We were surprised today when I called the NICU and was told that Kaitlyn is off oxygen completely! We had pretty much resigned ourselves that we were going to be going home on oxygen, but this now changes things. She could still back-slide once the steroids wear off, but we are hoping that won’t be the case. She still has chronic lung disease, but this is a big step in the right direction for her lungs healing.
She went down in weight the last 2 days, so she is slightly under 5 1/2 pounds.
Miss Kaitlyn was wide-awake today when we visited her, just like she knew that we were so excited for her and she was excited for us. What a great day!
Hi Mom and Dad! Look, no oxygen tubes. (the tube in Kaitlyn's nose is her feeding tube - it really doesn't bother her)
More pictures of my sweetie
Kaitlyn looking intently at Dad
This was right before Kaitlyn pulled out her nasal feeding tube without meaning to
This is one happy baby!
So many cute pictures today, I couldn't decide which ones to post!
Kaitlyn looking a little crazed in this picture
Kaitlyn is getting "fed" in this picture. The nurse is gavaging her my milk. Gravity pulls it into her stomach via the tube in her nose.
Kaitlyn looking again at Dad while she's being fed
14 comments:
That is such a big step and a great milestone!!!! Woohoooo So happy. Hope she gets to come home soon!!!!!xoxoxox
Meliisa(Cailtin's mommie)
Yay Kaitlyn! Isn't it so nice to be able to see her entire gorgeous little face? Liz, I have quite a few preemie clothes that one of my preemie mom friends (22 weeks) gave to me. They are just beautiful clothes, and I've been looking for someone who could get some use out of them. Baylee stayed in them for about 4 months or so. If you are interested, please email me at aaswell@hotmail.com and I will ship them to you.
Yippie!!!
What great news!! I'm so happy to hear this! I would like to stop by and meet Kaitlyn when you're at the hospital - I'll give you a call in the next day or two. I'm glad you got the newsletter out again, too.
Amber
Hi Liz!!!
I am soooo excited for you and Kaitlyn. Off of oxygen, that is fantastic. I had the same expectation with Ries, that he would come home on oxygen. After he got off the nasal cannula, he sometimes desatted during his feeding. But that issue faded away over 3-4 weeks.
Now that she's off oxygen, it's just getting the feeding thing down. From our NICU we heard we could take our baby home on gavage tube feedings. At that point, Ries was so close to being able to get all his feedings in by mouth that we waited it out. He came home Dec 12th.
Any talk of discharge date for you yet? Are they thinking maybe three weeks? more? less? In our case, they didn't start even addressing the topic of discharge until I brought it up. At first, it was just talking about it as in a dreamy goal. Other times, I'd get a nurse to joke with me about it. For Ries, getting nurses who were working with us toward the goal of discharge meant they took more time to get him interested in the bottle. They spent more time with him in bottle feeding him when we weren't there. Sometimes the gavage was handy when a nurse didn't have 40 minutes to an hour to help him finish. But by letting it be known that we were shooting for discharge on Dec 6th, the nurses sort of got more motivated to help us and Ries shoot for that date, and take the hour to feed him if they could.
Oh, I started to keep track of how much he ate by mouth (as a percentage of total feeds). Once he got up to 30% of full feeds by mouth, it was just 10 days before discharge. For some babies, once mouth feeding starts to click, they take off. For others, it seems like it takes forever. For Ries and for his neighbor, it all took off once they allowed feeding at will.
Wishing you much strength. My last days in the NICU were the hardest. Not because they were filled with setbacks or uncertainty, but because we all seemed so ready to come home.
Hang in there, Virginia
YEAHHH!!! Oh Liz & Brian I am SOOO happy for you guys! Kaitlyn is a tough cookie -- she continues to prove that! ;) I am sooo thrilled and could feel your excitement while reading your posting. I LOVED seeing the pictures of Kaitlyn. She looks like such a big girl now -- she has really changed & grown in the past week! Her hair is getting so long and those eyes are just beautiful! CONGRATULATIONS to all of you! We will keep the prayers coming!
Love,
Julie
She looks wonderful! What an exciting day!!
YEAH!!!! I'm so happy for you guys. What great news :)
Love ya and think of you all the time....
Hugs,
Kim Hiatt
Wonderful News! And beautiful pictures! Kaitlyn is really filling out, dare I say "chubbly bubbly"?! It's reassuring as well that now she can better handle an infection of e-coli, at one point this infection would have been far more devastating and life threatening! Way to go girl!
Sue Grau
AWWWWW! What cute pictures! Congratulations on being oxygen free.
Billie
Great news! She looks fabulous in her cute clothes. The pictures are great, I like the one where she's a little kooky. One step closer to "going for a ride" (that's what the nurses called it, so as to not jinx the babes)...
I know people who took their babies home with NG tubes, and they said that it wasn't too bad to deal with.
Go Kaitlyn Go! take care, Michelle
Liz and Kaitlyn ~ Just wanted to let you know I was checking in on you girls today. Great pics. :)
I remember how exciting those days were...It will fly by so enjoy every minute...before you know it she will be home. She looks great.
lIZ AND BRIAN----WHAT GREAT PICTURES AND WHAT A DOLL! GREAT NEWS TODAY! I KNOW SHE WILL BE HOME SOON! Love Nancy
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