7/1/08 - Headed In The Right Direction!

Today was another great day with great news. First of all, Kayleigh grew from 480 grams to 550 grams. That is 2.5 ounces! Doesn't seem like a lot, but when you only weigh a pound, that is a bunch! Grandpa went up earlier today, but the Nurses would only give Aimee and I any new information. He said that it looked like she put on some weight and he was right! She added about 16% of her body weight in one day. When she gets older, she probably won't be too excited about that kind of weight gain.

Other good news of the day is that she had her ECHO Cardiogram and it came back looking good with no major issues. The only portion they want to keep an eye out for is the moderate VSD, which is a hole that is in the heart that usually closes on it's own in time. Since preemies are born early, this hole is normally open but should close before their original due date. Basically, the Doctors will keep an eye on it and if it isn't closing, they could go in and close it for her. I am just glad that it is a common issue and usually takes care of itself. The great news is that there are no other issues with the heart.

Also, Kayleigh had her head scanned to make sure there is no bleeding in the brain. They do this test 7 days after they are born and follow up in 30 days. The tests came back normal and their is no bleeding in the brain. WHEW!!!

Well, Kayleigh would not be Kayleigh if she didn't give us trouble even with all this good news. She likes to keep us on her toes and most of you can agree with me on that after reading all the prior posts. Since Kayleigh is breathing on her own, there is a common problem amongst preemies called sleep apnia. She basically forgets to breath when she is sleeping and it causes her heartrate to drop until she is able to start breathing again and catch back up. It is a pretty scary sight because you will be looking at her monitor that consists of her heartrate, oxygen, and respiratory rhythm. You first will see her respiratory rhythm flat line and you also notice Kayleigh's chest not move at all. Then you see her heart rate and oxygen drop, sending off a noisy alarm through the NICU. Nurses will soon come to her rescue, pat her back until Kayleigh starts to breath again. Sometimes she catches it on her own, but sometimes she needs a little help. Throughout the whole day, she had a couple episodes where this happened, which is normal with a preemie that is just on a nasal cannula. Well, when Aimee and I were visiting her, she did it three or four more times within one hour. Talk about scary! They paged the Doctor and the Nurse Practitioner to come in to check things out. They changed a couple knobs for the oxygen and the flow of the oxygen, cleaned out her mouth and nose, and she was fine for the rest of the time. She just slept quiet and was breathing fine from then on out. The Nurse Practitioner said that sometimes the nose can get stuffed up or the mouth can get full of saliva that it obstructs the breathing passageway for the baby and just needs to be clean out. Well, give me a heart attack over a big booger!!!

Besides Kayleigh giving us a slight heart attack and more hair loss, she is doing just fine. We are pleased to see her progress and hope that it continues for the remainder of the time. Although I am sure Kayleigh will have some more tricks up her sleeve to drive us looney. Just as long as the Doctors can assess the problem and quickly fix it, I will be fine with that. Thank you all for the great comments and I hope you like the photo of Kayleigh tonight. I would have taken more, but they would have all looked exactly like this one. She didn't move an inch while we were there all night. Maybe one finger moved for a second, but she put it back before I could snap another picture :)

Thank you to all those who have taken time out of their busy schedules to come visit our little Kayleigh. It means the world to us and Kayleigh said she enoys looking at all you huge people.