10/6/08 - Progressive Care in Sight, Maybe!!!


All the stars are aligning for Kayleigh to move to progressive. She is tolerating full feeds, breathing very well and holding her temperature. The only thing holding us back right now is the Cardiologist deciding whether to put a cardiac cath, which will be to monitor the pulmonary pressures. Since she is not showing signs of distress with either pulmonary hypertension or congestive heart failure, this cath will be there to monitor every second for them to fix the issue in case something were to start moving in the wrong direction.

Please pray that we continue to move in the right direction and whatever is needed to be done, will not cause any setbacks.

Kayleigh was awesome today. She latched on to Aimee for at least 5-10 minutes when breast feeding. It was so awesome and the more we try, the better she is getting. If you haven't noticed yet, Aimee and I will never give up trying!!! I think that Kayleigh gets more sucking from the bottle, so when a minimal amount comes out of Aimee, Kayleigh gets frustrated. Kayleigh took 25 mls out of 30 tonight, so that is the best she has done so far with the most amount of feeds. She has grown over 200 grams this week, so she is starting to sprout!!! I hope she keeps it up and takes off. I am not sure what she weighed in tonight yet, but I will find out in the morning.

Someone posted a comment tonight on why we haven't tried taking Kayleigh's story to TLC or some other company just as large. I might be looking at it wrong, but if I personally went to TLC with our story, they would probably think I was just some proud parent trying to get 15 minutes of fame and we would be perceived in the wrong way. I want nothing more than to touch as many lives as possible, so I would need to the help of others to do so. If someone out there who is following the story has or knows someone with great ideas on how we can reach as many people as possible, I would love to hear your ideas. This opportunity can help so many families and if we could save one life, it was worth all the while. We are stronger in numbers. Please help and let's work together.

God Bless,

The Freemans :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so happy that Kayleigh is doing so so good. I'm so proud of her. She is getting to be such a big girl. I still get nervous every time I get on her page because I'm not sure what Kayleigh has up her sleeve for us. I'm glad that she is starting to breast feed. I know that that can be trying, but what haven't yall defeated. I'm pretty sure Kayleigh gets cuter like EVERY second. Does she get to dress up for halloween? You guys take care. With Love, Nikki Conway

Anonymous said...

I will be glad to help sweet Kayleigh out in any way!! Just let me know!! She is living proof anything is possible!! (Miracles, Dreams, Faith!!)
She is looking so good every pic you post of her!! She is Georgeous!! God Bless You Kayleigh ALWAYS!!!

Erica
Mommy to 2 boys
1 who was a 31 weeker

Anonymous said...

I wonder if with the breastfeeding if Aimee could get things sort of warmed up with the pump and then try to have Kayleigh latch on when there is more milk? With the small amount that Kayleigh is eating, Aimee could probably pump through the let down and then have Kayleigh breastfeed. This would mean in part that she would get the higher calorie hindmilk, but it would probably also mean that she didn't have to work so hard to get the milk started.

Trish said...

Breastfeeding success takes time and practice, so be patient! My daughter was full-term and still took a long time to perfect her latch. At the beginning, she would get frustrated with the minimal amount of milk coming out as well, like you are saying Kayleigh is experiencing. What we did to remedy this was to sneak a little feeding syringe filled with milk into the corner of her mouth while she was latched onto my breast; then I could give push the syringe slowly and give her some instant gratification. That gave her the incentive to keep her latch on me and keep on drinking! Within a couple weeks, we were able to get rid of the syringe and she was great with just my breast! It really helped to just give her that push to keep on sucking. And now she's a champion feeder!

Hope that helps. It sounds like she's doing better every day! I'm so happy for you guys!