3 Weeks Old!

Kate enjoyed her vacation day yesterday(no tests)!  She stayed on the same settings on the vent and did well. Yesterday she turned 3 weeks old- for the most part time is passing by quickly. 

Today Kate's bilirubin test came back better at 4.5 and it had dropped from 5.4 two days ago.  Hopefully she won't need to worry about the lights anymore.  They will probably test her again on Monday.  She made it to her full feedings today(18 ml) and her Pic line (like an IV) in her left arm was pulled out because she won't need the extra lipids and fluids anymore. We took the kids up today to see her.  It was Kale's first time to see Kate.  He was excited because he was in with her to see the diaper change, the Pic Line pulled out, and her feeding tube changed.  Her nurse put a cute little purple bow in her hair to dress her up for the kids to see. 

A great day!  Kate is doing so well that they let me hold her today:)!!  I was very nervous because she's so fragile, hooked up to so many things, and I worried she wouldn't tolerate it very well.  I was able to hold her skin-to-skin for 30 min.  Holding her this way is so good for her in many ways. She held her vital signs great, she even had to have her oxygen lowered from a 34 to a 27.  She was so peaceful and just slept.  She made my heart happy-nothing better!  After my time was up the nurse said she was doing so well that I could hold her for 15 min. more, but she must have jinxed her.  At that point her oxygen dropped and she was having a hard time bringing it back up. She was put in her incubator on her tummy and was soon stable again.  

 Her diaper on my hand.

 She is almost tube free!  The only things left hooked up to her now are her nasal ventilator (the greenish tube across her face), the feeding tube (the tube in her mouth that goes into her tummy), the sensors on her chest for her vital signs (they just stick to her skin), and the CO2 monitor on her right foot.

That is a Binky in her mouth- she does really well sucking on it.  Sometimes just sucking on her Binky will wear her out and drop her vital signs. 

 This cabbage patch doll is the same size as the one I bought for Kate and put by her side in an earlier post.  If this doll was Kate- this would be about the size proportion of my 14 month old, Kennadi, holding her.

 Our weekly countdown chain- 14 weeks left until her estimated date of December 20th when she comes home. 

 Kale's first time seeing Kate.