Day 10 : Friday April 29

Well the nurses report from this morning is... Eden had a good night she is doing really good. She has a big day ahead of her they have weened her of her respirator a little bit more from 18 down to 16, which is good she is still just breathing on room air. They plan on giving her lasik today which is a drug that help eliminate water and fluid from the body and makes you pee it out, so this should help with her edema and swelling she has going on. Next she has been really doing good which her phentinol drip which is her pain medication that she has continuously going through her body to keep her comfortable, so they are going to try and lower it from 2mg to 1mg and see how she does on that. She also is getting another blood transfusion today they have had to draw so much blood out her little body just can't make it fast enough.

Grandma Bev and Grandpa Lex went down and visited her this afternoon she was awake the whole time they were down there. She was getting her blood and they had already given her her lasik (which was working really good). Todd, Jase, Kristi and Tana went down to visit tonight. She slept most of the time they were but grabbed right on to Jase's little finger. I'm stuck at home with a little but of a cough, but better safe than sorry. The Nurse practitioner says she is amazed at how little pain medication she has required she is our little fighter. They lowered her medication down to 1.5 instead of the 1.0 that the nurse had mentioned earlier that morning but she still seems really comfortable. They said her her lasik worked really good but she would probably need more over the next couple of days. For all that went on today Eden is doing really well.

Day 9: Thursday April 28

Went up and saw Eden tonight, she is doing really good. They have her on a phentinol drip that keeps her a little sedated and comfortable, this is continuously going into her body and 2mg per kilo and if she acts uncomfortable they can give her more. They have been able to drop down the settings on her ventilator a little bit. Her 2 drains are still putting out some fluid but it is a little bit less than yesterday so that is good. They have a tube down her stomach still that is suctioning out and stomach acid and bile that goes in there so she doesn't throw it up. They have a catheter in her bladder to monitor her output. She is starting to get a little swollen especially in her face and head. Where she hasn't been able to move around after surgery her body is just retaining lots of water. A blood culture from Mckay came back positive for staph infection so they had to redraw all her cultures to see it she still has it. With all the blood they had to draw she will probably need another blood transfusion in the next couple of days.
Eden was wide awake for us tonight, she can't move around but her little eyes would follow you around and look at you when you were talking. They say she has been awake a little bit more especially when they are doing her cares (changing diaper,measuring her, weighing etc.).

Day 8: Wed. April 27

Got to Primary's a little after midnight. Didn't see her for awhile, they were getting her settled, evaluating her, and ordering a few more tests. After she was all settled we got to go back and see her, as we waited the surgery nurse practitioner to come and look at Eden to decide if they want to go to surgery tonight or wait until tomorrow. At 3:oo am she finally came and looked at Eden. After seeing her and calling the surgeon (Dr. Rebecka Meyers) they decided that they wanted a CAT scan on her belly before they took her into surgery. The CAT scan was done and we were still waiting to see when she was going into surgery. It wasn't until 5:30am that the Nurse Practitioner came and told us that they were deciding between Eden and another baby which one went to surgery first. It wasn't 10 mins later that the OR called the nurse and told her that they wanted Eden down there a little after 6am. So just before 6 all of us (Mom, Dad, and both sets of Grandparents) followed Eden downstairs to the Operating Room. Just before they wheeled her away we all said our goodbyes and gave her a kiss on the head. They were going in for an exploratory laporotomy, thinking that they were going to find a perforated bowl. But halfway through the surgery we got an update that the bowl was clear and that they were going to look at the liver. On the liver they found 2 lymph tumors one on the side of her liver and wrapped around the back, and another one on the inside of her liver. The tumor on the side of her liver was leaking lymph fluid (chylous fluid) into her abdomen. They drained 500cc out of her belly which is ALOT of fluid for a little baby. They removed the tumor on the outside of her liver and cauterized it, then opened up the liver to exposed the other tumor but were unable to remove it completely because it surrounds the main artery that feeds the liver. They sent the tumor down to pathology to determine exactly what type of lymph tumor it is, we wont get these reports back for 5-7 days. They than inserted 2 drains that come out both sides of Eden to watch the drainage of tumors. They also inserted a central line while they were in surgery to give meds through. When Dr. Meyer came out of surgery to talk to us she explained everything that they had done and what they had found. She said that she has never seem a lymph tumor on the liver before and her specialty is liver tumors. The tumors ares benign (which is great) but these types of tumors do have a tendency to grow back. We will just have to watch her they may grow back sooner than later, or may not bother her for years and years. So now we are back to they waiting game. They are going to keep her sedated and comfortable as she recovers from surgery. She also is going to get another transfusion because of the blood loss from surgery.
After a long and exhausting day Todd and I head home after checking on Eden after surgery. Todd headed back down that night with a few visitors( Jase and Kristi) for Eden.

Day 7: Tues April 26

Went to the hospital today Grandpa Lex dropped me off, Todd is home with Cole who now has Maelyn's fever. First thing I see when I go in the room is a nurse sticking Eden's head, was told she had a really rough night and they just couldn't get her settled. At about 7 o'clock that morning they noticed that her abdomen had become distended and rock hard. They knew something was going on but not sure what. So they were trying to get some more IV access because the only one left was her umbilical line (they really wanted to pull that one in had been in too long already). The Dr. had ordered all kinds of test on her to try and figure out what was going on. Eden's veins were in pretty poor shape they had stuck her everywhere, that's why they were using her head. The nurse finally got 2 IV's into her head, and started drawing blood to run the lab work. She had 3 different x-rays of her belly done , and an ultrasound on her abdomen. From all of these test they determined that she had lots of free fluid that was filling up her belly. To try and figure out where all this fluid was coming from they decided to do paracentitis.They took her down to radiology to do this they take a big needle and draw the fluid out of her belly. They removed about 4 oz (100cc) and said that there was at least that much still in her belly. They sent this off to they lab to try and determine what it was and where it was coming from. On her x-rays they had noticed two pockets of air up by her liver but didn't know what it really was if it was in the liver or attached to it or just free air in her belly. They did one more x-ray that night and began to think that it was free air in her belly. This is bad you should never have air in your belly unless its in your bowl, it's usually a sign of a bowl perforation. This is when the doctor decided to call Primary Children's and consult with their doctors. It was a few hours later that we finally heard back from them. In the mean time we had both grandpa's give Eden a blessing, and they let me hold her. It was the only time that she seem to settle down and sleep(since she hadn't slept all day). The doctors at Primary's wanted Eden shipped down there, they had their radiologist and a surgeon review the films and believed that it was free air and wanted to take her into surgery. So in order to be life flighted they had to intabate her again to make sure she wouldn't have any breathing troubles during the flight and also had a pic line put in her head. They also gave Eden another transfusion just in case she was going into surgery tonight. She was Life Flighted late that night about 11:30.

Day 6: Monday April 25

Dad finally gets to hold and feed Eden her bottle. She is doing really good today. She is tolerating her food well they have moved up her to 15ml. She is wake and alert they have turned down her oxygen a little. I think she likes being held as much as we love holding her, she just snuggles right in.













Went Back up later that night with Grandma Bev ( Todd once again stuck at home, Maelyn is running a fever) when we got there Grandma Gay was holding her, the nurse gave her to grandma in hopes she could settle her down. Eden was having a rough time, acting like she had a belly ache and really uncomfortable. I held her and tried to feed her but she really didn't want to eat either. Grandma Bev got to hold her for the first time that night too.

Day 5: Sunday April 24

The Day of Big surprises.... I went up to the hospital with Grandpa Larry (Todd was at home with Cole who decided to wake up with the throw ups this morning) and they had taken Eden off her ventilator early that morning. Yeah!!!! No one was expecting this so was defiantly a great surprise. Grandpa Lex came up shortly after we got there, we were all so excited. She is doing great, she is still on a little oxygen to help her, but breathing really good on her own. They still have her on pain medication because of all the swelling in her head (big headache). The Dr. decided that she could also start eating today, they are starting her off with little amounts to see how her stomach will take it. So i got to feed her her first food, they just filled up a nipple with 5ml of breast milk and she just sucked it down.
We both went up later that night to see her and I actually got to hold her for the first time and see if she would nurse. After she puked all over me she did latch on for 5 good suck before she was just too tired. They had already moved her up to 10ml by that night so she drank the the rest down in a bottle.

Day 4: Sat April 23

Big Day For all of us.... Eden gets off her cooling cap this morning. At 3:30 early sat morning they are going to take Eden's cap off and then monitor her body temperature as she warms back up. Todd went in early to watch. I'm afraid it wasn't too exciting but everything went really well. They told us to expect a lot of swelling in her head and face, some from the trauma of the delivery and the rest was caused by the cooling cap. We went in later that morning and finally got to see her hair ( and I even got to put a bow in). Her head and face were pretty swollen and her head was really cone shaped but they told us the swelling would come down in a few days. Eden is still on her ventilator and is still pretty sedated so she still looks likes she is sleeping deeply. But she is a fighter even though she is on the ventilator she is still breathing on her own quite a bit. They have taken her off her nitric oxide and she is just breathing room air which is awesome. We went in later that day to see her before I was discharged to spend Easter with Cole and Maelyn, they had started to ween her of her sedation a little bit, so when you held her hand she would actually squeeze your finger. It's amazing how you take for granted all though little things like squeezing your finger and crying. Grandma and Grandpa Coombs went and saw Eden that night and they had changed her bed and put her in an isolet. They said this gives them a little more peace and quite with all the noisy equipment that is in the room.

Day 3: Friday April 22

Eden is doing good, still on the cooling cap. Cole and Maelyn get to visit Eden today. At McKay NICU every Friday they have Ice cream and Isolets and they let the siblings of the babies come and visit. First they have a little class for the kids to help them understand all the tubes and wires on the baby and then they get to eat ice cream, and last they get to look at the baby through the glass. Cole was so excited to finally be able to see his sister, and Maelyn was so concerned about her owies but I think it was good for both of them to finally see the sister we have been talking about for so long.

Day 2 - Thurs April 21

More Waiting...... We visit Eden and hold her hand. They have put her on nitric oxide which helps her body require less oxygen and also a medication to help her heart.

Eden's Arrival (Day1)

April 20 Eden was scheduled to enter this world via c-section at 9:30 in the morning, but decided she just couldn't wait. Tuesday night (April 19) my water broke at about 10:45pm we rushed to the hospital, it's a good thing there were no cops out that night. By the time we got to the hospital I was dilated to a 5 and having very painful contractions (why some people do this natural is beyond me!) By the time they finally got me to the OR and my epidural in, Eden was pretty far into the birth canal, which for us is a bad thing. She was pretty stuck and required 2 doctors and 2 nurses pushing and pulling to finally get her out, she was born at 12:22am on the 20th. Sometime from when my water broke to when they finally got Eden out my placenta had abrupted. Which means Eden was no longer receiving the blood and oxygen that she needed. She made a small cry and than was whisked off to the NICU. Our first report from the doctor was that they had intabated her, her lungs just weren't strong enough to breath on her own. They were working on getting IV access in her veins and arteries, and because she didn't receive enough oxygen they had put her on a cooling cap. A cooling cap is basically a hat that cools her brain down 2 degrees colder than her body temperature, which slows down the brain cells metabolism so there is less chance of cell death or less chance that she could have brain damage. She would be on this cooling process for 72 hours and we wouldn't be able to hold her until that time period was up. The first time that I got to finally see Eden wasn't until the next morning (Todd got to see her in the NICU while they were working on her the night before). She was pretty sedated and had tubes everywhere, she had an IV in both her hands and her feet, her breathing tube coming out her mouth and the cap on her head. Not exactly the way your want to see your baby. But she was stable and she was alive and for that we were grateful. We were now playing the "waiting game" for the next 72 hours until they could take her off the cooling cap.

Eden's story

Well we are hoping this blog will help keep everyone a little better informed on whats going on with Eden. I'm afraid me and Todd haven't been the best at dispersing information to everyone. And hopefully this will answer everyone's questions too. So we will do our best keeping this updated. We appreciate all your love and support and prayers on Eden's behalf.