Olivia Joy

Our beautiful Olivia Joy is here! She was born not breathing, so after a great deal of stimulation they were able to get her to breath and we heard her muffled cries. They brought her over to us all wrapped up and we didn't have a clue if she was a girl or a boy, so my nurse whispered to Chad and he said "we have to decide between the two names we liked"! I knew immediately she was a girl (we had 3 boys names picked out and 2 girl names)! Looking at her we both agreed on Olivia Joy! It just fits her beautifully. Once I was in recovery we spent about two hours with her, and she started having breathing problems and started turning grey, so she was sent back to NICU. They took me upstairs to my room, about 10 or so minutes after I got up there, my friend who had the other kids showed up, so I had to tell them we couldn't see her, since at that point I didn't know for sure what was happening with her. The last I had been told was that she probably just needed some oxygen and she'd be brought up to me after an hour or two. I was really out of it while the kids were visiting and after they left just felt horrible. Chad came up shortly after they left and said we needed to get me down to her, because she needed to eat and they wanted to give her formula or sugar water and he knew I wouldn't be happy with that. So we were able to get me out of bed and walking by a little after 2 PM (Oh Olivia was born at 9:07 AM), this was the earliest I'd ever been up, but I'd been moving my legs for about 4 hours at that point. Chad wheeled me down to her and I pumped, they were able to give her some colustrum and I said it was ok to give her their sugar water mixture. She got this for the next 2 days, until my milk was fully in and then she was on breast milk full time.

The 2nd night of her life, my nurse told me that they needed me down with Olivia, so I went down to her and her dr told me that she had a fever and the infection she had was showing higher numbers and they were afraid she could have meningitis, so they needed my approval to test. They gave me all the information and I called Chad, who'd went home for the night to be with the other kids for the night. We both agreed there was no choice, we had to agree to the lumbar puncture, because if she did have meningitis she had to be treated. They tried once and were not able to get enough spinal fluid so her dr said that they'd try again later that night or in the morning to see if they could get enough spinal fluid. The next morning I get down there and am told that she does not have meningitis (praising the Lord) but that at 4 AM her lung collapsed and they had to put in a chest tube and intubate her. That was the point I couldn't hold the tears in anymore and sobbing took over. My sweet 3 day old baby was going through so much.

I had left out that in the beginning with her breathing issue's she had pneumonia and they started off with an oxygen mask, which wasn't enough, then a canula, which was also not enough, and had moved to a CPAP machine...so with the breathing tube it was the first time she they took her from me that first day, I'd fully seen her face. The next morning when I came down (or it could have been that afternoon, I honestly can't remember and short of looking back at my updates on Facebook (which I'm too tired to do right now), her breathing tube was removed. Her chest tube came out the next day. After they had taken her off the breathing tube she had went back on the CPAP machine. When they took her chest tube out, they removed her from the CPAP and said if she did ok for an hour, they'd let her go until 10 PM that night and then just make hourly decisions, depending on how she was doing. She NEVER had to go back on it and never needed anymore help to keep her oxygen levels up!!!

Over the next few days we kept getting good news. We were told that her right eye muscle is not working properly and that if not treated she will go blind in her right eye. Right now she's wearing an eye patch on her left eye for aprox 15 minutes a day. She will go back to see the eye dr at the end of the month and we'll discuss the next steps. In the mean time with the eye patches we're also praying over her that the Lord will Heal her eye. We know he can, as he did so much with her during the first 8 days of her life. One day 8 she was released and we brought our beautiful baby girl home!

We had so many people help us with our other 4 kids, help with meals, and so many prayer warriors. There is no way to properly thank all of them. It's so humbling to know so many people are praying for your child and for you. I'm so thankful that God brought so many people into our lives and so many of those people were having their friends, family, and church pray for our Olivia Joy.

We know without a doubt that the Lord has great things planned for this little girl. We're so blessed to be her parents and get to see what he does with her!

Olivia Joy right after she was born ( as you can see her coloring is not great)

Olivia Joy on the CPAP machine which worked her sweet lungs so hard that she ended up with a slight tear and leak in her lung and had her lung collapse...her coloring is better here too because she got red blood cells transfusion (the infection she was fighting caused her rbc's to drop significantly)

The first time I got to hold her in two days...was so thankful

First time in 2 days Daddy got to hold his baby girl

Olivia Joy is home!! Noah was being silly and had her pacifier (which she no longer takes) and was chewing on it, Jacob, Emma, Olivia, and Jackson