Today was a good day. Kayleigh was weaned down on her oxygen to the lowest setting yet. She is at 2 liters of flow and taking in about 28% oxygen. When Aimee and I were there today, we peaked in and Kayleigh had her nasal cannula pulled completely off her nose so the oxygen was going nowhere. The cool news is that she was satting around 94%, which is perfect!!! Kayleigh was trying to tell everyone she was a big girl and doesn't need any help to breath.
Kayleigh still has not had a good poop and the doctors are waiting for that to happen before they start her feeds back. She was really irritable today that Marsha, one of our primary nurses, took her out and put her in a swing. We never got to see her in it or I would have been snapping photos left and right, but the nurses said she looked adorable in it and was enjoying it tremendously. It helped calm her down, so that was good to hear. Talking about calming Kayleigh down, the nurses said Kayleigh just seemed to be grouchy all day long, but when Momma laid Kayleigh on her chest, she just stopped fussing. For over an hours, she laid on Aimee's chest in complete silence and seemed to be so peaceful. She fell asleep within minutes and showed no signs of irritability at all. It was all wonderful until we had to put her back in her isolette to go home. Kayleigh went right back to being upset and fussy. After five minutes, Aimee put her hands in and had a little talk with her. I don't know what she did, but she worked her magic and sweet Kayleigh was out like a light. Those two have such a special bond, it is amazing!
It was hard to leave tonight and poor Aimee felt like Kayleigh needed nothing more than us to be there to make her feel better. I am sure she is just as hungry as can be. One of the nurses said the other week that she was too premature to know what hungry is all about, but you can't use that excuse anymore because now she is a term baby, and a term baby is grumpy when they're hungry. There is no doubt that Kayleigh just needs some food, so hopefully she will go potty and start eating soon. (Keep doing your Poopy Dance)
We did get some inspiring news today. Since Kayleigh is coming down on her oxygen and she is holding her temperature better, the only thing left to do is come off the IV nutrients (Triple Mix) and she will be a good candidate for coming home. They still would like to see her grow a little more, but our nurse said that they have sent numerous 3.5 pound babies home before. They said if we do go home before she reaches the 2000 gram mark, that we would just have follow up appointments for her heart to do the VSD surgery at a later time if it shows any problem signs. I think that is scary to think about, but if she is ready to come home by a certain time, I am not going to argue that one bit. I am definitely not getting myself too excited just yet. I still want to make sure everything is perfect before we go, so it will be hard to convince me. The last thing I would want to happen is that we go home too soon and a few days later, she is back in the NICU for some odd reason.
Please pray that this feeding issue is our last hurdle. We are so proud of our little girl and her accomplishments so far. I have never met a stronger person in my life and will always cherish everything we have been through. It has certainly made us better parents and better people.
Thank you all for your support and if you haven't voted on the Parents.com site, please do (alot) as it is over tomorrow.
God Bless,
The Freemans :)
3 comments:
Hi Aimee and Adam!
Your story is amazing and your little girl is definitely a gift from God. She is absolutely beautiful! I live in Columbia, SC and was on the internet tonight searching for other preemie blogs and information. My husband and I just recently became the parents of a preemie baby girl born at 25 weeks and 4 days. We are still learning about all of this! She too has a blog and the address is www.morgankatherine.blogspot.com. Your story is inspiring and gives us hope. Thanks for sharing! I wish you all the luck in the world and will keep your family and little Kayleigh in my thoughts and prayers.
Heather Callahan
heather_callahan@yahoo.com
Hi! I was sent your blog address and just wanted to say hello. Your little one is adorable! My twins were 25 weekers and had many issues from pda surgeries, major brain bleeds, severe reflux. They are almost two and have made amazing progress and are doing all the things we were told they might never do. Hang in there, God is good!
There's nothing worse than having to leave your baby crying in the NICU. They are so comfortable sleeping on you and then once you put them back in there "condo" (that's what we called it HAHA) they wake up screaming. I would just rub Gavin's back until he fell back asleep. We are praying that Kayleigh will poop soon so she can get some food in her belly! Gavin was 4 lbs 6 ozs when he came home, he looked like a little doll in his carseat but they grow so much faster at home when they get loving from the family 24/7! I hope you get to bring Kayleigh home soon because the best feeling in the world is never having to give your child back to the nurse, you can hold her for as long as you want :)
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