Today has been up and down with Rylan.
Good news:
Billirubin level went from 15 to 11 overnight.
Her oxygen was removed from her face. She is nose-hose free!
Bad News:
She is starting to get lazy with eating (a sign of billirubin in her system, ans being exhausted from the phototherapy). If she continues to not have an appetite, they will run a tube through her nose and into her stomach to feed her by tube. We'll feed her again at noon to determine that.
Her white blood cell count went from 11,000 yesterday to 21,000 today. She's either stressed or she has an infection.
Her breathing has been unstable since being removed from oxygen/pressure. She goes from breathing 20bpm, to 70bpm, back to 40bpm. They will continue to monitor her breathing, and put her back on oxygen if necessary. Her oxygen saturation level is good though, so that's a plus.
It's very exciting to see families all around us leaving/graduating from the NICU. We look forward to that day. It's not looking like we'll be leaving this weekend as we originally thought.
I'd write longer, but it's time to go feed her again. I'll try to send out an update tonight. The Ronald McDonald House is throwing a Christmas Holiday party for the guests, so that will be a nice break from the NICU scene.
Thanks for your continued prayers,
Casey
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Day Three/Four- December 9-10th
We have great news and we have bad news. I'll start with the great news. I got a text this morning from the birthfather and he signed his relinquishment of parental rights yesterday, had it notarized, and sent it to our attorney by mid-afternoon. He also said to e-mail him if we had any medical history questions for him. Yea!!!!!!!! This was a huge concern of ours. He's been MIA the entire pregnancy and I just spoke with him for the first time a few hours before her water broke on Saturday. This is great news!!! Now, there's nothing that will slow down our adoption process. Hallelujah!!! Merry Christmas to us!
Now, for my specific prayer request for the day. Rylan's billirubin (sp?) level is extremely high. A normal level is below 2. Hers is 15.8. We will be unable to hold her for 3 days unless changing her diaper or feeding her every 3 hours. We also cannot be in the NICU for longer than 5 minutes with the lights on. They are so powerful that they will begin to hurt your eyes and make you sick. Blake felt ill earlier after just 5-10 minutes of being by her side. This feels like 2 steps forward, and 1 step back. I realize that juandice is not that big of a deal. It's just the fact that we cannot see her, or hold her except for a few minutes a day. She has a blindfold on all day too. Poor baby. If we do not treat her with the photothrerapy lights, there is a risk for blood transfusions, and a decreased appetite (which is crucial while in the NICU). I have included some pictures of her.
Please pray that all is well for her to leave by Saturday. Everything has to be perfect before they will release her (blood oxygen level, oxygen saturation, no pressure, no added oxygen, normal WBC, normal billirubin levels, feeding well with no problems, pneumonia completely gone, complete round of antibiotics, etc.). If we cannot leave by Saturday, we will have to worry about me staying in Lubbock, making alternative arrangements for the girls at Blake's parents, my mom flying up here, and renting a car to drive back when she's released, etc. Besides, we REALLY miss our girls. Talking to them on the phone last night made me cry. Brooklyn is 4 months old and teething right now, and I hate that she cannot be with her mama. Thank you to Blake's parents for watching all 3 girls this entire week/weekend. I know that's a huge adjustment.
I cannot tell you enough how much your texts/prayers/e-mails have meant to us. Just when we are getting down about being stuck in this place, we receive an encouraging word. We have people all over the US and in Canada praying for us. Wow! What an awesome feeling to know that we are covered in your prayers.
Blake says I'm making these e-mail updates too long. He calls them my "novel updates", so I guess I'll wrap this up by saying, once again, thank you for everything (and for passing these along to your friends/co-workers/families for additional prayers).
Blake & Casey
Now, for my specific prayer request for the day. Rylan's billirubin (sp?) level is extremely high. A normal level is below 2. Hers is 15.8. We will be unable to hold her for 3 days unless changing her diaper or feeding her every 3 hours. We also cannot be in the NICU for longer than 5 minutes with the lights on. They are so powerful that they will begin to hurt your eyes and make you sick. Blake felt ill earlier after just 5-10 minutes of being by her side. This feels like 2 steps forward, and 1 step back. I realize that juandice is not that big of a deal. It's just the fact that we cannot see her, or hold her except for a few minutes a day. She has a blindfold on all day too. Poor baby. If we do not treat her with the photothrerapy lights, there is a risk for blood transfusions, and a decreased appetite (which is crucial while in the NICU). I have included some pictures of her.
Please pray that all is well for her to leave by Saturday. Everything has to be perfect before they will release her (blood oxygen level, oxygen saturation, no pressure, no added oxygen, normal WBC, normal billirubin levels, feeding well with no problems, pneumonia completely gone, complete round of antibiotics, etc.). If we cannot leave by Saturday, we will have to worry about me staying in Lubbock, making alternative arrangements for the girls at Blake's parents, my mom flying up here, and renting a car to drive back when she's released, etc. Besides, we REALLY miss our girls. Talking to them on the phone last night made me cry. Brooklyn is 4 months old and teething right now, and I hate that she cannot be with her mama. Thank you to Blake's parents for watching all 3 girls this entire week/weekend. I know that's a huge adjustment.
I cannot tell you enough how much your texts/prayers/e-mails have meant to us. Just when we are getting down about being stuck in this place, we receive an encouraging word. We have people all over the US and in Canada praying for us. Wow! What an awesome feeling to know that we are covered in your prayers.
Blake says I'm making these e-mail updates too long. He calls them my "novel updates", so I guess I'll wrap this up by saying, once again, thank you for everything (and for passing these along to your friends/co-workers/families for additional prayers).
Blake & Casey
Day Three- December 8th
We are officially parents of Rylan Christine Shirley. Papers were signed this morning at 6am, and everything is complete. We are thrilled, and cannot thank our notary enough. He got up at 5am, and got out on the icy snowy roads to come and do this for us (complete strangers). Thank God for Steven Fannin, Mark Finneken, and Brian Smith for orchestrating all of this. We're not sure what we would have done. Shannon has unfortunately decided not to go through with the tubal ligation, but at the end of the day, it's her decision. So, 50% of our goals for the day were accomplished.
Regardless, we are happy to add another beautiful baby girl to the Shirley family. We now out number Blake 5 to 1. We are going in now to see her in the NICU. We'll send pictures later on. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us. Please continue to pray for baby Rylan, that she may have a full and quick recovery.
Many of you have been sending us texts/e-mails to encourage us throughout our day. They mean so much to us. I hope you understand why we don't have time right now to respond to each of them individually.
Can't wait to get back to Houston. Looks like it may be next week.
Love y'all,
Blake and Casey
Regardless, we are happy to add another beautiful baby girl to the Shirley family. We now out number Blake 5 to 1. We are going in now to see her in the NICU. We'll send pictures later on. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us. Please continue to pray for baby Rylan, that she may have a full and quick recovery.
Many of you have been sending us texts/e-mails to encourage us throughout our day. They mean so much to us. I hope you understand why we don't have time right now to respond to each of them individually.
Can't wait to get back to Houston. Looks like it may be next week.
Love y'all,
Blake and Casey
Day Two- December 7th
Rylan has been taken off the C-Pap breathing machine, and has adjusted well. She is not off of oxygen yet, but they downgraded her machine to a small tube in her nose. It's a good thing because the C-pap has rubbed both sides of her cheeks raw. That has to be painful. She still has not eaten, and will not eat until sometime tomorrow. The NICU nurse said they'd call us when that happens so that we can do it for the first time.
Blake and I both got to hold her today. What a great feeling. She's so much more content being held. It's hard to put her down and let her go. It's so cold and noisy in NICU rooms. They have volunteers that come and make beanies and booties for babies in the NICU. Only one cap (of several to choose from) fit her fat head, and even it is snug. It's not the best color on her (salmon), but beggers can't be choosers, right? I guess fashion is low on the priority list right now. :o)
She's becoming a little irritated by noises and is very jumpy. I'm hoping this subsides soon.
Once again, I'm asking for your prayers. I'll try to give specific prayer requests each day. Today, without going into too much detail, some issues have cropped up with the adoption paperwork/relinquishment of parental rights. Between our attorney, the social worker here at the hospital, Medicaid, and our birthmother... we are spinning in circles trying to get this completed.
Our main problem is that we were told that the social worker would be able to notarize the relinquishment of Shannon's rights Tuesday morning. This is not the case. We have to find our own public notary to come into the hospital to do this for us. I called a friend from church (Brian Smith) and he has a friend that is a president of a bank in Lubbock and has a personal secretary that is a public notary (Is that a God thing, or what?). It gets better. He called me immediately and said he's be happy to help, and that he'd send his secretary over first thing in the morning. He told me he wanted to help because he, too, was adopted at birth. Amazing.
Unfortunately, Shannon is having surgery tomorrow morning at 7am, and it cannot be changed due to Medicaid reasons. The notary lady is no longer able to come because we need someone here at the hospital by 6am tomorrow morning. All that being said, we have several people helping us to look for a public notary willing to do this, but we NEED to find soemone ASAP. Please pray specifically that we can find a notary that will pull through for us in time. She is unable to sign papers after the surgery because she will be on pain medication. She has to be completely coherant to do this. We are stuck between a rock and a hard place right now, but I know the power of prayer.
We don't THINK Shannon will leave the hospital before the papers are signed, but you never know with her. She makes impulsive decisions that often do not make sense.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
As I am typing this e-mail, we just got a call from Brian's friend (the one who originally set up the first notary) that said, "Casey...no worries. I have a guy that I know that wakes up at 5am everyday and will be there at the front door of the hospital at 6am." Unbelieveable. God is good. He already knows our needs before we ask. The crazy thing is that Brian's friend, Mark, is not even in town. He's on vacation in California at a wine vinyard on a tour right now. He's been making all of these calls for us (complete strangers) the entire time. How do we ever thank him?
So, I guess I'll wrap up by asking for prayers for tomorrow morning that everything goes through as planned. I'll send pictures later on tonight of us holding Rylan.
Love,
Blake & Casey
Blake and I both got to hold her today. What a great feeling. She's so much more content being held. It's hard to put her down and let her go. It's so cold and noisy in NICU rooms. They have volunteers that come and make beanies and booties for babies in the NICU. Only one cap (of several to choose from) fit her fat head, and even it is snug. It's not the best color on her (salmon), but beggers can't be choosers, right? I guess fashion is low on the priority list right now. :o)
She's becoming a little irritated by noises and is very jumpy. I'm hoping this subsides soon.
Once again, I'm asking for your prayers. I'll try to give specific prayer requests each day. Today, without going into too much detail, some issues have cropped up with the adoption paperwork/relinquishment of parental rights. Between our attorney, the social worker here at the hospital, Medicaid, and our birthmother... we are spinning in circles trying to get this completed.
Our main problem is that we were told that the social worker would be able to notarize the relinquishment of Shannon's rights Tuesday morning. This is not the case. We have to find our own public notary to come into the hospital to do this for us. I called a friend from church (Brian Smith) and he has a friend that is a president of a bank in Lubbock and has a personal secretary that is a public notary (Is that a God thing, or what?). It gets better. He called me immediately and said he's be happy to help, and that he'd send his secretary over first thing in the morning. He told me he wanted to help because he, too, was adopted at birth. Amazing.
Unfortunately, Shannon is having surgery tomorrow morning at 7am, and it cannot be changed due to Medicaid reasons. The notary lady is no longer able to come because we need someone here at the hospital by 6am tomorrow morning. All that being said, we have several people helping us to look for a public notary willing to do this, but we NEED to find soemone ASAP. Please pray specifically that we can find a notary that will pull through for us in time. She is unable to sign papers after the surgery because she will be on pain medication. She has to be completely coherant to do this. We are stuck between a rock and a hard place right now, but I know the power of prayer.
We don't THINK Shannon will leave the hospital before the papers are signed, but you never know with her. She makes impulsive decisions that often do not make sense.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
As I am typing this e-mail, we just got a call from Brian's friend (the one who originally set up the first notary) that said, "Casey...no worries. I have a guy that I know that wakes up at 5am everyday and will be there at the front door of the hospital at 6am." Unbelieveable. God is good. He already knows our needs before we ask. The crazy thing is that Brian's friend, Mark, is not even in town. He's on vacation in California at a wine vinyard on a tour right now. He's been making all of these calls for us (complete strangers) the entire time. How do we ever thank him?
So, I guess I'll wrap up by asking for prayers for tomorrow morning that everything goes through as planned. I'll send pictures later on tonight of us holding Rylan.
Love,
Blake & Casey
Day One- December 6th
Friends & Family:
I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and get an e-mail out. Thank you for all of your prayers and well-wishes. Rylan's definitely being covered with lots of prayers, and we are grateful. She was born at 1:35am, weighing 9lbs.2oz, and is 19 3/4inches long. She is a BIG baby, and super cute! She already has fat rolls on her arms, and neck.
Saturday at 4:20pm, Blake and I were talking about how unprepared we feel to bring baby Rylan home. I told him we really needed to sit down and take the time to make sure all of our paperwork is complete/ready (adoptions require a lot of documents/legal forms to be able to take the baby from the hospital), and that we needed to pack her bag and set up everything for our other kids to be ready to go when we got the call. We expected the call before December 27th (due date), but not 10 minutes after this conversation. Shannon (our birthmother) called and said her water broke at 4:30, and she was on the way to the hospital. Chickens with their head cut off don't hold a candle to the way we acted over the next 2 hours trying to get everyone packed up (all 6 of us). We had a 10 hour drive ahead of us to Lubbock, TX, with a swing by Moody, TX to drop off the kids at Blake's parents' house. As if the feeling of anticipation wasn't stressful enough, I should mention that I was a vendor at a Holiday Market at my church on Saturday, and because I wasn't quite ready, I pulled an all-nighter the night before. So, going on no sleep, we packed our three kids and headed for Moody (Brooklyn is teething, and screamed the entire way there). After getting the kids dropped off and changing vehicles with Blake's mom, we left for Lubbock around 11:30.
A friend of Shannon's kept giving us updates the entire way there, and we all decided that if we weren't there in time that we could listen to the birth live over the phone. At 1:35am, we were just outside of Abilene and we heard Rylan's cry for the first time. There's nothing sweeter than hearing that first cry from a newborn baby. It's such a relief. We wished we could have been there for her birth, but hearing her come into this world was the next best thing.
We got the the hospital around 5:30am and by that time, she had started to develop respiratory prolems. Shannon was holding her and she started to turn pale purple and had trouble breathing. She enhaled a huge amount of fluid while in the birth canal. The nurses tried to recusitate her for over an hour. They transferred her to the NICU after clearing out her lungs. She is currently on oxygen, but is doing better now. She's very content, but her comfort could be due to the magnesium Shannon had during labor. It has a calming effect on the baby after the birth. Her true demeanor will be more obvious within the next 2-3 days.
Doctors say that babies generally stay in the NICU until their due date, but we know from past experience with Ashlyn that they do this to be on the conservative side in case something goes wrong to prepare parents for the worse. Blake is only off this week, and will be headed back to Houston on Sunday regardless, but I will be here in Lubbock until she can come home. Please pray that we can make this transition easily (arrangements for our 3 other girls, travel, etc.)
We are very fortunate to be staying at the Ronald McDonald House at University Medical Center. It is free for NICU parents from out of town, and they provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well. It's run by volunteer groups, and we are excited to be able to stay there. What a blessing! We have daily chores that we have to complete, and today there was a sign on our door that said, "Your chores have been done for you today by St. John's United Methodist Church Youth group." They said that various groups will come in and do that on a regular basis. They also have a room in the hospital that we can go and hang out in, get on the internet, watch TV, drink coffee, and take a nap. What a great program for parents going through this unexpectedly and under the amount of stress that this causes.
Shannon is doing fine, and will be (thankfully) having a tubal ligation tomorrow afternoon. She'll be around for a few more days. She cannot sign papers until 48 hours after the baby is born, so we should have the official OK by Tuesday morning.
Rylan, for now is named Madeline Raine Nolan and she seems to be oblivious as to what's going on around her. She's ready to get all of the wires out of her throat/off her head. She keeps pulling the one out of her mouth.
Today, I put my hand on her leg, and she gently placed her hand on top of my hand (as if trying to tell me she was glad we were there). So sweet. She hasn't eaten yet. They want to wait until tomorrow, and will probably start feeding her through the tube inher stomach. Hopefully soon I'll be able to feed her. (I'd take just being able to hold her).
Thank you again for all of your prayers. Please continue to pray for her and her full recovery. I've attached some pictures of her for you to see. Texting us is the best way to give us messages. The NICU will not allowed cell phone usage in the NICU, but we can text. I'll send out an update as they come to us.
Blake & Casey
I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and get an e-mail out. Thank you for all of your prayers and well-wishes. Rylan's definitely being covered with lots of prayers, and we are grateful. She was born at 1:35am, weighing 9lbs.2oz, and is 19 3/4inches long. She is a BIG baby, and super cute! She already has fat rolls on her arms, and neck.
Saturday at 4:20pm, Blake and I were talking about how unprepared we feel to bring baby Rylan home. I told him we really needed to sit down and take the time to make sure all of our paperwork is complete/ready (adoptions require a lot of documents/legal forms to be able to take the baby from the hospital), and that we needed to pack her bag and set up everything for our other kids to be ready to go when we got the call. We expected the call before December 27th (due date), but not 10 minutes after this conversation. Shannon (our birthmother) called and said her water broke at 4:30, and she was on the way to the hospital. Chickens with their head cut off don't hold a candle to the way we acted over the next 2 hours trying to get everyone packed up (all 6 of us). We had a 10 hour drive ahead of us to Lubbock, TX, with a swing by Moody, TX to drop off the kids at Blake's parents' house. As if the feeling of anticipation wasn't stressful enough, I should mention that I was a vendor at a Holiday Market at my church on Saturday, and because I wasn't quite ready, I pulled an all-nighter the night before. So, going on no sleep, we packed our three kids and headed for Moody (Brooklyn is teething, and screamed the entire way there). After getting the kids dropped off and changing vehicles with Blake's mom, we left for Lubbock around 11:30.
A friend of Shannon's kept giving us updates the entire way there, and we all decided that if we weren't there in time that we could listen to the birth live over the phone. At 1:35am, we were just outside of Abilene and we heard Rylan's cry for the first time. There's nothing sweeter than hearing that first cry from a newborn baby. It's such a relief. We wished we could have been there for her birth, but hearing her come into this world was the next best thing.
We got the the hospital around 5:30am and by that time, she had started to develop respiratory prolems. Shannon was holding her and she started to turn pale purple and had trouble breathing. She enhaled a huge amount of fluid while in the birth canal. The nurses tried to recusitate her for over an hour. They transferred her to the NICU after clearing out her lungs. She is currently on oxygen, but is doing better now. She's very content, but her comfort could be due to the magnesium Shannon had during labor. It has a calming effect on the baby after the birth. Her true demeanor will be more obvious within the next 2-3 days.
Doctors say that babies generally stay in the NICU until their due date, but we know from past experience with Ashlyn that they do this to be on the conservative side in case something goes wrong to prepare parents for the worse. Blake is only off this week, and will be headed back to Houston on Sunday regardless, but I will be here in Lubbock until she can come home. Please pray that we can make this transition easily (arrangements for our 3 other girls, travel, etc.)
We are very fortunate to be staying at the Ronald McDonald House at University Medical Center. It is free for NICU parents from out of town, and they provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well. It's run by volunteer groups, and we are excited to be able to stay there. What a blessing! We have daily chores that we have to complete, and today there was a sign on our door that said, "Your chores have been done for you today by St. John's United Methodist Church Youth group." They said that various groups will come in and do that on a regular basis. They also have a room in the hospital that we can go and hang out in, get on the internet, watch TV, drink coffee, and take a nap. What a great program for parents going through this unexpectedly and under the amount of stress that this causes.
Shannon is doing fine, and will be (thankfully) having a tubal ligation tomorrow afternoon. She'll be around for a few more days. She cannot sign papers until 48 hours after the baby is born, so we should have the official OK by Tuesday morning.
Rylan, for now is named Madeline Raine Nolan and she seems to be oblivious as to what's going on around her. She's ready to get all of the wires out of her throat/off her head. She keeps pulling the one out of her mouth.
Today, I put my hand on her leg, and she gently placed her hand on top of my hand (as if trying to tell me she was glad we were there). So sweet. She hasn't eaten yet. They want to wait until tomorrow, and will probably start feeding her through the tube inher stomach. Hopefully soon I'll be able to feed her. (I'd take just being able to hold her).
Thank you again for all of your prayers. Please continue to pray for her and her full recovery. I've attached some pictures of her for you to see. Texting us is the best way to give us messages. The NICU will not allowed cell phone usage in the NICU, but we can text. I'll send out an update as they come to us.
Blake & Casey
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Please Pray for Rylan!
Hi-
I am Shauna, Casey's best friend from middle school. I wanted to start this blog to show the outpouring of love and prayer that is happening all around the world for Rylan and the Shirley family. Blake and Casey have shown us all what God's love is all about. Please feel free to post messages to the family and I hope that instead of Casey sending us all emails that we can follow this miracle that is occurring right in front of our eyes on this blog. Casey has always been my inspiration but her perseverance and strength has inspired me even more to be a better Mom, wife and friend. I pray that they know that they are covered in prayer and as their family and friends, we will get them through this challenging time in their life with prayer, love and support. We serve a miraculous, healing, amazing God. He is the great Physician and he has baby Rylan wrapped up in his arms and has great plans for her life. Thank you sweet Jesus for this miracle as well as Rylan's 3 sisters at home.
I am Shauna, Casey's best friend from middle school. I wanted to start this blog to show the outpouring of love and prayer that is happening all around the world for Rylan and the Shirley family. Blake and Casey have shown us all what God's love is all about. Please feel free to post messages to the family and I hope that instead of Casey sending us all emails that we can follow this miracle that is occurring right in front of our eyes on this blog. Casey has always been my inspiration but her perseverance and strength has inspired me even more to be a better Mom, wife and friend. I pray that they know that they are covered in prayer and as their family and friends, we will get them through this challenging time in their life with prayer, love and support. We serve a miraculous, healing, amazing God. He is the great Physician and he has baby Rylan wrapped up in his arms and has great plans for her life. Thank you sweet Jesus for this miracle as well as Rylan's 3 sisters at home.
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