1 Month Old

Kate is 1 month old today!!  I can honestly say that time is going by pretty quickly.  The first two weeks were the longest, but now with preschool going the days seem to end before I can blink.  She's gained weight- 2 lbs. 5 oz. and 15.5" in length!
She's going to have her first tub bath tonight. 

Kate had one of my favorite nurses today.  She took care of her on her very first day of life and signed up to be one of her primary nurses.  This means that when she works she will most likely be assigned as Kate's nurse up until she is released from the hospital.  It is so nice to have primary nurses that I'm able to get to know and feel comfortable with!  Today she sent me a cute collage of Kate for her 1 month old date.  She cleaned up Kate and was able to hide as many cords as possible. She looks so sweet and cute- so much healthier than in days past!  Brought tears to my eyes. (I was able to dress her in her first onesy last night-of course I picked it for the saying:)

   Kate has been doing pretty good- but a little bit of the rollercoaster ride today and yesterday.  The doctor wanted to try and get her on the nasal cannula over the weekend and off the ventilator, but it wasn't very successful.  She has three different settings on the ventilator that they change around.  1- PEEP: the amount of pressure she is getting to fill up her lungs so they don't collapse.  2- FIO2: the oxygen saturation level, 21% is what we breathe in room air.  3- PIP: the amount of breaths the ventilator is giving her.  On the 19th (4 days ago) her setting were lowered.  Her PEEP was dropped to a 7, and her PIP was dropped to a 10.  Lowering these settings made it so the FIO2 had to be raised.  She was able to hold her oxygen in the mid-to-high 20's before.  With the new settings she started "swinging" a lot ( which means she had to have her oxygen adjusted due to her high and low saturation levels).  She maintained in the 30's and 40's.  Early Sunday morning she started having a rough time and her FIO2 was in the 50's. She also had an x-ray done and her lungs looked really hazy and were collapsing a little.  The doctor called and said they were going to raise her PIP back up to 20.  Her PEEP had already been raised up a little the last two days and today it was changed to a 10.  So she's back to where she started again on this ventilator. 

Kate's nurse explained to me last night that this is like a training course.  Kate has to be forced to strengthen herself, just like we would if we were training for a marathon.  She has to take little steps at a time and be pushed, but she might get tired and wore out along the way.  She rests and recoups and then starts over again- in hopes to do a little better the next time.  It is just going to take time and continued effort to get her strong.  All of this is good and normal- she is still doing great!