Kaitlyn is “crawling”….

Tuesday. 10/25/03
Kaitlyn is 3 weeks old today, but she really is a day shy of my being 30 weeks pregnant

Well not really crawling, more like scooting…. Kaitlyn has spent much of her last 3 days on her stomach, which has helped her oxygen and anxiety levels a lot….

First a quick recap, during the weekend Kaitlyn needed another blood transfusion (I’m not sure how many she’s had to date – maybe 8, but at least it’s Brian’s blood now. In the beginning she had to have a donor’s blood). Her oxygen levels were up during the weekend (in the 60-70% range), as were her carbon dioxide levels, but it was discovered during the weekend that she really likes to be on her stomach which has helped both her digestion and her breathing. So throughout the last few days, after being on her stomach more and more often she really has had some positive developments. She’s still been on the ventilator and morphine however.

Her quantity of breast milk increased to 2 cc’s every 2 hours on sun or mon, and today, (Tuesday 10/25), as she started having less and less residual milk in her tummy, she was increased to 3 cc’s every 2 hours! When I just checked in, she only had .5 cc residual after her last feeding, so it’s going really well. Her abdomen looks good and she’s pooping and peeing regularly. This is all very good news. It makes me feel especially good, as I can finally do something to help her.

Today her oxygen levels were down to 30%, when I was there this afternoon, she was even down as low as 29% and the doc has said if she does as well all night tonight, they may try her again on the CPAP tomorrow! So cross your fingers for us.

Back to her “crawling” or scooting which is more like it…. Kaitlyn continues to prove that she is a fighter and very strong! As she lies on her belly, she lifts up her butt, sticks out her long little legs and pushes herself forward. She did this maneuver while I was there (her nurse was changing her diaper so I got to see her cute little naked butt in the air), she kicks out (angrily I might add because she was being bothered) and literally pushes herself forward towards her head. I wish I had a camera with me, as it really was funny to see, and what is more amazing is that the nurses put a little bean-bag at the top of her head and she is actually pushing it towards the top of her isolate so that it threatens to fall over the top (which Kaitlyn might also do if the wonderful nurses weren’t carefully watching her) and she would also pull herself out of her ventilator. Because of the protective padding that had put around her down by her feet, you could clearly see how far she had traveled and had to be moved back down. They say that they are amazed she’s so strong and still on the morphine, but they think she is getting more tolerant of it. She was opening her eyes more, but she quickly fell back to sleep once she was left alone.

It was nice to see her resting so peacefully, but it also meant that there was nothing I could do but look in through her isolette and watch her – she didn’t even like mama to touch her.

Update on Liz….

I had a doctor visit today, and she said that my incision is definitely healing, which is obviously good news, and we are down to packing it to only 2 times a day (instead of 3). Unfortunately, the doc didn’t know how much more we had to go until it heals itself completely, weeks still.

Today was the first day I drove in almost 4 months (I PROMed on July 26th). I’m not officially supposed to drive yet, as my abdomen is completely open. I put a large towel underneath the seatbelt (because the seatbelt is right over the incision). They are concerned that my “reaction” time will be less, as my stomach is still open (gross). Normally after a c-section a woman has to wait 2 weeks, but I’m supposed to wait until it heals! Sheesh! This means that Brian has to be my chauffeur, and so today I finally said….enough. I’ll still have him drive whenever possible, but it felt really good to be self-sufficient after 4 months. I just went to the hospital and doctor and came back home to sleep for an hour, but at least I didn’t forget out to drive.

The weird thing is that my contacts (for my vision) didn’t really seem to be working well, meaning that the fear of me driving shouldn’t have been my abdomen but my eyes! I wonder if pregnancy has changed my vision. I’m having my eyes checked on Thursday.

I’ve been reading all the wonderful comments and emails that so many of you have been sending, unfortunately, this means that I have somewhere between 200-300 emails (this doesn’t include mailing lists and spam) that I need to answer, and every day I get more…I am so overwhelmed by this outpouring of support, your comments have brought tears to my eyes, but this also means I am overwhelmed at knowing where to start responding….