Day Five (8-14-2009)

Day Five (8-14-2009)
Baby Kate has yet again been moved. We are now up in the NICU Step Down Unit, I guess the better name is “Umm your baby is doing good, now get the heck out because we need her spot” They have opened the eight floor unit due to the mass amounts of babies coming into the NICU. From what the Nurse has been telling us is that summer time is a very popular time for the NICU. Not to say that we haven’t enjoyed being way up high on the eight floor. We have a grrrrreat view of Spokane and the surrounding mountains and little Baby Kate is getting in her sunlight because we finally have a window. We are waiting to see what the doctor is going to say about going home. Now that we are up in the nose bleed section, the Doctors tend to come up here as little as possible. Little Kate is doing great, she has been feeding well and everything looks like it should. We are going to get a little lunch and give the baby time to sleep.
….We just had our meeting with the Doctor and have some great news. Baby Kate will be coming home tomorrow. What a blessing. Our Nurse is getting the prep work done so we will be able to leave as soon as possible. Kate just had a hearing test and passed with flying colors. She does seem to have a little bit of Jaundice, but the Doctor doesn’t think that will be a problem. Kate will have to take a car seat test tonight after her evening feeding to make sure that she can handle the ride home. Ha Ha…I have never heard of that one before…All in all, Hallie and I are every excited for this good news and cannot wait to her Kate to meet her big brother. Well that sums up this morning and this afternoon…Hope everyone is doing well. It seems that while you are in the NICU all time seems to stop inside the hospital, but it continues to move at a rapid pace outside. We are looking forward to seeing everyone when we get out. Take care.

Baby Kate’s First Nursery

This week has been all about first for us and our new baby. First helicopter ride, first day on this earth, first kisses from Mommy and Daddy. I am just sitting here thinking about how awesome our God is and how he takes care of his people. Things like this give you a reminder that you have to be on your knees praying for the things in your life that matter the most. I thought that you might enjoy seeing Baby Kate’s First Nursery.

Day Four (8-13-2009)

Day Four (8-13-2009)
Another exciting day in the NICU. Hallie and I got to spend last night with our wonderful son and have him spend the night with us. We got to get up and enjoy some yummy breakfast. I miss hanging out with our little guy. Hallie and Hannah got up early to come and see Baby Kate. To their surprise little Kate was no where to be found. The thoughts that were going through Hallie’s head was that she knew the baby couldn’t be dead because they would have called me first. Well as it so happens little Baby Kate was getting so much better that they decided to move her out of the “Critical Pod” and off to a side pod where she could have a little more freedom – and Mom and Dad could hold her whenever they wanted to, feed her, cuddle her and love her as much as they want. We just spent the day waiting for the news of when we were going to get to go home and enjoy our baby and get our family back together. Last night after Hallie was done feeding Kate, I got to cuddle with her and read her a few bedtime stories. We said goodnight to our baby girl and they decided to mover her again. Good Heavens when you finally get used to one part of the hospital they send you off to another….Thank you all for the prayers…

Day Three (8-12-2009)
Just a little update for you all at the end of day three. Hallie and I took a little break to eat some lunch and get some fresh air. When we returned to Kate’s room we found to our surprise that she no long had an O2 line in her nose. She was laying there breathing all on her own…WOW what an amazing surprise!! Baby Kate had slept for awhile with no help…When it came time to wake up and see if she was interested in eating I was kind of holding my breath because she had to go back on O2 the last time that she woke up… But she did wonderful while she was awake. We got to hold without a million tubes coming out of her. She was opening her eyes and checking everything out…What a blessing. The Doctors are thinking that it is less and less immature lungs and leaning towards infection – but he said that once it all done and over with we most likely will never know what it was. All in all, Kate is doing much better. Thank you for all your prayers, phone calls, and support.

Day 3 8-12-2009

Day Three (8-12-2009)After a good nights sleep we find ourselves back and ready to go. We had a nice slow ride on our way to the hospital due to an accident on I-90. When we arrived we were greeted by our Pastor and his wife and had a nice visit. Hallie and I than proceeded to Kate’s room and found her to be yet again to our amazement in better health then we left her. For a little this morning she was able to be breathing room air with out any help from the machines. She started to have a bit of a fit and had to put her on one liter of O2 but she is down to 21% oxygen. Hallie got to hold her this morning and nurse, which is a huge blessing for the both of them. Baby Kate’s stats are holding and looking great. We still don’t have the date that we are going to be able to return home yet. The doctor’s are ruling out immature lungs and starting to think that she is suffering from a sort of infection. They say that we will most likely never know what the real problem is. But as of right now things are looking great!!

Day 2 8/11/09

Jake and I came to Micah and Lisa’s around 6:00pm Monday night. Jake had gone over 32 hours without sleep, I’d only been able to catch an hour or two here and there and we both were exhausted. We crawled into bed and were actually able to get over 12 hours of sleep. It was so nice! I was up bright and early ready to go to the hospital as soon as the nurses switched shifts, so we got there as soon as we were allowed to get in after shift change. We met our nice day nurse Bretony who was very helpful in explaining all the procedures she was doing on Kate. Kate had a good night and was still just kicked back sleeping when we got there. Her poor daddy still hadn’t gotten to hold her so we were disappointed when the Dr. said he didn’t want her over stimulated so no holding for the day. They had been able to take the IV out of her hand since she had the catheter thru her umbilical cord and were able to do her fluids and antibiotics that way. She was ready to start getting a little food and since my milk hadn’t come in she got a few CCs of formula thru a feeding tube. She handled that really well. Because she is having respiratory problems the Dr.s will be slow to start bottle or breast feeding as any milk accidentally inhaled could cause even more problems. I talked to my mom to check up on Isaac and see how our little guy was doing without us. She’d gone to my house that morning to spend a little while there and let him play at his own home. She said he kept looking up and trying to climb on our bed thinking I was there, and then found a shirt of mine and was dragging it around the house. It made me miss him even more so I was glad she’d decided to visit that afternoon. We met with the social worker at the hospital and were able to get vouchers for free meals in the cafeteria as well as a parking pass to save a little extra money. The cafeteria food is actually pretty good so it’s nice to be able to eat right there. I also met with the lactation specialist to get me set up on the breast pumps at the hospital so that I’m able to pump both at Micah and Lisa’s and the hospital without having to drag my pump around. I got some colostrum and we were able to give that to Kate by swabbing it in her mouth with a cotton swab. We were very blessed to have a visit from Joost, the pastor at Christ Church here in Spokane. He came and prayed with us and visited a little. We are very grateful to have so many friends and family and even people we don’t know keeping us in their prayers and wanting to help with whatever our needs may be. Thank you to each one of you! We were thrilled when Isaac arrived with mom, Luke and Josiah. Isaac was very happy to see us and gave big hugs and went running down the hall to see his daddy. It was so nice to at least be able to hug and kiss and snuggle our first baby! Neither Luke nor Josiah had gotten a chance to meet Kate, so they got to go in one at a time to visit with her for a few minutes. Unfortunately she wasn’t handling the extra noise well and the nurse ended up having to turn her oxygen up from 30% to 50%. We left her alone for awhile and went to enjoy dinner with our family and a little more precious time with our boy. Isaac had a great time picking food off his auntie Lisa’s plate and wagging his finger at us saying, “No, no no no no!” This is apparently a new skill he’s picked up from grandma since he’s missing out on all his spankings with us gone. We went back to the nursery after the close for shift change to see Kate all settled in for the night and to check on her overnight nurse. The nurse, Angie, had been able to turn her oxygen back down and Kate’s levels were staying up nicely on their own. The overnight Dr. came and went over her blood tests showing some improvement. He said he didn’t think we’d ever really know what was wrong with her, just that time would improve it. It didn’t sound like we’d be home too soon, but still hoping to be out by the end of the week. We were thrilled when he suggested that we get to hold and even nurse her if the nurse was okay with it. Happily, she was and so after 43 hours of life Kate got to be snuggled by her daddy for the first time. I tried nursing but she was so relaxed and out of it she really wasn’t interested whatsoever! It made our night to spend over an hour holding her, and her breathing and oxygen levels held steady the whole time.

Funny Story

Day One (8-10-2009)
Funny Story from day one. As I was sitting there watching my little girl, wondering why oh why. The Doctor stuck his head in and asked me what relation my wife and I were. Completely confused by the question, I sat there and wondered what the meaning behind it. I answered him by saying that I was her husband – Silly old man was floating through my head – Why would you ask me what relationship my wife was…she is my wife. He answered me by saying No…No…What relation are you…Your wife answered a question on her paperwork before she had the baby stating that you two had a common ancestor... so I take it that you two are not cousins…HA I must say that I was a little grossed out and once I got passed that it was super funny.