All is going well ...

Baby girl Krembs finally has a name!! We are pleased to introduce Sophia Luz Krembs! Sofia is doing well in the NICU. She is stable, active, and blowing bubbles to her visitors. She is eating well, and even gaining a little weight. Her surgery is scheduled for Monday, April 2nd. The surgery will last for about 8 hours and more information will be posted as that day unfolds.

Kenia and Christopher are doing well, now that they got some sleep. Kenia was released today from the hospital and both are enjoying every moment with their daughter. Kenia was able to hold Sophia yesterday for a while and will be able to continue doing that all weekend long. All three of them appreciate you well wishes and prayers.

Baby Krembs Is Here!

We are happy to announce that the baby came early this morning, March 29th, at approximately 12:52 AM! She is beautiful, with dark hair and dark grey eyes! We are also happy that she is a healthy weight and size: 6 pounds, 1 ounce, and 46 cm. (about 19 inches) long. Kenia put up a hard fight for almost 20 hours, and now we are settling into recovery rooms. The baby is currently in the NICU. More news to come! Thanks everyone for all your support and phone calls.

Baby Almost Here!

We are still in the middle of the induction -- but no baby yet! Keep posted!

induction date

On Thursday we had another monitoring (baby looks good) and then met with our OB, Dr. Smith. We now have an induction date! They will admit Kenia to the hospital Tuesday evening and start the process. Assuming the usual progression, our little girl will be born on Wed, March 28th. We vacillate between being totally excited and also completely scared but more than anything we really can't wait to finally see and hold her.
This weekend we are back at Kenia's sisters place to enjoy some fun family time before the big event. We will definitely get a birth announcement posted as soon as she is born to let you all know how things went.

she is getting bigger

We moved into the Ronald McDonald house last Wed. It is really great to be so close to the hospital and things at the house are well organized and really designed to support families with hospitalized children.

Today we had the growth ultrasound. The great news is that she is growing! Our last measurement here (2 weeks ago) put her at 4 lbs 5 oz (1.9 kg). Today she measured 5 lbs 4 oz (2.4 kg)! The OB says she is in the 5-10 percentile range for weight.

When we met with Dr. Hanley (surgeon) he said that the survival rate is much greater for babies above 2 kg, below this they have a harder time recovering from surgery. So, we are very, very happy with her growth since this puts her above the 2kg mark...hopefully she will keep growing. Kenia will diligently continue eating for two including twice the amount of ice cream.

Now the plan is to wait till next week. According to our OB, waiting the additional week also has the added benefit (besides growth potential) of allowing her immune system to mature even further. So, we are looking at an induction next week unless she decides to come on her own.

more appointments

On Monday we had another round of appointments. The first was with Dr. Susan Hintz, the neonatologist. She spoke with us a long time about how they will stabilize the baby once she is born and what to expect from birth to surgery. She also gave us a tour of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). This was once again very difficult but it is good to see and gives us an idea of what to expect.
We then had another heart rate monitoring for the baby and she looked great. Our last appointment was with the OB. The current plan is to wait till Monday when they will do another ultrasound to check if the baby is growing. If she is not growing, they will induce next week. If she is growing they will wait till the week of March 26th and induce. Either way, she will be born in the next two weeks!
The other news that we received this morning is that we now have a room at the Ronald McDonald house a few blocks from the the hospital. We will move there tomorrow.

meetings and tours

On Thursday we met with Dr. Hanley, the cardiothoracic surgeon. We learned a lot during the meeting and feel very confident in his ability to do the repair the baby will need. The surgical plan is to do an arterial switch (literally cutting the pulmonary artery and aorta and switching them), patch the VSD and fix the coarctation of the aorta. This is a big surgery, with Dr. Hanley rating this as an 8-9 on a 10 point scale of difficulty (with 10 bring the highest) but the survival rate it 97%. The good thing is that it is a one-stage repair with kids doing very well afterwards and having a good quality of life (no need for life long medication and a normal healthy activity level) if things go well.

We also meet with the social worker assigned to facilitate our stay who gave us a tour of the cardiovascular intensive care unit (CVICU) and the critical care nursery. This was the hardest part of the day to see that both units were very full. We really felt for the babies and their families and also realized we would be there soon. On the other hand, it is also a place of hope where these children are given a chance at life.

Our last stop was for checking on the baby at our bi-weekly monitoring of her heart rate and amniotic fluid levels (AFI). Both looked great. We then headed back to Kenia's sisters place. Our next appointment series will be on Monday so we are enjoying the weekend and the California sunshine till then.