John and Chelsy 9: Title Update: Baby Madeline Is Here 10 Weeks Early

[JermajestyDuggar]

My cousin had a baby she said looked like Mr Miyagi from the karate kid. And she was right. She had no hair on top but had hair on the sides like him. It was cute but hilarious. 

[Don'tlikekoolaid]

I was born with black hair but then it changed colour to red.  So for a while I had red hair with a black fringe.  They tell me I looked like Bozo the Clown. ?

[fundiefan]

Update on Madeline on Chelsy's blog.

She's just over 5 pounds and learning to suck. 

She looks good. 

 

[JordynDarby5]

On 8/10/2021 at 5:08 PM, fundiefan said:

Update on Madeline on Chelsy's blog.

She's just over 5 pounds and learning to suck. 

She looks good. 

 

Oh, that's great!

[fundiefan]

Teri wrote another stunted Madeline update about taking her "nutrition". But, Chelsy has a much better update that isn't mincing words trying to create a desired meaning. She discusses bottles & nursing & how Madeline needs to take more bottles on her own to go home. 

Basically, skip Teri's detached paragraph and read Chelsy's blog. Chelsy's also includes very cute pictures of Madeline that show her "chunking up" well. 

[SPHASH]

New post up.  Madeline is doing better.

[FloraKitty35]

I hope that the Madeline continues to improve and that her tongue tie issues are resolved in a timely manner. 

[fundiefan]

Madeline update. 50 days in NICU. Wow, time went fast. OK, for me it did. No doubt it's crawling for those whose lives are affected by a baby in NICU. She's almost two months old!

Tube-free picture on Chelsy's blog. Still has blood count issues & berating spells, but is almost double her birth weight. 

[PennySycamore]

Madeline may go home on an apnea monitor which is pretty common for discharged premies.  It  alerts parents and other caregivers that the baby has stopped breathing.  

[fundiefan]

16 hours ago, fundiefan said:

Madeline update. 50 days in NICU. Wow, time went fast. OK, for me it did. No doubt it's crawling for those whose lives are affected by a baby in NICU. She's almost two months old!

Tube-free picture on Chelsy's blog. Still has blood count issues & berating spells, but is almost double her birth weight. 

Sorry to quote myself but what the hell are berating spells? Do I no longer have spellcheck? 

[SassyPants]

17 minutes ago, fundiefan said:

Sorry to quote myself but what the hell are berating spells? Do I no longer have spellcheck? 

I am sure this is an auto correction issue. The baby is having bradycardia ( brady for short) spells. She breath holds to the point of dropping her heart rate. These are very common in preemies d/t them having immature neurological systems. Drugs can help, caffeine being the therapy of choice. What really works is maturation. Home monitoring is often used to alert parents as breath holding begins. Parents are trained in proper infant stimulation and CPR prior to taking their baby home. 

[NancyDrewFan1989]

So, I just saw that Madeline got to go home with John and Chelsy. While I am happy Madeline is home, I see Chelsy starting to focus on getting pregnant with #4. I just really hope that John "pumps the brakes" on baby #4 and comforts Chelsy by telling her that #4 is going to have to wait until her body is fully healed this time. 

[Ana]

10 minutes ago, NancyDrewFan1989 said:

So, I just saw that Madeline got to go home with John and Chelsy. While I am happy Madeline is home, I see Chelsy starting to focus on getting pregnant with #4. I just really hope that John "pumps the brakes" on baby #4 and comforts Chelsy by telling her that #4 is going to have to wait until her body is fully healed this time. 

Where does she focus on getting pregnant? On the blog she literally just says how good it feels to be at home as a family of five. 

[Jana814]

I’m glad that Madeline is home. 

[fundiefan]

8 hours ago, Ana said:

Where does she focus on getting pregnant? On the blog she literally just says how good it feels to be at home as a family of five. 

I wondered that too. Did they edit the post? She says absolutely nothing about focusing on having another kid. A few sentences - - unexpected events (it's so awesome when unexpected events are good ones...as these clearly were to get Madeline home. *that's me, not her) they're home as a family of five, more later, thanks. 

I'm very glad she is healthy enough to be home & John & Chelsy are no longer parents of a baby in NICU. Going through that is beyond my comprehension of pain & stress. 

[usmcmom]

11 hours ago, Ana said:

Where does she focus on getting pregnant? On the blog she literally just says how good it feels to be at home as a family of five. 

I took that comment by @NancyDrewFan1989 to mean “I predict” or “I think, in the future…”

*****

As for the unforeseen events, that could not be COVID related, could it? I mean, they wouldn’t discharge NICU babies early because of a COVID surge, would they? Because my first thought was “I wonder if they are sending people home because of a spike in cases.” Then I thought “No way would they send a fragile baby home early…” 

[nvmbr02]

19 minutes ago, usmcmom said:

 

As for the unforeseen events, that could not be COVID related, could it? I mean, they wouldn’t discharge NICU babies early because of a COVID surge, would they? Because my first thought was “I wonder if they are sending people home because of a spike in cases.” Then I thought “No way would they send a fragile baby home early…” 

 

My nephew was born at 28 weeks and had a similar problem with his breathing.  Going home came as a surprise. Everyone was waiting for him to gain a bit more weight and to stop the breathing spells so we thought he would be in the hospital for awhile. But he was still a couple of oz short on his weight gain and still having the breathing issues  when my sister went for her normal visit and they told her to have my BIL bring the car seat in because if he passed the carseat test he was going home that afternoon. She was ready to have him home but not ready to bring him home. I ended up running around getting everything ready for them to be home and grabbing groceries, etc...

[usmcmom]

6 minutes ago, nvmbr02 said:

 

My nephew was born at 28 weeks and had a similar problem with his breathing.  Going home came as a surprise. Everyone was waiting for him to gain a bit more weight and to stop the breathing spells so we thought he would be in the hospital for awhile. But he was still a couple of oz short on his weight gain and still having the breathing issues  when my sister went for her normal visit and they told her to have my BIL bring the car seat in because if he passed the carseat test he was going home that afternoon. She was ready to have him home but not ready to bring him home. I ended up running around getting everything ready for them to be home and grabbing groceries, etc...

I hope your nephew is doing well now. Thanks for sharing that story. I don’t have any knowledge about extended ICU stays. I guess positive changes can happen suddenly too - enough that a baby can go home much sooner than expected??

[JermajestyDuggar]

I wonder if Chelsy will actually keep Madeline away from a lot of people or she will just pass around her NICU baby to all her unvaxxed relatives during a covid surge. I’m thinking the latter. 

[browngrl]

I wondered about the "unexpected " turn of events too. I am suspicious that it is covid related. The delta variant is affecting more children and pregnant women with covid are at higher risk for preterm birth - both scenarios would mean more beds would be needed which means that anyone who can be discharged will be discharged. Madeline was doing well according to Chelsy's last post so I suspect she was a candidate for discharge. 

As for Sarah not posting on the blog - I suspect that nothing is happening. I was momentarily excited to think that that Mary and Anna might be going to school but on further consideration I suspect it was not true. If Sarah is engaged I'm breaking open the champagne! Would it be considered "touching the poop" if I commented on an engagement  post and asked Sarah for all the details? It's probably futile but I'm keeping my fingers crossed and may or may not be drinking champagne tonight "just in case".

Edited September 4, 2021 by browngrl
corrected a spelling mistake but it was probably not worth it because I've almost certainly missed other mistakes LOL

[nvmbr02]

7 hours ago, usmcmom said:

I hope your nephew is doing well now. Thanks for sharing that story. I don’t have any knowledge about extended ICU stays. I guess positive changes can happen suddenly too - enough that a baby can go home much sooner than expected??

Thank you! I should have mentioned that he is a healthy 18 year old young man now. 

[petrushka]

16 hours ago, browngrl said:

I wondered about the "unexpected " turn of events too. I am suspicious that it is covid related. The delta variant is affecting more children and pregnant women with covid are at higher risk for preterm birth - both scenarios would mean more beds would be needed which means that anyone who can be discharged will be discharged. Madeline was doing well according to Chelsy's last post so I suspect she was a candidate for discharge. 

 

Add a spike in RSV cases to Covid-Delta.  My toddler grandson had it in July and while he didn't require hospitalization, he needed breathing treatments at home for several weeks.  RSV is very communicable.

[JermajestyDuggar]

I know Chelsy is glad the baby is home but since I think she will pass the baby around like a hot potato, Madeline was probably better off in the hospital for a few more weeks. I wouldn’t be surprised if the baby is back in the hospital with RSV or covid in the next couple of months. 

Edited September 5, 2021 by JermajestyDuggar

[ElizaB]

So while the Bonts are horrible about Covid the Maxwells (while not great) are not horrible. They do wear masks and did do some form of social distancing. So while they aren't great, they aren't complete Covid deniers either. I am hoping that the Maxwell influence can keep her somewhat safe. 

Edited September 5, 2021 by ElizaB
clarification

[MomJeans]

Late to the discussion, but my niece was a preemie, was in the NICU over a month with issues similar to Chelsy's daughter, and was suddenly discharged unexpectedly.  There was an influx of new patients to the NICU, and frankly, the hospital needed the space, and sister and her husband wanted out of the NICU.  So my niece was sent home with a monitor, and daily tele-medicine appointments, along with weekly in person check-ups. 

I'm really relieved that Chelsy seems newly cognizant that breast feeding is not as important as providing regular nutrition for her daughter.  I was having flashbacks with the posts about her trying to get Madilyn to latch & suck- my sister was the same way to the point that the hospital staff intervened and warned her that she was jeopardizing her baby's development.  (Every moment my niece struggled to latch was a moment she could be taking in nutrition from a bottle- when you're 4 pounds, that's important.)

Many premature babies just won't suckle from a breast, and that's okay.  It's far more important to meet their nutritional needs, than to adhere to your preferences for breast-feeding. In fact, I think the NICU agreed to release my niece on the condition that my sister stop trying to breastfeed her.  

Edited September 5, 2021 by MomJeans