Watching Kayley's Girlish Figure

Kayley didn't have many changes yesterday. Her feedings stayed the same at 29 cc's. Her oxygen settings pretty much stayed the same. They raise and lower the oxygen level she is getting depending on how much she needs at the time. It usually never exceeds 30% which is still a very low setting.

Kayley's weight took another jump up yesterday. She went up to 1685 grams (3 lbs 11 oz). She has been eating very well and gaining weight consistently. This is one of the obstacles that she is overcoming with ease in the NICU. Hopefully it continues.

I gave Kayley her 2nd tub bath yesterday. It was my first time. She did very well. She was calm the whole time. She seems to be taking everything in stride now. She doesn't get as mad as she use to. I'm not sure if she's getting better at handling those situations or if we're getting better at handling her. It's probably some of both. After the bath, we dressed Kayley for the 4th of July. She looked great (as shown in the pictures above).

One big change we had yesterday is that we moved rooms again. This time it was at our request. When we started in room 102, there weren't a lot of babies around us. That's why they moved us to room 113. We were around more babies so the nurses didn't have to go very far between rooms. However, the bad part of that was that the majority of babies that were around us had infections. We didn't feel comfortable with that so Megan requested a new room yesterday. The head nurse understood our concern and complied to our request right away. So, Kayley was moved to room 354 last night. Our new place has a window with a view. The nurse we talked to said it will be good because when babies are getting prepared to go home, one of the things they do is get them used to light. The window will help with that.

Another Postponed Post

Will post the updates tomorrow.

Kayley had a great day yesterday on her new oxygen prongs. She didn't brady at all like she did a couple times the day before. Megan was there when Dr. Lepp did his rounds. He said they are not worried at all about 3 or 4 brady's a day and they even expect the babies to have a few especially when they a moved to a new machine. He said if she was having 10-12 a day, that's when they start paying close attention and start thinking about moving her back to CPAP. So, it looks like Kayley is doing very well as usual.

There were no more reports from the nurses about Kayley having blood in her stool. So, it looks like we're in the clear as far as that's concerned.

There were not many other updates from yesterday. Kayley's feedings have stayed the same at 29 cc's. She has still been gaining weight. Last night she was up to 1610 grams from 1580 grams. Both are 3 lbs 9 oz.

Today, I am going in to give Kayley her bath. Megan has given her the last 3 so I'm overdue. Then, we will hopefully have pictures of her in her "I'm A Little Firecracker" outfit...perfect for the 4th of July.

Will Post Tomorrow

It's late so the normal post I do will be done tomorrow morning.

Off The CPAP

The nurse called Megan and I this morning to tell us that they took Kayley off the CPAP and put her on the nasal prongs around 10 am this morning. They started her off on very low settings. Her flow (liters per minute) was set to .5 and her oxygen was set to 25%. If Kayley started to labor a bit to breathe, they had the option of turning up the settings before deciding to put her back on CPAP. But, she did very well. However, after about an hour being off the CPAP, Kayley had apnea (forgot to breathe for a bit) and then brady'd (medical term = bradycardia). That means her heart slowed down. It reached about70 beats per minute. Her normal is between 130 and 170. She recovered very quickly which is good. The nurse called the doctor and he increased her caffeine dose based on her weight. Prior to this, Kayley was on the same dose as was calculated for her birth weight. The apnea stopped after that.

By the time Megan got to the hospital, Kayley's settings were changed. Her flow was turned up to 1.0 lpm and her oxygen was down to 21%. Like I said before, these are very low settings. The nurse told us tonight that a lot of the babies start around 3 lpm. While Megan was holding her, she did great...yet again. Her stats stayed high the whole time.

When Mitch and I arrived tonight, the nurse told us that Kayley brady'd again shortly before we got there. Again, she recovered quickly. Then right after I started holding her, she brady'd again. After this time, her heart rate returned to normal but she seemed to being working pretty hard to breathe. A couple minutes passed with the three of us intensely watching Kayley. Finally, she settled down and her breathing became normal. That was very stressful. The nurse and I decided that maybe my Kayley holding tonight wouldn't be very long so we could get Kayley all swaddled up and comfortable again in her bed. But, Kayley had other ideas. She snuggled right up and fell fast asleep. Her stats stayed great the rest of the time and she was very comfortable. Since Kayley has recovered from these episodes by herself and rather quickly, this will just be something they will monitor.

The nurse had some more not so great news for us tonight. Kayley had a little blood in her stool when she changed her. She called the doctor and the doctor was not worried about it at all. It was such a little amount that she believes Kayley may just have a small tear "down there." The nurse saved her diaper to show us. So, after holding Kayley, Mitch and I looked at Kayley's poop. After the two hours of the diaper sitting there, the blood disappeared so we couldn't see it (just a tip, when looking for something in a poopy diaper, don't put your face closer to get a better look). It was so little that it was just absorbed into the poop. The nurse told us it's nothing to worry about at this point because they believe it is just a tear, but it's good for us to know.

The last update today is that Kayley will be sporting a new ankle bracelet when we get in tomorrow. They keep the security at this hospital pretty tight for newborns. Since Kayley is off the ventilator and CPAP, she gets the bracelet so if someone takes her too close to one of the doors, alarms will go off. I guess they think that when she's on the ventilator or CPAP, it would be too cumbersome for someone to take her. It's pretty crazy to think that someone would take your baby, but obviously we'd rather be safe.

A Day Of Improvements

Kayley made some very good improvements today. The doctor started out the day by turning her CPAP pressure down to 4. He is being very cautious with her because of her past history of trying to get off the ventilator. The nurses say that most of the time, the pressure doesn't go below 5 because at that point they are ready to get off the CPAP. But, another day is fine with us. The CPAP doesn't hurt Kayley at all besides some discomfort of wearing it. We expect her to be off the CPAP and onto the oxygen prongs within the next couple of days.

Kayley's feedings went up to 29 cc's today as she continues to put on weight. Her weight tonight was 1580 grams (3 lbs 8 oz). That more than makes up for the lack of weight gain last night.

Kayley's is still working on keeping her own temperature steady. Her bed is now on manual mode and doesn't adjust to help Kayley. So far she is doing great. The nurse today said she is close to moving out of the isolette.

Megan gave Kayley her first tub bath today. Since she doesn't have any IV's and isn't on the ventilator, there is no need to just do a sponge bath. So, Kayley was cleaned better than ever. Megan said she seemed to really enjoy it. She kept her heart rate and oxidation in check the whole time. Megan says it must be something to do with her "having the touch."

Kayley had a couple visitors besides just plain ol' mom and dad today. We brought Drew in for his 3rd time. He seems to know where and who Kayley is but would still rather get down out of my arms and check the room out. So, his visits are very quick. Uncle Mitch is in town tonight through the weekend to help us out with Drew while Grandma Marla is back in Iowa for the 4th. After I picked him up from the airport, we went to the hospital. Kayley got see one of her uncles for the first time. She seemed to show off a bit too. She had a very good night with Mitch observing. She even opened her little eyes for him a couple times.

Another Calm Day In The NICU

Not much went on today for Kayley. She's resting up and trying to gain weight. Megan held her this afternoon and she did great again. She is not requiring as much oxygen today as she did last night to get use to the new CPAP settings. Right now the setting is at 21% oxygen which is room air. Even with that, she's keeping her oxidation level in the upper 90's. That's very good. When they are giving her more than 21% oxygen, they keep her oxidation between 83 and 93. Since she is on the lowest setting, she is allowed to have it higher. So basically, she's keeping her oxygen up all by herself. I can feel the move off the CPAP and onto the oxygen prongs coming soon. That's just my guess though. We'll let the doctors make the final decision.

Kayley is still at 27 cc's for her feedings. She seems to be gaining weight very well so who knows when they'll up that again. It will most likely be when she's past a certain weight and it ups her full feed calculation. Tonight, Kayley's weight stayed at 1515 grams although she was weighed without her mask. So, we can say that her true weight is 1515 grams (3 lbs 5 oz).

The nurse tonight is trying to see how Kayley will do regulating her own body temperature. The isolette normally helps her by raising or lowering the temperature in the bed to heat or cool her. Since Kayley does so well when she's out and being held, the nurse is going to try to have her maintain it herself. They will help her a bit by swaddling her more or by adding clothes. So far, she is doing great. She'll be ready to move to the crib in no time.

I didn't get to hold Kayley tonight. I was held up with something else so I got in late. The nurse had her all bundled up in clothes and swaddled so neatly. Kayley looked very comfortable and was sound asleep. I didn't want to be mean and wake her up just so I could hold her....even though she does like being held. So, I'll just have to put in some extra time tomorrow night.

The pictures above are of Kayley all cozy for the night. The nurse put some new clothes on there and swaddled her pretty well. The mask and contraption is part of the CPAP. And yes, the green thing in her mouth is a pacifier. They have really been working with her to get the sucking down.