Good Days

Last Thursday brought us much delight when Emersyn had her first day of feeds and boy does she like her mama’s milk! Unfortunately, she has yet to drink it herself and is fed through a feeding tube placed through her mouth into her stomach as it is still too early in her development, but her body is responding very well so far. She has grown to a whopping 2lbs 9oz and her incision area has been healing slowly but quite well. The doctors said they are proud of her and continue to be amazed with her fantastic strides. We are very happy to hear the positive outlook from the staff and it has felt good to have a few days of uneventful moments !


With Emersyn doing so well, we have felt freed up to spend more time with our little guy Zack. Spending time with him is a breath of fresh air and we’ve enjoyed giggling and chasing him around. Spending time looking at life through a toddler’s eyes is a welcome retreat from the stress of the NICU. Right now, Zack’s favorite thing is to sit and make faces at you to see if he can make you laugh or smile. He’s become an expert at making us giggle too. He’s quickly becoming quite the landscaper as well as he spends long bits of time pushing his bubble-making lawnmower around Nana and Grandpa’s backyard just like his Grandpa. He absolutely loves playing outside. In true boy fashion, he loves bouncing rocks on the concrete patio and running through the sprinkler to eat Nana’s baby tomatoes fresh off the vine. We feel so blessed that he is relatively unaffected by the journey we are making with Emersyn and are so thankful that he is so loved and well taken care of at Nana and Papa’s house. He is a happy boy!!!

As always, we are blessed and so thankful to have such wonderful family and friends caring for our little family!


 

Our Strong Little Lady

The rollercoaster of a week last week brought us much anxiety and uncertainty, however Emersyn is recovering well from her surgery and the staff feels good about her progress thus far. The original plan (as of Sunday morning) was to leave her on the vent for a few days while she recovered and continued to receive the fentanyl for pain management. However, Emmie expedited things when she decided to remove her vent tube and try to take it out all by herself. She is now on the high¬¬-flow cannula and breathing very well. The doctors and nurses continue to be impressed with her very strong lungs and all think that she knew she’d be better off without the vent earlier than they expected. Since yesterday morning they have removed her arterial line, the oral gastro tube, catheter and her intra-venous line. So now she has the ability to move her arms a bit more freely and keep them close to her face which she really likes.


The last two days were great for Emmie to rest and be held during kangaroo care time which is so great for both mommy and Emmie. As is usually the case and par for the rollercoaster ride, this morning we came in to find that Emmie’s incision from her surgery has opened up. The surgeons intentionally didn’t stitch her up too tightly during her surgery last week knowing they would have to re-enter through that site when they put her plumbing back together in 6 – 8 weeks. However, this loose stitching gave room for it to re-open. As for now, we are not clear on what the plan is going forward, but are pretty sure that it will involve just keeping a close eye on the site for infection and changing her dressings daily. We’ve been told that babies just have a way of healing from this and so we wait and watch.

It is our prayer that she’ll heal quickly and stave off infection from setting in and hopefully, she’ll be able to start feeding soon!!! We continue to be impressed by our little girl’s stamina and strength. It is evident to us that this little girl is covered in protection and prayer and we trust that the Lord must have BIG plans for her to bring her through such a bumpy road so early in her life. We feel blessed to be witnesses to watching our beautiful little girl grow and impress doctors and nurses alike. She is so much stronger than we are. We are simply AMAZED!

We love you all and thank you for your support.

Enjoy the new pictures...
 

 

Our Little Sweetheart!

This picture was taken before her surgery on 12 Aug...we look forward to many more moments like this!

Super Trooper

We have come to realize (even though everyone told us) life in the NICU is a daily rollercoaster of ups and downs. We celebrated Emersyn’s two week birthday yesterday which is sometimes hard to believe. Overall, things have been going well since our last update, but Emersyn has experienced quite a few Bradycardias (sleep apnea moments) over the last few days. Due to the increase in these Bradys, the doctors have run a series of tests which included a spinal tap, a full blood culture and a urine analysis to rule out any infection. So far Emersyn’s tests have all come back negative for infection which is GREAT NEWS. We are starting to think that we get more worked up than Emmie does when she has these additional procedures done, but so far she has handled them all like a champ. Lynsey has been able to hold Emmie four times now and do kangaroo care and we cherish every minute we get to spend with her outside the isolette.


Up through yesterday, Emmie’s bowels had been doing well with her tummy drains in and she had her first significant bowel movement a couple nights ago…very exciting in our day-to-day world. However, this morning Emersyn’s tummy started to get puffy and distended again which led the doctors to believe that there was a more serious issue going on. After some discussion, the pediatric surgeons at Children’s agreed that exploratory surgery was our best option to try and address the bowel issue as well as potentially answer some questions as to why she has been so tired lately and having some trouble breathing regularly. They performed the exploratory laparoscopy this afternoon and found a significantly larger hole in her small intestine (primary anastomose) than they had initially thought. In addition, they also found another section of her intestine that was starting to balloon out (Meckels Diverticulum) and so they ended up removing two small sections of her small intestine to eliminate both troublesome spots. She now has a large incision across her tummy with two separate openings (ileostomies) so that her bowel will continue to heal over the next 6 – 8 weeks. Emmie tolerated the surgery quite well and is resting peacefully now as we update this post. The doctors are all quite hopeful that she will remain stable over the next few days as she continues to heal and hopefully gets back on course. If there was a time for prayers of healing, now is the time. We ask that you continue to keep her in your prayers as her little body heals.

Well, that’s it for now. We hope this message finds you all doing well and we continue to feel blessed by the outpouring of support and love we have received throughout this crazy time. Two weeks down, hopefully no more than 12 to go.

A Mother's Joy

Emersyn Grace Yokum

Aug 7, 2010 Update

This morning brings us so much joy as we may get another chance to hold our dear little Emmie. The last few days have gone much smoother and we are encouraged as Emersyn continues to get stronger each day. It is evident that your prayers are definitely working, so please keep them coming  Emersyn’s lungs continue to impress the doctors and they felt comfortable pulling her off of her ventilator on Thursday and transitioned her to a high flow nasal cannula that provides minimal support and so far she is responding very well and breathing great on her own. We continue to wait and see when her little bowel will heal and the doctor’s feel like she is making good progress. She does seem to be comfortable and rest well which is the best we can hope for…she loves her belly time.


Yesterday was a fantastic day as this was the first opportunity that Lynsey had to hold her and Emersyn loved every minute of it. She was calmer on Lynsey’s chest than in her little isolette and it brought so much joy to have a chance to hold her for the first time. Pictures of yesterday’s events will be posted later today.

God continues to bless us with all your thoughts, support and prayers and we appreciate them more than you know!

Yokum Update - 4 Aug

The last week has been bitter sweet and a bit of a roller coaster ride for our little family. It started with the birth of the jelly beans, the sudden departure of Gracyn to meet Jesus and the overwhelming response from family, friends, doctors, nurses and general hospital staff. Despite the grief, we have felt an undercurrent of calm as we journeyed through each day, trying to be there for little miss Emmie. From the very beginning, Emmie has surprised the doctors and nurses alike with her feisty spirit and sass and managed to maintain a very stable status. She is always giving the nurses a hard time by kicking her long skinny feet out of her little “nest” to stretch her legs rather than allowing them to keep her nestled inside. She’s already making a name for herself in the NICU as a sweet little fighter and so far we’ve been incredibly blessed by her nurses who have grown to love her as much as we already do. Their tender touch and concern is so endearing to witness each day and we feel as if our family is expanding beyond just blood relation to the amazing staff charged with Emmie’s care.


We experienced our first step back with her progress late Monday night as the nurses spotted symptoms of what doctors believed to be a perforated bowel. This is not an uncommon occurrence in preemies when they are using medicine to close the special valve in her heart. As we waited for Emmie’s heart valve to close, it appears that her delicate gut incurred a bit of a leak which the doctors treated last night. Unfortunately, the progress she had been showing by breathing pretty much on her own within the first 24 hours of life was set back as they had to put her back on the ventilator to allow her gut to heal for the next week or so. So far, she is responding very well and the doctors and nurses are all very optimistic that she’ll continue to improve. We also found out that she reached her first NICU milestone as her heart valve has officially closed.

We ask that you continue to keep her in your prayers as her little body continues to heal and adjust to life on the outside. Please pray for discernment for her doctors and nurses and that God would continue to give us just enough grace and strength to make it through each day. We are reminded each day of how blessed we truly are for each moment we get with our beautiful daughter.

new pictures.

the jellybeans arrive.

Dear Family and Friends,

On Wednesday, July 28, 2010, God saw fit to walk us down a path neither Lynsey nor I were quite ready for, but were meant to walk.  After a late morning ultrasound, Lynsey and I believed we knew the doctors would be visiting us later in the day due to fact that we saw a pronounced reversal in Baby A’s umbilical cord blood flow.  Sure enough, around 4:00pm we were visited by the entire antepartum team who discussed with us the urgency in making the decision to have a C-section that night to deliver our girls due to the discouraging ultrasound results.  If we waited, Baby A would most likely not make it and it could impact Baby B almost instantly.  If we went ahead with the C-section, both had a fighting chance.  So, at 2136 Lynsey and I welcomed two beautiful girls into this world.  Gracyn Jane (Baby A) and Emersyn Grace (Baby B) weighed in at 1 lb 3 oz. and 1 lb 15 oz. respectively.  Emersyn made her appearance and her voice was heard clear as a bell as they worked to get her  stabilized fairly quickly and whisked off to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).  However, due to Gracyn’s small size, they had difficulty inserting her breathing tube.  Following a long hour fight by the NICU team, we said goodbye to our little Gracie Jane.  She came out fighting and stayed with us long enough to give her big sis a fighting chance and is now dancing with Jesus.

Despite the tragic night, we feel tremendously blessed to have been surrounded by such incredible, compassionate and determined doctors and nurses who grieved and celebrated with us right by our side.  They are encouraged by Emersyn’s progress so far today and have told us she is doing very very well for a 26 weeker.   She has already been taken off of the ventilator and is breathing with just a C-pap which impresses the NICU team.  A rockstar already!!  We realize that Emersyn will always be a constant reminder to us of her beautiful sister and so we decided to put part of Gracyn’s name as Emersyn’s middle name in an effort to keep them connected.

We love you all and thank you so much for your continued prayers, support and encouragement.  We feel a peace that surpasses our own understanding right now and we know that it is due in large part to the power of prayer and the number of prayers shouted out on our behalf.  Please know that you each hold a very special place in our hearts and we will continue to keep you posted on little Emersyn’s progress.