Support the Blythe Family Premie Twins

I have set this up for Alyson and Zach Blythe from Oneonta, AL. They have a 6-year-old son and 15-month-old daughter at home. Their twins were born at 26 weeks on Dec 17th. Here is from Alyson's Facebook page:

•December 17, 2024•

We welcomed our sweet baby girls into this world!

Zoey Alexis (baby A) was born first weighing 1 lb 8oz

Baylor Gray (baby B) weighing 1 lb 15oz

They both have a long road ahead of them and we will have to take it day by day.

With this being said, I am setting this up so that we can offer help to them in this time of need. Alyson is a stay-at-home mom, Zach is employed but he will be without pay till he returns back. I know this is a tough time for everyone, but with all the trips back and forth from Oneonta to Birmingham, gas, parking fees, food, maintaining bills at home, and everyday routine things that we typically don't think of that will come up, they will need a little help. Anything is greatly appreciated. If you can't give, please share this. Please keep them in your prayers! They didn't want to ask for help, so I offered to set this up!

Update December 23, 2024:

Zoey finally gained an ounce and is 1Ib 7oz.

They will take the line out of her belly button tonight. She will strictly be on breastmilk now. Once the line comes out I will be able to hold her.

Baylor lost another ounce and is now down to 1Ib 8oz. They will take her line out tomorrow sometime. Both are still having heart rate dips but they say that’s pretty normal.

Update Dec 25, 2024:

I got to hold my tiny little miracle “Zoey” tonight! She has done good today. Her head ultrasound came back normal so no brain bleeds but she does still have the enlarged ventricles and they will just continue to keep an eye on that.

My tiny little miracle “Baylor” opened both of her eyes for us tonight. She is still spitting up a good bit but they did an ultrasound on her belly and everything is normal. She had a good bit of heart rate dips today so they turned her CPAP back on which helped. As long as she does good I should get to hold her tomorrow!

Her head ultrasound came back and she has a grade one brain bleed plus her ventricles are also enlarged which is what both babies had in utero. They will repeat this at 30 days of life and take another look again.

Thankful to hold my baby girl and can’t wait to hold my sweet Baylor too! Daddy thinks they are breakable so he won’t touch them.

Update: December 28, 2024

Update @7:02PM

They decided to do an echocardiogram on both of them. Zoey’s heart looks good. She is doing much better today.

Baylor does have a large PDA. They are going to continue monitoring her and will probably repeat the echocardiogram at 30 days of life. Our prayers are for the PDA to close on its own or atleast with the medicine when they decide to give it. As of now it will be a waiting game on that as they just monitor it.

Update @9:42 am

They got her sodium and blood levels back up to normal. They will start her feeds back this afternoon. They are also doing an echocardiogram on her to check her heart. But they said she is perked back up and being her feisty little self again.

Update @7:30PM

They are starting a blood transfusion on Zoey now due to low blood levels. Stopping her feeds for now and starting sodium supplements, iv fluids and antibiotics

Sorry for all the updates!

Please say an extra prayer for our little Zoey girl! Last night she had to be bagged multiple times due to bradycardias and desats where she just couldn’t come back on her own. Her sodium levels have dropped into the critical range so they are running tests to check for infections and starting antibiotics to get ahead of it as precautionary.

Baylor had to be bagged multiple times the night before due to the same episodes. Her sodium levels are low but not considered critical so they aren’t as worried about her right now just keeping an eye on her.

This whole journey has been so good this far so we know the downs are coming just not sure my mama heart is ready for them.

Update January 2, 2025

Little Zoey is doing great gaining weight and even had a bed bath. She has a sore on her nose so they took her mask off and moved to a nose canula. Prayers that she can handle the change and stay on that from now on. She should get the IV out in the next two days when she finishes her antibiotics. She is up to 1Ib 10.6oz

She seemed way more comfortable today.

Little Baylor had a pretty good day. They took her rate away on her CPAP. She did have two bradycardias and desats while we were there where she wasn’t coming out of them even with stimulation. She is still losing a little weight each day so they are adding calories to her milk to try to help her gain. They wanted them back up to birth weight by now. She is 1Ib 13.6oz.

Our goal is to get them weaned off the CPAP, gaining weight and having less bradycardias and desats.

Update January 6, 2025:

Little update on our girlies…

Zoey: She is still having the bad episodes where her saturation is dropping to the 30’s overnight. They have went up more on her CPAP settings to see if that will help her. Her cultures came back and she has a new bacteria causing another UTI so they want to run a PICC line to give fluids and antibiotics. They think a PICC line will be better due to her pulling the IV line out multiple times and her being such a hard stick. I will go shortly to sign consent forms for the PICC line and visit them.

Baylor: She is also having multiple episodes so they have also went up on her CPAP settings to try to help her as well. They don’t feel like she is having any infections to cause her issues just think hers are premature related. Her weight is up and down each day but hopefully she will start to gain and keep it. They will do her repeat echo in a few days to recheck her heart.

Update January 12, 2025:

Please pray for our girl!!

She has gotten much worse. Her belly has gotten bigger and her labs are showing signs of infection. They were leaning toward sepsis but still not ruling out NEC. The latest X-ray showed her intestines floating to the top with air under so they said that could be infection or bowel inside the belly. They brought the surgeon team in and they are now placing a drain tube in her belly. This should tell them a lot more in the next 24-48 hours. Only 15% of babies require surgery after the drain tube so we are praying for this to make her better and stay away from surgery. We also pray it gives us some kind of answers.

They do not feel that going straight to surgery would be good for her considering her condition right now. They said they also don’t like to do surgery on them being this small. They said she needs a PICC line but also didn’t think that she would do well having that done in her condition so we definitely want to stay away from surgery until she is better.

Update January 13, 2025:

Update on my beautiful Baylor girl!

She is a very sick little girl per the doctors.

She is stable right now and her labs have normalized, vitals and blood pressure are good. We are taking the small wins

She is on a fentanyl drip to keep her comfy. She doesn’t like being touched at all today. Which I don’t blame her one bit.

The doctors and surgeons are keeping close eyes on her for now. As I mentioned yesterday, surgery is the last resort on a baby this small. They do not like to do it at all. If labs change, blood pressure gets bad or any signs of worsening then they would do surgery. That could happen at any given moment but the goal is to keep her stable and comfortable and hopefully not have to do surgery.

She will keep the drain for 14 days. If all goes well they will take it out then and slowly start back on feeds. At this point, how she tolerates the feeds and her poop will tell them if part of the bowel has died and if surgery will be needed. If that happens they would just pull her intestines to the skin and place a colostomy bag temporarily just to let her grow and get bigger so that they can do the actual surgery. Lots and lots of “what ifs” that only time and her will tell us.

They are about to place a PICC line on her while she is stable. Her belly has went down 1.5cm and I think her leg color looks better. The belly will just take time.

Thank you everyone for loving on us and praying for our sweet girl.

**Zoey is doing great right now. I hate to say that she is “thriving” because 4 days ago I said Baylor was “thriving” and she went down hill so quick but Zoey is doing good. They just took her PICC line out earlier

Update January 14, 2025:

Update on Baylor:

Doctors have been in here a few times this morning. Her belly is back tight and within the last few minutes has become more red and inflamed. She has been having some heart rate drops. She had one a little bit ago where she just couldn’t bring it back up. They did have to bag her and thankfully I was out of the room at the moment.

They are waiting on surgery to come back in and see what they think. They are hoping that maybe she needs some manipulation to get air out but surgery did try that this morning already. Her Co2 levels are back elevated again and they pushed her vent tube in further trying to help with some of the issues. Xray is in here now so hopefully they will have some answers soon.

They also went up more on her fentanyl because they said she is very agitated and in pain and they want to keep her comfortable. She has a great nurse today that is staying on top of everything so that helps a lot.

I just want my girl to get better!

Update: January 15, 2025:

My Baylor

She is doing as good as expected after major surgery. You can tell she is swelling up some but they are giving lasix to help with that.

They gave her blood and platelets last night and was giving more blood around lunch today. She just wasn’t back where she needed to be after the first round. They did have to give blood pressure medicine last night to bring it up but they were able to wean that off this afternoon!

They put a bigger tube down her throat and into her belly and was able to get some air out. Which any little bit helps! Her belly has slowly ballooned up on the left side since last night so they are keeping a very close eye on it for any slight changes.

**My Zoey is still doing good. She is having some stomach and throwing up issues but they are just keeping an eye on it. They did take her rate off her CPAP and if she does good they will slowly try to wean her off again and see how she does.

Update January 16, 2025:

•ONE MONTH•

30 weeks gestation.

How is it possible?!

Time is a thief and it’s not even fair!

My girls have been through so much already and they are strong little fighters

Zoey is doing great! They took her rate away yesterday on her vent and she has tolerated it so well. They will continue to work on weaning her back to the nose cannula. We are still awaiting her head xray results but hopefully we will hear something today. She has had many problems with feed intolerance and her belly since they started her fortifier and after what happened to Baylor we are terrified about that. We keep a close eye on her for any changes or suspicions and make them known for sure. We do not want the same thing to happen to her at all.

Speaking on that, they had some concerns earlier today about her belly but they think it was just her needing to poop so they will continue to keep a close eye on her.

Vitals and labs are still good so we will take that as a win. Hopefully she continues to do well and will be home with us in 2.5 long months!

Baylor is still stable and doing good. They did place an IV in her head it was the only good vein they could find unfortunately. They were able to go down on her vent settings and her fentanyl and she is waking up more. Small victories She does seem to be comfortable but mainly just resting which is what she needs.

Lord, please continue to protect our girls and keep them healthy. Give me strength and peace tonight as I have to choose between my kids. I want to be with my Baylor girl but how do you honestly choose one kid over another?! How do I tell my upset 6 year old that I’m not choosing him and not coming home as he is crying?! How do I not choose my sick 1 year old that just wants her mama?! And how do I pick between my twins?! My family is split in 3 places and it’s so hard right now.

If you could just make 3 of me that would be great

I honestly don’t have much to say these days just trying to stay to myself and get through. Enjoying my family as much as I can. Don’t take it personal if I don’t always speak or respond right now. Sometimes I just don’t feel like talking or responding. Sometimes I’m just trying to process life. We never stop between Brantley’s sports, school, the hospital and all of Channing’s things. I just feel like my mind is all over the place.

Today, I’m celebrating my girls being a month old! I’m celebrating a wonderful husband who is so supportive and caring. I’m celebrating my big kids being happy and healthy. I have so so much to be incredibly thankful for so today I am celebrating that!

Update: January 17, 2025:

Getting all the Zoey snuggles that I can!!

Lord, I don’t want to put her down! I just want to hold her little body and keep her safe!

Big updates on my Zoe Zoe!!

She had a lot of bad episodes yesterday. They increased over night and into today. Her sats have dropped down in the 20’s while I’ve been in here with her. She got her rate back on her vent and went up on her oxygen. They are considering doing another infection work up on her but they aren’t doing one at the moment. Her head ultrasound revealed a grade 3 IVH. Meaning that her brain is bleeding into the ventricles of the brain and causing them to get bigger. The neurosurgeon was in here earlier assessing her and getting some measurements. Hopefully we will know more soon.

She needs very big prayers. I need very big prayers. All I can do is cry today. I’m scared for my baby. I’m so thankful I have gotten to hold and love on her the past two days but I don’t want to give her back.

The ups and downs have been pure hell. It’s literally 1 step forward and 10 steps back it feels like.

Update January 18, 2025:

Both of our girls were doing okay today.

Zoey had a better night but today was back to having all of her episodes again. They did a complete work up on her last night just to rule out infection. They also started the antibiotics again just out of an abundance of caution. Her hematocrit levels are back on the low side but they won’t transfuse just yet. I feel like a broken record with Zoey. She has been through this 3 times in her short little life. Monday morning they will get a cbc and some other stuff as well.

We absolutely love the Doctors that were on night shift lastnight and tonight. Same fellow doctor that pushed so hard for our Baylor. They all came in and talked with us about Zoey’s scans. They told us the hard things…

It’s rare for a brain bleed to occur after 7 days of life. They believe hers happened around 2-3 weeks of life. Neurosurgery decided that she is stable enough to just continue watching her, getting head circumferences daily and will follow up on her scans every month. If her head circumference gets bigger or her vitals get worse then they will do more scans.

For now, it’s just a waiting game like everything else on this journey…

Baylor is still doing good. She is on the nose cannula still and her settings are very low. She is having more episodes now but she’s resolving most of them on her own. Blood pressure is still good. She did have to get another albumin transfusion today. But her hematocrit and gas levels have all been great.

They will repeat her head scan on Monday morning so we should have her results by Monday sometime.

** I haven’t responded to anyone today because I’m physically and mentally just exhausted. I decided to come home late last night and got up this morning to go watch baseball practice. Love on my other babies! It was much needed. We went back for a little bit but I couldn’t stay long. I haven’t slept much this week so I needed some rest.

Update: January 21, 2025

The last 48 hours with Zoey have been the most stressful and exhausting.

The back and forth with these surgeons, doctors, fellows, residents, interns and nurses have been very hard to deal with.

We are emotionally and physically distraught from our experience thus far.

We started out being told she needed to be 2 kilos (2000 grams) before doing surgery. Same day was told they were doing surgery this week sometime. Next day we got told they were transferring her to Children’s. Children’s nurse practitioner told us that surgery wanted her over ASAP.

They got her over here and I’ll save that ordeal for the end. last night a different nurse practitioner told us they are not doing surgery. That they transferred her over prematurely. She said they would just watch her and do an MRI this morning but that we could go home and get some rest because surgery wouldn’t happen anytime soon. At 6am this morning I got a phone call from the anesthesiologist wanting consent for surgery. Following that call was the neurosurgeon fellow also wanting consent for surgery and explaining the surgery(first time we have spoken to neurosurgery about anything). Then the same nurse practitioner gets the phone and says they aren’t doing surgery for sure yet. She said they will get the MRI this morning and then decide.

Following that was a nurse wanting surgery consent

I told them I was not consenting for it without speaking with someone. We got down here and walked in she was being intubated for surgery. Xray came in to check tube placement and her left lung was collapsed so they had to bag her and get the lung back up. She is doing well now. The surgeons did not want anymore scans on her head so not sure where that came from but anywho…

As of 11:11am they took our little girl back for shunt surgery. Please pray for her to do well. She has had a very hard past 3 days and I don’t say that just because I’m her mama! I’m ready for her to get through this and be better and maybe have some calm days for her sake!

During her transfer we were told 30 mins to get her in her room and be able to see her. After an hour of waiting we started to ask some questions. They said her temp got real low and they had to work on getting it up. Once we got in the room with her not only was she too cold but she came over with her belly very distended, her gas levels were awful, throwing up and just not doing well. They put a tube in her belly to pump some of the air out and stopped her feeds. Before leaving last night she was doing much better. Gas levels were back to normal and her belly looked a lot better.

We’ve all had an exhausting few days with the ups and downs. People tell you about the NICU roller coaster from the babies but nobody prepares you for the back and forth from the doctors. Difference of opinions. Etc.

Parents and families are already going through so much in this situation and the medical staff could help make things just a little easier. With saying that, it’s definitely not all of them. We’ve had some great nurses, fellows, attendings, residents and surgeons who we have been so thankful for. We will miss several over at UAB and it saddens us to say goodbye to them.

Now we will learn all new nurses, doctors, rules and learn a new normal as far as the hospital goes.

I am also leaving the link to the Facebook page for Zoey and Baylor: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1BQGD471AZ/?mibextid=wwXIfr

if you click on the thread below. It will take you to a news channel Facebook that will tell you the story.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1X5qCz7Li1/?mibextid=wwXIfr

February 3, 2025

There have been many ups and downs but here is the most recent update:

My girls are both still doing great!

Zoey should get her PICC line out tomorrow. She is now 2Ib 12.4oz

Baylor is now 2Ib 13.9oz

I got my hopes up that I would get to hold them together today. The nurses this morning got the go ahead from the nurse practitioner and the surgeons to move Baylor over to Zoey’s room just so I could hold them together. After shift change, the nurses decided they didn’t want to do it because they were feeding and because Baylor had the Red Robin in her fistula (which surgery had already said it was fine)

I was NOT happy at all. You honestly have no idea how it feels unless you have been told if/when you can hold your own baby! I haven’t held them all week but most importantly I haven’t gotten to hold them together since the very first time at UAB! When they told me I could hold them together today, I was beyond excited.

It crushed me.

Thankfully Zoey’s nurse will be back in the morning so fingers crossed that the NP and surgeons will be ok with it tomorrow!! I really want to have my girls together again for just a little bit.

February 3, 2025

They are like little birdies with their mouths wide open in my arms

My day was absolutely made and my heart was full.

They both smiled multiple times in my arms together. It was perfect.

My precious girls.

My little Zoey now weighs 2Ib 14.2oz

She started fortifier in her feeds today. She will hopefully be off the ventilator completely tomorrow and on CPAP. She’s doing so good.

Baylor lost some weight and is now 2Ib 12.4oz. They started fortifying her feeds yesterday and so far she’s done really well with it. Hopefully we continue on this road with no setbacks!

Update February 26, 2025:

My girls were back together today!

It’s been a great day!

My heart is so happy.

They are both doing so wonderful and we all enjoyed our time together.

Baylor is getting 10ml from a bottle every feed now during the day and doing so good. Zoey will get to start trying a bottle as soon as she gets better with paci dips.

They gave Zoey lasix today because she was puffy. Baylor is doing much better since getting her transfusion but it’s painful seeing the IV in her head.

I’m so proud of my girls. It’s bittersweet how much they have grown so fast. They use to fit just on my chest and now they fill up my arms.

New updated pictures as of March 19, 2025:

She turned 3 months old yesterday…

And so did she!

Preemie identical twins Zoey and Baylor Blythe of Oneonta, AL are making their way to normal.

“They are Miracles Of God”, mom

Alyson told me.

Zoey and Baylor Blythe were born at 26 weeks back on December 17th.

Zoey weighed 1 lb, 8 oz and had fluid on her brain- she needed a shunt and prayers.

Baylor weighed 1 lb, 1 oz and had serious intestinal issues- she needed your prayers, too.

Both babies are now off oxygen- Zoey is now wearing baby clothes and is in her own crib- Baylor will be undergoing surgery this morning to connect her intestines.

Zach and Alyson Blythe wrote me and wanted to make sure you know your prayers have worked.

The Blythe Twins thank you for their blessings.

The twins that are The Miracles Of God.

*Please let Zach and Alyson know your prayers are with Baylor this morning as she undergoes surgery. -