Thursday, December 27, 2012

FIVE POUNDS!

Katie has officially hit 5 pounds!

She is still at 36ml every 3 hours, but they have reduced the duration of the feed to over the course of 1 hour. They have been coming every so often to try her on a bottle, but she doesn't quite know what to do with it yet. Once she masters the bottle, then there is no time until she is at home. Terrifying.

She is still maintaining her temperature in the crib.

When I visited her yesterday, she was satting around 95.. with the cannula on top of her nose :
12.26.12
I held her for a little bit yesterday, until she got fussy, turned red, and pooped. I unswaddled her, changed her diaper, and tried swaddling her back up.. and she yelled at me. So I just let her lay unswaddled for a bit. I turned on her mobile, and she was transfixed:


Katie got a visit from SANTA! Not the most flattering picture of Katie, but it's still a great memory :). 

12.24.12
Quite possibly my new favorite thing ever.

12.23.12
The Grandmas got to get some snuggle time in, too!

Grandma King holding Katie
12.22.12

Grandma Stowe holding Katie
12.25.12




Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas!

She is so much bigger than this now! Hoping everyone has a great holiday :).


Friday, December 21, 2012

Quadrupled!

Katie has officially quadrupled her birth weight! She weighed-in at 4 pounds, 12 ounces last night. Yay!!

She had a handful of desats today, so they bumped her flow back up to 2 liters. She must have gotten too excited about her new crib!

When we visited this evening, we got to bathe her for the first time. After her bath Dad got to put her clothes on! I think he did a good job :).



Thursday, December 20, 2012

Crib! Clothes!

In a crib! In clothes! 4 pounds, 11 ounces. Giving her some breastmilk on her pacifier probably tomorrow!



Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Update, with Pics and Video :)

Katie is up to 4 pounds, 9 ounces! She is tolerating her 36ml feeds well. They increased the duration of her feeds from 2 hours to 1.5 hours. They are still every 3 hours.

They are also weaning her from her isolette! She is all bundled up like a baby burrito. I got lots of snuggle time today.

Due to her prematurity and having to be on oxygen, Katie has developed ROP. I'll let you google it for more details. Basically, it causes the blood vessels in her retinas to grow erratically. They gave her a shot of medicine Sunday that is supposed to fix it. Her next follow up is Thursday.

She also got her first round of vaccinations yesterday! She has a little chubby sore leg.

Also yesterday was her follow up head ultrasound. They reported that her IVH had resolved and there was no new bleeding!

Overall, she is doing FANTASTIC! She has a portable CD player in her room that is playing Beatles Rock-a-Bye songs :).

Here's another video of her enjoying her pacifier:





Saturday, December 15, 2012

11 Weeks Old! (ring pic, too!)

Katie is doing great! She is up to 1850 grams (a little over FOUR POUNDS!). She is still at room air (21%), is at 1.5 liters on her flow, and is eating 30 milliliters (1 ounce) every 3 hours. They are fortifying her milk up to 27 calories (breastmilk is 20 calories).

She has continued to enjoy her pacifier, and has decided that she prefers sleeping on her belly (uh-oh!). She has had a couple of diaper blowouts.. One of which I was present for, and it also included projectile poop! I got to hold her while the nurses cleaned up her bed, which I believe was her plan all along.

And here is another pic of her wearing Daddy's ring!

Friday, December 7, 2012

Pics and Small Update

Katie is doing great! She is back on feeds-only (no more IV fluids/nutrition/fats), 27ml every 3 hours. She has lost some fluid weight since they stopped her feeds, but she is sure to gain it all back!

Her next milestone is to get moved from the isolette to an open bed! That means not having to reach through ports to change a diaper or hold her pacifier in her mouth :). Hopefully she'll reach that point by next weekend!



Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Update (with pics.. and video!)

Katie is doing great! She is up to 1640 grams (3 pounds, 9 ounces). She has TRIPLED her birth weight!!

She is currently sitting at anywhere from 21-23% oxygen. Her nasal cannula is set at 3.5 liters (the amount of air that is being pushed through the prongs).

11.30.12
Wearing one of the hats Miss Julie made her!
Over the weekend, the NICU had a small outbreak of the flu. Knowing that Ron and I had been sick, they had put her on isolation and raised her liters back to 4 (she had just been at 3.5) so, if she was sick, she wouldn't have to struggle to breathe and could concentrate on healing. All her tests came back clean for any kind of sickness.. no flu or RSV, so they removed the isolation and lowered her settings back down.
 
12.03.12
Snuggling with her "frog"
In addition to that situation, she had a small fever, elevated heart rate, and a slightly distended belly on Saturday. They started an IV and gave her some antibiotics, some anti-flu medicines (just in case!), stopped her feeds and started TPN & lipids. They watched her for a day to make sure that the distension went down and she didn't have any residuals in her belly from her intestines not working correctly. Everything was fine, so they started her feeds back up yesterday. They have to wean her off the TPN & lipids (can't just quit cold turkey!), so she's only at 10ml/3hrs of milk right now. That'll go up every day until she gets back where she was.

12.03.12
Big yawn!
 Here's a video of her enjoying her pacifier: