Our Newest Addition!

Hi everyone! -


We just wanted to introduce you to the newest member of the Tolman Family, Jessica Kelly Tolman.



Jessica was born on October 12th 2008 at 3:58 pm.
Danica woke up that Sunday morning to find that her water had broken. We called the doctor and he said to go into the hospital to get checked out. Since the baby wasn't due until November 7th, we weren't prepared at all! In fact, we were just out square dancing Friday night not realizing we would be parents on Sunday!



We hadn't packed a bag for Danica to go to the hospital with, so we scrambled for about an hour to find everything we needed and headed into the hospital at about 8:00am. When we got to the hospital, the doctor checked Danica out and declared, at about 9:00 that the baby should arrive in between 12 and 20 hours.




Less than 7 hours later, Jessica was here!

Right after she was born, the nurses gave Jessica to her mom to be held. Soon after, they realized that her nice purple color wasn't going away like it should have and she was only turning more blue. Being about a month early, Jessica's lungs weren't fully functional yet and she was diagnosed with Premature Lung Disease. Apparently, her body wasn't producing enough of its own sarfactin or something like that, which lubricates the little balloon like parts of the lungs so they don't stick together when you exhale. Since she didn't have enough, she would just stop breathing sometimes. They whisked her away and into the nursery where they put her under a little bubble and pumped oxygen in.




She had to have up to 50% oxygen pumped in. Normal air contains about 21% oxygen. She stayed under the bubble for a while, but still wasn't breathing very well, so they decided to intubate her and pump air directly into her lungs.



Then they transported her off to Santa Cruz. Before she left, we called Bro. Mario Perez and asked him to come in and help me give a blessing to Danica and little Jessica. He has his wife Terri came down to the hospital and he gave me a blessing and I gave Danica and the baby a blessing. My first father's blessing. We didn't know what we were going to name Jessica yet, so I blessed her as Baby Girl Tolman! We are so grateful to Mario and Terri for being there for us and helping us out when we needed it. We are also very grateful for Mary Jane Robbins who dropped everything and came down when Danica called and asked her to come keep her company, since I would be following the baby up to Santa Cruz.



Right after we blessed her, the transport team put Jessica into the Ambulance and I followed them up to Santa Cruz. Dr. McNamara started her on anti-biotics treatments and started giving her artificial sarfactin to make up for the lack of it in her lungs. At about 2 am Monday morning, I finally went to sleep in a little room for families across from the NeoNatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where they were keeping Jessica in her incubator. Later on Monday, they took the tube out of her throat and she was able to breathe on her own. They kept her for 5 more days to finish up her anti-biotics treatment and to make sure that she could be stay stable on her own.




Danica's family came down and visited us since it was UEA weekend and the kids had school off. It was a lot of fun for them to see baby Jessica when she was still brand new since we probably won't be able to go up to Utah until Christmas. Danica's Mom is going to stay with us for a little while to help us get settled in with our new baby.



One of the social workers at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz where Jessica was staying hooked us up with three nights at a hotel across the street from the hospital. We also stayed for three days at another hotel in Santa Cruz. On Sunday, Dr. Issa (the neonatal doctor that had worked with Jessica all week) decided that she was stable enough to go home! She had finished her anti-biotics treatment and her jaundice level had come down enough, so at about 1200 pm on Sunday, we took her home! She's home with us now and we are soooo happy that everything is ok. We know that the Lord was watching over her and keeping her safe.



She got a cool hearing test, that she took while she was asleep and still passed with flying colors!





Hmmm, I wonder.....



This is Dr. Issa, our Neonatal Doctor. He is from Lebanon, so I got to speak Arabic with him a little. It was pretty cool!




What a cozy little box.






Some photo-therapy for a Jaundiced little baby.




And finally! At home with Mom!

Love you guys!

Posted by: Hank