Lily Anna Ray!

Wow! What a crazy couple of weeks for the Ray family! Lorah gave birth to Lily Anna Ray, a beautiful baby girl last Friday the 19th of February 2010. She came as quite a suprise, Lily was born at 27 weeks and 6 days. She is doing well and making constant progress towards a healthy future at home with Mom and Dad. Lorah was discharged from the hospital Tuesday, the 23rd of February. She is recovering well from an emergency cesarean section.

All of the excitement started with a routine check-up on Monday, the 15th. Lorah was admitted to the hospital with a shortened cervix and then started having premature contractions while being monitored.  She was given steroids to speed up Lily's lung development as well as medications that were intended to slow and, hopefully, stop the contractions.  Lorah was stable by Thursday and she was discharged from the hospital. Thursday night she had more contractions, and at four in the morning Lorah's mom rushed her to the hospital with extreme pain.  She experienced a complete abruption of the placenta (this is a very uncommon thing that happens to one in 200 women). After some monitoring, they rushed her in the OR for an emergency cesarean section at 6:00 AM and Lily was born at 6:11 AM.

Lorah was stitched up and checked into a nice room on the maternity ward while Lily was whisked away to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Lorah had a rough couple of days, but has recovered well after a blood transfusion and several days of rest. Lily is also progressing well in the NICU. She is not on any extra oxygen and is only receiving the assistance of 4.1 cmH20 (of air pressure) via a Constant Positive Air Pressure (CPAP) unit which she may be coming off of fairly soon. Lily has begun feeding on Lorah's breast milk. She started at 2 cm^3 every four hours and has increased to 4 cm^3 every four hours as of noon today.

Lily has had a brain ultrasound to check for blood in her brain ventricles (yes, your brain has ventricles, too) as it is common for premature babies for her gestational age to have this issue, which may result in developmental issues. To our pleasure, her scan for blood in these areas came back negative. She also has had an x-ray of her lungs to ascertain their maturity. This scan came back showing good signs of healthy lungs for her gestational age. All in all, she is doing impressively well for such an early premature baby.

Lily started life outside the womb at 2lbs, 2oz and is almost back to that weight now. This is a very good condition for a premature baby of 28 weeks (gestation age). Her color is nice and she is active, stretching her legs and moving her arms quite a lot. When we visit, we often get the pleasure of seeing her crack her little eyes open and look at us for a few seconds at a time. We are so excited for her to continue to progress towards a healthy condition and to be ready to come home with us. It is likely that this will take at least another six to eight weeks before she is ready.

All of that being said, we have been warned a number of times that premature babies often have a "honeymoon" phase during which they do well and, when this stage ends, have some new complications. We are prepared for whatever lays ahead for our family and appreciate your prayers and encouragement during our journey down this trying road.