My Sweet Baby Girl ♥

To get you up to date on Melani...
Well, her arrival was very unexpected. I had just found out 3 weeks prior that I was having a little girl and I was so excited but I knew this was too soon. When the doctor came to talk to my husband and I on Friday November 14, about the chances of survival for Melani at 23 weeks, it was not great. He said at that gestational age she had a less than 10% chance of survival. She was 23 weeks 3 days gestation. I needed to make it to 24 weeks for her chances for survival to go up to about 30%-40%. That sounds better than 10%, right. I told myself okay lets make it these last 4 days and we will be okay. We had to make the decision that if she was born before 24 week...did we want them to resuscitate her? Of course. Unfortunately we only made it 2 more days. My baby girl was born on November 16, 2008 at 1 pound-1 ounce and 11 1/2 inches long. I remember waking up after surgery in shock that I was in so much pain. The first few days are blurry but i remember vividly about how nobody would tell me how much she weighed or show me pictures. All the would say was that she was alive and okay. I didn't get to see my baby for the first 2 days of her life. They say that these severely premature babies have a 48 hour "honeymoon" period where they appear to be fine but after that 48 hours they slide downhill. Well that's where my Melani was when I first laid eyes on her. After the initial shock of just exactly how tiny she was set I felt my chest tighten up and was overwhelmed with guilt. Questions were coming at me a million miles an hour. Why couldn't i carry Melani to term like I had carried Mikaela and Jaylen? Why was this happening to me? To her? Too many questions all at once. I didn't know what was next. We were left with the decision to keep her on the ventilator or to let her go home to God. It was too much for me to handle and I had to go back to my room. My husband sat there with her all night until the NICU closed the next morning. My Melani must have felt her daddy's presence because she made an amazing turn around. We knew this was going to be a long road and if she was willing to fight to stay with us and be our miracle baby then we were going to be by her side every step of the way!
I was released from the hospital on November 24th..it was the hardest thing I'd ever had to do...walk into my front door without my baby girl. Every time the phone would ring my heart would stop.

November 27th-Melani's first Thanksgiving! We had ALOT to be thankful for!!


On December 2nd Melani had emergency intestinal surgery. The doctors had done an x-ray and had said it appeared as if Melani had several perforations in her intestines. The doctor talked to my husband and I before the surgery and explained the risks. It did not sound hopeful. But my beautiful Melani being the fighter that she is pulled through the surgery. The doctors didn't expect things to go so well. They only found one perforation and that was good news to us.


December 16th- Melani's one month birthday!


On December 19th Melani had surgery to fix her PDA. The surgery went great. They immediately noticed a change! Another surgery crossed off of the list!


December 25th-Melani's first Christmas! Christmas just wasn't the same this year.




January 1st-Welcome to 2009 Ms Melani! Finally reached that 2 pound mark!!! Brought in the new year with my loves! All 4 of them. =)

Melani entered the new year in style!

January 6th- Melani off the ventilator and on bubble CPAP!


January 9th- Held Melani for the first time!!


January 16th- Happy 2 month birthday Melani Rae!


January 19th- Melani weighed in at 3 pounds even!

January 21st- Melani has laser eye surgery for her ROP.

February 4th-Melani off bubble CPAP and on to a big girl cannula!!




February 10th-Gaining weight faster than the doctors would like but we are at 4 pounds now!!


February 14th-Melani was my special Valentine!!


February 15-Melani is in her little crib!! No more warmer!!


February 16th- Happy 3 month birthday!


February 23rd- 100 days in the NICU. Transported to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston for eye surgery!! First Jet ride!

February 26th- Right eye surgery!

March 2nd- Happy birthday big brother Jaylen!!


March 3rd- First bottle!! And she loved it!


March 10th-40 weeks...we finally reached Melani's due date!



March 13th-Left eye surgery...finally.

March 16- Happy 4 month birthday Melani!

March 17th- First St. Patty's Day!


March 19th-Finally back home in San Antonio with a less crowded NICU!

March 31st-Melani wasn't feeling so great today. She had a fever and was breathing very rapidly and couldn't get her sats out of the 70's. She was on 100% oxygen already and was using all of her energy to keep breathing. She gave us a nice little scare when she decided she was too tired to breathe. Got put on CPAP over night but ended up on the vent the next morning.

April 2nd- Well Mel had pneumonia and she wasn't doing so hot. She is on the loud oscillator. Man that machine is scary sounding and i hope i never have to see it again!

April 16th- Happy 5 month birthday Melani!

April 22nd-YES! Melani is off of the oscillator and back on the conventional ventilator!!!

April 24th- Mel's bronchoscopy!

April 26th- Mel is not feeling well again. Looks like she has pneumonia again or never fully recovered from the last time.

May 8th- Melani is having large residuals and isn't tolerating the 4 cc's they are feeding her every hour on a continuous feed. They are placing an NJ tube to see if she will tolerate her feeds better and hopefully they can go up on her feeds!

May 13th- Melani is off the vent and back on bubble CPAP!

May 14th-Melani is now on a nasal cannula and doing great. Her NJ tube was kinda defeating the purpose of the CPAP and she moves too much to keep the pressure she needs for it to do exactly what it needs to do! Oh and Melani's broviac also came out this morning! Man this little girl! LOL. Always giving her nurses trouble!