Kalista Makena Lam was born on May 12, 2010 at 7:46 am. She weighed 6 lbs 10.8 ounces and was 18.25 inches long. She is truly a miracle in our lives.
It has been a long journey for this little girl already. Little Kalista was born full term at 38 1/2 weeks with an omphalocele (om-fal-oh-seal).
What is an omphalocele you might ask?
It is a type of defect in the abdominal wall in which the intestine, liver and occasionally other organs remain outside of the abdomen in a sac because of a defect in the development of the muscles in the abdominal wall. It happens in about 1 out of every 5,000 births. A giant "O" (omphalocele) happens in about 1 out of every 10,000. As we found out, it is a pretty common condition. 50% of babies with "O"s have genetic anomalies, but we were lucky that all our chromosomes can back normal from our amniocentesis.
There is no known cause if it is not genetic in nature and is classified as a mishap in nature. From reading on the internet, baby's internal organs leave the body around gestational week 10 through the umbilical area and then return back into the body within that time frame. Kalista's internal organs decided to skip that plan and ended up staying outside her body at the base of her umbilical cord, forming a sac around the organs. She was classified as having a giant "O" by her surgeon, meaning that multiple organs were involved. For Kalista, her liver, intestines, spleen and stomach were all within that umbilical sac. Luckily, we found out months before, so it was no surprise on the day of her birth. The only way to fix the omphalocele is by surgery.
It is a type of defect in the abdominal wall in which the intestine, liver and occasionally other organs remain outside of the abdomen in a sac because of a defect in the development of the muscles in the abdominal wall. It happens in about 1 out of every 5,000 births. A giant "O" (omphalocele) happens in about 1 out of every 10,000. As we found out, it is a pretty common condition. 50% of babies with "O"s have genetic anomalies, but we were lucky that all our chromosomes can back normal from our amniocentesis.
There is no known cause if it is not genetic in nature and is classified as a mishap in nature. From reading on the internet, baby's internal organs leave the body around gestational week 10 through the umbilical area and then return back into the body within that time frame. Kalista's internal organs decided to skip that plan and ended up staying outside her body at the base of her umbilical cord, forming a sac around the organs. She was classified as having a giant "O" by her surgeon, meaning that multiple organs were involved. For Kalista, her liver, intestines, spleen and stomach were all within that umbilical sac. Luckily, we found out months before, so it was no surprise on the day of her birth. The only way to fix the omphalocele is by surgery.
She has made it through three successful surgeries (2 for her belly and 1 for her heart) in the past two weeks already and we anticipate many more in the future until we can get all her tiny organs back into her belly. She has done really well and has been such a superwoman through it all!!!
After three weeks in the NICU, our latest milestone is that Kalista is now free from her ventilator!!! She can breathe on her on, but all the pressure from her tummy makes it hard to breathe sometimes. (Just imagine eating a really large meal and that tight feeling when you breathe is how she feels all the time.)
Oh yes....the other exciting news is that Kalista is also now able to take down breast milk. She is still getting her essential nutrients via IV, but now they can feed her breast milk through a NG tube in her nose. We will eventually get to bottle feeding and breastfeeding...but we're taking baby steps.
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