Updates on Nolan

Kara went to UNC Hospital on Wednesday morning (Sept. 13th) after experiencing some bleeding. She was checked in to the Women’s Hospital and the bleeding stopped fairly quickly, but doctors were unsure of the cause. They gave steroids to the baby and monitored mom’s and baby’s vital signs. Over the next 24 plus hours, all vital signs looked good and there was no more bleeding. Baby continued to move vigorously!

The baby was 28 weeks old, though the weight was a bit behind what would be expected at that age. The weight, combined with the unexplained bleeding and a finding that the blood flow from the placenta wasn’t ideal (”absent end-diastolic flow” for the docs in the audience), made it clear that the baby probably wasn’t getting everything needed. The doctors predicted that at some point in the next few days, a crisis would force a Cesarean delivery. They were right. Thursday night, after a fair amount of discussion about when or whether to schedule a C-section, the question was rendered moot when the baby’s heartrate started fluctuating and the doctors rushed Kara into surgery.

The surgery went very well and Ronan was able to be with Kara during the delivery. At 9:26pm on Thursday, September 14th, Kara and Ronan’s baby was born! Ronan had the chance to have his finger clamped by a very tiny hand before the little one was wrapped in plastic and whisked to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Because the baby was so young, they were more concerned with basic health checks, getting oxygen to the baby and bundling warmly than determining gender (it takes a bit more investigation in a premature baby), so the little one earned the nickname “Little Critter” until the legal name could be unveiled after the gender was verified. Happily, the Apgar score was good, and the baby was vigorous and appeared quite healthy. The birth weight was 1lb, 2oz and the length at birth was 11 inches.

Little Critter will stay in the NICU under intense monitoring and amazing hands-on care until it is time to go home. We’re still learning a lot about the course of treatment for a baby this young, but the rule of thumb we’ve been given is that the baby will stay at the hospital until roughly the original due date (in this case, early December), give or take a few weeks. Babies born at 28 weeks in a hospital that can deliver advanced care (like UNC) have really good odds of leaving the hospital in excellent condition, but there are certainly a number of complications that can arise and we’re just beginning to learn about those. [As a sidenote, the steroids that baby got on Wednesday morning should be a big help here. They essentially give the lungs a boost equivalent to an extra week of development. Ideally, delivery would have waited a full 48 hours from the time the steroids were administered in order to get their peak effect, but 36 hours is pretty good!]

The excellent news is that UNC has an amazing number of specialists who deal with these problems everyday; the bad news is that there are so many of them that it takes quite a while to get all the information to the family. We may not always be able to answer questions (even ones that seem simple!) but we can see quite clearly that Little Critter is getting very skilled care and that’s the most important thing right now.

The news about what to expect with the newest family member will unfold over weeks and months, and that’s why we’re setting up this blog to share information as it becomes available. Please check back as often as you can, and share the ups and downs of the journey with us. Kara and Ronan will especially appreciate your comments, so share the love! It means so much to have a strong and supportive community lifting us up. Thank you for being there.

-Maria (Kara’s sister)