Kiernan & Graydan are born!

Thursday morning, at 5:11 and 5:13, Kiernan Duke Kelly and Graydan Ramsey Kelly were born. I (Julia) had a rough pregnancy, but the babies were looking good and healthy at all stages.

Though they arrived at 29 weeks, there was no reason found as to why they came so early. I had not gained enough weight but that wasn't slowing down their progress any and they weren't in any sort of distress according to the monitors. But despite this- they arrived 11 weeks early. The road ahead would be long...

They were immediately taken and put on a bunch of machines to help them breath and monitor their progress. The breathing tubes were put in and provide a puff of air every time they breath to make sure their lungs fill with it each time. The air mixture is a high concentration of oxygen, rather than the 21% oxygen mixture we breathe- which the staff call "room air".

Day one we were told that they had the probability of needing to have umbilical cord IV's or permanent IV's rather than the regular iv, blue UV lighting for jaundice, ventilators, and possible treatment for heart murmurs.

Day 2- both babies are doing well though their oxygen levels are all over the place and will need watching. Graydan was having a problem with his sugar digestion and they began looking into what caused it. The answer was a difficult and erratic breathing pattern, so a ventilator was needed.

Kiernan did not like his IVs and tried to take them out a few times. He also has an erratic breathing pattern, but it manifests as apnea which is corrected by caffeine treatments.

Day 3- Graydan gets put on a ventilator for a while, as they try to get his sugars under control. He reacts well to the ventilator and is able to adjust down to "Room air". It's discovered that one of his lungs is under developed and does not have a substance called surfactant. Surfactant is a fluid that coats the lungs and keeps them open. He is given a corrective medicine which prompts his body to make more of the substance. Once his breathing is under control, the doctors found a murmur in his heart and did a chest ultrasound. It's found that his PD artery is still very big and they suggest a medicine called indomethasin to correct it. They do a brain ultrasound to make sure there are no brain bleeds- as indomethasin would make those worse. The ultrasound comes up clear and they begin this course of medicine.

Kiernan had a few more episodes of apnea, but the nurses are not worried. He is reacting well to the caffeine and his sugars are still good. He is up to 5.2ml an hour of his TPN- which is a bright yellow liquid nurishment given via iv. He is still under treatment for jaundice.

Day 4- Graydan is taken off the ventilators and doing well. He and his brother are breathing mostly "room air" and only bouncing up to about 25% when distressed. They are both on blue lights, but their bilirubin count is such that they will soon be off the UV lights for at least a while. Graydan is at 4.5 ml an hour on his TPN, and Kiernan is at 5.7ml as both are doing well with their sugars. The doctors find a heart murmur in Kiernan as well and they begin to run all the tests that Graydan already had.

Day 5- Kiernan and Graydan are doing well and are resting when I came to visit. Both are sleeping on their bellies and off their blue UV light treatments. Their bilirubin levels have corrected themselves enough that they will be off the UV lights for the foreseeable future. Graydan is up to 5.2 ml of the TPN and Kiernan is up to 5.8ml an hour. The caffeine is working as is the indomethasin. Both are well on their way and were looking much more comfortable today.