Celebrating One Week Old, Beautiful Eyes, And A Precious First Kiss

By the time most of you read this, Kayley will be one week old...a week that has flown by with more medical jargon than we've ever heard. I can truly say that I've never really cared what a PCVC, IVH, ART line, OG feed, or CPAP machine was. Now they are very important parts of our daily life. They have abruptly made their way into our everyday speaking. Oh how our lives have changed this week.

Kayley had another great day (I really love putting that sentence into these posts.) Nothing very significant changed but we made a lot of little steps in the right direction. Kayley is starting to gain the weight back that she lost in the first week. As you know, she was born 3 lbs. On Friday, she bottomed out at 2 lbs 9 oz. It's very normal for newborns to lose weight the first week. Since Kayley has been getting fed, her weight has gone up to 2 lbs 10 oz last night (Saturday) and 2 lbs 11 oz tonight. Now, if she'd just poop...

The doctors have been increasing her feedings regularly, because so far she has handled them great. We are now up to 5 cc's every 3 hours. Their plan is to continue increasing the amount every 12 hours. So, if Kayley keeps up the good work, the next time the amount will go up to 6 cc's. They will continue on that road until we reach her maximum amount. We don't know what that is, but we do know it's based on her weight. This is very good progress, but we have been warned repeatedly that sometimes out of the blue, Kayley will temporarily stop processing the feedings. Hopefully this doesn't happen, but at least we're prepared. In that case, they will suspend the feedings for a while to let Kayley catch up.

This morning, Kayley had another test for her bilirubin level. It went up from 5.2 to 6.7. They kind of expect this to happen. 6.7 is not high enough to put her back under the lights, but I'm sure that will happen soon enough.

Kayley also had the last of the 2 lines in her belly button removed today. It's the line that goes straight into an artery. The purpose of it is to monitor blood pressure constantly and to allow the nurses to draw blood directly from it. There are a few reasons they took it out. First, it can only last 7-10 days. Today is day number 7. Second, it's gives Kayley a higher risk of infection because it's an open line to her heart. And last, Kayley really had no use for it any longer. Her blood pressure is very stable and even though she seems to get blood drawn a lot, she really doesn't according to the nurses. Kayley probably has blood draw 2 to 4 times a day. A lot of babies in here have it drawn as much as hourly. So, the line is out. Now Kayley will have to be pricked in the heel every time she needs to have a blood test done. It's worth it to have it's risk of infection gone. Plus, she can now be swaddled better without the nurses worrying about that line getting in the way.

Now, onto my favorite updates of the day. I took this afternoon off from the hospital to spend some time with Drew. We played around the house and went swimming. Tonight when I returned to the hospital Megan and the nurses were in with Kayley smiling and talking to her. Kayley was wide awake with her eyes more open then we've seen yet and responding very well to voices. So as you can see above, we took a lot of pictures of her beautiful eyes.

And last, I received the greatest Father's Day gift from Kayley. The nurse allowed me to give Kayley a kiss. It was outstanding! Again, picture above. This is just the beginning of the bonding we will have with Kayley. She is due for her first bath in the next couple of days. After that, we will be free to hold her once a day. They really push the kangaroo hold here. It's where mom or dad puts the baby on their bare chest to have skin to skin contact with them. Studies show it does wonders for the parents and the child. We can't wait.