a day and then massage the area to try to get the build up to come out of the eye and to come back Thursday if this did not help release the blockage. She explained that if the massaging did not work and it got worse, she would have to be given anesthesia for them to drain the cyst surgically. The optometrist said she would like to avoid surgery until she is at least a month old because of all the risks with anesthesia.

Once again, we had our prayer warriors praying for us, that the build up would be released with the hot compresses and massaging so surgery would not even have to be in the picture. Monday evening, the eye doctor called my cell phone and said she had spoken with another eye doctor at MUSC who suggested using a probe to go through the corner of her eye and down through her nose to try to release the blockage. She explained that she had never done this with anyone so young and that she could not guarantee that it would work or that she could even see the tiny hole to go through, but she would be willing to give it a try the next day if we wanted her to. Daniel and I went back and forth with what to do and finally decided to return the next day on Tuesday for her to try the probe. We knew to pray specifically that the probe would work and release the mucus. We texted, called, and emailed friends and family and had them praying the same thing. Daniel's Uncle Craig, Aunt Kim, and two cousin, Lindsay and Carson, brought us dinner that Monday night and they all laid hands on Emersyn and prayed over her sweet body for ultimate healing.

Though I cried pretty much ALL day on that Monday, I woke up Tuesday morning with a strength that I knew could have only come from God. My cousin Jeanne, who has been through much more medically with her children, told me I had to be strong in the doctor's office so I would not make the doctor nervous. I prayed for that strength because I desperately needed it! When we drove in our parking spot, Daniel and I decided to pray aloud over Emersyn before entering the eye doctor's office. I had a peace that I did not have the day before! Once they took her back, they numbed the area around her eye and the doctor pushed the probe (small needle) through the corner of her eye. Within a few minutes, yellow mucus started coming out of her nose!! Sounds gross, but we were jumping with joy! The blockage had been released and the eye doctor said she DID have a tear duct!! Praise God! She has remained blockage free so far, though we know it has potential to possibly become blocked again, but we are so thankful that our baby's eye is getting better. She still has the red stork bite marks around it, but she is no longer in pain! We do still massage it several times a day to prevent it from becoming blocked again.

So, that was the first week of sweet Emersyn's life! Her first ten days of life, she was in the hospital 3 days when she was born, then she had 5 pediatric visits, and 2 eye doctor visits. Needless to say we were all exhausted, and between all the doctor visits, skipped meals, and stress, my milk was not able to come in like it should so at Emersyn's pediatric check up on Thursday, November 6th, we discovered that she was only 6lbs 14oz still well below her birth weight of 7lbs 6oz. They scheduled me to come back the following Thursday for another weight check. I was not too concerned because I figured she had lost weight because she did not want to eat as much with all the pressure at her eye. We went on with life and were thankful that the eye was all better; however, Emersyn was not a very happy baby especially from around 5pm - midnight. She would cry and nothing would satisfy her. We later discovered the problem, which I will share in my next post. Here are some other pictures of her first few weeks!!