Kate's Coming Home

Kate's Coming Home

 

By the time Sunday finally came I was SO ready to go up and see Kate.  I left Josh home with three sick kids and I drove through a snow storm to get up there.  I had talked to the nurse that morning and she said that Kate was doing good, but that I needed to bring up some clean clothes and fingernail clippers because her nails were getting long.  I thought to myself, "Well, I can handle that- seems like a pretty simple day with not much going on for Kate."  I NEVER would have thought that when I arrived the nurse and doctor would tell me Kate would be coming home sometime this week!  I couldn't believe the news- I couldn't think straight I was so excited (although, thinking straight doesn't happen very often for me anyways).  If I could do a back-flip, I would've done at least 100 of them!   When I told Josh his  first reaction was to say- she can't come home.  He didn't want her coming to our house of infestation.  The doctor told me it would probably be on Wednesday because she was doing so well with her feedings. 

That night after some of my excitement settled, my fear of bringing her home crept in.  With Kam I was begging for him to come home.  He seemed ready to leave the NICU at well over 6 lbs and at 36 weeks.  Kate has taken me by surprise because I've had the mindset that she should be in there for 7 more weeks.  It just seemed like last week I was freaking out about the monitors haunting me!  How am I supposed to take this tiny 4.8 lb. baby home and keep her from crashing??  I almost feel like I might have jinxed her by sending the date that Kam came home (Nov. 9th) out to the universe.  I have to keep telling myself the doctors wouldn't send her home, if they didn't feel like she would do ok.  The thought of taking care of her scares me- I don't feel like I know her well enough.  I need to spend a lot of time with her this week so I can get everything figured out and feel comfortable.  I made it up to be with her for two of her feedings yesterday and she did great.  On Sunday, she was moved from eating on cues to a 12 hr. eating on request.  Eating on cue means that if she wakes up and shows hunger cues within a certain time period they can feed her whatever she will eat from a bottle, and gavage anything she doesn't take.  Moving her to request means she can wake up and eat however much she wants whenever she wants (but there are still volume requirements that if she doesn't meet those for two of her feedings they would gavage her).  She was on a 12 hr. trial of this the first day(Sunday).  Monday she moved to a 24 hr. request feeding.  She had all day again to eat whatever and whenever- but the trick is at the end of the day she has to remain the same weight or gain.  She had a great day with requesting and eating, but she lost 2 grams last night(very minimal).  She was given her vaccinations last night.  She seemed to be more tired from receiving them and didn't eat as well this morning.  But the last 2 feedings today she ate massive amounts- 50 to 60 mils. (around 2 ounces).  When I called to see how she was doing tonight, the nurse had Kate in the bath.  Annie was with her and told me to talk to Kate and they were going to hold the phone to her.  She told me when Kate heard my voice she opened her eyes.  My heart melted because I wasn't able to go see her again today.  Last night was rough.  All three of my boys had the stomach bug- puking and pooping.  I went to bed with a soar throat and a little congestion.  Josh had a terrible sinus infection and Kennadi was miserable from an infection and her flu shot + vaccinations. Kinnli was the only one today without a problem.  So we all stayed home and called it a sick day.  It actually turned out to be a great thing though- because all of us seemed to be on the tail end of being sick.  We worked our sick kids and we all cleaned and sanitized the house to get it ready for Kate.  Although Josh and the kids have done great at keeping the house surface clean, you can only imagine how neglected this poor house has been for 11 weeks!(Socks were even folded, showers were washed, and the garage was cleaned out:)  I feel much better about bringing her home now!  Seems a bit ironic we are all so sick the week she's supposed to come home, but it's probably a good thing because it's better before then after she's here.  We have to wait until at least Thursday to take her home because she still has to get one more set of vaccinations, but I told the nurse practitioner I would be more comfortable if we could bring her home Friday just to give the germs in our house time to die off (and hopefully Kinnli won't get the bug at all)!  Brenda, the nurse practitioner, told me they will keep her until they know she's safe to come home and she's doing great on her feedings.  One of the worries they have are that she's not absorbing or getting enough protein- she's very low.  The protein is a huge factor in her growth.  They had their "Meeting of the Minds" and discussed how to send her home and with what extras to help her grow.  It looks like we will be doing half my milk and half a protein formula.  This will help stretch out my milk for a little longer through the rsv season since I only can pump about 1 ounce per time. 

 My head cold never really turned into much, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow to go up and stay the day with Kate.  I'm slowly starting to get over the fear part and I am getting super excited to bring her home.   I had my mom, sister, and Josh come up for a class that the OT, Annie, teaches.  It helped a lot to know how to handle preemies.  Annie just bragged up Kate and how she was amazing.  My mom asked Annie how often 25 week old preemies go home this soon (at 35-36 weeks).  Annie said she has only seen two other babies that have done as well as Kate in her 22 years working there.  She said Kate is one super smart little girl!  So many prayers have been answered and miracles have been sent our way!