Hailey Meets Katie
Video of Hailey meeting Katie for the first time.
No Tubes, No Wires, No Hospitals
Katie is finally at home. She sleeps a lot. We have her downstairs with us, but you would never know it. Every three hours she wakes up and we feed her. Then she goes back to sleep.
Hailey got to see Katie for the first time today. She was very excited. Brianna went to get Hailey at school. It was nap time and her teacher was having a hard time getting Hailey to wake up. Hailey does not like to wake up. Brianna whispered, “guess who’s home?” Hailey jumped up ready to go. She wouldn’t take off her shoes for nap time. She wanted to be ready to go. Hailey has been doing soft touches on her baby every since. She alternates between calling her baby and sister.
Hailey is our hand-washing police. We put her in charge of making sure every visitor that comes to see Katie washes their hands. She is doing a terrific job.
Katie’s doctor told us that she was happy for us and very few parents act as excited about taking their child home as Brianna did. Yesterday, when the doctor told Brianna, on the phone, that we could possible take Katie home today. Brianna was quiet. The doctor said, hello, are you there? Brianna stopped crying and said, I love you; this is the best Mother’s Day present ever.
Day 10 in NICU
Katie is making good progress. Since removing her feeding tube, she has nippled enough at each feeding to be ready to come home. She is scheduled for a car seat study and a hearing test tomorrow. Then we should be on our way home.
The grandma’s dropped off the car seat this evening so the study can get started at any time. For this test, they will buckle Katie into her car seat and leave her for 30 minutes. To pass this test she should have no incidents of forgetting to breath or having her heart slow or stop. If you remember from Hailey this is called apnea and bradycardia (As and Bs). In her short existence, Katie has had only two incidents and both were minor and self-correcting. I do not expect her to have any issues that will keep her from coming home.
Wooohoo
Brianna just got a phone call from Katie’s doctor. If Katie takes all of her bottles tonight we can take her home tomorrow.
Day 9 in NICU
Sometime during the night Katie decided that she no longer wanted the feeding tube in her nose. Since then she has been making good progress nippling her food. As of this evening there were no orders to put the tube back.
Day 8 in NICU
Katie is staying warm and is up to 4 lbs. 11 oz. Her milk is being fortified to increase calorie content. Her doctor would like to see her gain 1 oz a day. Last night she was up 2/3 oz.
She didn’t eat any of her 11:00 a.m. feeding for me. She ate her 8:00 p.m. feeding really fast, probably because her grandma feed her. It seems like we are still a little ways off from removing the feeding tube. To remove the tube, Katie will have to eat all of her feedings from the bottle. Right now she is skipping too many.
Katie made plenty of dirty diapers for mom to change. As soon as Brianna would get a clean diaper on Katie would make it dirty again and Brianna would have to start over.
Day 7 in NICU
NICU one week later and Katie is doing well. She is trying to get all of her food from a bottle but there always seems to be 7 or 8 ml left after feeding. She is only eating 40 ml per feeding so they have to put the remainder down the tube in her nose.
Katie’s only mild setback is that she has been unable to keep her body temperature up. She is hovering around 96-97°F. They have begun fortifieing Katie’s milk to be sure that she gets enough caleries. This may help her get her temperature up. They have moved her from the window because it was a little drafty over there. Katie is under enough blankets for a trip to Poland in the winter. The little bundle in her isolette is more blanket than baby.
Day 6 in NICU
Today was a great day for little Katie. Her feedings are up to 40 ml and her IV bag has been removed. The IV needle is still in her head but it is only draining and should be removed soon.
Katie has started gaining weight and has been moved into an open crib in a different bay. This is the bay Hailey was discharged from. Hopefully, we will have the whole family home soon.
Day 5 in NICU
Today was a good day for Katie. Her feedings were up and her IV suppliments were down. We need to get her off the yellow bag of fluids and then the IV can come out.
They needed to start a new IV in Katie’s head at the 2:30 p.m. feeding. While I was feeding her, the IV in her head popped out.
Last night’s billyruben level was again past 10. They told us that she may need to go back under the phototherapy light. Luckily, her billyruben level was headed down again when they pulled blood for the 4:00 p.m. labs.
Katie has been loosing weight since she was born and is now down to 4 pounds and 8 ounces. This is normal for a newborn and hopefully her weight will start picking up again.
We bought two premie sized sleeper outfits for Katie to wear. Both are good for up to 5 pounds. Both outfits are huge on little Katie.
Day 4 in NICU
Day 4 was a day of mostly happy news. When we first arrived Brianna was disappointed to see that they had placed an IV into Katie’s head. They had done this with Hailey and it took almost 2 years for the hair to grow back from where they shaved it. The IV in the head normally lasts longer because it is moved less. I hope this is the last IV they will need to start.
I was able to cheer her up when I noticed that they had removed the nasal cannula. At 6:00 pm yesterday they took Katie off her nasal cannula. She has breathed all night and all morning on her own.
Katie has had two incidents where she has lowered her heart and respiratory rates allowing her blood oxygen levels to drop, in both cases she has recovered on her own.
Katie’s billyruben levels had peaked and had fell to 9.2 at the last test.
They have raised Katie’s feeding rate to 20 ml up from 15 ml per feeding. She did not do well with bottle feedings through the night so the nurses had to use the feeding tube that is now in her nose. Katie did not do the bottle well for the 11:30 a.m. or 2:30 p.m. feedings.
When we arrived for the 2:30 p.m. feeding, we were happy to find out that Katie had been taken off of the phototherapy light. She is now over jaundice.
We met with her doctor before leaving at 2:30 p.m. Katie needs to learn to coordinate suck-swallow-breath and then she can put on some weight. Then we can start thinking about going home.
At the 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. feedings Katie took all of her feedings from her bottle in less than 10 minutes.
Day 3 in NICU
We made it up to NICU for the first two feedings. Brianna feed Katie at 8:30 a.m. and I feed her at 11:30 a.m. At 8:30 we learned that her billyrubin (jaundice indicator) had risen from an 8 to a 10. That means more time under the light.
At 11:30 a.m. I got to change her diaper. Wouldn’t you know that it was her first poopy diaper.
We stayed to do the 2:30 p.m. feeding but a new baby was being admitted to the bay so we were forced out.
Pictures at Flickr
I am uploading all the pictures from Katie’s birth and stay at NICU into this photo set at flickr.
Day 2.5 in NICU
Brianna called to talk to Katie’s nurse this evening and learned some good and some less good news.
The good news, Katie is now on a nasal cannula instead of the CPAP and has had her first bottle without issue.
The bad news, Katie has lost 4 ounces since yesterday. This is not a grave concern and could be due to being dehydrated from the photo-therapy lights. We will learn more tomorrow morning.
Day 2 in NICU
Katie has been doing well on the CPAP machine and the amount of assistance as well as the amount of additional oxygen added has been turned down. There is hope that the CPAP apparatus can be removed entirely, and bottle feedings started by this afternoon.
A minor, but expected, setback was encountered today when we first arrived. Katie was very orange and we learned from her nurse that she had jaundice and would be put on the photo-therapy lights by the time we returned after lunch.
Katie has been feed through her IV as well as through a feeding tube that extends to her stomach. For the most part she has been digesting all of the food that was administered through her tube.
She has been sleeping every time that we have visited her. We try our best not to disturb her. When she is sleeping her respiratory rate, and heartbeat is very regular. We like to see that.
White.
Before bed Hailey and I were playing with some flash cards. I would show her the picture and she would tell me what the picture was. She wouldn’t just give me a one word answer for anything. I would show her a picture of a nest and she would say, birds make that and put the eggs in them and then they can’t get out, it is called a nest.
When we got to a picture of a white crayon she said, that is white, it doesn’t work.
Every time she uses the white crayon on white paper she doesn’t see anything. She is absolutely convinced that all white crayons are broken.
Babies Need Mommies
Hailey asked where her sister was. I told her she was at the hospital. Hailey asked who was with her. I told her the nurses at NICU were taking good care of her. Hailey told me that wouldn’t do. Babies need their mommies.
You Can Hold Me Now?
Hailey asked Mom if the baby was out of her tummy now. Brianna said yes. Hailey said, then you can hold me now?