Daddy Time

Every weekend I come home to be with Kenadee and Brylee and Brit goes to Glendale to spend time with Natalee.  I am so glad that they allow the dads to Kangaroo Care with the babies.  Brit enjoys this time with his daughter.  Her little pumpkin hat is just about too small for her now. 

You can see a little bruise on her forehead.  She she was getting her last blood transfusion she had an IV in her forehead and the IV was infiltrating and resulted in this bruise.  This little girls has been through a lot.  She is so tough!  When I was talking to him on the phone while he was holding her he said "Ouch!"  I said "What?" and he said "She is pulling my chest hair."  It gave her something to grasp on to.  Quite funny!  As of 11/20/11 she is 3 pounds 2 oz and is 35 cm long.  You are doing so great Natalee!  Keep it up!

11/17/11 Bath Time!

 
 Natalee loves bath time!  She usually is wide awake during bath time, but just about slept through this whole bath.  I mentioned to the nurse that she seemed so tired and fatigued during the bath and while I was holding her.  She usually looks at me frequently while I hold her and kicks her legs a lot but this time she just slept and hardly moved.  I even mentioned that she seemed a little pale and her oxygen saturations were dropping more frequently than normal.  I was worried about her.  Natalee was scheduled to have an eye exam this same evening.  So what the nurses tell me the eye exams were pretty traumatic for the babies since they have to pry open their eyes with what the nurse described to me as a misshapen paperclip.  The eye exam usually wares the babies out since they usually cry during it.  Shortly after the eye exam Natalee's oxygen saturations went down and normally she brings them right back up.  Not after this particular desaturation.  So they had to give her extra oxygen with a face mask and bag to bring her saturations back up.  They did blood tests and found out that she was anemic.  They want her hematicrit above 30 and Natalee's was 27.  So on 11/16/11 she had her fourth blood transfusion. 

I'm so glad that they were able to figure it out quickly and it could be fixed with a blood transfusion.  As of 11/17/11 Natalee weighs 2 pounds 14 ounces.  She is getting so big! Her oxygen flow is down to 4L/min.  I'm so glad she is feeling much better after her blood transfusion and is back to her normal self.

11/7/11 to 11/14/11

Natalee is growing so much this last week.  As of 11/7/11 she weighed 2 pounds 1 ounce (930 grams).  And just 8 days later 11/15/11 she weighed 2 pounds 11 ounces (1220 grams).  She officially doubled her birth weight!  Way to go Natalee!  She is now 34 cm long.  Her hair is starting to darken up.  She is so beautiful!  When the Dr. Miller comes in to assess her he calls her "My pretty baby".  Natalee is tolerating the Vapotherm (humidified oxygen) and she is at 6L/min.  She currently has the feeding tube through her mouth, no IV's yeah! She graduated to a bigger diaper and we are so excited to growth she has made in the last week!

2 Pound Mark!

 11/3/11 We are so excited Natalee finally reached the 2 pound mark!  This is the last day Natalee will have the breathing tube in.  You can see how much she has changed in a small amount of time.  She is doing so great, keep it up!  In this picture she is sticking her fingers in her mouth.  She is so cute!

11/4/11 This isn't a very clear picture since I took it with my phone but they took the tube out of Natalee and put this C-pap contraption on her.  It is this little mask that fits right over her nose which didn't fit her very well.  It didn't have a good seal so the air would keep leaking out from under the mask and the machine would alarm and they would have to readjust it to her face.  She wasn't getting good rest since the nurses kept having to readjust the mask so they decided to just give her the oxygen through a nasal cannula.  Which I was so happy about since the c-pap head piece looked very difficult to get good rest while wearing.  I am excited she is doing well without the breathing tube.  More pictures to come!

Wt: 930 grams

Happy Halloween

 Happy Halloween sweet Natalee!  I had someone make this cute pumpkin hat for her so she wouldn't have to miss out on Halloween this year.  Natalee is still weighing 1 pound 15 oz.  They have removed the PICC line and IV's so all she has is the breathing tube and the feeding tube.  All she is getting is my breast milk. Soon that breathing tube will be coming out too.  We can't wait! I still get to hold her every day I visit and it is something I look forward to. 

Keep holding on Natalee!  You are doing amazing!  We love you!

1 Month

 We wanted to give an update on Natalee.  She is doing very well!  Every time we take a picture of her she scrunches up her forehead and closes her eyes.  She is doing well enough that they are letting us do the Kangaroo Care with her every day.  This picture was the second time I got to hold her and yes, I was a little emotional again!

 She still has her breathing tube in and they wanted to leave that in until she reached the two pound mark.  They want to fatten her up a little bit more since the first time they took the tube out she was working really hard to breath and she lost weight. 

 But she is getting stronger and bigger every day.  As of 10/30/11 she weighs 1 pound 14 ounces. 

 She is our precious little girl!  The nurses always comment how cute she is, how much hair she has, and how long her eye lashes are.  One nurse said she has never seen a white baby with this much blond hair at this age.  She said that most of them that have hair like this are Hispanic babies.

 Daddy even gets the chance to Kangaroo with little Natalee. Daddy is all smiles!

 We bring the kids to visit Natalee often.  They already love their little sister.  Kenadee can't wait until Natalee comes home.  She will be such a big help to her mom.

We all got to spend her one month birthday with Natalee as a family.  Happy 1 month Birthday Natalee!  We love you and can't wait until you come home!