Merry Belated Christmas

Merry Christmas (2 days late :) ) Kaidyn had a wonderful Christmas! She has been doing great. Her flow has been decreasing daily, as well as her oxygen. Her temperature has been great so she is ready for a crib. However, she is a little too small so the doctor has to approve it. Her feeds are increasing and she received a bottle for the first time yesterday. She only ate 3 mL but it has vitamins in it which as really nasty. She will start slow with the bottle and only get it once a day. As she does good with that they will increase the amount of times she gets a bottle. She is growing so fast ( now weighing 2lb 11.5oz) and we are getting closer to taking her home.

Baby Zack got to go home on Christmas! Baby Jocelyn will be released from the hospital in the next 2-3 weeks.

We are all doing great and had a great holiday.

Wonderful Day!!!

Kaidyn has had a wonderful day. She is way down on her oxygen, even got to 21% for a little bit. Her flow is now at 3.5 L and it started at 6 L. She has been doing so good and maintaining her temperature. She may even get put in a "crib" by Christmas! She had her eyes checked today. It was hard to watch but her eyes are looking good! They are going to start checking her eyes periodically because a side effect, so to speak, of receiving oxygen for expended periods of time is retinal detachment. So her eyes are looking good. Hopefully over the next week she will be off oxygen, pray! Kaidyn is doing big girl things!!!

Growing...

Kaidyn is doing wonderful. She is getting big, slowly. She weighs 2lb 9.5oz but gains and loses weight daily so it a slow process. She had to begin steroids again. Her oxygen need kept increasing daily and they were unable to decrease the flow (amount of pressure the oxygen is being push through her cannula). Not wanting it to come to putting her back on the ventilator, her doctor decided that another small round of steroids would be best. She is doing great while on them and her oxygen has come way down. The goal is 21% oxygen, which is the percentage of oxygen in the air we breathe. Last night she was sitting around 25-30%. She is tolerating her back now and we are happy about that, her head was starting to get a little flat on the sides. Other than that she is doing great and the preparation for her to come home begins. That time is getting closer and if she continues to do great she will get to come home early! Pray pray pray for strong lungs! Her oxygen is the only thing standing between us and home (that and the fact that she needs to be at least 4 lbs before she leaves).

Special Visitors

Today I received some special visitors. Lindsey and her 3 year old son Andrew came to visit me. Lindsey is a mom I met in the twin moms club. We had a great lunch at my favorite place, Chick-fil-a. It was nice to talk with someone who has had to go through a NICU experience like mine. Little Andrew was so funny. He had just had a procedure done and was a little loopy from the medicine. Read about Andrew and Adam's story and see how these two miracle boys are doing.

Kaidyn is doing good and has gained more weight. She now weights 2lb 8.2oz! Almost at three pounds. Her feeds are now based on weight so as she gets bigger she will get more food. In about a two weeks she should begin bottle feeds. She is having some issues with her oxygen. They are having a hard time getting her percentage of oxygen to come down. Also, the pressure/rate the oxygen is flowing through her cannula is not able to be weened because her oxygen need increases when they try to decrease it. Pray for strong lungs for Baby Kaidyn. If she is not able to come down on her oxygen over the next month they will begin to talk about when we can do to get her to need less oxygen or possibly she could come home with an oxygen tank. So pray for her.

Mata Update: Baby Jocelyn when through her procedure and they will be able to operate here in Temple. She will however have to wait until she is around 1 year old to have the surgery. This means she will come home with a colostomy bag of some sort. She still has some time before she comes home but it will be sooner than expected now that the surgery has been put off. Continue to pray for her family.

Big Clothes!

Kaidyn is doing great! No heart rate drops lately which is good. She is still eating good getting 22 mL every 3 hours. She now weighs 2 lb 6.6 oz. She had lost about an ounce and but quickly gained it back. She got a bath today and did very well, no crying. Her clothes are super big on her and they are just preemie! I still can't get over that. But she looks so cute in them. She is getting spoiled already and prefers to be held. When I am holding her she is in a deeper sleep and down on her oxygen. Today when I stood up to put her back she immediately needed more oxygen like she knew I was putting her back in her isolette and didn't want to go. She got really upset. I wish I could just hold her but I can't. Continue to pray for her. My worry now is how long she will require oxygen. Pray her lungs go strong and that she will come down on her oxygen need.

Tuesday Baby Jocelyn Mata will be having a procedure that will determine the extent of her future surgeries. A recap: Jocelyn is the daughter of Jane and Gabriel. She was born with intestinal issue and complications. She had to have surgery at one day of life to separate her intestines. She will have a series of more surgeries to reconstruct her lower half including her bottom. Tomorrow she will have a procedure to determine if the rest of her surgeries can be done here in Temple or if Baby Jocelyn will need to go out of state to a specialist to continue care. Please pray for this family. They are going through a lot and need prayer from some prayer warriors and I know Kaidyn has a lot that read this.

We're Still Going Strong

Kaidyn is still growing weighing in at a whopping 2lb 6oz! She is now eating 21mL every 3 hours. She's growing fast. All of Kaidyn's cultures to see if her cheeks were infected came back negative so she was able to come off her antibiotics and get that IV out of her hand. She's much happier now. She has been doing better and is slowly beginning to adjust to life off the ventilator without steroids. Today Kaidyn got to put on real baby clothes, a preemie oneies. It is pretty big on her but she has plenty of time to grow into it. You know what means....WE GOTTA GET A CHRISTMAS OUTFIT!!! I am trying to get ready for a NICU Christmas. I decorated her space for Christmas by getting a Christmas blanket to put over her isolette. Keep the prayers coming!

And update on the Morris family:

They are doing good. Zach moved to the continuing care nursery which means they are just waiting for him to grow so he can go home. He is still having some heart rate drops. Because of this, he is still in the NICU. He is growing big weighing 6lb 12oz. Pray for Zach and his parents Shavone and Steven.

Small Backwards Step

Today was a down day for baby Kaidyn. The tape that holds her cannula in her nose caused breakdown of the skin on her cheeks. Because of this, she had to get an IV and was put on antibiotics to make sure there is no infection. She is up on her oxygen need and roller coasters with her saturations through out the day. They did blood test and cultures of her skin to make sure there is no infection on her cheeks from the breakdown. We will get the results in a few days. It has just been hard for her with so much happening all at once. It makes it hard to pinpoint what exactly is going on. I guess really its the combination of everything. She is really doing her breathing all on her own with no help (the steroids have been helping her a lot) so her adjustment will take time. On a good note, she is still eating well and digesting well. Her food intake has increased to 19mL every 3 hours. The doctor is pleased with her progress despite the above and he is especially pleased with how well she is eating. She has lost a little weight, she was 1000g on Tuesday, 990 on Wednesday, and 980 today, which is 2lb 2.57oz. Not much weight loss but still a loss. It probably comes from the medicine they gave her to release fluid after her blood transfusion. She is feeling out so much and I finally notice that she is getting bigger. She is starting to have a personality (one of a DIVA!!!) and moving around so much more. I don't see her as sick anymore which is such a nice feeling. Now I am just waiting for the day we get to go home.