Mylee was released today for good behavior, lol.  The doctor came in this morning and said she is eating so good and acting so good that although there is still one test that was a little higher than he would like it to be, he felt comfortable sending her home on antibiotics.  So we are home with her!  Yay!  Everyone is very happy to have her here, the girls have been really cute with her.  I was glad to have her out of the hospital, she had turned into a pin cushion, each limb had been used for an IV, both hands, both feet, and last night they finally had to put one in her scalp because the one on her foot, the last available place, went bad.  She had blood tests every day, so she had little needle marks and bruises all over her hands and feet.  What a way to start off!  But she is home and healthy, what a blessing.  Now let's hope everyone stays healthy for a while, we have had our share of scares and hospitals for quite a while.  


So I am going to bed, I am exhausted.  I just wanted to update on our good news!  Now I can officially say "we have a healthy baby girl!!"

Okay, let's get this out right off the bat so no one is confused. This is David writing. Yes, I know it's my first post and I'm sorry that it has to be this one. I don't write much because I feel it's hard to top any words Kristin writes. She does an awesome job.  But I felt like this time it was something that I wanted to address.
 
99.31% of people who read this blog are people that support us and love us, and you are the whole reason why we have this blog. When Brinley was diagnosed with Leukemia last year we knew that there was no way for us to be able to reach out not only to all of our family, but to anyone that cared and wanted to be updated on Brinley and our family. It has turned into a great communication tool for us and it has re-connected us with old friends and has also introduced us to awesome people that we have never met but know through this blog.
 
When I created this blog and made it public I knew there was a risk involved. Yes, I'm talking about the other 0.69% of non supporters  that out of millions of blogs they can write their negative shallow and ignorant comments on they pick ours. This blog is not for you (0.69%).
 
There are pros an cons to having a public blog:
PROS
  •  It allows you to express your self and share your feelings and thoughts.
  •  It allows you to connect with people you know and don't know that share your interests and feelings.
  • It allows the reader to participate in the conversation by leaving comments and input on each post
  • It allows the reader to share their thoughts without having to leave their name and/or contact information
  • And more…
CONS
  • Having a public blog leaves your thoughts , feelings and interests out in the open for anyone who doesn't care and is on the internet to be malicious
  • It allows the reader to share their thoughts without having to leave their name and/or contact information :)
  • It allows people (%0.69) to hide behind the fact that they don't have to leave any contact info or have people know who/what they really are and leave negative and shallow comments
I am a strong believer in allowing people to share their thoughts whether I agree with them or not. However, I do believe there is a line (I'm drawing it :)). When those people (%0.69) start being disrespectful and rude. I will not have it, your (0.69%) comments will be deleted. 
 
I could lock it down. But I don't want to make the 99.31% of readers that actually care have to jump through hoops to read our blog.  So I'll just delete them and pretend they never existed :).

Most of your are probably asking your selves, "Wow David, you're really going on about this one aren't you?… what set you off?"
 
So here is where I try to be the "mature" adult and not feed into the negativity and immaturity. For those of you who know me, you know that the "mature" thing is not something I have quite mastered yet ;). So I will try.
 
There were some comments made about Mylee (the name not the baby) and why we as parents would choose the name of a famous person (who's name is spelled Miley) to name our kid after. "Couldn't you be more original?" …blah blah blah blah blah ... and more,  the "more" parts were the reasons those comments were deleted.
 
Original? … don't get me started :) (...be mature David, be mature)
 
 I know that to the 99.31% and growing number of you that read our blog and care, we don't have to give any reasons as to why we chose the name Mylee for our sweet little girl. So I'm not even going to bother taking the time to give 0.69% reasons or explanations. It's all HUMBUG, I tell you, HUMBUG!
 
Anyway, again I'm sorry to all of you to which this does not apply. But I wanted to let the 0.69% know that their disrespect and rudeness would not be tolerated here, not on my Sweet Brinley's Blog. Plus I've always wanted to say "this is were I draw the line"…. :)
 
I promise I'll let Kristin write from now on!
 
Sincerely,
David
 
 
Disclaimer: All calculations are based on visitor averages and are therefore not 100% accurate. Plus David did math, which is a bad thing to begin with. 

Mylee is really getting better every day. The doctor told us this morning that she has very little chance at this point of taking a turn for the worst. The phemonia is most likely caused by the group B strep, although we haven't gotten the culture results yet, so we don't know for sure. She really looks perfectly healthy, the doctor explained they do need to keep her for a while longer, not sure yet how many days. They let me do a hotel stay tonight, but they only offer it one night, so I will have to check out tomorrow. I don't want to go home without her, I will probably be here most of the day so Mylee is not all alone since my mom is still here to help with the kids. Thank goodness for mothers! Especially handling a two year old on steroids, not an easy task!

I was thinking today how grateful I am for modern medicine. It has now saved the life of two of my children this year. If this had happened 100 years ago, we would have lost them both. There was a moment when the nurse first came and took Mylee away that first day that I thought I might not see her again. Without all of the medicine we have today I am sure I would not have. She was very sick. So thank you to the medical researchers out there who have once again save my child's life!!!

I am very happy today because I know we are just waiting this out now. We can do that. The kids actually got to see her today. They were so cute, they all loved her so much. Jade and Brinley just kept saying "awwww, look at her little ears! awwww, look at her little hands!" It was cute. Taylor is dying for her to come home so we can all be together to enjoy her. We just have to wait for the good news that they will let us go....I know it will still be a few days. Thanks for all your prayers. She is doing wonderful.

For our friends and family waiting for an update on Mylee, here goes:

The good news:
She is looking so much better today than yesterday. She has been awake more, we have heard louder crying, which actually is a good thing right now, and she has nursed 3 times. That is great! She has made eye contact a lot today, and seems to be very alert. All her vitals look good, except for an occasional low blood pressure and a couple of fevers that went away pretty quickly. The doctor said everything looks fine, she looks great, the only problem is the bloodwork. So when I look at her, she appears very healthy and that makes me feel like she is improving and will be just fine. One thing I've learned with Brinley is that so much can be told by how they look.

The bad news:
Her bloodwork is not looking any better. Her white blood count is still indicating an infection and there is another test, the name escapes me, that also shows elevated numbers which points to an infection as well. There is a possiblity that it is group B strep, since I tested positive (didn't know that until I got in for delivery!!) and there was only time for one quick dose of penicillin before delivery, and they like to get in two. Had I known, I would have gotten here sooner, but it still would not have been in time for both doses, everything just went too fast and they have to give them 4 hours apart. So it really wouldn't have made a big difference. The culture will definately tell us if it is group B strep. They still have to keep her in the nursery the entire time, and do not like me to hold her very often because they want her under the warmer. It has been hard, I am so used to having my babies right next to me and holding them whenever I please.
So, bottom line, she will get antibiotics regardless of the culture until her white blood count looks better. If the culture comes back with no growth, he said to plan on 5-7 more days of IV antibiotics in the hospital. If there is growth, they will need her here at least 10 days. Infections can be very serious at this young of an age. I get released tomorrow and I am not looking forward to going home without my baby. The doctor said sometimes if they are not too busy they will let you do a "hotel stay" after you are released so you can stay with your baby. I am hoping they are not too busy and I can do that so I can stay here with her. It doesn't feel right to have to go home alone.

She is the most precious thing I have ever seen, aside from my other 3 when they were born. There is something about a new baby, brand new to the world. It is such a special time for us.

Born 3/23/09, 2:52 am

6lbs 7oz, 19.5 inches











She is here! Still without a name, but we had a beautiful baby girl at 2:52am today. She weighed in at 6lbs 7 oz, the same as Brinley was. She looks like her Daddy, of course, very similiar to Brinley, actually, too. We will try to post a picture later.


She took a couple hours to breathe in a way they were happy with, so they had to take her to the nursery for the first couple hours. Once she was doing better with breathing, they brought her in to nurse and I was having a very difficult time getting her to show interest. After 5 mins or so the nurse came back in and said she knew why she wasn't nursing, her CBC indicated she may have some type of bacterial infection in her blood. So she took her away again, she said they had to get antibiotics in her right away because she was a "very sick little girl". She said she was septic. So the first 5 hours or so, I held her all of 5 minutes. I just wanted my baby with me. Now she has just slept and she will not nurse at all. They are giving her IV fluids and antibiotics until they get the culture back. I am sure she will be fine, I just wish we knew more than we do. If she would perk up and cry or something I would feel much better. She is beautiful and so precious. And she smells so good. I think I will go hold her again now :) We'll try to post some pictures soon, this labor went unexpectedly fast, I delivered an hour and a half after we got here, but I did not get my beloved epidural until I was 8 cm dialated, and it was um, not fun. But it is over and we have our sweetie!