Aurora Rain Vreeland’s NICU journey!

I am Mary, Auntie to Rori, and sister to Jacqui Vreeland. We have as a family decided to take a leap of faith and see if friends and family could come along side our dear Vreeland Family and help them out during their trying times. They go day to day with the stress of Rori’s medical care and the last thing we want for them to stress about is medical bills coming their way. They have been in the hospital now for two insurance periods and will need to hit their out of pocket twice….. so they are looking at over 15,000$ in medical bills coming their way at the very least. Please read Aurora’s summarized Story and consider donating if you feel compelled.

 

Aurora Rain Vreeland “Rori”, was born on July 14, 2021 at 26 weeks gestation. (14 weeks early). She was born at a small but mighty 1 pound 9ounces(imagine a water bottle size) !! From the moment she was born she was “feisty” (as many of her nurses described her), and ready to fight! Mama Jacqui had a pretty traumatic birth and a somewhat difficult recovery. Aaron was a steady support to both girls through this intense phase of becoming parents to a micro premie, and helping Jacqui heal from a traumatic experience. God has certainly ordained these two to be steady hands for each other.

 

The early days were intense. Watching her get poked and prodded every few hours was not the way you’d imagine meeting your first child. She had IVs for nutrients and meds, she had a feeding tube for breast milk, and a cpap machine for her breathing. It was honestly amazing that she didn’t need further support right at birth. She made steady progress from birth up until October, with small difficulties along the way. (If you have ever had an extended stay NICU baby you know about the set backs and how daily it can be like you are living in a bad dream). All things were looking good for discharge, she was growing, learning to breastfeed… she was really just being a champion NICU babe! Jacqui and Aaron were commuting every day from Brooklyn Park down to St. Paul. They have not missed a single day with her!! This came with many struggles. Leaving your small babe in a NICU room alone at night is not for the faint of heart.. in fact, it shouldn’t be for anyone, it’s heart wrenching. She was approaching her due date which was the projected date she would go home. Some nurses and doctors even projected she would come home earlier because of how good she did. Then on October 4th, 2021 she had a respiratory collapse of some type that the medical team was fairly perplexed by… she ended up being intubated for full respiratory support and ventilation within 24 hours . This began a new time clock. The set back. The start over. Jacqui and Aaron were devastated. This made the future so unclear. Aurora remained intubated for weeks. She was followed by a team of some of the top doctors in the Midwest and still is. They began talking about the possibilities ahead including the potential for a trach tube to be placed through her neck to assist her in breathing for a longer term. Again, devastating news.

Aurora grew and remained sedated and intubated for approximately 6 weeks. They couldn’t hear her voice, she was too sedated to interact much, and even just picking her up to hold took a team to do.

 

The time came to extubate Rori and start Bipap (another type of respiratory support that is a step down from a vent). She held her own! They made a new plan to discuss the trach placement if she didn’t do well on bipap. Here’s where Gods timing was beautiful…the primary doctor came in the morning of the care conference about the trach with new evidence that waiting on the trach would make sense for her. Relief!! Praise God!! Since then, She has been steadily but slowly decreasing her need for respiratory support as her team carefully weans her down from the bipap, down to Cpap, and now down to just high flow oxygen! She certainly has beat some odds. The outlook ahead is looking sunny and beautiful, however this is not over yet! Jacqui and Aaron have been living down at the Ronald McDonald house since the respiratory event in October, their New Years resolution is to get back home with their baby in tow! It’s still looking like a few weeks or more in the NICU but this family is ready to have some relief and be home with Rori.

 

We are so grateful to those of you who have already generously helped the family out, brought meals, sent gifts cards, provided services, and so much more. God has humbled them by all of your kindness. Your prayers and acts of faith are far more important than any monetary blessing you could send to them. Whatever way you feel equipped to give, they will forever be grateful to you. Let’s get Rori home! She turns 6 months old this month, and she deserves to be in her own space with her mama and papa! Thank you kindly for your donations!