No O2

Today was the first day Cate was completely off of her oxygen. She breathed all on her own today. She is now up to 5 oral feedings a day and the Dr mentioned changing to a crib soon instead of her temperature controlled isolette as she is quickly approaching 4lbs. Due to the reduced oxygen flow today, she was a pretty tired baby which led to only 2 oral feedings. The other feedings went through her nose tube. We are still praying for a good brain ultrasound on Tues/Wed of this upcoming week. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and thanks for checking in :)

Cate's First Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! Santa stopped by the NICU yesterday and left Cate some goodies. What a surpise! We were here in the morning yesterday and then went to hang out with family. We stopped by again around 11:30 pm just to check on her. Grandpa Dennis got to hold her for the first time last night. She was so excited that she pooped. :) Merry Christmas Grandpa!Today, Duke, myself, both sets of grandparents and Aunt Carrie were up here most of the day. Carrie and Grandpa Dave got to hold her for their first time. Cate loved it! She had a slow day with nursing yesterday (kind of tired), but has been doing better today. She's now at 3 pounds 8 ounces. 1/2 a pound to go before she can get in the big girl crib. The doc said that may be about a week away. Woo hoo! That will be one step closer to getting her home.

Thanks again to our friends and family for all their kindness and generosity. We are so blessed! It was so good to see family yesterday. We love you! We look forward to this time all year and then it's over before you know it. Next year I hope we will be able to relax and enjoy it more. I told Cate yesterday that I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas gift. She looked up at me and gave me a big smile. Thank God for our little big miracle!

Bah Humbug

Today was a milestone for Cate. She took a full feeding from Mom for 22 minutes. When she finished she looked like a drunken sailor with a mouth full of milk spilling everywhere. This was a great Christmas gift for us!!! The yellow tube in her nose is a feeding tube. The more times she takes from Mom the better chance the tube is removed!!! Here are some pictures of the days events. The bah humbug picture (#2) is with her tongue out. The first 2 pictures were minutes after her feeding today. She is now at 3lbs 7oz and doubled her birth weight from 770g to 1540g. Merry Christmas!!!

Eye of the Tiger

Cate's brain ultrasound came back inconclusive. The Dr told us the ultrasound may have shown some fluid/water in the brain??? He wasn't sure though. They are going to do another ultrasound in a few weeks. Water/fluid in the brain is very normal for babies born under 1000 grams. Cate was born at 770 grams. This would however increase her risk for cerebral palsy to 30%. Cate has already made it over a number of hurdles and I'm confident she will overcome whatever challenge thrown her way. She finally conquered her first drop of milk from Mom after 14 tries. Shes been at it a whole week, twice a day/15 minute sessions! :) Only 35 weeks gestation and this was with a feeding tube in her mouth taking up 1/3 of the space!! What a CHAMP!!! You haven't failed until you've quit! I will post some good pictures soon. Your thoughts and prayers mean everything to us!!!

3 Pounder Club!!

Things are continuing to go well. We have been practicing nursing. It's been going a little slow, but they've told us not to expect too much considering her size. Poor Cate! She tries so hard, and gets so tired. I am so proud of her. She's such a little fighter. She had her eye exam yesterday. So far so good. They said everything looked "normal". They will continue to do eye exams bi-weekly and then weekly. Normal does not mean that she is out of the woods. Blindness is still a concern. They performed another brain ultrasound today. We have not gotten the results back from that yet. This ultrasound is looking for signs of cerebral palsy. Please say some prayers that this comes out well. Today was a good day for Cate. She got a blood transfusion because she is enemic. That really helped her out. She seemed happier and had more energy. Dad was able to hang out with us today and Cate loved it. She kept smiling at both of us. She is now at 3 pounds, 1 ounce. She's getting so big and changing so much. She's so beautiful!

Today we were blessed with Nurse Lucy's love and care. Lucy (pictured above) was Cate's nurse the day she was born. Lucy was also my nurse 32 years ago when I was in the NICU. Lucy is an angel.

I pray that I pay more attention to all the miracles and blessings God has brought us, and less attention to my worries. Sometimes I let life get in the way. Thank you everyone for everything you have done for us.

6 Weeks Old

This week has flown by and we just realized Tuesday was our last post. SORRY! :(

Today Cate is 43 days old and 34 weeks gestation. She is continuing to move in the right direction. She is still on the high-flow nasal cannula and the vent machine has been completely removed from our room. The x-rays have stopped along with her blood gasses, taking blood from her tiny heels. Today Jayne was able to practice nursing with Cate for the first time and it went well. Dad also practices with Cate using a passifer while he holds her. We are now able to remove Cate from her isolette and hold her pretty much whenever we want! :) We are taking advantage of this. Before it was so difficult to hold her with the vent,CPAP and IV's always getting in the way and making Cate so angry and uncomfortable. She weighs at 2lbs 15oz. We asked when she will be able to move from an isolette to a crib. As long as she is healthy (no infections, sick) they think around 4lbs. On Monday Cate will be getting her picture taken and later this week an eye exam. We are very nervous about her eye exam as it is very common for preemies to have some problems. Here is a picture of bath time from earlier this week. Our nurse Mandi helped us. She loves Cate and Cate loves Mandi!!! :)

Doing Good

Things are going well. Cate is still on high-flo. She is hardly receiving any oxygen. She was keeping the nose prongs in her nose very nicely yesterday. Today she figured out how to pull them out and she has been pulling them out all day. It hasn't seemed to have effected her negatively though. She hasn't been sleeping much today. She's been pooping some on her own, and sometimes they have to give her suppositories. She is now up to 7 cc's of food an hour! And she weighs 2 lb 14 oz! She's getting huge. :) All in all, she is doing good.

Kangaroo Cate

Positive news today. This weekend Cate was taken off the CPAP and is now breathing on her own with a high-flow nasal cannula. I can't believe she has made it this far! She is doing the work herself. This is such a huge step! It is now much easier to hold her (Kangaroo skin to skin) which we took advantage of yesterday and today. Grandma Cathy, Mom & Dad were able to hold her on Saturday for about 3 hours total. I (Dad) held her today for over an hour. We did have another NEC scare this afternoon as Cate spit up green. They did an immediate x-ray which came back normal. :) So for now things are looking up though she is still not 100% tolerating her tube feedings???? Thanks everyone!!! More later :)

5 Weeks Old!

Cate is 5 weeks old today! They decided to start her back on her feeds one day early. No more antibiotics. She is now taking 1 cc of food an hour. She spit up a little tonight so they are watching to make sure that she isn't having problems taking the milk. They have moved her CPAP settings down because she has been doing well on it. I got to hold her for an hour today. At the end of the hour she decided to start crying and pull her CPAP out. What an angel! When the nurse put her back in her bed she would look up at me everytime I would say something. She looked like she was smiling at me. It was so cute. She is about to get an x-ray. We are anxiously awaiting this because it could show if her intestines are handling her feeds. Please say some prayers that she handles her feeds okay and that her intestines are okay. I am nervous about this. More later...

Okay, we got it back. It came out good--just a little air in the belly. But please keep praying. I don't want her to get an infection again.

Status Quo

Things are going pretty well. Cate is still on CPAP and seems to be doing well on it. They have kept her settings the same today because her x-ray showed that her lungs are a little hazy. Her C02's (blood gases) have been in the acceptable range. Her O2 is at 21% (room air, what you and I breathe). I got to hold her for about an hour yesterday. We haven't been holding her everyday. Most days we don't ask because we know holding her is good for her, but it also wears her down. We want to make sure she gets all the rest she can so she can get strong and get off CPAP. The highlight of our day is changing her diaper. Who would have thought! The dr said that assuming she does well on CPAP she could be off of it within a week. Then they would put her on high flo. Her personality is really starting to shine through. She gets really upset when messed with, but quickly calms down when her needs have been met. Oh, and she's 2 lbs. 9 oz.

Each day seems to fly by in the NICU. I would have thought it would drag. But with dr's and nurses coming in, changing diapers, pumping, family and friends stopping by, Duke walks in before I know it (at 7:30 pm).

I'll try to post a picture later tonight. We have been trying not to take too many pictures of Cate because we know the oxygen she's been getting could have a negative effect on her eyes and we don't want to contribute anymore to that.

Bath Time

Cate is doing fairly well. She is still on CPAP. This is her longest stint ever--we're going on 4 days. Her CO2 was a little high yesterday so they went up on her settings a little today. She seems to be a little tired, but she's hanging tough. I was able to give her a bath today (with a lot of help from the nurses). I picked her up from her bed a few times during the bathing. It's the only time we are actually able to pick her up. I love it! She got a little worked up after the bath and they had to give her some medicine to calm her down. Sometimes she gets so worked up and she isn't able to calm herself down. She is at 2 lbs 8 oz. She's on day 7 of 10 on the antibiotics. Hopefully on Saturday she'll be able to get back on the milk. Thanks again for your prayers! We appreciate 'em.